From the Guardian:
Five years, ago film critic Roger Ebert wrote that video games were inherently inferior to film and literature. When questioned on this stance by one of the readers of his Chicago Sun-Times column he responded:
“To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic.”
His argument provoked a furious response from games writers, pundits and players, many of whom mistakingly understood his position to be generally anti-games – and therefore evil. Perhaps because of vociferous barrage his comments gave rise to, he has refused to clarify his position.
Until late last week, when he wrote a piece unambiguously entitled, Video games can never be art.
[Read more at the Guardian]
