'Games Are Not Art' - The Fault of Game Journalists

Roger Ebert has gone on record stating that he doesn't think games are art, and may never be up to the level of film as a medium. Kyle Orland responds on the Video Game Media Watch site, saying that if anyone is to blame game journalists are at fault for that perception. From the article: "The question of whether or not games are art is a hotly contested one, and one I don't want to get into in depth here. Suffice it to say I think they are, as far as they are capable of providing deep emotional experiences that can change the way we look at the world. If you agree that games are art (or will at least grant me the premise), here's another question more relevant to the focus of this site: Have we, as critics, given people like Ebert enough reason to believe that games are art?"

Comments

That's funny...

[benjamindees]

I don't think most of the movies he reviews are art either.

The fat man is wrong

[Deanasc]

Clearly Roger Ebert doesn't get it. He hasn't immersed himself in the plot and story line of a game like Grand Theft Auto. Games like GTA are more than literature, more than cinema. They're a completely immersive multimedia experience where the story is told not only in the splash screens before game challenges but in the radio stations as the character is driving around or in the billboards and cityscape that the character passes by. That's a more immersive environment then anything Eisenstein, Bergen, Wells, Speilberg or even Bruckheimer could ever hope to bring to their audience.