Blow-Back From Ebert's Latest Games Assertion

Last week's new diatribe from Roger Ebert on the merits of games had some people up in arms. Commentary ranged from the respectful at Ars Technica, to the dismissive statements at GameCritics. N'Gai Croal, of Newsweek's LevelUp, has a lengthy and thoughtful look at the issue from both sides. From his comments: "It's the right of someone with the maturity of an honest and articulate four-year-old to forget the history of his own favored art form and close his mind to the potential of another. In the meantime, those of us who care about the possibilities inherent in this medium will have to rely upon ourselves and one another to keep doing the heavy lifting necessary to suss out where the art of videogames lies; to determine how the craft can enhance that art; and to continue the fight to push this young medium from squalling infancy into graceful adulthood. Let's get cracking."

Comments

At least look at his argument

[DreadPiratePizz]

From the perspective of storytelling, videogames are in fact a poor medium for doing it, for reasons Ebert describes. The physical interactivity with a game world that videogames provide add nothing to a story, and in mediums such as film, the director and editor use decisions to guide the audience. Any story you can think of telling will always be more effective as a novel, play, or film, than as a videogame. Nearly every videogame story involves violence or physical conflict. Why? Because the story has to motivate the gameplay, and guess what the gameplay entails! Interaction is limited, so the stories are as well. Unless you want to use cutscenes or text... in which case you're using another medium.

So it depends on what you consider a videogame. Games like MGS3 are pretty artistic, but it's all conveyed through cutscenes. Nothing wrong with that, but the emotion and depth brough tforward there isn't possible using only interactive elements. It seems to me like the games that are the most artistic, are also the games that are least like GAMES.

Re:No big deal

[HTH NE1]

I don't get it, why care? Does everyone have to have a favorable view of games to keep them going now? By categorizing games as "not art" in the public mindset, those looking to censor them would no longer have to consider whether they have "serious artistic merit".