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Blow-Back From Ebert's Latest Games Assertion

Posted by Zonk on from the games-as-what-now dept.

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."

4 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Must be art by tonyreadsnews · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Doesn't the fact that people are arguing over whether it is or isn't art make it art? Especially since some people's art is another person's trash...?

  2. Sigh, No. by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    See, the question is, "Why would Ebert bother to comment on gaming if he doesn't actually care about gaming?"

    The answer is simple. We see it here every day. Why do people put inflammatory crap on their websites? To drive traffic.

    Ebert's not an idiot. He is, however, largely irrelevant in terms of the internet...Movie reviewers are a dime a dozen here. Anyone ever been to his site for anything else? I never have.

    But with one clever piece of pure flamebait, he drove his web traffic through the roof. Read his article...No, actually don't, just read someone else who's quoted it...No more traffic for you! Not yours! It's pure flamebait, right down to ad hominems and poop jokes at the expense of his target.

    So let the irrelevant blowhard pass on by. By even caring about his hilariously irrelevant opinion, you're giving him what he wants.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    1. Re:Sigh, No. by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This sort of thing always happens. You should read some of the nasty things theater critics said about early movies; they called 'em debased, shallow, puerile, and definitely not art.

      Now we're dealing with the same crap from their descendants. It's no surprise. People are crappy at handling change.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  3. Re:Thoughtful? by Haeleth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This a quote from a thoughtful article on Ebert's comments?
    Yes, but you need to look at the context: as it happens, "the maturity of an honest and articulate 4-year old" is a direct quote from Ebert's original article, where Ebert himself used it to describe Barker! Which kind of changes the way you see things a little, doesn't it?

    Well done, though - you've illustrated nicely what really harms the reputation of gaming: the fact that people automatically assume that gamers are immature, and therefore anything a gamer ever says that might possibly be taken to reinforce that stereotype will be taken out of context and misinterpreted in the worst possible way. :)