In Response to Mr. Ebert…
Earlier this week, the brilliant, esteemed critic Roger Ebert wrote again that he believes that video games can never be art. When he first made this argument some five years ago, I disagreed with him quite strongly. Here was, I thought, a man that could not and would not ever understand the way that games were, the potential that they had, the point that many attempted. Here was a man that would not and could not see that games were meant to reach heights heretofore unseen by the likes of cinema and books.
Since then, my view has changed quite dramatically. Before now, I cited examples such as Indigo Prophecy and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as being the closest that games had come to art in form, as the closest they had come to meaningful narrative and true artful focus. They were games that attempted to break the status quo: games that did not cater to the masses but focused on instead delivering their respective visions without deviating for a second. And while that’s not entirely true, in that the former unraveled by the end and the latter featured two sequels that deviated quite a bit from the fantastical nature of the original, it was my view, and I stood by it.
lastmoleman
Absolution in Suspension 