Ebert Regrets Attack on Gaming

[katsabas]

I respected his view about art and games in the first place. I like the man and his reviews give me a good read when I am trying to decide about a movie. He made a good point during this statement: do not judge something that you haven't had time alone with. It's stupid and it also gave birth to these guys:

For those of you who did not get it, Ebert says he doesn't THINK games can be art. That he is open for something to be shown at him and change his mind. Open-minded. That's the keyword. That's what I got from this article. Being skeptical about something doesn't mean that you despise it. Get over yourselves. And even if he didn't write this retraction on the 'attack', it is HIS opinion. Why are you getting upset because of something said by someone not even related to the world of gaming (and as such, cannot influence it) in any way?

 

[Vaccine]

Ironically Citizen Kane is his favorite movie.

I was waiting for someone to pick up on the reference.

 

[yoyo13rom]

But he is just trolling!

Don't feed the troll!

I feel as if you can take the troll from under the bridge, but you can never make him human in a real society.

OT: It marks me as a rather big surprise that the apologies for what he said, but he still feels his point of view is right... He said that some opinions are not to be shared with others, but then he says that he's not changing his mind about games as art(although he admits they one day could be...)

On a personal note: I dislike most of Ebert's reviews and opinions. He doesn't seem like a guy you'd catch a beer with(although he's mute, or so I've heard).

 

[Cyrax987]

You see my only complaint about Ebert's response was the fact he doesn't play video games and just completely blasted it like the Fox network does.

 

[Ekit]

Why do people car about what Ebert thinks?

Not to be rude or anything but...

Isn't he just (another) old, senile man attacking a medium he admitted himself knows nothing about?

Why do people care about what you think?

Not to be rude or anything but...

aren't you just (another) faceless, young, inexperienced man attacking a person you clearly know very little about?

-snip-

The problem here is that he spoke about video games, something he confessed - in the same article, no less - to knowing practically nothing about.

I think the people who raged at his opinion can be largely broken up into two main groups: idiots, who just rage because they're ignorant; and those who were upset by his statement because they respected his opinion.

It's never nice to have the opinion of someone you respect directly conflict with yours, and if you're a nerd, like so many of us are, it can be easy to take it to heart.

Ok, I guess that makes sense.

Thanks

 

[Chevy235]

Ok, first off why does anyone care what Ebert thinks anyway? Like 90 percent of all critics, his contribution to what he criticizes is almost nil. I think the only movie he has a writing credit on is some wierd 70's porn.

Second, why the hell would you want games to be considered Art (that's with a capital A, not just art)? Have yall seen what's considered Art? It's crap! Crap that HAS to be funded by the NEA because no one would buy the self-promoting, self-absorbed badly made stuff.

This Art is more about the Artist (maybe I should add an E on there, to differentiate between the two types. Here you go...Artiste). If yall think Molyneux is bad, just wait until Artistes start colonizing the game industry after they get the go ahead from their class-conscious friends (that's what Art is all about you know...status.). Then it will be "flow" this and "challenging perceptions" that (not that they actually challenge perceptions but that's another rant entirely) and fun and playability will be thrown RIGHT out the dang window. Just look at what Artistees do to movies. Long-winded, boring pseudo-intellectual pablum that doesn't entertain but maybe a couple dozen people, and only because they think it makes them better than everyone else who "doesn't get it."

 

[AMMO Kid]

It was nice of him to say he was sorry

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

I would agree with 'Ebert if he said games shouldn't be about the Art or that Games shouldn't be Art two things I hope don't branch in to each other I play games for the gameplay I look at art to be a pretentious snob and troll.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Olook someone had a lapse in judgement and corrected his statements, don't see much of that anymore!

*Claps as well*

 

[cridia]

Frankly, I am afraid this says more about us than it does about him. I dont know about the movie community, book community or whatever community apart from the game community, but the amount of butthurt generated by the gamers community just because 1 man had a different opinion from them (an opinion that is akin to a dead horse by itself) is staggering.

He judged games to not be art. So what. To each his own.

 

[Schlagwerk]

I applaud him for admitting that he doesn't know enough about video games to make an unbiased, objective critique on video games. It takes some gusto.

There's nothing wrong with his opinion of video games as it stands, because he admits that it is completely invalid. Even if he doesn't want to change it.

 

[gorfias]

What does, " don't know what they can learn about another human being that way, no matter how much they learn about Human Nature" mean?

I love Ebert's movie reviews, but I'm sure most beautiful things would fail to meet whatever definition of art he is using.

And no, this was not an apology. It was a regret saying something that caused him grief. He stands by his uninformed, inexperienced opinion.

There is a thousand times more art in that crawling over broken glass scene in Heavy Rain than in an entire museum wing of post modernist paintings.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

That doesn't make what he said any less ignorant and rude.

Why are people saying that this apology doesn't make you feel better? You know what you need to do? Go fuck yourself. Why did it upset you so much in the first place? He's not the first old guy to disparage video games. Get the fuck over it. Unless you are
A)A game designer
and
B) Consider yourself an artist

you have no right to demand an apology. Do you demand an apology from everyone who has an opinion that's different from yours? If so you're a dick and I'm guessing not much fun at a party.

Nobody said they wanted an apology. It just doesn't make it better. I've still lost respect for him for coming out and saying something like that. And seriously, it doesn't matter that it's gaming. If someone who had never heard a song in their life told me that all music was crap and attempts to make good music were pathetic, then I would be just as insulted. He's talking about something that I happen to like a lot and I wouldn't care if he had played through some games and then gave reasons why he didn't enjoy them or take them seriously, but he's speaking out of ignorance. And when you're someone as "respected" as Ebert, people take what you say seriously. I'm not offended (though I would assume the team who worked on Flower is), he's just a lot of lost credibility in my mind.

 

[Ashendarei]

You know, I'm just happy he was open-minded enough to recognize that while games didn't do it for him, they definately do for many other people, and since he personally didn't want to play games to discover that for himself he said ok, I shouldn't have made that comment. and let it go at that.

/respect, even if our tastes differ.

 

[Thisbedutch]

The man is absolutly right. Videogames are far to diverse and complex to put under one banner. Nevertheless, I think this guy has more guts than anyone else I've seen in a while. An apology is probably one of the hardest things to make, especially for someone of his statue.

I'm so glad I'm not alone in thinking this. I love Roger Ebert's movie reviews because of his unflinching honesty and his ability to say his was misguided in talking about something he knows very little about gives me a lot of respect for him.

 

[qeinar]

Ebert is one of my favorit trolls <3

Also it shold be noted that http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexanderOcias/loved?acomplete=love
(yes a flash game) is pretty damn artistic. ^^

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Wow... so he pretty much said "I'm sorry you feel that way." which really isn't an actual apology.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Pointless retort to a pointless argument. Who cares if games are art? If they're fun I'm fine.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

My take on it: He's not apologizing for his opinion (should he have to, really?) but rather for speaking from a position of authority on one subject, upon another subject in which he has little or no experience. Above that, he apologizes for forgetting that entertainment, personal growth and many other human conditions are subjective, and that because he sees no value in something does not mean that there is no value in it.

So, yeah. We cool, Rog. We cool.

 

[esperandote]

I'm sorry i said you were an idiot, i still believe it but im sorry i said it and that you felt bad for it, but still you're and idiot, but i'm sorry.

Edit: For god's sake he's very undebatebly explaining why games are art. Because he can't come out with and art definitio that includes everthing that he considers art yet it excludes videogames.