Video Games, and the failure of the word "Art" Redux

Hey! Thanks for reading! Just a reminder that I wrote this some years ago, and may have much more complicated feelings about this topic than I did when I wrote it. Happy to elaborate, feel free to reach out to me! 😄

UPDATE (7/20/10): A little old, but Ebert closes the book by saying that, while he still thinks he's right, he shouldn't have brought it up in the first place. He essentially says "I'm not wrong, but I can't explain why I feel that I'm right." It's actually a pretty nice piece.

I wrote about Ebert et. al. being naive and/or lame when they don't allow games to be art. This great little reddit thread "Saddest moment in a game?" shows that, like the NYT summarizes rather well, it's more a generational misunderstanding of what 'art' should mean rather than one rooted in any actual thinking. See how many you've encountered yourself!

At the very least, I see how deficient I am for not having played any Metal Gear Solid beyond the first (which was excellent). Also glad Majora's Mask is getting a fair bit of love in that thread; it's the masterpiece nobody's played, like Skies of Arcadia.