Ebert reiterates: "Games are not art."

[HeartlessNinny]

I have to admit, I agree with him. Anything with rules, objectives, etc cannot be art. Games can be like art. They might provoke a similar reaction, even. But are they art? I say no.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html

 

[Nesagwa]

Again?

ANYTHING can be art. Interactivity or no.

 

[LWK]

LWK reiterates: Ebert is a fucking idiot.

Play chrono trigger.

 

[HeartlessNinny]

Again?

ANYTHING can be art. Interactivity or no.

I don't think so. If anything can be art, the term is kind of meaningless, isn't it? Like I said. You can evoke the same reaction as good art from pretty much anything, but that doesn't mean it's art.

Think of it this way: Is chess art? Is baseball? No. Then why is a video game art? The principle is the same if you ask me.

P.S. Chrono Trigger is a great game. But it's not art.

 

[lithy]

Anything can be art (x2)

 

[Cavalry]

Eberts face is a piece of art. The picasso kind.

 

[LWK]

I always love how people who have this almighty opinions and regulate things have like no experience on the subject. Like ebert understand or plays a lot of video games. C'mon.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

The graphical material in a video game can be art. The story can be art. The gameplay cannot.

This is one area where copyright laws are sane.

Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form.

 

[SML]

He's wrong about the gameplay and right about the prose in Braid.

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

Seeing some of the shit that's on display at SFMOMA sometimes makes me wonder about the current meaning of art. People go apeshit over random photographs and painted metal pieces that would otherwise look like they were leftover from a metal fabricator plant.

Kellee Santiago looks cute though. And despite Braid being "art" it is fucking frustrating. I don't know how I've been able to make it through most of the game. How some of the people out there discovered all 8 hidden stars on their own simply amazes me.

 

[SonGohan]

The graphical material in a video game can be art. The story can be art. The gameplay cannot.

Third Strike begs to differ.

 

[Nesagwa]

I don't think so. If anything can be art, the term is kind of meaningless, isn't it? Like I said. You can evoke the same reaction as good art from pretty much anything, but that doesn't mean it's art.

Think of it this way: Is chess art? Is baseball? No. Then why is a video game art? The principle is the same if you ask me.

P.S. Chrono Trigger is a great game. But it's not art.

You're not really familiar with the post-modern movement are you?

 

[RAINBOW PONY]

Anything can be art. Not many are.

 

[Metal Slugnuts]

Metal Slug

/thread

Does Ebert even have the mental faculty to critique anything anymore? I think once you've reached the stage in life where you have a nurse helping you defecate your artistic opinion on anything is null and void.

lol generation gaps

 

[Nesagwa]

He had his jaw removed. He didnt turn retarded.

 

[Metal Slugnuts]

He had his jaw removed. He didnt turn retarded.

Of course, he's always been retarded.

Now he's also an invalid.

 

[not sonic]

you can consider finishing a book or movie "winning" it.

most games nowadays arent really tests of skill or accomplishment, youre simply along for the ride. much like a movie.

hes an old man who's probably never played a game anyway.

the article was pretty terrible. between his weak arguments and excessive filler, its clear he has no idea what hes talking about.

 

[norton9478]

I'm an Anti-Artist.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

you can consider finishing a book or movie "winning" it.

most games nowadays arent really tests of skill or accomplishment, youre simply along for the ride. much like a movie.

hes an old man who's probably never played a game anyway.

the article was pretty terrible. between his weak arguments and excessive filler, its clear he has no idea what hes talking about.

Maybe he was talking about games which actually do require skill, and aren't just movies with shitty graphics.

 

[RabbitTroop]

As much as I love Braid as a puzzle game, he's absolutely right about its terrible "story."

 

[Lastblade]

100 years from now, people will consider Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. art.

Madden 2010, though, that's just garbage.

 

[Lagduf]

As much as I love Braid as a puzzle game, he's absolutely right about its terrible "story."

Braid's story is completely disconnected from the gameplay. And then they dropped a layer of Mario/Platformer satire on the game as well even further making any story elements just not mesh well.

Great gameplay though. Seriously great.

 

[Taiso]

Any time Ebert wants people to talk about him on the internet, all he has to do is case on video games.

I like Ebert and don't think he's lost his relevance as a film critic.

I'm undecided on the argument, to be honest. I see both sides of it.

 

[Deuce]

Any time Ebert wants people to talk about him on the internet, all he has to do is case on video games.

Indeed. Smart man.

As for the debate, watching it unfold always makes me laugh.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

Who's to say what is and isn't art? Martial Arts is art. Shit drawn on a piece of paper is art. A bunch of bread wrappers tied together is art. Art nearly anything you make it to be.