Penny Arcade

There are many, many replies to Roger Ebert’s reeking ejaculate, from measured Judo-inspired reversals of momentum to primal shrieks which communicate rage in a harrowing, proto-linguistic state.  Thatgamecompany’s Kellee Santiago chose to respond to him, which gave the whole thing a kind of symmetry, seeing as it was her TED speech that drove that wretched, ancient warlock into his original spasm.

That was very polite of her, behaving as though she were one side of a conversation.  For what it’s worth.  Which isn’t much, honestly, because this weren’t never a dialogue.  He is not talking to you, he is just talking.  And he’s arguing

1. in bad faith,
2. in an internally contradictory way,
3. with nebulously defined terms,

so there’s nothing here to discuss.  You can if you want to, and people certainly do, but there’s no profit in it.  Nobody’s going to hold their blade aloft at the end of this thing and found a kingdom.  It’s just something to fill the hours.

Also, do we win something if we defeat him?  Does he drop a good helm?  Because I can’t for the life of me figure out why we give a shit what that creature says.  He doesn’t operate under some divine shroud that lets him determine what is or is not valid culture.  He cannot rob you, retroactively, of wholly valid experiences; he cannot transform them into worthless things.

He’s simply a man determined to be on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the human drive to create, and dreadfully so; a monument to the same generational bullshit that says because something has not been, it must not and could never be. 

(CW)TB out.

lying in the reeds

I get mail every day asking us to weigh in on this Roger Ebert thing. It’s really not worth getting worked up about in my opinion. Of course video games are art. They are nothing but art. They are art piled on top of more art.

As Tycho mentioned, Ebert is simply filling a role played out by art critics throughout history. There was the newspaper headline back in 1959 with regards to Jackson Pollock’s work that said “This is not art — it’s a joke in bad taste.” It’s a funny line but time has proven it was also completely wrong. Ebert has thrown his hat in with the rest of the short sighted critics who would rather debate what is or isn’t art, rather than simply enjoy the work of artists.

So Ebert says games aren’t art. That does not make it true. I say games are art and last time I checked, I was beating Michelle Obama, Oprah and Taylor swift in Time’s 100 most influential people list.

-Gabe out