At this moment, 4,547 comments have rained down upon me for that blog entry. I'm informed by Wayne Hepner, who turned them into a text file: "It's more than Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and The Brothers Karamazov." I would rather have reread all three than vet that thread. Still, they were a good set of comments for the most part. Perhaps 300 supported my position. The rest were united in opposition.
Today he reversed his position. NeatoGeek has more. http://www.neatorama.com/neatogeek/2010/07/01/roger-ebert-admits-that-he-was-partially-wrong-about-video-games/
(Image credit: Taylor Evans)
"I declared as an axiom that video games can never be Art. I still believe this, but I should never have said so."
That's not the same as reversing his position. That's "I believe what I believe and I wish you people would shut up about it."
I don't care how respected Ebert may be as a movie critic, but he really needs to shut up already about videogames. It's like he took a page from the John C. Dvorak book of journalism trolling.
But yes, the whole conversation has been rather artless.
Shortly after the first ever video game, this debate was settled in the minds of all thinking people.
We are just listening to an old man work through his prejudices in public.
It has always been my impression that video games only got good the minute they became art. I think the original Legend of Zelda is a pretty good example of this, especially if you read about Miyamoto's inspiration for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda#Inspiration
From what I read, he didn't even play or see the games in action (even though he was offered).