Video Games as Art

• I really enjoyed the presentation yesterday about Video Games. I'm sorry I can't remember who it was but you did a great job! Anyways I love video games, and I hate the controversy surrounding the statement "Video Games cannot be art" they can too! Roger Ebert once said " Video Games can never be art" and quite honestly, he is the prime reason why this controversy even started. Roger Ebert was probably in college in the 1980's when video games first picked up, so basically he never got to experience video games, not back then and not back now. Of course I'm not claiming to have been alive back in 85' but the point of the matter is, you can't make statements like that without having prior experience. I'm not saying he can't hate or criticize video games, but it would be more like if I said "Movies can't be art" if I myself have never seen a movie. There are plenty of games whose sole purpose is to rot your brain and shoot people in the face with an M16, but then there are games like Journey and Limbo (note that both of those are indie games) that have a deeper meaning behind them. People also tend to get worked up when people claim that video games can be art, then they basically say "well if something as trivial as video games can be art then can anything be art?". No, not EVERYTHING can be considered art, it's just how something is interpreted and expressed is considered art.