Also, I think there is art in how a game is played – some people just go through the motions and button mash, but some people are truly artistic about how they play.

I disagree that video games are boring when watched, because I’ve gotten waaaaay too involved in video games other people were playing, like BioShock, Episodes 1 and 2 of Half-Life 2, and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I am a self-proclaimed excellent “wing man” for video gaming, because I do watch someone else play the game with avid fascination. I think was Ebert is missing here is that audiences should be just as emotionally involved with good movies and theatre and paintings and music as they are with video games. So you SHOULD interact, in some way, with good art. Just because the interaction extends to pushing buttons for video games doesn’t change it being art or not. There are also several short, plotless video games written in Javascript online that involve very vague, pointless puzzle solving and no resolution — those feel very much like many performance art pieces to me, because I react to them with the same fascination with technical skill on the part of the artist.

Now, if you define video games solely in terms of SuperMario Bros 1 or Kirby’s Dreamland or Sonic the Hedgehog, then sure, they’re not art. They’re more like sport. But video games have changed A LOT, and very quickly. I agree with … that lady from the TED video … that we are more in the age of scratches on the walls of caves than Cistine Chapel, but it is still a developing art form.

Would he review a movie off a still picture from it? I don’t think so. That is exactly what he is doing with gaming.

I really think he just did this to stir up hits to his site.

I, for one, will never click on his site again.