Comments on: Never mind games as art, how about games as AI?

By: Dorzaa

Dorzaa — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:54:43 +0000

Good I Like It

By: Stabs

Stabs — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:47:26 +0000

Roger Ebert’s view would imply that art is not art when viewed by the artist.

By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green

Brian 'Psychochild' Green — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:40:24 +0000

Yes, fair enough about the Turing machine. It’s probably not the geekiest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s in the top 10.

By: Samus

Samus — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:32:11 +0000

I really wish public figures would stop commenting on subjects they have no knowledge of. Roger Ebert knows nothing about games and knows nothing about art. It’s no different than Jenny McCarthy speaking out against immunization.

By: Longasc

Longasc — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:13:27 +0000

If you use Dwarf Fortress as example, um… I hope I will be able to follow you. My buddy Zweistein tries to explain it to me, but I always utterly fail to get wtf he is doing and why.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:32:24 +0000

I think that could be pretty fun, I’ll look into it I never did beat Angband either.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:31:39 +0000

Oh I agree. He’s already lost this argument, and in any case the question people should be asking is simply, “Would treating games as art help us produce better/more fun games?” (And I think the answer is yes and that it’s already happening.)

But that turing machine is just the geekiest thing I’ve ever seen! When art can do that, we’ll do this discussion again properly.

By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green

Brian 'Psychochild' Green — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:47:45 +0000

When will people learn to stop feeding the troll? I think Roger Ebert knows he can get a whole lot of attention from a young audience by beating that tired, old drum. Of course, young people have poor impulse control so many start foaming at the mouth to the sound of that drum.

What he believes is immaterial in the long run, just as early naysayers of cinema aren’t relevant today. It’s funny, I was watching the Director’s Cut of Dark City where Ebert and other people directly involved with the film give commentary. A few commentators mentioned that a lot of what goes on in the movie happens not only in the minds of the creator (directory, writer, etc.) but also in the audience. So, it’s funny that Ebert will criticize games for focusing a bit more on the audience side. Most observant people will see there is still authorial intent found in “traditional” media, meaning that the creator is still a vital part of the process.

In a way, I can’t believe that Ebert would be so stupid not to see that. So, I think at this point he’s just trolling. He just has the platform as a writer for a paper to troll on an epic scale.

By: Uzi

Uzi — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:25:22 +0000

Like you I have wanted to play Dwarf Fortress a bit…tried once and failed. I know a few other folk actively playing so….hmmm. Compare notes and versions etc?

Like Angband its on my list of things to do (although I beat Moria so thats one ASCII under my belt)