Sometimes in life, it sucks to be an American hockey fan . . . I’m glad I’m not. The US did an admiral job tying up the game in the final 30 seconds, however their luck didn’t last during the sudden death overtime. Too bad boys, better luck in Russia 2014.
I’ve not liked the medal ranking being used by the NA media, I much prefer the IOC ranking of the most gold medals (the system used by the BBC). Although out of fairness, I believe a weighted system should be used (gold = 3, silver = 2, bronze = 1), which would still have the top teams in the same positions, but gives a lot more credit to the teams in the lower ranks. It also places Korea in its rightful place, many of them did simply amazing and shouldn’t be placed behind Austria and Russia who weren’t fielding nearly as many of the worlds’ best athletes.
However, no matter how you rank it, the UK flat out sucked like an old prostitute. When you never see snow it’s hard to learn how to play in it. I’m hoping for better in the London summer games, but even being a non-religious man I know it’ll take more than every Brit praying for a miracle to get us anywhere near winning the most golds. Maybe Briton will win by the 2186 games . . . just being realistic.
Video Games are already art, Mr Ebert
Video Games are art, but apparently Roger Ebert cannot get with the times on this. He first made his opinion clear in 2005, and recently just cemented the evidence of his ignorance this April [see here]. For those out of the loop, Ebert is a world renowned film critic, he also isn’t a gamer and I question whether he’s ever played enough games to be eligible to comment (IE a single game, ever). He’s as ignorant of the medium as middle-america right-wing psycho-moms. If you’ve never played, you have no clue. If you’ve never seen a movie, you have no clue. If you’ve never read a book, you’re likely illiterate (or should be legally considered it) and have no clue. You cannot justifiably comment on something if you’ve never experienced it, Ebert of all people should know this.
Granted the majority of big-title games care little about telling an actual story (yes Halo, Half-life, you can stand up and be noted as having meaningful story) and merely use it to string together great action scenes. But then I saw the Matrix 2, and I fail to see a valid difference except that video games are more engaging as an art form. Read my review of Repo Men, it was little more than action scenes stitched together by sex scenes and poor plot. Has Ebert never seen a western? They’re little more than action scenes stitched together by modest story, yet they rank as some of the best films in the world. I would personally list The Dollars Trilogy amongst my favorite movies ever, yet by Eberts standard for ‘art’ they certainly are not.
He condemns Braid for telling a story between the games level because it “exhibits prose on the level of a wordy fortune cookie.” To which I would respond Hemingways six-word novel (For sale: baby shoes, never used.), which exhibits prose on the level of a rather terse fortune cookie. If you want to talk about story, look at least at Halo, but please look at something by BioWare like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, or Knights of the Old Republic.
“Why aren’t gamers content to play their games and simply enjoy themselves? . . . Do they require validation? In defending their gaming against parents, spouses, children, partners, co-workers or other critics, do they want to be able to look up from the screen and explain, “I’m studying a great form of art?” Then let them say it, if it makes them happy.”
Why, Mr Ebert, thank you for clearly displaying how abstract you are from the current times. I grew up playing video games with my parents, they never had a single problem with it. In fact I have many fond memories of playing Age of Empires with my dad. As I’m writing this my wife is eloquently displaying my point by rocking out on Guitar Hero to a Weezer song. My co-workers? Video games are a main avenue of conversation, as frequently (if not more frequently) brought up than movies. Also despite not having children, it doesn’t take any skill whatsoever in foresight to know that my children are going to be in a world much more socially accepting of games than this one currently is.