Last April, Roger Ebert wrote a lengthy article for the Chicago Sun-Times explaining an off-the-cuff comment he once made clearly stating that video games "can never be art". After months of angry online comments and controversy springing up on film and video game news sites alike, Ebert wrote a followup article in July revising, though not rescinding, his original stance.
I, like many others, felt rather betrayed by Ebert's initial article: a man whose opinions I greatly valued denouncing something that's been a part of my life since childhood. After reading his second submission on the subject, I have to empathize with where he is coming from, although I don't agree with the "foregone conclusion" attitude he still takes in categorizing the video game genre as entirely devoid of artistic significance.
Though I do not necessarily intend to change his, or anyone's mind, I decided to compile a mashup of some of my initial ideas on the topic.
This was my first experience with creating a mashup. It was an interesting experience: the collage aspects of the program definitely helped encourage the use of a variety of different mediums in communicating ideas. I liked how all of my information didn't have to be contained on that one page; thanks to links and embedded videos, my mashup encourages viewers to explore the topic further outside of my mashup page. However, I find the space somewhat confining. I had more to say, but there just wasn't room for it. I'm a heart a writer, and would certainly prefer to give a thorough and detailed write-up of the subject to compliment the mashup and expand on my ideas. In the end, it was a fun thing to experiment, but I feel may prefer the standard blog format. With that, I can still embed videos and display images, all the while keeping a focused and driving written commentary going to string the ideas presented in the visual media together.
No comments:
Post a Comment