Thumbs Down, Middle Finger Up

Actually, I fear the real culprit for my post-turkey coma malaise isn't holiday ham, but holiday spam. Like about half of the western seaboard, GR got slammed with countless copies of the CIA virus - so many, in fact, that our email server promptly gave up trying to deal with the deluge about ten hours after I boarded a plane for family fun week. As a result, I got zero emails for seven days.

So since nothing happened in the video game industry for the past week, I'd like to focus on the now; namely, the fact that Roger Ebert believes games are inferior to movies because they can't deliver the artistic impact of media like books and, of course, films. Part of his theory revolves around the inherent problems with interactive versus non-interactive entertainment - a point certainly worthy of debate - but I think his most telling statement came at the tail end of his reader response:

"But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic."

This coming from a man who considers Freaky Friday, Major Payne and the riveting Burt Reynolds masterpiece, Cop and a Half, to be worth your precious hours. How about you make a real contribution to the cultural landscape and take a leap off that balcony, Rog.