In 2005, esteemed film critic Roger Ebert found himself on the receiving end of a bout of gamer rage after claiming video games could never aspire to the realm of art in the way that film or literature can. Ebert's reasoning for this was that since games are inherently an interactive medium, they lack the requisite amount of authorial control to move beyond craftsmanship and into the realm of art. Not leaving well enough alone, the critic then asserted the rather inflammatory remark that not only are games valueless from an artistic standpoint, but also that they impede most gamers' personal growth by wasting "precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic."

Posting to his Web site on Saturday, Ebert revised his critique of games in light of British-born horror writer and director Clive Barker's opening keynote address at this year's Hollywood and Games Summit on June 26. With Internet culture aplomb, Ebert picked apart Barker's defense of games as an artistic medium, beginning first by stating that "games could not be high art, as I understand it."

Ebert then launched into a lengthy debate of semantics with Barker's statements. Ebert counters Barker's claim that art is a world where players can run the gamut of emotions by pointing out how absurd it would be if actors in Romeo and Juliet went "through the story naked and standing on their hands," just because they could. Instead, as Ebert sees it, "art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices."

Ebert then takes extended issue with Barker's assertion that games are a great way to escape from the "oppressive facts" that people must deal with in their everyday lives. Ebert says that instead of fleeing somewhere to gain an illusion of control, people should seize the moment and take control of their own lives. Lending action to his words, Ebert went on to say, "Right now, for example, I cannot speak, but I am writing this." In 2006, Ebert suffered complications stemming from his battle with thyroid cancer, which cost him part of his lower jaw, and with it the ability to speak.

Summing up his argument, Ebert states: "Barker is right that we can debate art forever. I mentioned that a Campbell's soup could be art. I was imprecise. Actually, it is Andy Warhol's painting of the label that is art. Would Warhol have considered Clive Barker's video game Undying as art? Certainly. He would have kept it in its shrink-wrapped box, placed it inside a Plexiglas display case, mounted it on a pedestal, and labeled it 'Video Game.'"

"We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play."

That's one of the things Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told The Wall Street Journal in a story that ran today. The recently restored executive was referring not necessarily to EA's own titles, but to a greater trend in the industry that sees the same games made again and again, with little in the way of innovation.

"For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat," Riccitiello said. "There's been lots of products that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before."

While Riccitiello's company is known for releasing annual installments of a series, such as Madden NFL and Need for Speed, it is also spending some of its resources on games that will court the casual market and other nontraditional audiences, as opposed to $60 epics that require 40 hours or more of gameplay to finish. In addition to Will Wright games, such as The Sims and Spore, Electronic Arts is also helping to bring out original properties, such as Boogie, Crysis, and Army of Two. It also has partnered with filmmaker Steven Spielberg for two forthcoming titles--a Wii puzzle game and a futuristic action title for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Adding a few facts to the console warrior's arsenal, Entertainment Weekly has issued its midterm results for Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii. Penned by respected gaming journalist Geoff Keighley, as well as Wook Kim and Gary Eng Walk, EW graded each console by what was liked and disliked, and took a look at how the three will fare in the future. While some of the details have changed, EW's rankings have not.

As with last November's assessment, EW again put the Xbox 360 at top of the ****with an "A-" grade. According to the trio, the Xbox 360's best assets are its superior Xbox Live service and the multimedia capabilities of the Elite model. Diminishing these advantages are the need for an expensive HD-DVD add-on to watch high-def movies and the now-notorious hardware failures. Going forward, EW thinks Microsoft will have a far more difficult time retaining its leader status in light of the Wii's phenomenal rate of sales and the PS3's strengthening game lineup.

Nintendo's Wii didn't fare as well, earning just a B-minus. Motion-sensing controls are still the system's biggest draw, and the increased third-party creativity with the remote means that the Wii's unique library will continue to grow, according to the site. However, EW sees Nintendo's neglect of the hardcore gamer by the exclusion of online-capable play to be a serious detriment. By squandering its built-in Wi-Fi potential, and with no support planned for new virtual console games until 2008, the EW crew sees the console's bloom beginning to fade.

Tieing with the Wii is the PS3, which also received a B-minus. While the power of its hardware is indisputable, EW brings up the main sticking point on Sony's system: its $599 price tag. EW also takes issue with the feather-light and rumble-deprived Sixaxis controller, and what the authors feel is a scant lineup of quality games. Looking forward, EW thinks that all Sony's beleaguered system needs is some must-have titles and a few "bold executive decisions" to make significant gains on its competitors.

Today, GameSpot announced the acquisition of SportsGamer.com. Founded in May 2006, the New York City- and Cincinnati-based site focuses exclusively on mainstream sports games, including FIFA soccer, NFL Football, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR racing.

Unlike most review- and preview-centric sites, SportsGamer specializes in gameplay strategy and tips, including video gameplay tutorials. It also provides online stats, leaderboard tracking, and forums for its growing community.

"I'm really excited to have SportsGamer as part of the GameSpot team," said GameSpot Senior Editor Brian Ekberg. "The site's intense focus on postrelease coverage of the biggest sports titles is just one of the things that sets it apart. In the coming months, we hope to expand the reach of both our sites to continue to bring readers the best sports game coverage around."

Entertainment Software Association president Michael Gallagher assumed his new position last month, during a busy time for the gaming industry trade group. Legislators in New York threatened to pass laws restricting the sale of violent games. Rockstar Games' Manhunt 2 was effectively banned in the US because of an AO for Adults Only rating. To top it off, he assumed his new role barely a month in advance of the E3 Media & Business Summit--the first since former ESA president Douglas Lowenstein announced a radical series of changes to the show's format and then departed the industry entirely.

Despite that, Gallagher recently carved out some time to talk with The New York Times about his new position. While Gallagher declined to lay out his full battle plan for the trade group just yet, he did indicate a few areas where he would pick up right where his predecessor left off. Specifically, Gallagher wants to better position the ESA to have an impact in federal politics by coordinating an industry-wide approach to political donations.

According to the paper, Gallagher wants to use the late Jack Valenti's tenure as the head of the Motion Picture Association of America as a model for his own. No doubt Gallagher would like to duplicate Valenti's many successes lobbying for the film industry.

"Obviously we have a lot smaller budget than the music and movie industries, so we have to do more with less," Gallagher told the paper. The ESA might be outspending its counterpart trade groups in the music and movie industries when it comes to federal lobbying, but Gallagher noted there is a dearth of comparable star power in gaming.

"Washington is very enamored with glitz and the appeal of stars," Gallagher said. "Whenever Bono shows up he creates this bow wave as he comes through, and it's true that stars do help drive messages. And it is true that Master Chief and Mario are not yet household words on the Hill, but wait for the years ahead."

The Vancouver police department has become the first real-life police force to have officers in the virtual world of Second Life, reports The Vancouver Sun.

The officers' virtual avatars have a specially designed uniform--what looks like a blue figure-hugging catsuit (for the ladies, at least), complete with badge, belt, and radio. The Vancouver Police Department has been using the popular virtual world to try to attract "tech-savvy" recruits to join its ranks.

The idea came from Gerry Sinclair, program director for digital media at the Great Northern Way Campus. As part of her drive to attract students to the new course--due to launch this September--she held a virtual recruitment seminar within Second Life. When the Vancouver police heard about it, head of the tech crimes division Kevin McQuiggin asked for Sinclair's help to set up a similar event to boost a recruitment drive for the boys and girls in blue.

"It's to get recruits," McQuiggin said. "I just need smart, tech-savvy people. ... As we move into the future, we're going to need people who understand technology--that are conversant with it, that understand the impact of it and understand how to use it."

McQuiggin added that he believes that as they continue to grow, virtual worlds would require some form of virtual policing, although the new frontier of crime fighting brings with it a whole new set of problems. He said, "There are jurisdictional issues. Where does the crime occur? Where is the suspect? Where is the victim? We want accountability but if it's spread all over the world like that it makes it very difficult for us."

Latest research shows that although most consoles are capable of playing DVDs or downloading movies from the Internet, gamers just don't seem to be interested.

A new report released this week from Dallas-based think tank The Diffusion Group "On The Use of Game Consoles for Movie Viewing" shows that 80 percent of consoles in households can play DVDs or have the ability to download and watch films from the Net. However, only 30 percent of those surveyed were aware that their console could play movies, and less than half of those--some 13 percent--had actually done so. Of this 13 percent, three quarters used the console only for playing back a DVD disc, with the remaining quarter also purchasing or renting movies online.

For those who own consoles connected to the Internet, watching films or TV shows online proved to be a little more popular, with 42 percent having used their console at some point to do this.

The report's author, Dale Gilliam III, commented, "Today's next-generation games consoles, such as the Xbox 360 or Sony PlayStation 3, are true digital multimedia powerhouses. Yet very few of these devices are connected to the Internet, and even though these same platforms may feature a high-definition DVD playback system, very few consumers are using them for nongaming media applications."

This would seem to conflict with Microsoft's own statistics, which recently reported that 6 million people had signed up for Xbox Live accounts.

The report criticised the lack of consumer awareness that consoles were also multimedia players. According to the group, the report "demonstrates how poorly many consumers understand the capabilities of today's game consoles and a major barrier to persuading consumers to start using these platforms for nongaming media consumption."

Boffins at the UK's University College London are creating an immersive virtual world which can be navigated through thinking about moving, reports The New Scientist. In partnership with a team at the Graz University of Technology in Austria--which specialises in measuring signals from the brain via electrodes or implants--the two groups have joined together in order to create a virtual world which disabled players can navigate using only their imaginations.

To play the game, electrodes are attached to the player's scalp, and electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment monitors the electrical activity in their brain. Then the gamer simply imagines moving forwards, or raising their left or right arm, which move their avatar forward, or turns it left or right. To heighten the feeling of immersion, they sit inside a room at UCL where the game is projected onto the three walls in front of them, as well as the floor. A pair of shuttered glasses can also be worn, to create the illusion of 3D, which "intensifies the overall feeling of being inside the simulated reality."

During a trial, a paraplegic patient was tasked with using his thoughts to move his avatar towards various virtual characters to talk with them, and was able to do so approximately 90 percent of the time.

A team at Southampton University is already using brain controlled interfaces to treat people recovering from strokes, and it was also suggested that the technology could increase the prospects of the disabled to work and experience social interaction.

US-based Rochester Institute of Technology assistant computer science professor, Jessica Bayliss--who also specializes in brain-computer interfaces--commented, "A system such as this could be very motivational for a patient to use for training. It reminds me of how people with various handicaps are playing World of Warcraft, because they are able to do things in the virtual world that they can't do in the real world."

Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games have said little publicly since Manhunt 2 was slapped with an AO for Adults Only rating last week. The publisher confirmed that it was temporarily suspending production of the game while it reviewed its options, and Take-Two chairman of the board Strauss Zelnick issued a statement calling Manhunt 2 "a fine piece of art."

Zelnick expanded a bit on his position to The New York Times' Seth Schiesel in an article headlined "Gore Galore but a Violent Game Can't Hold a Gutbucket to the Movies." According to Schiesel, Zelnick defended the game's innovation, but emphasized that it was a horror game, intended for audiences 17 and older.

"This is still animation," Zelnick said. "It's not photo-realistic. It's not live action. And compared to an R-rated movie, which is intended for 17 and above, like Saw or Hostel, it's actually pretty tame."

While Schiesel called the Entertainment Software Rating Board's AO "entirely reasonable" after spending a few hours with the game, he also agreed with Zelnick's estimation of films after watching through Saw II(pictured above).

"Banning the original version of Manhunt 2 may be a good way to demonstrate that the industry can police itself. Side by side, though, movies seem to be way ahead of games in delivering top-notch gore."