@Nickfury101: Truth, that was why I menction Star Wars as a turning point. Before that, the oscar winner was Taxi Driver and that wasn't financialy succesful. The existence of commercialy viable movies don't mean movies as a mean are only supposed to make money. Some movies can hope for a deeper meaning, and some even do both. If we can accept the fact that movies are driven by the market and still considered art, the same as many other art forms (Chopin, Miguel Angel, Da Vinci and Shakespeare, among others, usually make "popular" art in order to sell), don't know why that is an argument against video games only.
"Video games are a culmination of art (concept art, music, story) but I don't really consider the final product to be art as I don't really think of coding as an art form." Don't confuse the tools with the result. Would you consider writing (in general) an art form?
@Nickfury: The idea of movies as art has changed since Star Wars, but since it is what we have today and movies are STILL considered art, we can still consider it. The INTENT of most western movies is to fill movie theaters and to sit of the shelf of Blockbuster. That means movies are not art anymore? The main difference between movies and video games is that they have to deal with interactivity. A broken or unplayable game is not artistically good, the same as a movie without pictures and a wall of text passing by in an attempt to be more like a book would not be a good movie. Every media has its own language, and to take advantage of that is part of making a good piece of art, the part that cares about comunicating something.
Almost every game needs artistic people working on them, but that doesn't necesary mean almost every game is a work of art. Again, the same could be said about movies. Works of art need to have some message that the main author (Director in the case of movies, Game Designer in the case of games). I think the main problem with Ebert comment was that he was basically attacking himself. Is like someone argue that movies are not art because his last experience was Adam Sandler's movies...
@Nickfury... that is shutting out some other art expressions, movies, in example. I am sure Fifa 09 can't be considered art, but neither can Terminator 3, or the National Enquirer. Just because some examples of the media are not considered a work of art, doesn't rule out the media itself. To say that Okami and Fifa 09 are on equal ground on this discussion is like comparing Citizen Kane with Godzilla. Art is the expression of people thoughts and feelings through some media so that it can reach others, that doesn't mean art can't by popular per se. Thousands of people enjoy Mozart nowadays, he is more popular now that he ever was, and that doesn't render his work less artistic (and, by the way, Okami, Psychonauts and several others sold rather poorly, which would fit your idea of art) Movies are probably the best example to approach this question regarding games, not because they are close (except some examples like MGS), but because they are the work of several people working together to create one vision. You can point the single author of a book, but it is harder in movies. Cameramen, musicians, writers, tailors, lights, make-up, etc... everything and everyone fits to create a vision (usually, the director's vision). Games work the same way, and when somebody has enough experience with them, they understand why Bioshock and Halo are different, even when they are both FPS, and why Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are similar (and also different than Final Fantasy XII).
@Kaneada: Better hardware doesn't mean better console. The PS2 had the worst hardware of the three the last generation, and the Wii has the worst hardware on this generation... And about the article itself, it is a waste of time. MKvsDC is the only game that have really noticeable graphical differences, and it is not that important. When you have to justify it by saying "this one has better flowers, on this one I see an extra antenna" you should reconsider things. No one notice this kind of things when things are moving and you are trying to stay alive...
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