Comparisons

"That's what you're going to show to Ebert to convince him videogames are a legitimate art form? You're going to show him the morph bomb and expect him to nod repeatedly, and admit that the story of an extinct bird race and a woman with a bazooka on her arm is just as meaningful as La Dolce Vita? Seriously?"

-- Anthony Burch, Destructoid, 'Why Comparing Metroid Prime to Citizen Kane Is Ludicrous'
"The implication of this being that treating games as the inwards-facing exclusive province of boyish adolescence is perfectly acceptable as long as Mom and Dad aren?t looking; if they are, though, hide the controllers and put on a tie. This inferiority complex runs so deeply in the gamer mindset that we will often swear up and down it does not exist while we continue unbridled our wildly passive-aggressive approach towards the artistic establishment, equal parts brash and defensive, trying to look older and more experienced than our years: the hallmark of youthful insecurity."

-- "Matthew Wasteland", 'He Was Always Trying To Prove Himself'
Bonus Material: Here's me earlier this year on why I'm tired of the Citizen Kane thing.
I'll just say it for the record now: I think repeatedly raising Kane is amateurish and useless. It's self-defeating shorthand for what Bogost and Wasteland correctly identify as the real desire: legitimacy for games.
...Legitimacy, in this case, actually meaning 'the approval of others' or 'the ability to fit in,' I suspect.
[dunno where i got header picture. if it's yours and you want credit, comment or mail me.]

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