At first, Ebert seemed willing to discuss his opinion. When a reader from Denver asked, “Are you implying that books and film are better mediums, or just better uses of your time?” Ebert responded, “I believe books and films are better mediums, and better uses of my time. But how can I say that when I admit I am unfamiliar with video games? Because I have recently seen classic films by Fassbinder, Ozu, Herzog, Scorsese and Kurosawa, and have recently read novels by Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, Bellow, Nabokov and Hugo, and if there were video games in the same league, someone somewhere who was familiar with the best work in all three mediums would have made a convincing argument in their defense.”

Brian Moriarty | Lectures and Presentations | An Apology for Roger Ebert

The reader from Denver is Josh Fishburn, now faculty at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater…