Good topic sir, and worth thinking about.
I suspect you are dead right about it being a social phenomenon and about right about the hunter-gatherer/warrior class/tribalism stuff (though I want to think about that a bit more).
But I suspect you are dead wrong about one thing.
That para where you say “Now we have two basic types of gaming console. One type is particularly well suited to immersive, realistic and often violent games. The other has a much shorter learning curve and is much more accessible.”
Because it isn’t about the consoles.
Step with me into a parallel universe for a moment, and imagine that from the outset the graphical power of PS360 was used for immersive, realistic and utterly non-violent games. Endless Ocean, Afrika, Sonydogz and MS Music, say. And imagine that the Wii from the outset had been populated with Manhunt, Madworld and Gears and so on.
It might (just) have been that way. And if it were, all the self-described ‘true gamers’ would be talking up the realism and precision and subtlety of the Wii controls and talking down the sweet, fluffy and, yes, Hi-Def graphics as suitable for people who really don’t know better, who need the easy accessibility of HD because they simply can’t understand that gameplay is king, who need the short learning curve of crappy 20th century controllers because the Wii controls are too difficult for them.
So it is *all* to do with the tribalism and nothing at all to do with the consoles. Not at all whatsoever.
