It all just comes back to wanting to be unique while belonging to something at the same time, doesn't it? A lot of these Wii dissenters grew up with gaming. A fair few started with the NES. I'm getting this distinct impression that they have an illusion of "gamer" somehow being a status symbol, something to be proud of, something which "non-gamers" can never hope to achieve. And really, that's quite sad, when you think about it.
Playing video games doesn't accomplish much of anything that's meaningful, unless you count occasionally improving hand-eye coordination. You can come up with all the sob stories you want about how some kid somewhere had his blindness cured by playing video games, or how somebody who was injured badly regained full use of their arms that way, but those people are the exception to the rule. What kind of badge of pride is it to be able to say "I am a gamer"? What prestige can you possibly believe the title of "gamer" really carries? If anything, "gamer" painted you in a black light in the eyes of most people until just very recently, and that's only changing at all because of the Wii and DS.
So I say this to those who want to believe that being a "gamer" is somehow sacred, that the Wii and DS are "destroying gaming": let it go. Just let it go. They're games. They always have been, and they always will be, diversions and nothing else. You can gussy them up all you want and call them art, but it won't actually change anything. Painting a pig brown and calling it a stallion does not make it a stallion. It's still a pig, and that's all it ever will be, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you accept it. Games will always be games, even if you want people to call them art, and there's nothing wrong with that, either.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
