DISQUS

For the record, I never once said that games couldn't be enjoyed if they weren't high art--all I mean to say by that is that I *want* games to shoot for that rarefied air and I *want* them to reach that plateau. i already invest lots of time in pastimes like reading and film watching where I think that the art objects involved do in fact reach the heights of what i would subjectively call "high art", and I feel like the time that I put into those pastimes is all the more rewarding for that. I often find games to come up way short in this category--I do enjoy them, and I spend lots of time on them and yet.....they have never once reached the heights that I've sometime gotten to when reading a great novel or seeing a film or viewing a great painting or sculpture exhibit. If games can't get to that level for me, then I'm afraid that for me personally--and I'm speaking only for myself here, I'm not applying this standard to anyone beyond me--I will probably drift away from the medium beyond a casual engagement because ultimately I will find reading or watching movies or going to museums more rewarding. To me, for an art form that demands as much of one's time as this one does to *not* get to that point will be a great disappointment if that is in fact how it all pans out.

If all games want to be is an entertaining diversion, that's totally fine. I'm sure that there's plenty of money to be made that way and there's no shame at all in creating things that allow people to have fun. I've no objection to that on any basic level but for me personally I just have higher hopes, I guess. I do like to play ghames simply to have fun a lot of the time, but what I really want most is for the art form to excel that at least at som point. But if videogames can't be high art and can't ultimately do for me what books and film and architecture and the like do, that's ultimately OK. I'm sure the industry'll get along fine if I end up spending most of my time with art forms touch me a little deeper. I'll be a little sad that they couldn't get there, but I'm sure the world'll keep spinning. ;)

Had they let Long Term Capital fail in 1998 like they should have, the Fed wouldn't have helped set the stage for where we are today....

he didn't know that before? that's pretty much common knowledge, i thought.