Goodbye, Videogames

I’m not playing videogames anymore.

Well, let me amend that—I’m not playing Videogames anymore. I’m still playing Civilization IV, and You Don’t Know Jack, and Flight Control, and tens of other games. But for the time being, I’m done with the others. You know the ones I mean.

They’re pretenders to meaning. I don’t know why I keep banging my head against the controller, expecting a different result. This medium doesn’t yet have a Scorcese, or a Hitchcock, or a Leigh, and I’m tired of waiting.

I used to think that videogames were capable of evolving into a medium that exposed truths about the human condition. I’m not sure I think that anymore.

All I know is, I don’t want to do another fetch quest. I don’t want to shoot another person/alien/robot. I don’t want to do the things that Videogames make me do.

I want to read books, and watch movies, and television, and go for walks, and talk to my boyfriend over a glass of wine and a good meal. Videogames never got in the way of any of that, but sometimes they subsumed them. They’re kind of insidious that way.

There are transcendental videogames out there. Ico. And… that’s kind of it. I’m tired of looking for the others. They’re not out there. Maybe they will be.

I’ll probably go back to Videogames at some point. When I do, I hope they’ve figured out what it is they’re good at.

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