Game over

I got the videogame itch the other day--spent a long time wandering around EB games, just browsing, hoping I'd come to my senses. I did, finally, and got out clean, having bought nothing.

This got me thinking about video games. As much as you read stuff about how they are this great exciting new art form, the medium of tomorrow, blah blah (this would be a good place to insert a link, but I'm too lazy), I find videogames pretty weak as a form of entertainment. This isn't to say they're not entertaining--oh, they're plenty entertaining, pal--it's just that as I look back at time I've spent playing video games, it feels like wasted time in a way that reading, watching a movie, watching tv, or even doing chess puzzles doesn't. (of course I used to do chess puzzles while pretending to take notes in faculty meetings, so that time would have been wasted anyway.)

I don't know if it's just me, and the fact that, as an adult, I've typically played video games at times of high stress (and so they have that kind of good/bad association that some people probably have with a 3-day tequila bender or something), or if it's really just that they are kind of lame. I mean, even tv gives you stuff to talk about--I can't really picture having a conversation like, "whoa, how about that part where you have to press x and then triangle!" Maybe it would be different if I hung out with a lot of people who played games. Perhaps such converstaions actually take place. I guess there's something about video games that just feels kinda masturbatory. Maybe it's the sitting alone and making rapid movements with the hands. I don't know.