I think the notion that most videogames are “pretty fucking stupid” is probably true, if I have to sit there and think about it. Though a game like GTA or Knights of the Old Republic may spawn discussions about morality, or the Sims might make you question what you value in life, and what makes you happy, or Rez might be a captivating and immersive experience, yeah, most games, most of the time, are pretty insipid. I’m not going to say that Doom 3 is highbrow, nor am I going to say that say, Rogue Ops is the pinnacle of the medium.

But I’d also say, then, that by that criteria, most books, most of the time, are “pretty fucking stupid,” and most movies, most of the time, are “pretty fucking stupid.” And if you’re going to apply the criteria equally, for every Memento, or In the Mood for Love, there’s a zillion Erasers, or Riding in Cars With Boys. For every Anna Karenina, there’s a hundred thousand Danielle Steele novels. For every White Album, there’s a million Oops… I Did It Agains. Most content that people generate, most of the time, is pretty fucking stupid. It’s business, or it’s hack art, or it’s failed art, or whatever. Most people aren’t capable of creating things that aren’t “pretty fucking stupid” by some people’s criteria.

For me, I find that for a medium that was created less than thirty years ago, games provide a unique and novel experience that other media fails to do. And movies, even, took until Chaplin came along before there was even a serious concept that dramatic narrative was a possibility in film. In comic strips, maybe Charles Schultz really dramatically illustrated what could be done with the medium, opening the way for someone like Bill Watterson. In comic books, Will Eisner paved the road for Frank Miller. But for every Watterson, there’s a hundred shitheads like Bil Keane. For every Eisner, there’s a thousand talentless hacks like Rob Liefeld.

But I’m finding that the statement that videogames are “pretty fucking stupid” to be extremely shortsighted. It’s not the medium is incapable of being more than “pretty fucking stupid,” it’s that every medium is full of dreck, and particularly, a medium like games, that was really heavily commercialized before it ever matured, and is by nature at this point, and extremely collaborative, expensive process… well, I was tempted to say that there might be a higher proportion of dreck than in other media right now. But look on the bookshelves. Look in the movie theaters, and on the DVD racks. Are games *really* any lower quality than either of what you’ll find in a generic Barnes and Noble?

Different, sure. Marketed differently, sure. But labelling the genre is a mistake – in my opinion, a tremendously shortsighted, limiting mistake.