This is a tale of three sites, and what amounts to a net win for video game discusion on the internets:

I always think of Satre with a Pipe, when I think of literary criticism. PORQUE WHY!?!

First a guy wrote an article, with what seems to be a grudge against games. Especially those that take an extended amount of time to complete. His substantial ire resounds for the game he was forced to play, in order to write a review of the game Dark Souls. What would appear to be intellectual, with the large words and references to Leo Tolstoy, is built around some very shaky premises.  The article is a sort of critique on “video games” ability to consume one’s time, and then how much a waste of time video games are in comparison to other more worthy pursuits, and other garbage in this vein. At this point it’s typical anti-game drivel that is so popular in literary, as well film critique circles. The article also makes generalized judgement on the fulfillment or lack thereof for the end- user, as if to say he is a sort of every-man, and his feelings are or should be everybody’s feelings. I strongly urge you to read the original here. And then read the response here, it’s a work of art in and of itself. The true story here is how good this response is, and how un-like the barbaric world of internet “journalism”.

The first epic-beardman, Leo Tolstoy

Then of course Kotaku got in on the discussion with the “opinion” piece equivalent of sideline announcing, contributing nothing to the discussion, and in some ways fanning the baser argument the EDGE writer was trying to steer the conversation away from. That article is here.

All this to say that really great discussion is happening on the Internets as Video Games emerge as something more than a hobby and into a larger form of “art”.  However, this development, and evolution is happening far away from the articles and Forums of Kotaku, a site which could have been so much more.