The past three weeks or so of my life have been spent pretty much dead center in my “Happy Place”, which consists of resting in the Me shape I’ve formed over the past half decade in my couch, fourteen feet away from my 46′ LCD, perfectly within the range my 650 Watt Surround Sound system, PS3 controller firmly in my hands. My digital distraction of choice for the majority of that has been INFAMOUS from Sucker Punch, the guys that brought us the SLY COOPER series on the PS2. It’s been very engrossing too. Just the setting of Empire City – the fictional area the game takes place in – is very aesthetically pleasing, and a grand ol’ time to explore with the game’s Superpowered “Parkour” movement ability, and the Electricity based powers are very exciting with their multitude of uses and all the lovely blue or red (depending on your Karma choices) sparkly explosions they make. They tickle my brainspace just right.

So, okay, enough with the mini review. I’m not just here to ramble on about what I’m playing. Leave that to the big gaming podcasters like ListenUp and Giant Bombcast and so on. What I’m here to say is, I love video games. I love lots of other media; comics, movies, music, books, etc. Just like anything I’m into, I’ve got quite the expansive library of titles and they’re something that’s been part of my geek lifestyle for longer than I can remember. And what I’m here to address, really, is that it’s just starting to grate on me, really just plain irritate me, any time I find myself face to face with more commentary on how “video games are such a waste of time” or “there’s so much more you could be doing with your life” or any of those other stereotypical utterances you’d expect from parents out of a 1980’s Beastie Boys song.

Here’s the rub: The reason why video games aren’t a “waste of time”, much like this can go for any of the media I just mentioned above, is that they are a part of our culture. Just like any form of entertainment or, really, art, they touch us in certain ways. From the execution of the gameplay and how the motions please (or frustrate) us, to the art direction and style and setting of the game, to the story of the game itself, to the music they use and so on and so on and so on. And, at the end of the day, once we’ve all had our time on this, this mortal coil, and we’ve done whatever it is we’re going to do with our lives, there’s one thing, one big thing that we’ll be remembered for down the years as a society, and that is our culture and what we hand down to the next generation to use, enjoy, expand upon or even re-invent for themselves and for the generation after. And also, much like movies and music and novels, et al, video games will be sort of like a “time capsule” to our lives, and be sort of portal to the times and lives we led, at least, if you ask me.

Now, I’m not going to deny that there’s probably a good chunk of gamers that spend a relatively unhealthy time in front of their consoles or decked out PCs. This is something I think you could say for a lot of media, because to some people they might be too much of an “escape” from the real world. Like we all don’t know someone who has more movies than they could ever watch and/or rewatch lying around their house, or that person that has an unhealthy amount of trashy romance novels lining their bookshelves. Or, here’s something that bugs me, not only as a person who enjoys a large variety of media, but lots of genres and sub-genres within each, you’ll get those people more than happy to grind out literally thousands of hours on something like a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Halo. Really, if you ask me, that just seems to be an even more sheltered, maybe even a little lazy, approach to a form of entertainment that can be so much more, as we’ve seen from games the likes of the Metal Gear franchise, or Bioshock, or the Final Fantasy series, or the likes of products from Team Ico. If there’s anything “wrong” with the gaming habits of some players, it’s that maybe they don’t let themselves be more informed about their games, or support the more artistic endeavors of the medium. But again, this is something that could be said of all media, and last I checked, no one was really hopping down Hollywood’s throat that “too many people are going to the theaters!!” as they rake in billions a year keeping people in a darkened room together for hours at a time.

You want to know what really just kind of drives me up a god damned wall about these stuck up and mostly likely out of touch Luddites when it comes to them trying to lay the “ills of society” on a form of entertainment like this? They do it because they don’t have jack shit else to preoccupy themselves with, that’s what. They’re the most boring, cantankerous people on the planet, with have nothing better to do than knock down something they don’t understand, even though when they were younger and possibly a lot less uptight they more than likely “wasted” tons of hours doing stuff that wasn’t productive in the strictest sense of the word, but it was enjoyable and it enriched the atmosphere of the time. Honestly, I think it would do the world a lot of good if the people in it could just enjoy the fruits of creative energy that those around us are able to create.

If instead of racing through life worrying about nothing but bottom lines or maximizing products, wouldn’t it be nice to just cause large amounts of property damage on the new Red Faction game? How about instead of spewing false outrage over something that doesn’t really affect you, like “the gays getting married!!”, why don’t you waggle the fucking Wii-mote around with the grand kids for a spell? Maybe if we, as a people, could just learn to unwind and enjoy what we’re capable of as a people to enrich and entertain each other, instead of giving into greed, always grabbing for more than we need, or putting all that energy into something that at its core is fueled but just a little bit of an unhealthy amount of blind rage rage, or ignorance, or bigotry, or a combination of all that, simply because these people have nothing better to do?  Maybe if we could just find a little happiness in these electronic, artistic jaunts, or whatever bit of media you enjoy, we could find ourselves avoiding events like the investment feeding frenzy that just ravaged our economy and livelihoods, all because instead of being able to enjoy the simply things in life there’s people out there who had to be “productive” with their lives and try and milk every last penny of profit out of the public, damn the consequences, on the way to their fourth sports car. But yes, by all means, let’s lay the blame of “kids and their games” being the downfall of society.

Was that righteous? I think that could be considered righteous. So, I think it’s probably time to wrap this up. Look, I’m what I like to think registers as a very “productive” human being. I work forty-five to fifty hours I week, I spend six to eight hours in the gym as well, I read an average of a novel and a half a month, plus I keep up on the news and social issues and on and on and on. Sure, I’m probably a big exception to the rule, but just because I like to veg out and drop a day’s worth of free hours a month into my gaming system doesn’t mean I’m regressing into some sort of caveman-like state. And just because there’s people out there that do nothing but game that doesn’t mean that they’re turning our brains and the brains of our children into mush. Those people, no matter what, were probably going to be worthless in their own way no matter what, they just happened to use games as their means to an end. So, the next time you feel the urge to drop your pithy remarks on something you don’t really understand to begin with, try looking around your own home at all the bullshit you’ve wasted countless hours of your life on – the Soap Operas on the TV you’ve been watching for thirty years, or the line of trash novels that litter your shelves, or the row of bad sitcom box sets in your entertainment center cabinet – and come back here and try and dismiss a perfectly fine form of media that still hasn’t even reached its full potential as far as interactivity goes, as far as artistic value goes, and basically as being the main form of entertainment leading us into the 21st century goes. The future is now, and you don’t even register as an echo from the past.