I've never understood why video games are so specially picked out for people's ire. Recently I've heard them being picked apart for everything from promoting violence to causing obesity in children. I find it especially sad that it's educators often who get the most vitriolic about it. What is it that they find so threatening about games?

I guess maybe people have given up on attacking television as the big bad wolf, given that so many people watch whether it's supposed to be 'bad' or not - video games are still more the province of kids than adults so I guess people who never play games feel more righteous. I don't even think it's a matter of a lack of depth in video games that have been produced so far. I think that owlmoose's idea about the lack of authorial control might have something to do with it.

But in the end who knows why people have set video games up as the scape goat responsible for so many ridiculous things. The unfortunate part is that deciding to not educate people about any kind of media is more damaging than the influences of the media itself. Maybe when video games (and not just blatantly 'educational' ones) are included more often in education that's when they'll actually start getting recognition as an art form.

I think video games can tell a story as effectively as movies and novels. I'm pretty sure the hierarchy will always be there though - I mean even within books, which are an accepted art form, there's no escaping the hierarchy.