Pongism, or: What’s the Point of Videogames, Anyway?
by [name redacted]
Part ten of my ongoing culture column; originally published by Next Generation.
We play them, we critique them, sometimes we enjoy them, sometimes we make them. To what end, exactly? Outside of screwing around in search of that elusive “wheeee!”, what exactly do we mean to accomplish? Why videogames? Why do we even bother? It stands to reason that whatever keeps drawing us back to the darned things, it’s got something to do with their basic nature; something that appeals to our own.