After months of watching the entertainment media struggle with trying to fit the ever increasing demand for games into their arsenal of "pop reports," mainly by referencing a) crimes or b) movies and celebrities that are vaguely related, it seems video games are finally garnering some worthy news on their own merits.

Waking up to spread the pages of the Saturday morning paper, I flipped through the USA Weekend portion, eager to study the latest celebrity gossip and learn just how short you can make an article and not make it informative. On the last page something caught my eye. It was a story about a 20-something college kid studying game development.

Unfortunately, most of the article revolved around rehashing the standard: "Games have always been for losers!" and "We can't believe they're so popular!" But, every so often the article managed to break out of that cycle to mention a few things that nearly blew me away.

"With their irresistible combination of role-playing and problem solving, video games are the defining form of entertainment for Gen X. ... With elements of drama, fantasy and music, 'it's the predominant medium of the 21st century' ..."

"There are reading assignments on the intricacies of computer bit technology and midterms on color theory and multilevel design. ... Anderson takes notes on classic storytelling in classrooms that wouldn't look out of place in an English department..."

Give the author a cookie!
Most of us are 20-somethings. The intricacies and joy we get from it, the whole button pushing habit, isn't new to us anymore. We've seen it all since we were kids.

As a girl, in between things like Barbies and racing around outside pretending I was some kind of animal, I was the kid who sat behind the video game player and allowed myself to be mesmerized by the little red-squared Mario disappearing down vibrant green pipes to go jump on more turtles. Friends' houses sported more of that, and the intriguing gun to blast away at Duck Hunt. Later, I watched others line up pills with Dr. Mario and force Sonic to roll madly through his paces. For some reason it was always: "Do you want to play?" and more often than not the reply was, "No, I'll watch." I sat for a hour in the mall, loitering with my friends once, and while they talk I watched Mortal Kombat play in the arcade.

It took the N64 to really get me out of my passive mode. Chalk it up to being a busy kid, not believing I had the skills to play, or just waiting for better graphics to burn my eyes out on. I don't know. I do know that they're a pretty big, if not important, part of my life now. And I, like the others that were either the ones playing or there rooting beside them on the couch, after so many years this generation is still hooked. Now, between the rent bills and college payments, we can even pay for it ourselves.

On another page of the newspaper, I also happened to read the wish lists of some elementary school kids for Christmas. Most of them, outside of the bikes and money, asked Santa for Game Cubes, GBA games, a Playstation 2, controllers, and, one or two even, a X-Box. At first it made me wonder how a game company could hope to develop a game that would appeal to a seven-year-old and a 27-year-old at the same time. Then I thought, those 27-year-olds are going to be the ones making the games. They were the ones writing those letters once. I realized they have a good idea what they want.

This is just good ol' commentary out of the mouth of a professional ranter. It's not a series, ... yet. But, I do hope it strikes a cord with you and it makes you think a bit. If not, please send us some hate mail and i'll never write again. *sob* Enjoy!