I admit it, I have a bit of a man-crush on Clive Thompson. But who wouldn't? He gets to write about video games for the likes of Wired Magazine and the Grey Lady and also churns out thoughtful introspective gaming pieces on his personal blog. He's like the Lester Bangs of video gaming.
His latest piece looks at the state of "serious games", aka persuasive games, aka agenda games. In it he touches on a number of our favorite thinking titles like Peacemaker, Madrid and Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
While the story does an excellent job of framing the questions (Can video games be art? Can they grapple with disturbing issues, or does the act of playing a game inherently trivialize things?) it doesn't really get around to answering them.
It's still worth a read, especially because it quotes Kotaku. Clive, who loves ya baby?
