If you live in one country and never travel beyond its borders then you mistakenly assume everyone else in the world lives the same way you do. The same culture, the same values, the same importance to things you consider important. People who've never been to New York hardly know (and don't care) about things in New York that New Yorkers think have great worldly importance. People who aren't Americans genuinely don't care much about Liberals and Republicans and such stuff, outside of a vague worry that the latest American leaders might turn out to be crazy and warlike enough to hit that big red nuke button.
The linked article does have a lot of MMO bias ... it's insightful but it's also written from a plainly provincial and parochial viewpoint.
Compare to, say, gaming on PCs and consoles of twenty years ago ... games from a "different world" I doubt the article writer ever visited ...
- When "you can always press RESET" or "you can always load from saved game" was a valid strategy - and therefore a learned life strategy - when playing games. Sometimes you win, sometimes you press the button and try again - no big deal and no big loss other than wasting your time (and, as an adult, wasting other peoples' money).
- When multiplayer involved physically sitting beside (or at least in the same room/home as) your opponents - a completely different arena of social interaction.
- When games weren't as open-ended, they sometimes offered different paths but always worked towards some specific (known or unknown) ultimate objective - instead of a monthly-subscription MMO where "the grind" never ends and never really leads to much more than having enough fancy toys and big numbers to keep up with the neighbours.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams
[/Korth]
