The Virtual Coffeeshop

"This hero strides a wasteland, a strange world where a teenager or a government commando is the only person with a brain or willpower, and where the entire world is against him." Shannon Drake rails against the lack of compelling protagonists.

Religion is always a touchy subject to approach, in any art form, but there's no denying it has a profound impact on all of them. Khurram Ahmed discusses religion and videogames.

"It is the responsibility of society as a whole to make sure future generations, not just stuffy historians at the local college, remember the past. Yet, doing so requires they want to learn, and that is why I look to the entertainment industry to pass along this knowledge to the masses." Dana Massey discusses preserving history through games.

"Most game designers would balk at the term 'interactive drama,' off handedly dismissing the possibility of virtual characters and social gameplay as being contrary to the nature of computers." Patrick Dugan looks at Fa

Beneath the stealth action of Hideo Kojima's genre-defining series lurks a message that many gamers probably never notice. Pat Miller explains how gameplay can be used to convey messages in ways that other media can't.

Some of the world's commentators say videogames are either incapable of having meaning, or are only now reaching that stage. John Szczepaniak disagrees, providing examples from gaming history.