Gaming is old, now, year-wise. It's older than I am, and though I might appear as a spring chicken appears, I do not share the vibrant cluck, or brassy stain on the inside, where it counts. Why, even now, my heart thumps irregularly and I squint to see, and understand.

I'll tell you what I like about the destructoid community blogs--for the most part, it's not about the latest news (although for some, it's about the latest news). On the whole, people here are gamers playing the games they want to play, then talking about their experiences. That's something special, because it defies this strange three-pillar system (news, reviews/previews, features), and has a lot to do with a human reaction towards a game, as opposed to the game itself. I think a lot of that has to do with people playing the games they love, as opposed to people playing new games because they have to.



Metal Gear Solid 4, I think, is really pushing reviewers to deal with the message of a game over, say, how it controls, or how well paced it is. But look at how fucking obvious it had to be! Reviewers still, and may always, write reviews for people who want a run-down of a game, sans spoilers.

And a game's message isn't necessarily more important that how it controls, after all, but when you panic as your sword lowers uncontrollably towards Aeris, we're not talking about the cleverness of mapping each button temporarily to /Kill Aeris. When you crawl out of a downed chopper, and you see a mushroom cloud lifting quickly towards the sky, and you know that you're dying as the red light consumes you and the shadows burn and obscure your vision, and you wait, you wait for something, we're not talking about how innovative the COD4 engine is. Or are we? But do you see what I mean?

I'd love to see a fourth pillar, formally recognized, that looks at video games on a strictly intellectual level, paying respects to the canon of gaming and yeah, even the canon of literature. Taking controls into account, and all the rest of it, but with regards to whatever message a game is trying to make. Something more like the stuff you guys write, and the stuff I try to write, but prepped and ready for the general public. To demonstrate just how much of an art form video games are.