Seriously now.

At my day job (bleh), a coworker was listening to sports talk radio. There are thousands upon thousands of people in the country that know every player on their favorite team and can rattle off seemingly unrelated stats at each other in deep, meaningful discussion. Sure, there is the occasional caller with his inane "Woo! Red Sox!" cheer, but many fans only call in because they have some important point to make. Today, for example, one caller had an idea to make the MLB All-Star game more competitive and fun to watch. And yes, it's true that MLB bigwigs probably won't base their entire business model on the ideas of one solitary fan, but the mere fact that topics such as the MLB All-Star Game can promote intelligent discussion amonst peers says something about the status of baseball. It's a serious business, with serious fans.

Baseball is a game. Why can't video games receive the same intellectual and social status?

If anything, video games should be more worthy of discussion. They are a beautiful conglomeration of many different art forms - writing, animation, visuals, music, and more - into a hot mess of splendor and wonder.

In baseball, there is an art to throwing a ball, and hitting a pitch, and the top athletes in the world may be seen as works of art, but the game of baseball itself is not really "art." It's a set of rules and equipment put together in an enjoyable, competitive way. Video games seem to be so much more.

But say they're not. Pretend that video games have the same cultural relevance as baseball today. Where are the gamer radio talk shows? On the Internet, being Podcasted around the world. That's not nearly as accessible to the general public as an AM radio station you can flip to in your car. Gamers have G4 (when they're not showing Cops re-runs); baseball has an entire cable package. Yes, baseball has been around longer. But it has not evolved like gaming has. Do you think anyone, seeing Space Invaders for the first time in the 1970's, would image it would morph into Gears of War 2 in just about 30 years? Where will we be in 30 more? Natal is just the beginning. Games have so many million$ invested in them, and half the country is made up of gamers, yet they are still denied the respect owed to them. This needs to change.

In the average mind: game = fun = not serious = laughable = throwaway. Baseball and Halo are both games! And while baseball is primarily an American tradition, video games have unified the world, both in the design, creation, and marketing of them, as well as the mere fact that you can play Uno and Left 4 Dead with a friend on the other side of the world. Isn't that cool? Doesn't that deserve a little fair, scrutinizing attention? Video games have long been a scapegoat for violent child outbursts and lack of social skills. Yet Obama has a Wii and he is arguably the most important, influential man in the world. Doesn't that say... anything?