Deep breath:

It’s no big secret that our elders misunderstand games as an entertainment that is an exercise in rotting our brains away. The same could be said of any of those who have never rested their hands on an ergonomic controller, this breeds ignorance and these uninformed people often see games as the interactive equivalent to an overblown and brainless Hollywood movie. As we gamers know, they are very very wrong.

A classic example is that of Hitman, a macabre series that may look like it would murder a few brain cells, but those that aren’t in the know probably don’t realise that each hit is often carefully choreographed - requiring much observance on the players part. It’s a series that does offer freedom, but it really comes alive when its played as a thrilling stealth title. Then of course there’s the older Tomb Raider games and point and click adventures such as Broken Sword and Discworld, which drain the brain a lot thanks to some heavy puzzle elements. That’s just a couple of course, I’ve detailed a few genres below.

Fighting games (the one-on-one kind) to the uninformed may look like you are just beating the hell out of your opponent, but in reality when they are being played properly they become not too dissimilar from a virtual human chess game. It’s not just about hammering the buttons until one falls over, it’s all about seizing the moment and choosing your moves wisely, as a real martial artist would do in a one-on-one contest.

The same ignorance has been levelled at FPS and third person action games. when someone says they are just about shooting or slicing people up, haven’t these people ever heard that cover and avoidance is your friend when bullets are flying in your immediate direction. As AI is smarter today then ever before and games more realistic, running and gunning through a game isn’t exactly a frequent option. So there you go, just because a game features guns it doesn’t mean you have to turn into a virtual psychopath as if action titles were all still very much made in the Doom mould.

Of course you have the stealth, RPG, adventure and strategy genres that regularly command meticulousness from their players, and as a result may be more obvious as thinking man titles to the ignoramuses out there.

Your thoughts?