Are video games important?

I smash a stranger’s head into the steering wheel, pull them out of the car and drive away.

It’s a virtual car, and I’m playing the new Xbox 360 game, Grand Theft Auto IV. Video games like this are beginning to involve players and enter our lives more than they ever have before.

As games become more graphically realistic, they blur the line between fiction and reality. In GTA IV, you play a newly-arrived Eastern European immigrant named Niko. You can kill cops, patronize filthy dive bars and tear through a startlingly detailed replica of New York in a quest for cash and power. It’s more fun than a barrel of coke and guns, but the depraved crimes you can commit in the game are pretty frightening.

Game environments are becoming increasingly immersive — the person playing the game legitimately cares about what’s happening inside the fictional world. Game writers can bring in elements previously reserved for books and movies. Social commentary and satire are two things that video games are only beginning to scratch the surface of. In GTA IV, you can drive around and listen to the in-game radio stations, which skewer and mock American consumerist culture. Furthermore, character interactions bridge racial boundaries and touch on social issues such as poverty and criminal economy.

Games are also going to take a greater role in our culture as their control interfaces improve. The Nintendo Wii has made major strides in this area. Instead of moving a sticky joystick, you can control on-screen action simply by gesticulating with the “Wiimote” in your hand. The Nintendo DS handheld game device has a microphone that picks up user speech. I’ve gotten a few funny looks from strangers while yelling into my DS, but it makes games more enjoyable and brings interactivity to a new level.

These control interfaces make games marketable to wider audiences. Nintendo Wiis are used in many nursing homes to keep elderly residents active and sharp. With easy interfaces, games become something exciting for many people. Games are going to involve communities and bring them together in new ways. If game developers seek to build community with their products, games will be more readily received by non-gamers, who may see them as a waste of time. When I belted out the chorus to “Say It Ain’t So” on Rock Band with my brother and our friends, I knew we were onto something big.

In 20 years, we will play games for a variety of reasons. Besides entertainment, social commentary and comedic relief, they will be probably be used extensively for education. I know that I learned more about the Crusades by playing Assassin’s Creed than I did from any textbook. Whether you’re dealing crack in a game or playing tennis, you can bet that the experience will become more immersive, interactive and visceral as the years go on. Games will challenge their users physically, intellectually and relationally. We will see video games take a major role in our national arena and in the marketplace of ideas as the writers are allowed more creative freedom. But regardless of whether games replace novels and films, they should continue to cross new boundaries, satirize our culture and entertain us for hours.