Posted 5:26 PM by Gene

BATTLE OF THE MASHED-POTATO WADS: Somebody named N'Gai Croal breaks a 3,913-WORD wind against Mr. Thumbs-Up for despising videogames -- and then remembers who the EDITOR-IN-CHIEF is:

[I]t's the right of someone with the maturity of an honest and articulate four-year-old [Come on, N'Gai guy -- you meant Rog -- why didn't you have the guts to say it?] to forget the history of his own favored art form and close his mind to the potential of another. In the meantime, those of us who care about the possibilities inherent in this medium will have to rely upon ourselves and one another to keep doing the heavy lifting necessary to suss out where the art of videogames lies; to determine how the craft can enhance that art; and to continue the fight to push this young medium from squalling infancy into graceful adulthood. Let's get cracking.

These last words are worthy of the kind of folderol and fiddlededee JonBoy ends the masterworks in his rag with. Indeed he does such geniuses as the rag's PR vice-prez DEVIN one better by writing "suss out" -- boy if that isn't the MARK OF HIP! (Sort of like the Mark of Zorro on an unprotected stomach.) If we're not careful this N'Gai will be going places. Now if only we could suggest where.

(Via the usual brain-addling SLASHDOT, where the thousands of Darth Vader costume-wearers have placed this anenst TOM PAINE -- whoever he was. Maybe the inspiration to PHILIP K. DICK?)