We certainly weren't talking about games as art back when we were playing Yar's Revenge on the 2600.
We also never had this debate about violence and sex in videogames until fairly recently. Even though depictions of violence (and sex for that matter) have been present in games since the Atari days, nobody noticed until games started to simulate 3D environments.
Also, if you tell someone you play videogames these days, you're no longer automatically labeled a nerd. There's much more acceptance from the mainstream of gaming as a hobby.
I think, too, the fact that it's common for big-screen actors to take voice roles in videogames and the fact that you see orchestras and bands recording songs specifically for a game shows how people no longer view gaming as a sideshow in the entertainment industry. Instead, it's become a mainstay.
The one thing I think that hasn't changed is the very vocal segment of the public who know very little about gaming and insist that it's all child's play. They can never seem to get their head around the concept of an adult oriented game, and so when a game like GTA comes out, they freak out, thinking that Rockstar made this game for their eight year old. A lot of the contraversy with violence in gaming would immediately disappear if people could just get over this misconception.
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