And it is violence even farther removed from the emotions of those affected by it than screen violence. Characters' expressions never change, characters have no moral scruples, and game success depends on being unfazed by the violence around you. To see this, think of a Shakespeare attempting to labor under such a stricture. In principle, the multimedia nature of the medium can make it more powerful, in this regard, than simple text. It isn't yet clear, however, what use of these technologies can get the user into the minds of the characters he sees on the screen.
Intellectual depth is another problem.
It is natural that, in as antintellectual a nation as America, the first expression of interactive art should be antintellectual as well. Yet there are also games like Wright's SimEarth, Crawford's Balance of Power and Meier and Shelley's Railroad Tycoon that force players to think, and that even teach them something. And anyone who can figure out a way to sift through and interact with the enormous volume of data on the Internet without having to read reams of crap and spend hours doing searches and FTPs will have something really useful. But it's worthwhile, also, to think about how one implements intellectual depth in entertainment products. Entertainment, after all, is a powerful thing.