I think insurgents use games as training methods as well. They're fools if they don't. When you can have a military simulator for $200 that would have cost $10million 5 years ago, you take what you can get and you use it.

I've noticed the tetris hallucinations for years. I found that I could actually “play” tetris on my closed eyelids after long playing sessions. I wonder what skills games like C&C produce. That's one reason why in the mid 90s I switched my gaming over entirely to strategy games: I think the skills they teach are useful for other things than running armored companies, and I think they're more useful than whatever skills shooters may inculcate…

Advanced computer games and software programs — from Command & Conquer to Linux to Google Earth — require a lot of infrastructure to develop and very little to acquire and use.

Orscon Scott Card's article caught my eye because I meant to write something similar a month ago, after I caught a particularly enraging anti-videogame segment on “Focus on the Family.” While Mr. Card is a genius generally, it's still nice to have such a public “Christian conservative” come out in favor of fun.

The most important lesson computer games teach is this: if you haven't accomplished your goal, it's because you haven't tried the right things. Every copy of The Sims, Civilization, or Grand Theft Auto are kid-sized strategic-corporal factories.