What is the ultimate expression of a video game? Is it in the industry blockbusters like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? The nature of video games, and their relative “newness” in terms of our time spent developing them as a form of human expression makes it very difficult to determine exactly what a “video game as art” would actually look like. In artistic terms, we’ve taken the form from the equivalent of cave paintings (think Pong) to something much more sophisticated within a single generation. Yet, many of the more avant garde designers and developers are already striving to move video games out of the realm of simple entertainment and to give them credence as a stand-alone artistic form of expression.

A recent interview in The Atlantic with game designer Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, reveals a man that is attempting to do just that thing. Braid, which was developed and financed entirely by Blow, has received loads of critical acclaim from the industry. However, the independent developer considers the vast majority of video games to be vapid and childish; violent distractions and fluff entertainment. He doesn’t have much better to say about the video game industry, either.

One of the most dynamic industries in the world right now, both in terms of growth and innovation, is the video game industry. As the industry grows, companies have found new ways to be more competitive, and although the conventional pricing plans still reign supreme with $60 retail console games, new models are beginning to take over. With that in mind, Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim criticized other companies about not moving on faster.

Gaming is mainstream. No longer relegated to the basements of parental housing units or the lonely apartments of developmentally arrested adults, no longer the sole province of the anti-social and teenaged misfit, gamers are mainstream and gaming is the fastest growing industry in entertainment. Further proof of this paradigm shift is in Nielsen’s U.S. Gaming: A 360 Survey, which shoes that now over half of all households in America own a current generation gaming console (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Ninetendo Wii). This is a 50% increase over last year, meaning a lot of people are jumping on the console gaming bandwagon, and as new hyper-popular gaming franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, and others are drawing millions of customers, other companies will be looking to get into the market.

A recent opinion piece in the sci-fi fan site, Pop BioEthics, makes a pretty grand claim: that the science fiction universe of successful video game franchise Mass Effect is the most important of our generation. Written by Kyle Munkittrick, the piece lays out a well-conceived appraisal of the Mass Effect universe’s, “ability to reflect on our society as a whole.” Most importantly was that it points to the insignificance of humanity within the greater intergalactic community, but also to the abstract insignificance of civilization at its center; something Mukittrick referred to as “cosmicism”.