Is it really bad if it's good for you?

In his book "Everything Bad is Good for You", Steven Johnson talks about the importance of the new media in which most young adults are enthralled with. He makes a comparison between books and video games stating that even though the popluar trend of bashing videogames as a waste of time, his arguement includes the good aspects of both subjects. He states that books stimulate the mind, force it to exersize itself, and even though video games are considered unstimulating by some, the truth is that they are very stilmulating, causing the player to use his mind and overcome the obstacles in his way. He also argues that video games will one day surpass the intellectual stimulation of books, but I argue that that time is already here.

My reasoning for the this is because there are many times where the only narrative avalable is through written text. The vitual world created through MUDs and MOOs is textually based, leaving the only graphical representations in these worlds to be created through use of letters and signs on the keyboard. RPGs, on the other hand, mostly tell an entire story though written text, forcing the user to read the story as he plays it. The simple graphic representations of old RPGs are evolving in to gougeous, high poly-count characters and locations (since they are leaning toward a more cinimatic presentation these days), but most still retain the presents of the telling of a story through textual means. One can say what they want about videogames, but the truth is, they promote the same useage as books, but to a diffferent extent. And since text has been easier to create in videogames than sound or scripted voice, then one must consider that early videogames were more similar to an electronic narrative (ie, a book) than Johnson believes them to be.