"Lots of computer games are compelling. E.g., I find even current computerized poker games quite compelling, and I find The Sims downright fascinating; doubtless you have your own favorites. But our planet isn't graced by even one dramatically compelling computer game (or, more generally, one such interactive digital entertainment). The movie T2, Dante's Inferno, Hamlet, Gibson's prophetic Neuromancer, the plays of Ibsen -- these things are dramatically compelling: they succeed in no small part because they offer captivating narrative, and all that that entails (e.g., engaging characters). There is no analogue in the interactive digital arena, alas. Massively multi-player online games are digital, interactive, and entertaining -- but they have zero literary power (which explains why, though T2 engages young kids through at least middle-aged professors, such games are demographically one-dimensional). The same can be said, by my lights, for all other electronic genres."