Corto said:
The cognitive dissonance that I identified in your post is that an industry dedicated to entertainment shouldn't deride or diminish escapist fun in the form of games like Uncharted. It's an absolute contradiction.
That's not cognitive dissonance, but rather a disagreement between our opinions. You
think that because this industry is dedicated to producing entertainment that it shouldn't deride or diminish escapist fun. You leap from the is to the ought, and pretend I follow you while holding differing opinions, contradictory to the leap I've supposedly already made. I, however, have a more nuanced opinion than you've indicated awareness of in your responses, one that is not in contradiction with anything else I've said.
Corto said:
So your motivational drive to reduce that blatant conflict is that you wished that the aim of this medium/industry was more than the pursuit of that simple escapist fun. It already is. You just need to look further. Just like in any entertainment industry/medium.
And where did I state that it isn't? In fact, to the contrary, I even stated explicitly in the material that you quoted:
flabberghastly (emphasis added) said:
What I'm critical of, however, is the way in which this industry and its reviewers are skewed towards certain forms of entertainment, while others are left emaciated or simply unexplored.
Thus, I can recognize that video games establish a context of entertainment within which feelings, such as fun, can be elicited, but the production of fun in and of itself need not be its ultimate point or purpose. I don't "deride or diminish escapist fun," so much as I demand that we recognize that it is only one such feeling that can be elicited within this context of entertainment; moreover, as far as I'm concerned, it's most certainly not the most important feeling that can be elicited within this context. You can disagree with this final opinion if you'd like, but it provides me no cognitive dissonance in the end.