Pac Man today has been tossed into the “Retro” bin and is avoided by teens who think it lame, slow, boring and ugly. May as well call Akira Kurosawa’s Ran crap because it’s 20 years old, or write off all black-and-white movies because they lack “realistic” coloration, right?

[…]

[T]oday’s teens grew up in a cultural vacuum. Their parents are generally too old to have grown up with Atari and Nintendo and therefore failed to pass on any understanding of what makes a good game a good game. These kids have failed to inherit cultural or critical literacy. Just as school children must read Dickens, Hemingway and Salinger as part of a proper education, so too should a proper diet of game classics be required playing. During summer breaks and by force, if necessary. —Vladimir Cole —Hardcore today, arcade tomorrow (Joystiq)