Part of it, I think, is the lack of imagination factor (on the part of the person playing the game). Movies try to get you to look at the world differently; books make you conjure up your own imagery to match the text. Comic books even force you to imagine the voices of the characters, their motions and motivations.
Video games give you a very well-defined, discrete rule system. You are X character with Y motivation trying to achieve Z goal. If you don't achieve Z goal, you lose. If you achieve Z goal, you win. Winning Z goal means nothing in the "real world". Chuck Klosterman[1] described video games as similar to masturbation; there's a sense of achievement, but the feeling of gratification can be very shallow.
That said, I think there are video games that are more conducive to creative and interesting behavior than many books, just as there are many TV shows that inspire better thinking and creativity than mediocre movies. As another poster said, it will take time for the stigma of "video game brain-rot" to end.
[1] He's a pop-culture commentator with no real expertise in this, but I wanted to credit his analogy.
There's some truth in Klosterman's analogy, but I think it misses the point that much of other entertainment/art (in movies, TV shows, books, etc.) doesn't push you to think differently than you do. It simply feeds some emotional or whatever need - like masturbation. Don't get me wrong, I think this is ok.
But I think where games need to go if they want increased legitimacy is to develop games that cause you to think differently about the world. That ask questions without simple answers. I think it'll be hard because of the interactivity of games, but I think it's necessary.
Video games give you a very well-defined, discrete rule system. You are X character with Y motivation trying to achieve Z goal. If you don't achieve Z goal, you lose. If you achieve Z goal, you win. Winning Z goal means nothing in the "real world". Chuck Klosterman[1] described video games as similar to masturbation; there's a sense of achievement, but the feeling of gratification can be very shallow.
That said, I think there are video games that are more conducive to creative and interesting behavior than many books, just as there are many TV shows that inspire better thinking and creativity than mediocre movies. As another poster said, it will take time for the stigma of "video game brain-rot" to end.
[1] He's a pop-culture commentator with no real expertise in this, but I wanted to credit his analogy.