Games can be many different things besides a time diversion. An important thing that games can be is an artistic or storytelling medium. Is a novel a &quot;time diversion&quot;? It probably depends on the work.<p>One of the benefits of games is that the subtitles of the <i>interaction</i> can <i>also</i> be part of the story. A touch screen, unfortunately, offers only a small set of possible interactions, and thus it has a limited <i>toolset</i> for telling interactive stories.<p>This is important, because we are just learning how to use interaction as a expressive tool. I highly recommend watching Innuendo Studios&#x27; &quot;Story Beats&quot;[1]. The first 3 clips are examples, and the last (4th) has the main essay. The thesis is that games offer the storyteller a <i>different</i> set of tools. Video (movies), for example, can generally only access your sympathetic emotions (you feel excited&#x2F;sad&#x2F;etc <i>for the character</i>), while interaction allows other emotions to be experience first-hand.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY4f8-eoY0mg7gzXoqhBYN6y" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY4f8-eoY0mg...</a>