Video games - the new rock 'n' roll or "just like politics, with the same grinning faces"? Well, obviously, it depends on whom you ask. Dr Tom Shakespeare, a research fellow in sociology at the University of Leeds, takes the latter view. Drawing a comparison between games played outdoors and those played in front of a screen, he argues that the "internal virtual environment is entirely safe . . .

"In the real world," he continues, "faceless corporations rule our lives and we feel we cannot intervene to achieve change. In contrast, the video-game world offers the illusion of autonomy and potency. But the possibility of choice and control is fake . . . you can go left or right at the crossroads, but in the end you'll end up in the same place."

Yes, that sounds a bit like politics all right. But with something of a hip factor: whether or not they are the new rock 'n' roll, video games do at least have a chart list and number-one hits. Lots of people make a phenomenal amount of money from them and those involved in producing a hit game become stars, after a fashion. When the PlayStation game Wipe Out came out, a new era dawned. Techno bands contributed the music, the images were pretty cool and the game soon became associated with night clubs.

These days game playing is up there with movies, sport and music as the key leisure pursuit of the under-30 population. Many twenty- and thirty-somethings grew up with video games and, in many cases, the games have kept abreast of the increasingly sophisticated interests their original players have developed.

With a game like Metal Gear Solid, for example, you can't get away with tearing around blowing people up - you have to use your brain. In fact, some games involve as much strategy as bridge or chess. Some people regard them as the late 20th-century's answer to the jigsaw - giving a great sense of achievement when you actually finish!

Today, your average player is around 23. Although "he" is generally male, increasingly game producers are targeting the female market, making non-genderspecific games to suit all.

There is a certain amount of concern surrounding video games though. Parents. in particular. worry that children glued to a screen are stuck in a lonely life of mindless "`beat-'em-up/shoot-'em-up" activity.

In fact, the newer games such as Tomb Raider require lateral thinking and deduction as well as fast reflexes. All video games also promote hand-eye co-ordination and excellent joystick-manipulation skills. Increasingly they are played (both console and PC games) with at least one other player, lending a certain amount of social skills to the game-playing.

There isn't much, though, that video games allow in terms of skills development and entertainment value that other activities like books, film, imaginative play or chopping an onion wouldn't offer.

Then again, it's not so much what they offer that's new or different. It's the medium itself and what it can do - a lot of which is pretty spectacular, really.

At the same time, the fun itself is limited by the imagination of the game designer. And while reading a novel demands an investment of imagination, games offer a ready-made world. Depending on the game, you can make choices, and you can play a creative role, but the choice and end result are, of necessity, limited.

According to Mark Erickson of the department of cultural studies at Birmingham University: "We deify the technical in our society . . . . But in doing this we are neglecting our creative potentiality."

While video games are frequently awe-inspiring, and great fun, it is also argued by Tom Shakespeare that they are a symptom of a world "dedicated to escapism, but we remain prisoners".