I've read many thousands of novels. I read (and write) out of loneliness. Is it the same for you? Would you be here, reading these words, in preference to sharing happy time with a close friend? I thought not.

Through reading novels I get to know the author. I hear their intimate thoughts and can try to place myself at their point-of-view. It's like talking with a clever conversationalist.

I can't see anything like that ever going on with games. Games work on actions, whose meanings are limited to the state space within which the game is conducted.

Writing is a form of human relationship, and relationships work on love. In writing - even this writing - I find myself always considering you, the reader. I try to become you, in a sense, so as to anticipate your responses. Therefore, writing develops my compassionate skills. Maybe that's what makes writing a more socially important thing.