The games industry has come a long way in the last three decades, but this week we've pinpointed a few areas where there's still plenty of progress to be made.

Each week we publish letters sent to us regarding previous issues and highlight particularly interesting forum posts. If you'd like to comment on an article directly, send your letter to editor@escapistmag.com.

Videogames have been a useful tool for politicians for decades now, first as a scapegoat and now as a vehicle for reaching an elusive demographic. So why haven't they taken a stand of their own?

James Cameron's Aliens inspired a generation of developers, but the games industry missed the most groundbreaking aspect of the sci-fi classic: the Fighting Mom.

For a medium that so often sends players trekking across continents in heroic quests, videogames don't portray the experience of travel very effectively. Allen Varney imagines how developers could better simulate the globe-trotting lifestyle.

Games can take us to exotic locales around the world - but why do they always insist on telling their stories from the same stale American, British or Japanese perspectives?

Has beating games gone the way of the American arcade? Tom Endo examines the completion conundrum and how developers can solve it.