<i>"Dan Bunten was an idealist from an early age. At university he protested the Vietnam War, and also started a bicycle shop, not to make money but to help save the world. According to his friend Jim Simmons, Bunten’s logic was simple: “If more people rode bikes, the world would be a better place.” When he watched Westerns, Bunten was an “Indian sympathizer”: “It just seems like such a neat, romantic culture, in tune with the earth.” A staunch anti-materialist, he drove a dented and battered old Volkswagen for years after he could afford better. “I felt like I sold out when I bought a 25-inch color TV,” he said. That 1960s idealism, almost quaint as it now can sound, became the defining side of Bunten the game designer. He campaigned relentlessly for videogames that brought people together rather than isolating them."</i><p>It's quite fashionable to be condescending towards hippies and the 60's counterculture these days, but I find them incredibly inspiring.<p>I wonder how different today's gaming world would be were more game designers and studios more concerned with expressing their idealism through their games rather than squeezing out a few more FPS, making prettier graphics, or making games according to tired formulas.