Mass media in America has grown to an insurmountable size, and it's something that simply can't be avoided anymore. From radio to TV to the internet, we've started becoming more and more connected to the globe, and we've become utterly dependent on digital entertainment. While maybe at first these were stimulating or intriguing, it's taking more and more to satisfy a consumer.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so we've heard. When the masses want something, someone will find a way to provide it - and they will profit from it. But on the flip side, you have to wonder if there will ever be enough. You hear more about the ratings war than you do about insurgent wars in Africa. Our cravings for entertainment are spiraling out of control - but whose fault is it?

The most recent (and for our intents, pertinent) type of digital entertainment, aside from the Internet, is videogames. Videogames as an industry has been growing exponentially within the last decade, and so they've become so subject to the same problems as the other forms of digital entertainment. However, it's worth pointing out that while videogames as an industry are still growing fast, it's getting more and more expensive to make a "good game," and the standards for a game are so much harder to meet than standards for TV. After all, no matter how broken a TV show is, you can be entertained by it (you've found yourself watching Bachelorette re-reuns at 2 in the morning - admit it). On the other hand, a broken game will be discarded in a matter of seconds, and money will have been wasted in the process.

We are the ones at fault for the cravings of entertainment. We are the cynical bunch, the ones who don't give something a second chance. If you really think about it, deep down, you expect every game on the shelf to be good because you have to pay money for it. Obviously this is not possible - but it means that good games are so valuable, and knowing what the good games are and where they come from has given us a loose set of standards by which to draw expectations. We single out these kind of games and developers and so on, and we have put even more pressure on them to deliver worthwhile products.

In all reality, we are at fault for the craze. This un-ending hype on many of the better "types" of titles has inevitably caused some developers to jump the gun and release quickly before crossing their t's or dotting their i's. But there is hope, and some people still understand the value of patience. Some of the greatest games of recent times managed not to screw up simply because they took their time and did it right.

Resident Evil 4 was over 3 years in development... and look at it! I know I'm coming off like a fanboy, but this is a game that continues to astound me. It's obvious from the get-go that a mountain of effort went into the creation of this one. Let's not forget Halo 2 as well; while there are some who really don't like it, most people do, and empirically speaking, Halo 2 is a groundbreaking success. They didn't screw up because they stopped and restarted to fix it, and no matter how disappointed we might have been to hear about the delays, we would have been disheartened so much more had it come out sour. These are but two examples of why developers and gamers alike need to think long-term, and keep quality in mind ahead of quantity.

I'm almost expecting to hear that Halo 3 will be delayed, no matter how much the Microsoft Press Conference at E3 made the release date sound like an ultimatum. Halo is a trilogy - so unlike Final Fantasy, they won't have another shot in a month or two. Halo 3 is the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the monumental energy built by the first two, and go out with a fantastic boom of grandeur. We all would be so happy to know that Halo 3 will have been the amazing conclusion to a great trio of titles, rather than just the last game that fell flat.

So I urge you to bear in mind that delays and other setbacks are never unjustified - sometimes they're simply necessary for anything worthwhile to come about. In the end, you will have been glad you waited.