The first thing that strikes you is the sheer power of these machines. They are fast, powerful, and good-looking. They have great graphics and excellent sound. But that's only part of the picture.

The most powerful part, the part that's inestimable in dollar terms, is software.

That's because game software is focused on you, the user. It is written not for power users, who are a rare and endangered species, but for gamers, for whom speed, power, and good looks are the least important things.

A game's first priority is to get you hooked. Once you become hooked, it has to keep you hooked. If it does that, you'll keep buying new versions of the same game. And if you buy new versions, the developers get to write more and better software.

These games are like drugs. A bad game makes you sad, bored, or angry, but a good one makes you feel good. And game developers know, better than almost anyone else, what good games feel like.

A game like Starcraft, with its complex strategy, is a serious game. But the strategy comes with real benefits for real people.

Chess, for example, is a strategy game. But it's also a great way to sharpen your mind. And it has been estimated that playing chess one or more times a week can delay the onset of Alzheimer's by a few years.

A game like World of Warcraft, with its complex quests, is another serious game. But it also has a more profound effect on the real world.

A game like World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game. Its creators call it a MMORPG. It's not really an MMORPG because it doesn't use the internet. But it's hard to imagine.

Gaming laptops are fascinating. You sit in front of a big screen, and use your mouse and keyboard to control a game that doesn't seem very like games at all. You play alone, or with one or two other people, or against a computer-controlled opponent. You run around killing monsters in an exciting and elaborate virtual world. You fly spaceships, or swat terrorists, or protect crops in a war-torn state.

The games that these people play are complex, beautiful, and absorbing. The computer-controlled opponents are cunning and relentless. Sometimes, when you defeat them, you control them for a while, and use their capabilities against them. And every time you play, your skills and abilities grow.

Is there any chance that these laptops could be put to educational use?

Yes, possibly.

Games are simulations of the real world. They encourage players to think in abstract terms. They teach skills that are valued in the real world. And they demand commitment. Putting together a mining company, or fighting a war, or building a space station, is often a single-player game.

A gaming laptop would be an amusing classroom tool. It would be fun. It would be absorbing. It would be challenging.

But would it work?

Probably not.

Gaming laptops are, after all, laptops. They are expensive, and there are only so many students in a class. They don't run Windows. They don't have an ethernet port. They are designed for gaming, not for education.

When I write this, I will be flying to Las Vegas, where I'll spend the next five days at a gaming convention. The convention, called E3, is billed as the "largest video game trade show in the world."

This makes me uncomfortable. Even when I'm playing a video game, I'm reading a book or writing a paper, neither of which I do for money. Gaming is a luxury, but gaming laptops are expensive luxuries, and as someone once said, "Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you a gaming laptop." And love is a matter of state of mind, not of stuff.

Of course, you can argue that being able to game on a machine like this is an advantage, and that gaming people, who already know how to game, are the kind of people you want to give an edge to. But it seems to me that if you give an edge to gaming people, you also give an edge to people who know how to game. And gaming laptops are expensive.