Yeah, that's what I'm getting at.

I do wish more content was mature in a refined way rather than an "M for" way, but I've kind of accepted that many, many people have vastly different tastes to me :)

Games are also finding it difficult to head in that direction; Erasmatron and Facade are currently quite broken but impressive protoypes in interactive storytelling, whereas polished products like Bioshock and Fable don't offer much beyond a binary choice. We'll get there, but I think the technology is still a long way off.

Almost gave up on games entirely in 2004 because I was fed up of Unreal Tournament and the like, but then Katamari Damacy smacked me upside the head.

Media has inherent properties regardless of what they're used to express, which is exactly what McLuhan was talking about. The content of a medium can be anything from utter populist trash to the most elitist art, but the techniques used to make either and anything inbetween can be highly sophisticated. The difference is of production and consumption; even making rubbish, an industry improves its skills.

Because it is widespread and well understood, TV is a mature medium, even though much of the content is shallow and crass. No medium is under any obligation to cater to the tastes of one particular group of people, and doing so is not what makes it "mature".

I totally understand what you mean by mature content, and (I suspect like you) am far more a fan of it than anything superficial or titillating. However, I don't have any desire or ambition to spread that taste to everyone else... anymore ;)

IMO mature media is "mature like cheese" rather than "mature like people" :)

Thom (not Dinsdale), I think you're dead wrong... or only part right. I suspect you're thinking of "maturity of content" rather than maturity of the medium, and they're different things.

"Does pornography make film a stronger (or more accepted) medium of communication or expression?"

Yes.

There's more to making pornography than pointing a camera at someone's fanny, so even if you disagree with the content, the camera operators, lighting technicians, set designers, make-up artists, etc. are all practicing and improving their craft, which makes the film industry more professional and mature. The culture it caters to, maybe not, but it shouldn't be confused with the industry itself. If you want to see this improvement in action, try watching some 2008, 1980s, and some 1930's porn and comparing them to each other.

While people may watch it with the express intent of getting themselves off, by watching anything they're improving their visual literacy, whether they want to or not.

It doesn't matter if I think Peggle, Lula 3D, and Pippa Funnel games are all junk food and/or shovelware, by pushing the medium out to new audiences they strengthen it and increase people's understanding of games.