Editor's note: Inspired by used books, Chase has an interesting idea on his hands. But I fear that it's implementation wouldn't unfold exactly as he imagines. The hint system of Demon's Souls generally works because all available messages consist of preset text. Left to their own devices, I think too many players would succumb to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Despite Demon's Souls safeguard, the misuse of "sticky white stuff" is evidence enough for me. -Rob

I like to read books. I don’t do it often enough -- as evidenced by Atlas Shrugged, a collection of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, The Basic Kafka, and plenty more titles all gathering dust on my shelf -- but I try.

My favorite things about books -- that are, sadly, fading away due to devices like the Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle -- are the abilities to write in the margins and look through the footnotes.

I love to pick up an old, dusty book and see into someone else’s mind by reading his comments. It’s like a mini time capsule. Unfortunately, this is a feature games haven’t really incorporated.

If you’re not sold on why writing in the margins is interesting, take a listen to the prologue and act one of this episode of This American Life (it’ll take about 15 minutes). You may better understand why I’m so intrigued by this concept.

These types of features aren’t completely alien to games. Valve’s commentaries in The Orange Box and the ability to write notes on the maps of Nintendo DS Zelda titles come to mind as possible examples, but they are certainly the exceptions rather than the rule.

Think about how these small comments could be utilized. People could leave hints to help future players (or future versions of themselves when they replay a game) solve difficult puzzles. You could also reference other works that tie into the themes present in the game you’re playing.

For example, in Borderlands’ newest downloadable content, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, the Ajax’s Spear weapon comes with the flavor text: “Useful for kicking Hector’s bitch ass.”

I’m sure most of us understand that this is a reference to Ajax and Hector’s fight in the Trojan War. But for those who don’t get it, wouldn’t a small pop-up message, YouTube style, saying “hey, this is a reference to the Trojan War” be handy?

Hell, the comments on Bitmob, YouTube, or any other site which allows user feedback proves how we like to put in our two cents for pretty much any topic. Why not games?

Instead of continuing to argue why this is a good idea, I’d rather explore how to possibly implement this feature.

Nowadays, video games are mainly a disc- and download-based medium. Neither of these fare very well for the type of system I’m suggesting. Discs can’t be saved to and downloads can’t be passed between friends and systems. The old days of cartridges would have been perfect for this; sadly, they're all but obsolete in today’s game-playing world.

However, services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network can actually take the idea of margin writing to another level with their ability to network consoles via the Web.

Think about the possible implementation -- you could see all your friends’ comments, whether during the game or (at least on the Xbox 360 as I’m unaware of exactly how PSN works) on the dashboard. You could even aggregate them by game like you can with Achievements or Trophies.

Even better, developers could read all of these comments and get almost instant feedback. Comments like “this boss is terrible,” or “this is my favorite item in the game; I wish I had more uses for it,” could be valuable information that would go directly to the programming team. No longer would they need to browse a ton of different message boards only a fraction of the gaming population use, anyway.

And for those of you who are appalled by this idea, developers can make the mechanic an option that players toggle for each game or set as a default from the dashboard. No harm, no fowl.

The best example of what I’m talking about is in Demon’s Souls. You’re able to leave hints for other players in the world through bloodstains and messages, which makes the game much richer than if the feature wasn't included.

I think adding in comments and footnotes could enhance our game-playing experience -- at least as much as it enhances my book-reading experience -- and could quite possibly improve the quality of games over time.

What do you think? Is there any game where you’d like to see this feature?