why adults like or dislike video games?

It is a matter of social acceptability first and for most. Do the 

people that effect my life see something ( video games ) the 

same way that I do. Or is it that they influence me into their

notion of social acceptability. Either way it doesn't change

the fact that video games have..."good principals of learning 

built into its design are...." Gee   I am of like mind with Gee 

when he contends that video games should be thought of as 

another form of literacy. Just as all mass communication

genre TV, radio, internet, etc. should be taught as a literacy. 

(more about this later)

...Semiotic domains... {symbolic representations}... Gee is

spot on as to the popularity of video games. The first leap from

invention of oral language into mass communication was the 

invention of a written language. This was all representational.

Cave painting was the most concrete way to communicate in a 

way that would create meaning for the reader. Later came the 

invention of an pictographic language as represented by the 

Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Phoenician language used graphic signs 

to represent sounds which over time became less concrete.

Phoenician evolved to become less concrete and more symbolic.

This alphabet later evolved into the letters used in the 

Indo-European family of languages. Today a modern example is 

the Chinese language which is made up of thousands of characters.

As technology progressed we created more effective ways of

delivering the picture in our mind or thought, the fact stays the same 

that we learn and communicate through pictures. Video games are 

an excellent way for people to learn.