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Video Games

CBL4

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The August 4th Economist had a op-ed piece and a 3 page article on video games. A fake video game cover was even on the cover.

As video gaming spreads, the debate about its social impact is intensifying

IS IT a new medium on a par with film and music, a valuable educational tool, a form of harmless fun or a digital menace that turns children into violent zombies? Video gaming is all these things, depending on whom you ask.
...
Start with the demographics. Attitudes towards gaming depend to a great extent on age. In America, for example, half of the population plays computer or video games. However most players are under 40—according to Nielsen, a market-research firm, 76% of them—while most critics of gaming are over 40. An entire generation that began gaming as children has kept playing. The average age of American gamers is 30. Most are “digital natives” who grew up surrounded by technology, argues Marc Prensky of games2train, a firm that promotes the educational use of games. He describes older people as “digital immigrants” who, like newcomers anywhere, have had to adapt in various ways to their new digital surroundings.
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http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4246109

The Economist compares the furor over video games to the reaction to rock 'n roll music and suggest that all new technologies are considered subversive but older generations.

Scepticism of new media is a tradition with deep roots, going back at least as far as Socrates' objections to written texts, outlined in Plato's Phaedrus. Socrates worried that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition, would “create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.”
...
Novels were once considered too low-brow for university literature courses, but eventually the disapproving professors retired. Waltz music and dancing were condemned in the 19th century; all that twirling was thought to be “intoxicating” and “depraved”, and the music was outlawed in some places. Today it is hard to imagine what the fuss was about. And rock and roll was thought to encourage violence, promiscuity and satanism; but today even grannies buy Coldplay albums.
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http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4247084

ETA: They also have a graph that shows that as the sale of video games has increased, the crime rate has dropped. Clearly this is not particularly meaningful but it also shows that video games do not significantly increase crime.
CBL
 
CBL4 said:
They also have a graph that shows that as the sale of video games has increased, the crime rate has dropped. Clearly this is not particularly meaningful but it also shows that video games do not significantly increase crime.
CBL
Click to expand...


Only if you assume that "all other things are equal",
and, as my economics teacher often told me "all other things being equal, all other things are never equal".
 
Articles about gamers make me grin. In this realm, as in so many others, I tend to be part of the minority.

I'm a gamer. I have owned a Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, a Game Boy, a PS, a PS2, and a computer. I own so many games, I have to sell some occasionally just to make room for new games. I've played (and mostly beaten) Diablo, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft, Starcraft, GTA, Tiger Woods Golf, Driver, Stronghold, Civilization, Empire Earth, Black & White, all the Zeldas, Green Army Men, DOOM, Age of Empires, Torment, Sacrifice, Metal Gear Solid, various Sim-type games too freaking numerous to mention, and many, many others.

But I'm a woman.

And I'm 46.

And I'm an English teacher.

You won't hear me telling my students that video games rot their brains, any more than television, movies, or music rots their brains, because I think it's tripe, in general. Anything, taken in excess, can be stultifying. The key, IMO, is to have a wide variety of interests, and to learn something from each of them.

It would be just as wrong to sit in front of a computer or console and play any game hour after hour after hour, to the exclusion of all else, as it would be to veg on the couch hour after hour watching TV, or shut up in your room listening to music, to the exclusion of all else. Variety and moderation are the keys to just about every activity (yes, criminal behavior aside--no such thing as moderation in murder or pedophilia, and so forth, of course).

I also enjoy Rob Zombie and Eminem, as well as ELO and Jethro Tull.

Yeah. I'm a freak of nature. But in a good way, I hope. :)
 
LOL!

digital immigrants

That's a gem I'm going to remember.

I'm an old guy, and a gamer. I'm also a programmer, and it kind of goes with the turf. I don't know where that fits me in the demographics.

The effects on just me alone would be purely anecdotal and not likely to support any explanation of social behavior. :D

I wonder what kinds of crime they include in that study? Just violent crime or traffic tickets etc?
 
slingblade said:
Articles about gamers make me grin. In this realm, as in so many others, I tend to be part of the minority.

I'm a gamer. I have owned a Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, a Game Boy, a PS, a PS2, and a computer. I own so many games, I have to sell some occasionally just to make room for new games. I've played (and mostly beaten) Diablo, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft, Starcraft, GTA, Tiger Woods Golf, Driver, Stronghold, Civilization, Empire Earth, Black & White, all the Zeldas, Green Army Men, DOOM, Age of Empires, Torment, Sacrifice, Metal Gear Solid, various Sim-type games too freaking numerous to mention, and many, many others.

But I'm a woman.

And I'm 46.

And I'm an English teacher.

You won't hear me telling my students that video games rot their brains, any more than television, movies, or music rots their brains, because I think it's tripe, in general. Anything, taken in excess, can be stultifying. The key, IMO, is to have a wide variety of interests, and to learn something from each of them.

It would be just as wrong to sit in front of a computer or console and play any game hour after hour after hour, to the exclusion of all else, as it would be to veg on the couch hour after hour watching TV, or shut up in your room listening to music, to the exclusion of all else. Variety and moderation are the keys to just about every activity (yes, criminal behavior aside--no such thing as moderation in murder or pedophilia, and so forth, of course).

I also enjoy Rob Zombie and Eminem, as well as ELO and Jethro Tull.

Yeah. I'm a freak of nature. But in a good way, I hope. :)
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Hey slingblade, you sound just like me. Even the age is spot on ...

Charlie (except for the XX chromozome and teaching job) Monoxide
 
I am 43 year old man and a software engineer. I do not like like video games even though I fit the demographic and profession for them.

I first played computer games back in the 70s. I had Pong and the original Atari system with Space Invaders. I also played a Star Trek game where you typed in that you wanted to fire a phaser, turn shields on, etc.

In the early 80s, I played some of the first computer games with graphics but I found them less interesting and poorly done. I remember one where I sat down in a chair (I think it was to get a passport photo) and I could not get out. I typed "stand", "get up", "move" etc and finally got so frustrated that I quit playing. I found out a few weeks later that I needed to type "stand up." I think this ended my computer game playing except for Ms. Pacmen in my favorite bar.

I must admit I am offended by some of the video games out there but I do not really mind that other people enjoy offensive things. I know some people are offended by the music I listen to and the books I read.

I totally agree with The Economist description of generational offensiveness.

I am wondering what my kids are going to do to offend me because I am fairly easy going. My greatest fear is that they are going to rebel with either smoking or creationism. I can tolerate pretty much everything else.

CBL
 
[slight derail]

Hee, hee, hee.

I've been right here, gentlemen. She said, smiling seductively.

If I can ever get my broadband back, I'd be happy to take anyone on at TW golf. I gots me a wicked swing, and average 60 - 63 strokes per course. IIRC, the game says I have a -20 handicap. :p

The Geek shall inherit the earth.

[/derail]
 
Originally posted by brodski
Only if you assume that "all other things are equal",
and, as my economics teacher often told me "all other things being equal, all other things are never equal".
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This is true but lets look at the facts in this case.

From 1996 to 2004:
1) Video games sales roughly doubled ($3.6 to $7.2 billion)
2) Crime rate dropped 40% (3.2 to 1.9 million.)
(These numbers are a rough interpretation from a graph and could easily be off by 10%.)

I am not claiming video games decrease crime but I think we can safely assume that video games do not significantly increase crime. If they do increase crime at all (which I doubt), it is on a magnitude much smaller than other factors and therefore it can be ignored for all practical purposes.

CBL
 
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