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[heavy liquid]

It's not the longest article, but he makes some interesting points, and it's nice to see someone write something positive after all the recent articles stating that video games are warping kids because "the industry seems to delight in pushing the envelope".

http://techcentralstation.com/070704C.html

Legislators around the country are trying to ban violent videogames as immoral. According to this AP report in Wired News:

But the move against violent videogames strikes me as a bad idea for other reasons. Not only does it represent an unconstitutional infringement on free speech -- as the Wired News story notes, "None of the measures that passed have survived legal challenge" -- but it may actually make America weaker.

What's more, civilians who play military videogames, at least, may acquire useful knowledge. This may even have political ramifications. When television commentators second-guess things that happen in combat -- often showing an astounding degree of military ignorance in the process -- people who have played military videogames are more likely to see through it. At the very least, they have some sense of how fast things can happen, and how confusing they can be.

"Most people who wargame don't become real warriors -- although the games have always been especially popular at military academies. But anyone who spends a few hundred hours playing wargames (and many hobbyists put in thousands of hours) will soon know more about the nuts and bolts of warfare than most journalists who cover the subject, and most politicians who vote on military matters. . . .

 

[MetatronM]

I find that a good RTS game stimulates and works my brain FAR more than something like, say, college. So in that respect I agree.

That said, the article is very one-sided and VERY geeky.

 

[Hooker]

I find that a good RTS game stimulates and works my brain FAR more than something like, say, college. So in that respect I agree.

That said, the article is very one-sided and VERY geeky.

LOL, some fucked up colleges you went to mate

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

Life lessons can also be learned in videogames. A cute videogame by the name of “Animal Crossing” places the main character (me) on a train, at the beginning. I was then addressed by a hyper-active, attention-deficit-disorder cat, wearing a sweater, who asked me where I was going, what my name was, and how much money I had on me at the time (which made me uncomfortable). After being plunked down in the village I found out the hard way about managing money. A store owner, by the name of Tom Nook, approached me and offered me one of his four houses (he’s in the realty business also) and I gladly accepted his offer.... not knowing that I would soon become his “slave child” until I paid off my debt. This experience opened my eyes to the harsh reality that is “child slave labour”. Being paid nothing to deliver sunglasses to an ill-tempered giraffe is not a laughing matter. Throughout the course of the game, I have learned how to pay off a mortgage, to always be honest, and when asked to turn on the lighthouse by the “mayor-turtle” (who is going on vacation), to always do so; thus, learning responsibility.

Videogames should replace parents.... lol

 

[heavy liquid]

That said, the article is very one-sided and VERY geeky.

Sure, it's geeky. But as for one-sided, it's no more one-sided than either the CNN or Wired article decrying the collapse of civilization if video game violence continues unchecked. I'm sorry, but for me it comes down to lazy parenting. If mom or dad doesn't know what 8 year old Johnny is doing, any amount of legislation won't help that kid grow up any better.

 

[SolidSnakex]

I find that a good RTS game stimulates and works my brain FAR more than something like, say, college. So in that respect I agree.

That said, the article is very one-sided and VERY geeky.

Better to be geeky than to be another article with that guy that's convinced that videogames are nothing more than gaming developers attempt at turning everyone that plays games into murderers.

 

[heavy liquid]

from the Wired article:

The debate reflects a divide in the way people perceive games. Are games harmless, perhaps even cathartic, as many people who grew up playing them believe? Or are they teaching kids to be more aggressive, and in extreme cases, to kill?

Come on, games are teaching kids to kill? And the article brings up the Columbine shootings, as well. They're trying to tie that in with game violence? I thought that happened because kids saw The Matrix.

 

[SolidSnakex]

The Columbine stuff has always been in part blamed on games (and Marilyn Manson) because they found DOOM on the kids PC's. I think it's one reason that the face edit feature was removed from Perfect Dark. Nintendo got scared that kids similar to the Columbine kids would start editing faces of kids they hated onto the characters and killing them, then games would be blamed even more. Ofcourse they ignore the bad parenting aspect which obviously had nothing to do with how those kids turned out.

 

[The Faceless Master]

i still remember once when my mother was watching me play animal crossing... she loved it!

she talked about how positive it must be for kids to learn the responasibilities of life like work.

and the importance of things like good communication skills!

 

[Azih]

That article is pretty scary to my mind. Video games are good because of their millitary applications? Bah. Plus his odd swipe at journalists and democrats was confusing to say the least.

 

[heavy liquid]

Yeah, I don't understand the democrats swipe. But as far as the military application stuff, I think that was probably in response to this section of the Wired article:

There is also the inescapable fact that the military uses video games to train its soldiers. A 2003 University of Rochester study found that young adults who played a lot of fast-paced video games showed better visual skills than those who did not.

Author Evan Wright ponders the effects of video games on U.S. soldiers in the current Iraq war in his new book Generation Kill. In an endorsement that Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar Games would probably rather not get, he quotes one U.S. soldier as saying an ambush felt just like playing the game.

"It felt like I was living it when I seen the flames coming out of windows, the blown-up car in the street, guys crawling around shooting at us," the soldier says.