AduhAwas
Rookie
Hi GR. Been a stalker for many years and finally decided to open up an account, so this is my first post here. Anyways, was reading maca2kx's blog and came across http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/01...dy-links-videogames-with-antisocial-behavior/ Well needless to say I got into a ranting and raving mood and ended up posting a long hefty comment regarding some of the issues addressed in the article. Just wanted to see what some of the people here at GR feel like about this issue. Forgive me if some of my comment seems confusing as it what to a degree addressing the article as well as some of the posters. I would highly recommend people just go through the article and its comments as most of them are well written and worth reading.
Comment:
Many people here seem to think that gaming is something one needs to outgrow. Why? Do we have to outgrow all habits that were instilled in us as children? I still read books, i still watch tv, i still use a computer, all habits that I have had as far as I can remember. But no one will tell you to drop these habits. So why should one drop gaming?
Perhaps one could argue that gaming provides nothing of substance. After all books, tv and internet can provide us with knowledge. What does gaming offer us? To that one can answer that gaming allows for us to stimulate the brain much the way books, movie or a piece of art do. I have learned a tremendous deal about mythology through the likes of playing Final Fantasy games. I have learned to think quickly and react quickly thanks to playing countless shooting games and playing dota. (http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/vi ... 12&cat=1_5) Overall, i believe gaming as been a very profitable endeavor for my mind.
However, as in the case of this article, gaming can have a negative affect on certain minds, but who is to say those minds would not be equally affected by the likes of other mediums available to us? Im sure some of the garbage on our tv sets has done a far greater job in dumbing down my generation.
Addressing the issue of gaming leading to anti social behavior, that is perhaps the greatest lie any research team can concoct. As of right now, any game that ships of without some sort of multiplayer component is dooming itself to limited amounts of replay time (only rpgs tend to get away with this nowadays) and thus might not be such a hard sell in the mind of a thrifty gamer who wants more bang for his buck. Games that have gamers hooked nowadays all revolve around some form of social interaction. World Of Warcraft has 11.5 million subscribers playing with OTHER players, not some sort of solo endeavor (as goes for all other MMORPG’s out there). Call Of Duty 4 another popular game has a very short single player mode but an excellent multiplayer mode which requires you to play with other players. If one were to list all the games that have some sort of multiplayer component or required some social interaction with other, we would be here all day. Sure people arent physically interacting with others, but to say gaming leads to anti social behavior is ridiculous. Some of the best times with my friends have been us playing whole evenings worth of Tekken together. And heres the shocker! We would talk, argue and laugh like regular people! Society has very often looked to find a scapegoat for all its flaws, and in this generation the easy target has been video games. It is relatively new to the general masses, and it looks like prime material for people to blame all their woes upon.
Comment:
Many people here seem to think that gaming is something one needs to outgrow. Why? Do we have to outgrow all habits that were instilled in us as children? I still read books, i still watch tv, i still use a computer, all habits that I have had as far as I can remember. But no one will tell you to drop these habits. So why should one drop gaming?
Perhaps one could argue that gaming provides nothing of substance. After all books, tv and internet can provide us with knowledge. What does gaming offer us? To that one can answer that gaming allows for us to stimulate the brain much the way books, movie or a piece of art do. I have learned a tremendous deal about mythology through the likes of playing Final Fantasy games. I have learned to think quickly and react quickly thanks to playing countless shooting games and playing dota. (http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/vi ... 12&cat=1_5) Overall, i believe gaming as been a very profitable endeavor for my mind.
However, as in the case of this article, gaming can have a negative affect on certain minds, but who is to say those minds would not be equally affected by the likes of other mediums available to us? Im sure some of the garbage on our tv sets has done a far greater job in dumbing down my generation.
Addressing the issue of gaming leading to anti social behavior, that is perhaps the greatest lie any research team can concoct. As of right now, any game that ships of without some sort of multiplayer component is dooming itself to limited amounts of replay time (only rpgs tend to get away with this nowadays) and thus might not be such a hard sell in the mind of a thrifty gamer who wants more bang for his buck. Games that have gamers hooked nowadays all revolve around some form of social interaction. World Of Warcraft has 11.5 million subscribers playing with OTHER players, not some sort of solo endeavor (as goes for all other MMORPG’s out there). Call Of Duty 4 another popular game has a very short single player mode but an excellent multiplayer mode which requires you to play with other players. If one were to list all the games that have some sort of multiplayer component or required some social interaction with other, we would be here all day. Sure people arent physically interacting with others, but to say gaming leads to anti social behavior is ridiculous. Some of the best times with my friends have been us playing whole evenings worth of Tekken together. And heres the shocker! We would talk, argue and laugh like regular people! Society has very often looked to find a scapegoat for all its flaws, and in this generation the easy target has been video games. It is relatively new to the general masses, and it looks like prime material for people to blame all their woes upon.
