Video games are bad: Heres why

If video games are bad, I dont wanna be good

reply to post by BrianDamage


Just google "World of Warcraft addiction", nevermind gold farming mines in China. I'm not making this stuff up. It absolutely affects a persons life more than literature or a movie; and will continue to worsen. You are not nearly as immersed as you are watching a movie as you are in such games. Some of these people make this their life. Are you telling me I should be allowed to create a virtual child on a free game Sony puts out, find a Virtual adult, and engage in Virtual sex? Is that okay? Every turn, decision and moment is often left up to the player, and often plays out differently. There is no one addicted to literature or film the way they are addicted to these games. Thousands and thousands of hours spent on a movie? Hardly.

Click here for more information.

Im gonna go play some GTA and beat up hookers right now

And while it starts as a joke to a 9 year old and his friends, one day clicking those buttons doesn't cut it anymore. Onto animals, then hookers.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


Hey,

I understand your points in particular about simulators being used to effectively teach would be terrorists and soldiers etc.

But, can you not apply the same rationale to books?
Most people learn from books. EG. Rangers handbook, City warfare and tactics, any murder mystery!

These books are available to everyone and dont come with a PG 15 or 18 ratings. Should books be banned?

What about movies? Arguably even more effective at getting a message across than a game. I've seen some pretty horrendous scenes in movies. Will they be banned too?

Most games are geared towards adults, yes, kids will get their hands on them but is it not a parents job to teach their child to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad, reality and fantasy?

Education should be the fist step, not banning anything that might offend someone
If you dont like it-dont play it-if you dont like it-dont read it-if you dont like it-dont watch it.

reply to post by On the level


Did you seriously just say video games aren't nature and in our environment? Really? So mother earth creates murderers, gotcha.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


Now thats funny right there ,From PSP to PCP.
Video games are bad? The words of someone who cant play/win

The difference between movies and books is you don't make any of the decisions. Quite the opposite in games.

reply to post by 12voltz


What about from PSP to diabetes? Would you all also argue video games have no affect on the obesity rates in the united states?

When I play Bejeweled, the yellow diamonds tell me to do bad things.
They tell me to do very bad things.

reply to post by dethduck




Video games are bad, mmkay?

www.columbinegame.com...
How awesome, the killers perspective
There you go folks, go download this Super Columbine Massacre RPG!

And not the yellow one bro, I don't think it goes there...

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


THats a dumb reason to say games are bad. Many a good thing have been taken out of context by someone elses warped mind and turned into something bad.

If you bother to look into studies done by REAL scientists and ones not dont by religious loons with their own agenda which so many of these studies are, you will find that video games do not directly influence similar behavour. It is fantasy and as a human being you should be able to give your fellow humans credit that they can make this distinction between a game and reality.

Obviously everything influences everyone in some way, but that is down to the persons beliefs and feelings, how they were raised etc not down to the game, If you raise your kids right it doesnt matter if they go over to a friends everyday and play a murderous killing video game for hours on end, they will still know its wrong and will not act on it.

Stop making excuses for people! SO many violent young offenders try to pass the blame of on video games because they know themselves that they have noone to blame, vicrtims parents in turn sue these companeis not for justice, but because they have millions of dollars and the parents want financial compensation. As humans WE are responsible for our actions to blame a game or book ot tv show is ridiculous and used as an excuse by those who have no real reason as to why they did something.

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant
reply to post by BrianDamage

 

Just google "World of Warcraft addiction", nevermind gold farming mines in China. I'm not making this stuff up. It absolutely affects a persons life more than literature or a movie; and will continue to worsen. You are not nearly as immersed as you are watching a movie as you are in such games. Some of these people make this their life. Are you telling me I should be allowed to create a virtual child on a free game Sony puts out, find a Virtual adult, and engage in Virtual sex? Is that okay? Every turn, decision and moment is often left up to the player, and often plays out differently. There is no one addicted to literature or film the way they are addicted to these games. Thousands and thousands of hours spent on a movie? Hardly.

I would rather my kids were addicted to video games than drugs or alcohol.
In the big scope of things, I feel this is hardly a very serious issue, but that's just my opinion.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant

You cant blame video games for obesity,blame the useless parents who sit around watching tv eating crap all day setting the standards for the kids to follow.If yo think Abdul and Muhammad learned to fly 767's .by playing Afterburner at the Baghdad city arcade,then you have the right forum in Skunkworks.

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant
There you have it, hes a gamer! He freaking appreciated seeing it from the killers perspective! Need I say more?
Can anyone really argue that video games/virtual-reality is in anyway GOOD for us, or not terrible for our society? I just want to be like Mario.. fool with pipes and chase mushrooms all day.

Here is your problem. You appear to believe that is is a terrible thing to see things from a perpetrators point of view. The only way we will ever end violence is by understanding the causes of it. Your mindset is that to understand a bad thing automatically makes you bad yourself. This creates a black and white situation where you surround yourself by all things "good" and ignore or vilify anything seen to be wrong. That can only lead to segregation and more violence.

Only by understanding each other can we heal our differences.

I'm a video games designer by the way. I don't particularly mind your efforts to destroy the industry I love, we should all be open and accepting of criticism. If your criticism had any merit then I would be more concerned.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


You need to stop blaming outside influences for things that a person is responsible for. Video games responsible for diabetes? Thats such a joke, you should then say that large food portions and fatty foods are as well? Well guess what you dont have to eat them you dont have to play video games thats your choice which is what freedom is about!

Like I said before if you raise your kids right they wont want to be lazy slobs sitting playing video games all day long, when they are adults they can choose to do that if they wishm but if they have been raised say to enjoy playing sport or understand the importance of eating right and taking care of themselves then they most likely will.

You remind me of that women who sued mcdonalds for making her fat. Well dont eat it then! Parents who blamde video games for their kids actions are just looking for an excuse for their bad parenting, or if they have fat kids they are looking for an excuse as to why they didnt raise their child properley because a child doesnt get to decide what they do all the time!

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant
reply to post by BrianDamage

 

Just google "World of Warcraft addiction", nevermind gold farming mines in China. I'm not making this stuff up. It absolutely affects a persons life more than literature or a movie; and will continue to worsen. You are not nearly as immersed as you are watching a movie as you are in such games. Some of these people make this their life. Are you telling me I should be allowed to create a virtual child on a free game Sony puts out, find a Virtual adult, and engage in Virtual sex? Is that okay? Every turn, decision and moment is often left up to the player, and often plays out differently. There is no one addicted to literature or film the way they are addicted to these games. Thousands and thousands of hours spent on a movie? Hardly.

World Of Warcraft CAN be addictive to certain people. I never got the hype personally, I certainly couldn't play it more then a few hours at a time. But it's no different to any other addiction. Be it be Alcohol, cigarettes, food, hell I don't know I'm sure you can get addicted to anything. Even 'healthy' things like exercise. WoW addiction can be harmful but singling out video games is just plain stupid. I've played games since I was a kid (25 now!) I played games like GTA with my brother when I was 15? Guess what? I can honestly say I never had ONE violent 'urge' from playing these games. I can't even bring myself to kill the tiniest bug, let alone hurt anything bigger like humans. I still get sad seeing violence on T.V. I'm not "desensitised" because I've played violent games. Seeing murder and such things in video games is no different to reading them in a book. THEY ARE NOT REAL. We are not bad people for having a interest in games. So what if people have virtual sex in Second Life? It's not a preference of mine but I honestly don't care what other people do aslong as it's legal and everyone participating is an adult. You sadly cannot prevent bad things from happening by banning everything. If people want to do bad things, they will do them, with or without stimuli.

Have you even played the games you mentioned? In Bioshock you don't "hunt" little girls. You are told to save them. Whether you do or not is completely up to you. If you DO hurt them, you are 'punished' by the "Big Daddies" that guard them. No action is without consequence. In a lot of games these days you are given moral choices. It is up to the player to decide what to do. Games don't actively encourage you do commit heinous acts. The potential for that exists in you BEFORE the games. The test is, do you act on it or not? Perhaps these games enable people with some underlying anger to act on it without anyone in real life getting hurt.Perhaps they give someone the reassurance that they are NEVER capable of hurting someone because they cannot even do it in a video game?

Your argument is one sided and quite frankly, poorly researched.


One last point. Jack Thompson (You'd like him! He hates video games too.) said he would donate $10,000 to charity if someone created a video game where A man, in revenge of the murder of his son (killed by gamers) went around killing Games Developers. People stepped forward with these 'games' and then Jack Thompson backed out saying his pledge was merely 'satire'. Basically trying to worm his way out of donating. So, the creators of a Web Comic called Penny Arcade donated $10,000 themselves, in Jacks name. Gamers bad? Yeah I guess we are.

Yes. Lets ban all forms of entertainment because a minority get sucked in, and spend every second of free time they have on it, A smaller minority get so immersed they start neglecting minor responsibilities (errands, chores, ext, ext), and an even smaller minority begin neglecting to eat, sleep, go to work, and feed their damn kids. All while the more stable, mature majority are just smashing some buttons to enjoy the few minuets they have before the kids come home and dinner is started..


People need to grow up and get real. Don't tell me running around as a magic wielding space goat and completing a few quests, or shooting zombies in the head in a video game is bad for me because a handful of others took it too far and found living a fictional character's life preferable over living their own real ones.

EDIT: Sorry, I came off kinda angry there. I'm just really tired of this issue popping up every couple of years. This topic makes me more violent than a thousand gory video games and horror flicks ever could..