Video games are bad: Heres why

This child gamer sounds like a well balanced individual.

Originally posted by theRhenn

Have any clue whatsoever how many families MMOs destroyed? Marriages? Lives? I can find you article after article of people who got into gaming so much that...

edit on 1-7-2011 by theRhenn because: (no reason given)

i enjoy games, but i can vouch for your claim, im 16 and go to school, I HAVE PERSONALLY seen 4 friends "lose their life" to an mmo. They cannot socialise, and when ever they do all they care about is games, not to mention they are failing school

Well I respect your opinion however it is entirely subjective and misinformed. I have in fact studied the effects of videogames on children and if it makes them more aggressive - in almost every single study it was actually shown that videogames reduce violent and aggressive tendencies in the long term. However one thing that does cause more long term aggression is television, which I believe is far more detrimental than gaming (in that it is PASSIVE entertainment, whereas videogames require some logical thought and reasoning, with games like portal and such pushing these limits and actually being beneficial as a learning tool). Even the most violent games, say Grand Theft Auto, are often a release for aggression as opposed to a cause.

One thing that did come from the studies was that the more time spent playing videogames often positively correlated with a higher intelligence, thus this coupled with videogames actually reducing aggression shows they are beneficial to a degree. However, like any form of electric entertainment they should be regulated time wise and it is good for people to get outside and do something more productive; however to 'ban' videogames or heavily censor them would directly contradict our notion of a free society and harshly underestimate the mental capacity of our nations youth (and more often now, the older crowd to which it appeals). Whilst you began the topic with "dont blame parents" it is in fact parental supervision which effects a child - I played mortal kombat when i was 5/6 and it was one of the most violent games of its time (I'm 19 now), yet I had good parenting and I knew real life violence is not acceptable, and that videogames are a bit of fun. Ive played a ton of videogames and, whilst i dont play them as much as i used to, i dont believe it has had a detrimental effect on me - i still exercise everyday and have done well in my studies. Please do some research before you make such grossly misinformed assumptions, and not just take your "evidence" from anti gaming right wingers trying to score a few points with their target audience.

I've been playing ultra violent video games for the past 15 years or so and loving every minute of it.
I'm also a nurse and have never had a fight in my life.
Have you ever seen a Shakespeare play? They are just as full of sex and violence as any video game.

Iv been playing games since Chucky egg, Manic miner, Dizzy...
Used to have a Speccy 48k then C64 onto Amiga 500 then Amiga 1200 and finally a PC 486 sticking with PC untill this one im using now. Iv played every kind of game you could think of. Thats around 28yrs of gaming.

My 8yo son has been playing since he was 2 - 3 yrs old hes now 8. Also my 15yo daughter has been playing games since 2 -3yo. My son has 30+ games for his Xbox360 some 18 cert like COD and blackops.
They both have scheduled and supervised playing times of upto 4hrs a week and thats mostly on weekends and as a reward for good behaviour. I also have a baby under the age of 1 and im sure by the time she is 2 - 3 she will want to play video games also.

I will let you know if any of my kids end up violent killers.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


What you are describing is the problem of bad parenting. Games are not to blame.

I propose the solution is to try to encourage parents to care more of their children, and check how much and what games they play.

What do you propose? To ban games for all? Even responsible gamers?

Prohibition never works, and free speech must be protected even if it means there will be ideas or art (yes, games are a form of art) you dont like.

reply to post by thefirstrasta


While games like Portal may very well be used as learning tools, so too are other games used as tools. Tools as in tools to keep us slaves. The sims 3 is a prime example, we're in a system within a system. The thing with television is watching a American Idol doesn't really boggle the mind with sadistic, violent, pretty much evil imagery; often times within a beautiful fantasy land that is yours to explore kill capture and conquer, with all sorts of addictive items, achievements, gamer gold and thousands upon thousands of hours invested. So not everyone will be a serial killer due to games, does this really mean games are good for humanity, because everyone won't go shoot someone??

This thread would further progress if more people worked toward questionable content in games, and the nature of game's themselves; its there, just find it. I played mortal combat too growing up. But let me just tell you one thing you have got to understand, these games today are far far different from those games from back in the day.

These are living, breathing worlds. Worlds of war, Worlds of warcraft, you name it, they've probably got it. These young children are often playing in a FREE, download-able game 2nd life. Anyone with a PS3 can download it. Which has included sex and pedophilia between two characters(or more). Is virtual, live imagery of pedophilia okay? What if it's really a child character who truly is 9 years old engaging in virtual sex with a real 40 year old. Still okay? And please don't get me started on how extremely addictive these games are designed to be, and how many thousands of lives have been impacted negatively because of such games.

However much I love video games, I have played every major MMO, First Person Shooters, they are the great distraction just as TV and the Computer is in general.

I am that 1% that gets extremely into it , and all I have to say is MMO's are a total waste of time 100%, My main character had 110 days, 10 hours on it alone, 110daysx24hours=2460 hours on just 1 guy. I dropped out, I got super lazy, I lost every single friend I had now I only have acquaintances and im 18.

It really does disconnect you from humanity in certain ways once you get to a certain point. I have zero care for what anybody has to say, friendship is not really even a worthy pursuit to me.

What everyone should really consider when they play first person shooters, is that they are simulators plain and simple,[in my opinion developed by the military and the cia ] and if you are simulating shooting somebody and stabbing them, and racking up more points than anybody else on the server, it will make it that much easier for you to accomplish something dark, im not saying that it gives a promised killer or arsonist for everybody that plays call of duty, but I got to tell ya, the 1% like me really have to be careful. and for god sakes, don't join the marines or the army, it is CLEARLY cannon fodder training stations, you don't get a 15second respawn when you take a frag to the face..

However, what it did do is get me away from my old friends that wanted to get drunk and do hard drugs at 14, only 4 years later my ex best friend is now 18 and he sells crack, so I guess it was either video games or joining a gang, you pick for yourself which is worse.

BUT PROHIBITION IS NOT THE ANSWER!!!!!! IT NEVER IS

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant
reply to post by thefirstrasta

 

This thread would further progress if more people worked toward questionable content in games, and the nature of game's themselves; its there, just find it. I played mortal combat too growing up. But let me just tell you one thing you have got to understand, these games today are far far different from those games from back in the day.

These are living, breathing worlds. Worlds of war, Worlds of warcraft, you name it, they've probably got it. These young children are often playing in a FREE, download-able game 2nd life. Anyone with a PS3 can download it. Which has included sex and pedophilia between two characters(or more). Is virtual, live imagery of pedophilia okay? What if it's really a child character who truly is 9 years old engaging in virtual sex with a real 40 year old. Still okay? And please don't get me started on how extremely addictive these games are designed to be, and how many thousands of lives have been impacted negatively because of such games.

This thread does not really have to look for questionable content on videogames, you started it pointing out your thoughts on it, and now you see yourself pulling the horse on your own, so to speak. You are the one insisting in just seeing the bad things in videogames, but fact is, as loads have already pointed out, they are not bad for society. If you have some sort of mental weakness, something sometime will get you for it, be it videogames, drugs, you name it. Ive been gaming for the last 25 years or more, back when you had to actually order the computer to load the things you needed (MS-DOS anyone?) and I have to say, Im much better than my older brother who ended up in drugs and now has a 50% mental disability and is living off welfare. The more I read your posts, the more I start to think you really have or had gaming issues, but still need to cope with it.

Atari
Nintendo
Sega
SuperNintendo
Genesis
N64
Playstation
Game Cube
XBOX lol
Playstation 2
XBOX 360
Playstation 3 lol

from pitfall pacman to Halo Reach and BLACK OPS from SUPER MARIO BROS and KUPA lol Metal Gear1 then to Metal Gear Solids now


Basically the video games are part of modern entertainment device/population communication device like Movies Music Books - Cave painting Story telling harmonic trans influenced rythm group interactions. This is just the sector that has more influence on the youth and some young and older adults gen X. In many ways positive and negative (depending on pre set mental conditions of each gamer) I have played on many as mentioned above and I watched the games change over the years. When I was younger some of my friends and I would get so excited when the new game system was comming out. And when they came we would discuss how the next generation system would have more bits I think they always doubled in memory from 16 bit to 32 to 64 -128 256. We noticed as kids the images were getting better with the memory up grades and so anticipated better imagery in future games and it happened.

Thing is the images got better and so did the violence in the games. This violence became more of an influence in SOME of the games because you know there was competition in the Gaming world and they went for the money. I mean lets face its said money is root to evol sex and violence sells. Gaming industry looks at other mass populace communicator devices Movie Music and yes MSM and says they are getting paid so why done we. So the gaming industry gets on with the rest and starts pushing the intense games amongst sports art puzzle exercise etc type games. As 1 said it depends on the already pre set conditions of the gamers minds. I grew up on them and so are my younginz. So 1 does understand that as a parent if they are playing them that I better check every game content and allow or not. So the parenting evaluation of the games brought and game time thru a day played must be taking seriously. This way your child is not spending massive amounts of time playing games all day and thru parenting some constructive things should be added to their day.

You make good points in the OP again some parents just got to pay attention to what type of Movies Music Games Internet activity Cell phone activity social activity their seeds are into to help calm the game influences or other mass populace device communicators abroad on their children. This will help. Be Well

I just don't understand how people or "gamers" go so far that they say something like:

No matter how violent or horror, everything should be allowed because normal people like me are not affected by that. We know what is real and what is game.

You see, nowdays game developers create really sick games, starting from simple arcades to MMOG.
I wont waste time finding links, but i saw lots of evil little games like kill all people on earth evolving virus, stab knife in your hand, torture people on lots of ways, run from killer when he kills you on wrong choice.. simple 5 minute games for relaxing of kids.

You see, all of you will now accept that violent/horror content is just fantasy. But why in the name of apple, do we so much enjoy in it? Why you say that COD, Sillent Hill or WOW is relaxing or good for you?

We love to kill each other in games and prove we are more stronger, better, clever. I understand that there can be fun, and that people will like it, but I dont understand that people cant admit that violent and horror content is not bad at all for society.

If we now find our pleasures in killing and torture-ing, don't expect that future will be any better than this. It can be only worse.

I'm not so sure my friend, to say that videogames are tools to keep us distracted and then defend Television which is one of the worst distractions ever and also a HUGE method of social control and misinformation (see the news, for example). Programs like American Idol dont inspire any sort of independent thought or use of the brain, and merely promote such notions as materialism and false idolisation resulting in kids wanting to be singers instead of doctors or teachers (which if you are a christian, is pretty much written out as bad in the ten commandments - i personally am agnostic) Like i said research has indeed shown that videogames do not make people more violent and the ones that they do are, like people have said, susceptible to such things - be it videogames or drugs, something is going to set off them eventually, however you have not responded to this notion nor to the one that the evidence of intelligence positively correlating with videogame playing. The truth is the majority of people are completely fine with videogames and prohibition would do nothing but make it worse with less regulations and still a high demand, anything criminalised immediately goes in the hands of criminals and puts it in a far worse situation than before. The only answer, in my opinion, is effective parenting as I previously suggested. This type of parenting can often be attributed from early age of the child, when they put their infant infront of the television instead of encouraging them to be creative or to read or something similarly productive - videogames should be treated more like a release or a treat than a habitual thing, and I do agree that this can be a problem but its not the products fault in my opinion.

THAT SAID, I do think that videogames desensitize people to the horrors of murder and war, for instance I saw a thread on someone asking about joining the army who said he played call of duty and that was reasoning for him to understand war - an obviously misguided fellow, unfortunately. However we are constantly desensitized by not only games like call of duty (which I detest anyway, but thats another topic) but also television, newspapers and pretty much every medium. For example a news reporter will say "collateral damages" when we kill innocent civilians or "friendly fire" when we blow up our own men, because for a mass realisation of these realities would indeed cause an upheaval in the system, something 'they' (monetary elite) wish to avoid. Similarly why we only really have charity drives for africa once or twice a year (mass televised ones) because ultimately the west is responsible and if we were to show starving kids everyday for hours on end people would eventually begin to question WHY as opposed to throwing money at the problem in an attempt to salvage their conscience. However being an extensive videogame player since an early age I can personally attest that I am not desensitized and do not whoop over the bombing of innocents, nor do i think it cool that a weapon can blow someones leg off from a distance. I would just like to reassert that I think it is parenting which is the essential factor, and I can say this from not only my childhood but now my half brothers (who unfortunately i rarely see), who I find play videogames far too often and will probably never discover the beauty of a great book or a walk through the hills because its not 'cool', even amongst my peers it is unusual to read books which is a grave problem. The media AS A WHOLE is the issue i think, but unfortunately there is no easy solution - and I can definitely say prohibition is not the solution. Look forward to reading ur thoughts.

Edit: Also I'd like to add that violent imagery has been a part of human life since relatively the beginning of time - take the roman coliseums or public executions (which were attended by HUGE amounts of people). I'd take violent videogames over real life violence any day.

There is also one important factor when talking about games addiction. It is opportunity cost.

Example, lets say average WOW player spent only 2 weeks of online time playing. With 11 million gamers, there are 5.5 million months of playing. That is about 460,000 years of 1 human work worth.

People work on average 40 years. Actually 3 times less, it is about 8 to 10 hour job and have holidays. Imagine 40 years of online playing time to be correct.

That means like 10,000 people will work his entire life on WoW, whole 40 years.

10,000 people now working 40 year can build pyramids by bare hand. That is opportunity cost from single game, WOW.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


There have been psychopaths since the dawn of man.

REALLY NASTY, SICK, TWISTED PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TORTURE, MURDER AND RAPE PEOPLE SINCE THE DAWN OF MAN!!!

They didn't have video games dude. So how do you explain that?

Yes video games are bad but movies and tv shows are okay. Unreal. Stop placing the blame on the entertainment industry when the blame, if any, should be placed on the parents that allow their children to use these products. Nobody is blaming the tobaco industry when an 11 year old finds a cigarette. So why is it always the entertainment industry?

Im so sick of you people trying to tell me, a responsible adult, how to run my life. I honestly dont care if your children are watching something they shouldnt be. Your children are not my responsibility. How about you leave me to my whisky and whatever it is I want to watch and Ill leave you to do whatever it is you do while not watching your children. Fair enough?

Nintendo warns 3DS could damage children's eyesight

There are a few who disagree however, that is also drug addicted behaviour when in denial or denying it without researching it thoroughly first.

I know that people who have seizures shouldn't play video games, for obvious reasons. If it was totally safe, Nintendo wouldn't be mentioning it at all as a strong concern.

On a side note, apparently blue and red flashing lights cause seizures in 'some of the population'. Why then do Police cars have red and blue flashing lights on them?

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant
reply to post by Butterbone

 

I would agree 100% that they deserve to be treated as a new and potentially great art form, or tool for education, or enlightenment. It's just a shame it's so far been mostly for adverse affects. Perhaps video games have a brighter future, but as of now, its pretty grim and dark.

Bioshock is art, and it's a story that could not have been told without being "grim" and "dark".

I do think one can be born to murder. I also think factors in society can cause one to murder, including but not limited to video games.

This is a ridiculous claim and you have nothing to back it up. Video games don't cause people to turn into murderers, mental illness does.

How does this make games bad. I read your whole post and I still think that it's people who are bad if they so choose to be. You can't blame anything other than the person for their actions anything else is an excuse unless it's like a mental disorder I guess but even then the person with the mental disorder still broke the law or whatever the case may be.

Nothing can be blamed for these people's actions other than them. I don't care how violent or "wrong" a game is. Fact is it isn't real life and it doesn't have real life consequences. Whereas life does have real consequences and if people can't or don't want to differentiate you can't blame anyone but them.

Don't even get me started on how many other factors there will have been in these people's lives and you choosing to blame one aspect is ignorant but even then the way these people deal with certain situations is up to them.

I grew up in the "video game" era. I still fondly recall receiving my first Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas when I was six years old. I also got into computer gaming and the Internet way back when I was ten-eleven years old (Fond memories of racking up HUGE charges a few times on Prodigy back before unlimited services were ever heard of). When my friends and I couldn't play video games, we often played more "violent" themed games ("ninja", war games, cops/robbers, etc, super soakers, and nerf guns still hold a special place in my heart). You know the funny thing? Neither I, nor any of my friends have actually gone out and "hurt" anyone.

I practiced martial arts for ten years, wrestled in high school, but I'm a complete pacifist. I have no desire to hurt my fellow man, but of course if I felt threatened with physical violence, I will defend myself to the fullest of my ability. I do not believe people who are violent are a cause of popular culture, but most likely, they are from a more violent, or unstable environment, and I believe there are those who simply have some type of chemical imbalance, and will have violent desires without the need of any violent influence. I have known a few people that were violent of nature, and usually it never seemed video games were a huge influence, but rather most of the violent natured people I have known had very unstable home lives. They were usually surrounded by physical/emotional violence, and lashed out at those around them in frustration, and were extremely unhappy people.

There are many people who are just violent by nature- violence is an easy, primal, and influential in a basic kind of way. It's a quick, easily accessed way to impose one's own will over another. The most primal of control mechanisms. I would love to see all people to embrace pacifism, but in today's global society, that is a fairy tale dream. We value material wealth above life. We treat life like commodities to be bought and sold, to be owned and traded. It will take a massive global cultural revolution to get people to see that life is the most precious, and valuable resource of all.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


I can't stand people with a mentality like this! What's your excuse for all the killing before video games?

Every game has a rating not only that but every console has a parental control system that they can set so that if they put in silent hill it will not play it.

Yes some people are seriously addicted to WoW and games like that but that is their fault not everyone in the world can handle what is offered. People are addicted to gambling, alcohol, food and a bunch of other crazy stuff. That shouldn't mean that peoplethat enjoy that stuff and games that can control it should be punished.

E=everyone... As in it's safe for kids and adults
M= mature... As in for adults
And the rest have age rating right on the front and back of the box clearly marked

It's very shameful of you to not put any blame on parents when ms Sony and nintendo do their best to give parents tools they need to keep their kids away from violent games.

People like you need to stop using video games as an excuse for violence, sure their may be unique cases that link games to a violent act but so do many other forms of medias and legal stuff like alcohol. How many people have died from drunk drivers?! Why not close down bars? And ban alcohol cause last I checked that took many more lives than a video game has and that's counting all my continues since the atari days.