Video games are bad: Heres why

Remember when people used to take responsibility for themselves and for their children's upbringing.

Ah, those were the days. A time before people started putting the responsibility and blame on amorphous, external unattached "things".

Back when people didn't all feel so "entitled" and expect everything to be handed to them without any effort or exertion on their part because "it is their right."

Yup, those were the days, alright.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


True, you make the decisions in a game but I can learn, for example, from a book, the most effective way to clear out a room of people in great detail-either on my own or in a group (with or without weapons).
I cant really say the same about a game.

One can learn how to make explosives, where the best place to lay them would be, where the structural integrity of a building might give way, from a book.

Not from a game (a bottle cap mine? 370 damage-in real life?)

I will concede however that they are addictive!
But so is football, or archery. It was up to my mother to get me in for dinner while playing football on my road
Is it not a parents job to get you off the console for dinner?

reply to post by SomeEye


Great point. you CAN be addicted to anything, the op said that they have never heard of someone getting so addicted to a good thing? What about excerise? People have died from drinking too much water after excercising like mad as their blood became so thin from the constant ingestion of water.

You could get addicted to literally anything, some people are addicted to things like clipping their toe nails or dancing or eating, its about the person.

As someone who has experienced addiction myself and overcame it I can say that it is totally up to the person (unless say a parent got their child addicted to a drug but that is the extreme) I wish people would start taking responsibility for their and other peoples actions. I wouldnt be suprised if the op has a son who killed a kitten or something and they want to blame games for violence because they dont want to except that they failed as a parent!

after playing angry birds for an hour I had the overwhelming urge to go out and light things on fire maybe they are bad

reply to post by dethduck


Do you get the impression that the op might have a child who has done something bad that they want to blame games for?

Originally posted by clintdelicious
reply to post by dethduck

 

Do you get the impression that the op might have a child who has done something bad that they want to blame games for?

I'm not saying.
I'm just saying.
You know I'm saying?

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


Why is it that you only apply that logic to video games and not religion....

What we should really do is outlaw imaginative thoughts... like ghosts.. and aliens.

Dear original poster.

I'm sorry you find video-games so outrageous. But you seem to be underestimating the intelligence and rationality of hundreds of millions of gamers.

Remember, murderers have been around since the first cave man decided to crush the skull of his enemies. Maybe what you are struggling to come to terms with, is the gross absurdity of the morality of human nature.

Going on your vision of computer games - I could say you are missing the whole point.

Yes - Silent hill is a dark and scary game. But that's because it's in the category of 'survival horror' - a genre of games that people play to get scared. Have you ever tried playing it without the sound effects and music?

Well, you'd find without the SFX, the game isn't half as scary. So maybe we should just ban sound effects and music?

Tell me any one of your hobbies / things you enjoy / think are good, and I'll tell you how they are worse than video games.

While some games may be unpleasant or offensive to certain people, everyone has the choice to play them or not. Its no different than any other form of art portraying the unpleasant side of life. If anything, be glad your actually life doesn't involve these offensive things, and maybe get a little perspective on the world. There is no sweet without the sour.

Also, chill the f**k out go play some Mario 3. Its fun, you can fly like a raccoon.

I was going to write a long winded reply....until I remembered this scene from the delightful "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back".......

Fictional Characters:


Says it all in my opinion.

You might as well say the same things about movies,books, tv series and many other forms of entertainment. You bring up games like GTA, but this game has a 18 rating, so, if they are playing this game and they are under age, then blame the parents, and not the game

So, are you saying if a kid watches a video nasty, its the movies fault?

I just want to be like Mario.. fool with pipes and chase mushrooms all day.

Haha who wouldnt want that, grow a mustache and climb down pipes chasing magic shrooms.

What can i say, i have thought about this for a long time, i myself am not an active gamer, never have been and never will be i guess. I personally dont like shooter/fighting games, also because i think it truly does make people more agressive, not only do i think so, i have learned it from friends who do game a lot. (CoD/WoW).
One of them really is #ed up mentally for what i recon, he always makes up lame excuses as if he is working hard that day, and later i hear from his girlfriend that he was talking via skype with some game buddies of him to play WoW.. I have nothing against him, i really like him as a friend, but i do wish he would stop gaming and come back living in the real world. Not only does gaming affect peoples mind if to kill someone in real life or not (i think this is a fact of gaming), it also disturbes their view of the world, makes them more paranoide. If they can't game they are always bad tempered. They just waist a lot of their best times in life just to follow some animated character, thats also why i don't really like gaming, i have to experience stuff, have to do stuff, physically i have to do stuff, i dont want to grow old thinking, damn i wish i would have done that then when i could.. I'm a Skateboarder, so i need challanges, i always challange myself to do new stuff, not only on my board but with other aspects of life also...

My Conclusion about gaming: Gaming in itself makes people mindless sheeple, even more then the media does, people who are diehard gamers. Suck in real life. Much like in highschool or settings alike, where you have your popular peoples and the nerds. These nerds are now gamers and in those games they also can become popular. But well that just egotistic thinking, why would it matter if you are popular or not.

Like soccer if find gaming kinda gay, and only for people who suck in real life or have seriuous issues that they want to get ride of. I do think gaming is such an addiction like smoking or drinking, cause people do it to hyde for bad things in real life..

S&F

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant
reply to post by PurpleDog UK

 

Video games give people other senses. For loners, perhaps a sense of being. For others.. worse things than we can imagine. What will you make of it when you make a stabbing motion on the kinect for the xbox? We've already got the shooting havent we? Hey, go check out 50 Cent: Bulletproof or San Andreas, tell me it doesn't affect black children who play it, I dare you.

In actual fact I think Music is more Emotional and influential than video games.... if you think of any music tracks in a game, they heighten the senses and arous the desire to go further !!!
Contary to your concern over video games I think there is more harm done to young Black or white or Hispanic minds via the irresponsible nature of some music than any video game could ever do !!

PDUK

reply to post by Bauwser




You see, because you are not a gamer, then to you, die hard gamers don't have a life. This is not true. I know plenty of die hard gamers that do have a good life, and good jobs. One of my best mates is a hardcore gamer and in fact works for codemasters as a level designer. He designed the levels for the dirt games and grid.

I am a gamer, not hardcore, but a gamer. I plays games like cod, and in no way does it influence me in the real work. I play it because i like it. Like someone who reads, or watches a tv series, or whatever.

I am married, have many friends, am a digital artist in sunny Brighton (uk)


I believe if someone does something bad after playing a videogame, then that same person was always going to do something bad, be it videogames,a movie, a book etc You just can't blmae it on a video game.

Also, like i said before. Most of the violent games are 18. So why are these kids playing them? Chances are, if their parents let them play 18 rated video games, then chances are, they are watching 18 rated movies. So, in my opinion, the parents have alot to answer for.

I tell you what is worrying . The fact that alot of children have access to the internet in their rooms, and how easy it is to gain access to porn. To me, this is more of a concern than videogames.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant

You just had a glimpse. Now imagine not just a glimpse, but a fantasy land full of bodies, disembowels, crucifixions, and pools of blood on top of the creepiest music you've ever heard of.

Sounds like an awesome game to me lol

Quite honestly I have been around games for my entire life, ever since I got my first Commodore 64. I'm pretty sure I turned out alright...

I do agree, however, that there should be much stricter rules on buying 18 certificate games. However that is for the government to enforce and not the games industry. And regardless of what you say, if a parent doesn't want their child to play such games then they have the ability to stop them. Just because parents, as you say, are children now aswell (which is complete BS imo), it doesn't mean they are incapable of caring for their child.

I'm sure when I'm a parent I won't be letting my children play higher certificare games until I know they are mature enough to play them... just like I would do for films. Maybe this will be a year or two below the certificate rating; but again my parents let me watch films that were 18s when I was 15-16 and as I said before I turned out alright.

I would be interested to see what your opinions are on pornography and violent films. Children can just as easily get their hands on this material, particularly the former. Do you want them striken from existance too? I realise you don't immerse yourself into those medias (although in porn you probably do) but they still portray the same morals as you see in games.

When was the last time you found your palms and feet sweating because of a picture, or a movie?

I could say something rude about the above quote but I won't lol.

Can anyone really argue that video games/virtual-reality is in anyway GOOD for us, or not terrible for our society?

There are hundreds of games out there that are educational and help young children learn in school and in the home. Also if you take a game series like Civilisation, it is great for learning little things about history and how governments are run.

And lets face it, loads of media gets or has got persecuted in the past. Rap, Metal, Film, Video Games. I'm sure there will be a new invention melting our childrens minds in the near future that people will complain about.

Oh and for a laugh ever since games have become popular and mainstream, crime in the USA has decreased.

But as I said, if you hate video games then don't let your children play them. Just like if you hate junk food you don't let your kid eat it. People need to stop blaming the games industry and start blaming the government and game stores for quite a weak attitude towards selling games to kids.

Just to add, I think you'll find that most kids who start going mental over games and start killing people have some mental problems in the first place. Sadly one idiot teenager who kills 10 people or whatever over shadows the millions of normal children who play games every day and realise the difference.

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.

This is interesting. You have to ask yourself why some of these people get addicted. Maybe they want to escape into a world where they can do anything they want. Perhaps they want to experiance an existence far beyond our capabilities. With the world as awful as it is now why is it so bad that some choose to get away and live their fantasy in a virtual world?

I'd rather be playing a game than watching the news which for 24 hours a day talks about people who have died in suicide bombings, been murdered by their loved ones, are starving.
Playing games is a way of forgetting about all the rubbish that is happening around us. It's not like we can change anything unless we collectively want to which we don't otherwise everyone would be living in harmony.

It's their life and you can't force them to change.

I'm personally thankful for video games...

if it wasn't for the fact that I recognized my own addictive nature years ago and focused that addiction into video games, I would more than likely be dead from a drug overdose.

video games allow me to have a social life during the 20+ years that I suffered from social anxiety disorder

it is my honest opinion that video games heightened my awareness, and increased my hand eye coordination


just because someone, with pre-existing mental issues, played a video game and went on a killing rampage, does not imply that they would not have had same said rampage if they never played a game in their life... but people would still find a scapegoat to blame when that event took place.

worse than any video game is America's 'sex is bad, violence is good' mentality

Originally posted by Bauwser

My Conclusion about gaming: Gaming in itself makes people mindless sheeple, even more then the media does, people who are diehard gamers. Suck in real life. Much like in highschool or settings alike, where you have your popular peoples and the nerds. These nerds are now gamers and in those games they also can become popular. But well that just egotistic thinking, why would it matter if you are popular or not.

Your conclusion is incredibly ignorant. I'm a hardcore gamer, not as much now but was very much so around two years ago... from about 13-18. In fact I would say my hardcore days taught me some great lessons about self discipline and confidence in myself.
I have a great social life, a serious relationship going on 3 years and am currently on track to get a first class degree from university. I'm pretty sure I don't suck in life.
Stop making unfounded generalisations on a stereotype and do some actual research before you make stupid accusations.

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

What about the "create-you-own-adventures" books?

reply to post by 547000


I was going to mention this lol.
But then I realised that most of them are for children and aren't really that violent