Bizarre general attitude to gaming

[Tobeman]

I can second that, The Times really has gone down hill recently. Discussion was started about it in the office only yesterday!

[chicken]

You won't think video games are so bad when alien zombies start attacking the household. What will you do then -- throw books at their torsos?

excellent

[Vroomparrot]

That was a great article right up to the last paragraph...at which point I realised the woman was insane.

Pretty much what I thought. She fell into the old "I have an opionion about something even though I don't really know anything about it" trap. Has she thought of writing for the Daily Mail I wonder?

[Nickg]

the truth;

Humans want to engage their brains. It is enjoyable. It sharpens the reflexes and no doubt keeps the brain firing in periods when it would have otherwise have been dulled by, for example thouroughly unenthralling Dinner at the Table with said writter for The Times...

SO, are games a problem? i think not. Over extended usage/overdependance on a virtual world is not healthy, but then neither is eating 10 cholcolate bars in a row, or watching TV all night, or drinking water constantly. None of those will benefit you.
Restrictions, limits, commonsense all apply. Unfortunately many parents lack the former and the latter to an extent where kids grow up with a console and virtually no parent.

the TV argument, how can you say that simply cabbaging in front of a TV screen where no input is required (you sit and stare and take in some words, big deal.) Games offer interaction, even if this is only Pseudo currently, they challenge and stimulate to a degree that simply watching even something as derranged as Jerry Springer can only dream of. How a parent can advocate watching TV in place of an engaging in a 2 way interative environment i cannot understand. Maybe her OWN PREFERENCE for entertainment medium is clouding her judgement?


my OWN experience, i played games, i went out fishing, played football, read books when i was younger. I was encourage to get outdoors by my parents, to read and to study. 15 years on i still continue the same activities, just in varying proportions to fit working life in around them.


Moral - disregard crackpots who have little/no practical experience of a particular medium which they choose to diss, on the back of other public furore. Lets not follow this band wagon, or indeed the propensity of others to attack media such as games, criticising the content when films depicting much more violence (AVP for example) slip into the mainstream rating of a 12, or even 15 for AVP:R. Both offer far more graphical violence and gore, and i fail to find a moral story in either of them, barr maybe dont make the film if the idea sucks