gaming Do you think videogames are bad? or good?

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

Do YOU think videogames are bad for you? or good for you? I don't mean like "They're a waste of time" or anything like that, but something as a positive or negative benefit which video games give in your eyes/opinion. Ups and downs, etc.

 

Please keep posts mature, don't start blabbing about how "PC Gaming is best gaming YOLO# 360 sucks SWAG". Everybody has preferences.

 

I think that videogames are a HUGE GREAT AMAZING benefit as a human bieng positvely! Only times I can ever think that video games are bad, is if it's a real easy mindless game, and/or that you play videogames too often. I can go into detail about how videogames are positive, potentially make you a better soldier, faster thinker, etc. To sum up of all the things I have to say in a short sentence or two, is that, depending on the video-games you play (and how hard they are), they can increase your capabilities in certain areas. Whether it be FPS games, RTS games, realistic Racing games or hard/fast paced unrealistic racing games, each type of game and how hard and/or realistic they are can make you much better in multiple areas and develope those skills greatly.

 

This is all my opinion though, what are your thoughts?

[Sepia-chan 495]

Video games are good. They are above movies, books and music in that they can tell massive multi-hour stories, while being interactive, allowing you to influence said story. Video games are an art, so if someone says video games are a bad influence, they can say the same for books, movies and music, as well.

THAT was wasn't rambly at all.

[Flying Whales 311]

Personally I love video games, and honestly if you are looking for difference of opinion this isn’t the best place to ask haha. I’d say most people on this forum play video games or don’t have any negative views on video games.

 

They can allow you to do so much you can play with friends all over the world, and depending on what game you are playing the make you a better or faster thinker. I wouldn’t let video games consume my life but I don’t think they are as bad as some people would like to lead on.

 

You could probably take this view on video games a level deeper too, due to their popularity and the growing amount of people are playing games online (via PSN, Xbox Live, MMOs whatever medium you may use) it provides job opportunities for people as game developers, servers are needed to run these games online, there is maintenance and upkeep on those things. You could argue it makes us more social as we have access to a huge amount of people with an immediate common interest that we normally wouldn’t have access to. Plus there are always worse things we could be doing.

 

@, I like that point too, that games are essentially an interactive story.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Flying Whales

[Titan Rising 2,156]

I think they're only bad when they start to take over your life. Otherwise they're much like reading books only more fun. Maybe they're not so educational, but very often you do get an experience out of it and sometimes can change your perspective and outlook on things

[Zoop 8,384]

Anything in the world, when taken too far, can have a negative impact on your life, video games are no different. If you obsess over them to ridiculous levels, they will have a harmful effect on you - just ask all the Korean folks we read about that have died after X day long gaming sprees without food or sleep.

[NavelColt 22,876]

Too much of anything is bad for you, no exception. However, video games do help develop hand-eye coordination, if nothing else.

[Fubz 300]

Even though I really love video games, they don't really do any good. Anything that's no good is baaaad :< Good time waster though P:

[Lost 1,409]

I had to do a report on this for my game development section of my college course, in which I stated various positives and negatives about playing video games, ranging, on the positive side, from building leadership skills to helping understand different cultures and onthe negative side mental/physical heath risks to cost.

 

There will always be positives and negatives to playing video games and they will vary from person to person and from game to game.

 

Other than the massive dent in my wallet, the only negative I seem to find is poor circulation And minor back problems from sitting at a PC too long, but as I study computing and my job will be in computing, the problems I gain from gaming would have co from studying and working too. My parents would argue that it can make me anti-social, but tbh I choose to not go out and socialise purely because I find it boring and there are nit many people around here that share my interests.

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

Somewhere in between. I love video games as it not only helps reduce boredom (if you're online, that is), but it also helps increase your skill and become better as you progress, like on shooting games where you need to stay alert and check your surroundings, as well as shoot down enemy players before they kill you, and racing games, where you can upshift/downshift the transmission in perfect timings, as well as making a precision cornering around turns so you don't end up driving off the track and overtake your opponents without hitting them (although some racing games like MotorStorm, you can throw drivers off the road at no penalty) and win the race.

 

Although, even for great gamers, they also need daily breaks. Otherwise, playing games for hours, which can lead to obsession to it, on end is gonna create a negative effect to your health and as well as a negative effect to social life (like some players who played GTA: San Andreas non-stop without the need of taking breaks, or even doing homeworks from schools), so basically, video games are good, as long as it doesn't turn into an obsession.

[Cranium Tyranus 216]

Well, it's kind of a two-way street for me, see when I was a kid, around the year 2000, I found that my favorite games involved skill and quick thinking to get through them like the mega man series or ninja gaiden for the NES, I always felt proud when I finally managed to solve a tough puzzle, or exploited a boss weakness, but nowadays I feel like skill is falling to the sidelines in favor of character progression. And that's fine, my favorite games out of this gen are the batman arkham games, but that's more so for their story, the gameplay is lacking In challenge.

So while I feel that getting a super-cool-kill-you-y-bunches weapon is an empowering thing in a game, (makes you feel good as well) it doesn't (in my opinion) hold a candle to clever strategies and planned assaults on a seemingly industructable foe.

[Demi 545]

When played overly excessively, I don't think there's anything good to come from them. Sitting in one place for hours on end isn't too healthy I'd say, nor is constantly staring at a bright lit screen. Though I would say it helps in things like muscle memory, reflexes, coordination, memory, and maybe a few other benefits depending on the game being played. Like a trivial type game might actually help expand your knowledge.

 

Also I don't believe in the whole video games make you violent thing either. I've seen plenty of unnecessary blood and gore in countless video games, but I still get sick from the sight of it in reality.

[Bunni 1,075]

This topic again !

 

I can only speak from my own experience here.. But I'll do my best :3

 

As a passionate gamer I believe the multiplayer side of gaming is fantastic as hell, seeing as it can create strong bonds between friends and let you meet new people who shares your interest for games (especially the pericular game you've met the person in). They have taught me a whole lot about teamwork, cordination, navigation, communication and how to socialize with people (seeing as I was very shy as a kid and sort of isolated away from people).

The multiplayer side has it's darker side of course. Verbally abusive people, hacker, greifers and whatnot. It can get pretty harsh from time to time but alot of games offer options to avoid such situations. Nonetheless, it does not justify bad behaviour

 

Single player games have been like fanatastic books or movies for me. They've made me mad, happy, sad, confused, determined and evoked so many different feelings from me. Also when I was younger (a good while before I discovered multiplayer) my english was pretty terrible. And as I enjoyed one game after another, I learned more and more about the english language and what each word meant and whatnot.

 

Sadly as everything else games have their bad sides too. But in my opinion it depends more on the willpower of the person enjoying the game(s). A couple of years back I used to be very addicted to World of Warcraft and would isolate myself away from everything else, stay up all night, forget to eat and ignore the real world because I was too busy playing it. After a good while I decided to quit World of Warcraft. Seeing as I had realized I had lost everything else in return of playing the game. I'm not saying WoW is necessarily the only game that can do that to people. Alot of people can play any game on a regular basis and not be addicted to it of course.

 

But back on topic. It's been a good amount of years since that time. And I've discovered ao many more fanastic games since then.

I've basically been a passionate gamer my entire life, and don't think that us ever going to change, no matter what.

Some people will of course look at passionate gamers as "no lifers" and whatnot. But in our eyes (or my eyes) it's different.

I have chosen to live through so many different lives on different adventures throughout each game. While they have chosen not too.

 

But that is just my two cents on the topic.

 

TL:DR?

Video games are awesome but can have severe consequences if you're not careful. <3

Edited September 16, 2012 by Ahri

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

I love video games in truth. Alot of days would be wasted in boredom if it were not for them. Too much is bad and unhealthy, but a couple hours a day keeps me occupied

[Retro*Derpy 3,079]

Video games should only be available for people with the mental capabilities to handle them. If you know that what happens in video games (usually) aren't true, and you know when to sit down the remote/get off the computer than video games are perfectly fine. They are nothing more than another type of entertainment, which you just need to know how to control. So plainly, no video games aren't bad, just as long as you use it rightly. 

[elbj 190]

I'm pretty sure video games have proven to be beneficial for surgeons, as it can quicken their reaction time and thinking capability under pressure. But for those of us who aren't surgeons or people playing the Wii for rehab purposes, video games can be beneficial by just being a way to blow off steam and relieve stress.

 

I also think video games be a way to expose people to new and weird things they wouldn't normally see. So I support playing Some Weird Ass Games. That's right, I support SWAG  .

[Shanks 10,811]

Video games only become a bad thing if you become addicted to them and let them take over your entire life, otherwise they are a great stress reliever due to some mild escapism, a good way to alleviate stress and boredom and help with basic hand/eye coordination and have really come into their own as a respectable art form.

[Righteous Fury 344]

video games are neither inherently good or bad

 

just as television is neither inherently good or bad

 

it is our actions and use of these things that are good or bad

[ReGen 1,466]

I believe they are somewhat good. They give you a way to interact with new people, etc. (I couldn't think of any other reasons )

 

But when it starts to take over your life, meaning that it's the only thing you do.

 

The same could go for T.V. and Books. Here's how I see it; If you do something so much that you stop going to work/school, that's when it's bad.

[Алексей 110]

It depends, really.

 

Of course, and as has been said, playing too many video games for too much time is never a good thing. Especially mindless and repetitive ones.

 

But, violent video games indeed can cause negative effects upon the player, especially if they are young. They cause the feeling that violence is rewarding, violence is an effective strategy to overcome your problems, and they desensitize the player to death, murder, and suffering. However, while there are a lot of studies about this, a vast majority of these studies suffer design faults, often confuse aggressive thoughts with aggressive behaviour, and there haven't really been any studies that follow children for long periods of time.

 

So, whether or not playing violent video games makes people notably more violent, aggressive, and turns them into murderers isn't really known for sure. There are a lot of correlations between violence and murders with video games, but a correlation does not equal a causation, especially with how huge the gaming industry is. It's like saying drinking coffee causes people to kill others because a lot of murderers happened to drink coffee.

 

If someone played a video game and then went and killed someone, they probably would've killed that someone even if they didn't play that video game.

 

And, whether they are beneficial is dependent on the game and the player, I guess. Personally, I don't think my reaction timing or anything like that has ever change with playing games(although, I've always been a gamer since I was pretty young, and I can't really compare my reaction timing now to when I was 7 and think that is a good way to tell if it has been improved or not). But, of course, I don't play very fast-paced shooter games like CoD and such, and I mostly play horror and RPG's.

 

Although, whenever I play a game that is very story-driven and has an underlying lesson/message, I often find I learn a lot. In particular, video games are what taught me to be open-minded, and if it weren't for the video games I played that taught me this important lesson, I probably wouldn't be anything like I am now and definitely not a Brony.

 

And that, my friends, is my wall of text.

Edited April 21, 2013 by Андрей

[Scootalove 10,684]

Video Games relieve a lot of stress and can usually calm you down. Sometimes they are relaxing and sometimes they are rage inducing. But, it depends on if they take over your life then that's a different story.

[Wheatley1 32]

I actually think that videogames can actually make you learn new things, expand your imagination and creativity.

For example, I didn't know how to speak in English at all and videogames helped me leaning this language, there's a theory that says that action games may improve your vision.

[Mio Akiyama 145]

Video games can benefit you. If you play a sport, lets take football(soccer) for an example, you can learn plays and build tactics and put them to use in real life. The games that really make you think are great for you too. An example is the Legend of Zelda. The puzzles in the dungeons can help you're thinking(at least it did for me). Playing shooters can help you with the quickness of thinking of an effective tactic. Video games can benefit you if you really let it

[Pinkamena Dianne Pie 465]

I feel videogames, with the right amount of parental control, are healthy. When I was young, I learned most of my immense vocabulary and spelling/grammar from videogames. I also learned other things such as math, coordination, logical reasoning, and most importantly, patience.

[Zygen 6,065]

I think their good, although I may be slightly biased being a gamer myself. However to much of anything is bad really. But video games can be quite thought provoking and help with hand eye coordination, and heck they can be quite a good stress reliever at times I must say.

 

Some can even contain some real useful information at times , I've learned some things ironically from video games that I've used before due to them being true. Not true all the time, but it happens.

 

And most importantly the fact I play video games lead to me meeting the group of people I play with who while haven't stayed the same people and some have left and joined, have kept me sane considering how little IRL friends I actually have. Not to mention if I didn't play video games I wouldn't be on the computer right now probably  and that means I'd not be here with y'all.. and well that would suck, because then I'd never know about MLP or any of these awesome nice people here .

[eightbithoof 518]

I heard an awesome TED talk a while back that talked about gamers. The speaker's focus was to show the unique skill set being developed by gamers and that we could and in fact should harness this skill set to solve real world problems.

 

Article:

http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/jane-mcgonigal-on-harnessing-the-power-of-games-for-change

 

TED Talk video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html