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Media Entertainment Games

Gaming Does Good 43

Posted by Zonk from the we-aren't-all-social-miscreants dept.
bippy writes "Tired of hearing about all the bad things games do? I've mirrored a list on Kotaku of recent positive research done into gaming. All told, the list includes six studies and books summarized into bite-sized morsels with quotes and links. Finally, something to throw in the face of all those obnoxious politicians and sue-happy lawyers."
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Gaming Does Good More

Gaming Does Good

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  • Forgive me for feeling a bit defeatist... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by deemaunik ( 699970 ) <ian,shepherd&gmail,com> on Tuesday December 21, 2004 @12:15PM (#11148000)
    At least it'll sate us. Although, I know that regardless of what we think, people will go on screaming about how Doom 3 makes children kill others, and feel unwholesome feelings. Not just, you know, entertainment. Like the episodes of CSI, or the Autopsy Revealed. They never listen, regardless of how much sense you make. These are people who say the Dinosaurs are "Tests to our Faith." They only hear what they want to hear.

    But thanks for throwing a punch for the rest of us. :)

    • They'll give up man. Don't hear a lot about the evils of heavy metal or Dungeons and Dragons anymore, do you? Yet when I was a kid these were headlines over and over and over again.

      Sooner or later the indefensibility of their stance will become so apparent that they will lose all credibility with moderates. And most people are moderates.
      • You don't hear much at all about heavy metal or Dungeons and Dragons anymore, do you? Huh, think that might be why you don't hear about the evils of them anymore?
        • I don't know what rock you live under, but metal and its derivatives have been big consistently for the last twenty years, and Dungeons and Dragons is bigger than it ever was in the eighties.

          Huh, think you might just not be paying attention?

          This kind of backlash only happens to "new" things. Over time people see that wow, most of the time people who play D and D don't kill people, and they realize there is no problem. Not the fanatics, but the moderates stop listening to the fanatics. If you came out t

  • Deaf ears (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Richie1984 ( 841487 ) on Tuesday December 21, 2004 @12:17PM (#11148041)
    There was a recent report on British TV where two well known presenters did a short segment on the 'evil' Grand Theft Auto. They talked about the negative aspects of the game, such as gang killings etc. What amazed me was the complete lack of any representative view of a gamer's opinion. The majority of people seem to be happily under the illusion that all video games are just cartoony and kid friendly, so when they purchase a game with an '18' rating slapped on the front, they feel justified in acting surprised and horrified when they find their child playing it.

    People should be educated that games are similar to any other modern medium, in that there will be some universal content, and some content for adults. Whilst these articles can go some way to confirming gamer's feelings that games aren't inherently 'evil', they will fall on deaf ears with the general public who will undoubtably find it easier to label all games with the same brush, instead of looking at the actual issue. That said, perhaps the fact that a large body such as the American Medical Association has expressed doubt as to whether violent content causes violent behaviour may gain some mainstream recognition.
    • The creators of GTA, and many other supporters, are quick to note that critics of such games tend to only watch people play the game, as opposed to also trying out the game themselves. I've read many statements starting with "I don't play these videogames but..." which voids any claim they have to make about them.

      Videogames are controlled environments where people can cut loose and do whatever they want so they don't have to face the risks in real life. Seeing a majority of our past generation denounce vio

  • Also helpful to surgeons (Score:3, Interesting)

    by supersuckers ( 841107 ) on Tuesday December 21, 2004 @12:19PM (#11148065) Homepage
    Wired recently posted an article [wired.com] about the benefits of video gaming for surgeons.
    Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster, he says, basing his observation on results of tests using the video game Super Monkey Ball.
  • Growing up my parents had some moderately strict rules on playing video games, but the TV rules were not nearly as strict. I still see this idea today... people will kind of snicker if I mention I play video games more than watch TV. Am I taking crazy pills or what?! At least I am doing something (moving my hands, THINKING) instead of just being shoveled what is on the TV.
    • i know theres loads of people who like to "boast" they dont watch tv, but i wont take this attitude.

      To be honest i watch about... 8hours/week, this is due to times when im stuck at my girlfriends house, and she and her whole family are watching soaps, and i cannot be arsed to go and play on the computer and be "unsociable". (not that im ever told this is what im doing, but you know).

      So i end up watching pointless, stupid television which really DOES make me want to do something else. I guess this is a goo
    • Yeah, and as long as you're not playing an EA game, there are fewer commercials as well!
      -Diomedes
    • Multi-tasking/problem solving (possibly somewhat graphic and violent) versus staring lifelessly down the barrel of an electron gun getting the scoop on the latest shit to buy for 50% of the 30min slot your trying to watch.... I gave up on tv when it stopped informing me and became the loudest most abnoxious billboard known to man. Oh and btw on the occasions that I am watching it and the commercials come on 10x louder, it just motivates me to go back to my computer, and feel like I have some control over w

  • Issues of a new generation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ShawnMcCool42 ( 557138 ) on Tuesday December 21, 2004 @12:30PM (#11148222)
    The debate will change.. When? When gamers start becoming parents.

    Perhaps the issues of children are deaf upon their disassociated parents. Too much to do in their own life (watch CSI?) to bother really being a part in their child's. You can expect politicians to target the values of the apathetic elite, but as the video game generation starts raising their own children you can expect those values to change.

    Politicians sell what is popular, and once they realize we're all tired of their propaganda they'll move onto the next hot button.

    Just sit tight, video games are still new in popularity and the slow to self-educate middle-aged are soon to become the rotting in homes elderly.

    • keep in mind that the people freaking out now, were the hippies of the 60s who got naked and dropped acid. Now they are freaking out because a boob is on tv.

      When people age and have children they lose their minds and forget their own experience.
  • Television and newspapers will always be more likely to publish anti-video game articles, its one way to try to win back viewers/readers! As for me its Google news and 23.75 hours of world of warcraft! :-P

  • Now if only.. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    We can get the majority to realize that a couple of serious incidents out of the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of children and others who play games isn't that bad. How about taking a look at the violent acts caused by playing or watching a sports, I don't recall any video game ever causing a on ice brawl or a soccer riot.
    • Not to mention the idea of trying to link the incidents back to video games is ludicrous when it'd be just as easy if not easier to just link it back to a lack of appropriate parental education and support.
  • I remember growing up in the 1980s and buying into the philosophy that becoming elite in video games will make you elite in other facets of life. You had the Last Starfighter, where they selected a kid based on his video game skills. You had Robotech, where the ace fighter was also an ace video game player. There was a host of media that said if you spent enough time in simulators, you'd be good at real life tasks. I guess this is taken up with America's Army to an extent today. I really dedicated myse
    • While there are positive things about video games, I think that your philosophy takes it way too far. Playing video games in moderation is good, but over-doing it cause you to lack in concentrating on your education and social skills. Online games do not help with social skills...join a CS server. Everyone is really happy, because they sure use the word gay a lot. Even if you love video games...quite frankly, making them really sucks. It is hard, demanding work...that has its rewards...but there are pl
      • lol

        >but over-doing it cause you to lack in concentrating on your education and social skills

        Just like eating can cut down on your starvation skills.

        >Video games are dangerous because they are fun and rewarding in the short term.

        What?

        This is the most gigantic slew of words I've ever seen someone dedicate to a big load of hooey. A nice example of what people have to do with their time when they've locked themselves away from anything beneficial.
        • Actually, I was just bored at work. Maybe I can simplify it for you. If you buy in to this guy's philosophy, that being good at video games translates to real world skills, then you are fool. How have I locked myself away from anything beneficial? I still play video games, just not as much as when I was young. I wasted too much time on it. I play sports, music, have a great career and good friends. I haven't locked myself away from anything.

          You on the other hand, instead of actually countering anyth
      • Sorry, kind of off topic:

        brkello: I agree with you that excessive video game usage doesn't lead to anything useful (for the most part), and I know I'm wasting my life when I play video games for a majority of my free time. brkello said:

        but those are all imperfect, there is always some cheap technique that everyone uses...once you learn them, it all just becomes a race to how fast you can implement X strategy...rather than being able to adapt depending on your opponent

        I disagree with this statement for

  • People need to read up on the early history of marijuana. I just watched the IMAX movie of its history so I'm armed to the teeth with examples of activists (Anslinger [wikipedia.org]) who sowed enough misguided fear into the populance to get laws in place in every state, in the federal government, and in the U.N. This is the same thing they're trying to do with video games.

    Until La Guardia commissioned a study on marijuana the general assumption was that reefer caused madness (Reefer Madness) and general homicidal activit

  • Total BS (Score:2, Funny)

    by Mr.Dippy ( 613292 )
    Since playing GTA my hooker killing activities have gone up 32% and my randomly killing strangers on the street have gone up a shocking 67%.

  • Video games calm kids before surgery (Score:3, Informative)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Tuesday December 21, 2004 @02:01PM (#11149578) Homepage Journal

    This CNN story [cnn.com] says video games calm kids before surgery, more effectively than tranquilizers or parental presence. Doctors found that allowing children a few minutes to play the games reduced their anxiety until the anesthesia took effect. Dr. Anu Patel conducted the study after noticing a friend's 7-year-old son was so absorbed with his Game Boy at a restaurant that he ignored the adults and the food at his table.

    Seen on Blue's News [bluesnews.com] and copied from my Web site [aqfl.net].

  • In the fifties, cigarettes were sold something that promoted health and outdoor living. These days drug companies are famous for doing 15 clinical trials, and submitting the three that came out positive to the FDA to get drugs approved. People would be shooting down an MS TCO study in seconds, but these results have not yet been questioed, because they match our own biases. You have to answer three questions before even beginning to consider their findings:

    Who paid for these studies?
    Who paid for the studi
  • Tired of hearing about all the bad things games do?

    I haven't heard any bad things at all besides eyestrain due to certain displays. The fact that some psychotic angry mom thinks games will damn us all to Hell doesn't mean anything. A bunch of brainless lies really don't count as bad things.
  • When you think that the *number one* killer of teens today are Motor Vehicle Crashes, wouldn't it make sense that something that IMPROVES hand-eye coordnation would increase a teen's chance of survival? Just think of the headline, "Video-Games may save your child's life." I'd love for Sony to sponsor a study. It would end this argument forever.

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