Its been a while since my first thread, mainly b/c i dont' usually like to post unless its something that people can talk about intelligently and serves to help me gain a perspective from fellow gamers in a world that consists mainly of non-gamers....
For the people who dont' play videogames consistently as a hobby, gaming is rather looked down upon for the most part ( i'm sure there's the exceptionally cool dad or understanding mom somewhere, but i'm speaking generally here)
From my experience, the reason for this negative attidude, besides the innate bias that videogames suffer from, is the fact that people don't percieve videogames as beneficial in any sort of respect. And for the most part, they're right, they arn't benificial in the sense that saying that you've beaten halo 3 on legendary or Resistance On Superhuman is not going to help with your job descritpion, your math homework, or your college application sheet.
This perception of gaming is true, but what seems to be lost is the perception is what it IS, rather then what it is not. What it IS, what some many non-gamers fail to adress, is that it is an evovling ENTERTAINMENT.
The counter-arguement could be that it is an entertainment that is used to often. And i'd say, perhaps, yes, but i look around my friends and family, i see a close friend of mine read for 4 hours a day before eating lunch and THEN picking up the book again to commence reading once more. No criticism there, not a word of protest. Does Reading teach you anything, besides perhaps the underlying moral of the story? Do games, *or at least, good games*, not have a similar thing called dialogue?
The sports fanatics *Note: i love sports, especially soccer, so please noone take this the wrong way* play and train their particular sport far longer and with a greater dedication then most gamers. Friends of mine have left for practice at 2 and come back at 11, all for the sake of honing their game. This is all fine and good, but the same question applies, how is it benefical in the long run *besides a healthier body* Few people who play sports will be able to get a scholarship because of how good they are, and a billionth of those people will ever even get accepted into the professional sport. Yet, i have yet to hear a news rant about how Lacross or Football is killing America's younge children today.
Now let me clarify, once more, i LOVE sports, i LOVE reading, i just like gaming too. Those who love to read and kick a ball, fantastic, but what i'm trying to point out here is that its your form of ENTERTAINMENT, and while people pour hours into it, its all for the fact because they want to, because its entertaining, but its not going to be your saving grace *except for those few* when its time to apply to harvard, yale, ect. The distinction i'm trying to make is that gamers are the exact same thing, except they choose a different form of entertainment, thats for some reason frowned upon, because the perception of gaming is that its bad, that it doesn't teach us or our kids, but i have to ask, is anything else really that much better?
For the people who dont' play videogames consistently as a hobby, gaming is rather looked down upon for the most part ( i'm sure there's the exceptionally cool dad or understanding mom somewhere, but i'm speaking generally here)
From my experience, the reason for this negative attidude, besides the innate bias that videogames suffer from, is the fact that people don't percieve videogames as beneficial in any sort of respect. And for the most part, they're right, they arn't benificial in the sense that saying that you've beaten halo 3 on legendary or Resistance On Superhuman is not going to help with your job descritpion, your math homework, or your college application sheet.
This perception of gaming is true, but what seems to be lost is the perception is what it IS, rather then what it is not. What it IS, what some many non-gamers fail to adress, is that it is an evovling ENTERTAINMENT.
The counter-arguement could be that it is an entertainment that is used to often. And i'd say, perhaps, yes, but i look around my friends and family, i see a close friend of mine read for 4 hours a day before eating lunch and THEN picking up the book again to commence reading once more. No criticism there, not a word of protest. Does Reading teach you anything, besides perhaps the underlying moral of the story? Do games, *or at least, good games*, not have a similar thing called dialogue?
The sports fanatics *Note: i love sports, especially soccer, so please noone take this the wrong way* play and train their particular sport far longer and with a greater dedication then most gamers. Friends of mine have left for practice at 2 and come back at 11, all for the sake of honing their game. This is all fine and good, but the same question applies, how is it benefical in the long run *besides a healthier body* Few people who play sports will be able to get a scholarship because of how good they are, and a billionth of those people will ever even get accepted into the professional sport. Yet, i have yet to hear a news rant about how Lacross or Football is killing America's younge children today.
Now let me clarify, once more, i LOVE sports, i LOVE reading, i just like gaming too. Those who love to read and kick a ball, fantastic, but what i'm trying to point out here is that its your form of ENTERTAINMENT, and while people pour hours into it, its all for the fact because they want to, because its entertaining, but its not going to be your saving grace *except for those few* when its time to apply to harvard, yale, ect. The distinction i'm trying to make is that gamers are the exact same thing, except they choose a different form of entertainment, thats for some reason frowned upon, because the perception of gaming is that its bad, that it doesn't teach us or our kids, but i have to ask, is anything else really that much better?
