Most Dubious Videogame Claims Explored

Thanks to Buzzcut.com for their article exploring the most dubious claims made in relation to videogames, in which the author takes some time to refute game-related maxims such as 'Old people play video games' ("assuming the fact that older women playing Bridge online... can be generalized into broad statements about the general appeal of games lacks a sense of perspective"), 'Games will revolutionize education' ("We are not on the cusp of a breakthrough or entering an era of educational enlightenment. People learn from anything, so they can learn from games"), and 'Games are a social activity' ("Video games can be social. But so can knitting and reading. That doesn't mean they are deeply or purposefully social.")

Comments

Re:Video games not social?

[Kethinov]

An equally shallow rebuttal is made here

Statement: Old people play video games[.]

Response: [A]ssuming the fact that older women playing Bridge online... can be generalized into broad statements about the general appeal of games lacks a sense of perspective[.]

I know for a fact that a ton of old people play video games. (Consider the fact that an old person from my perspective is anyone age 30 or higher.) When I used to play UO, I posted on the Stratics messageboards which has hundreds of thousands of posters. Age polls were taken every once in a while and the average age seemed to hover close to middle aged. There seemed to be an equal number of elderly people and minors playing. This puts the number of minors playing (or at least posting in the forum) into quite a large minority. (And keep in mind that Stratics has been made the official forums for UO. This is no backwoods niche community. [anymore...])