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TV Losing to Video Games
An anonymous reader writes "Sony studies gaming habits finds that most games are played from 5pm to 11pm.
Shock! The days of the week might have been more useful..." of course the real point of all this is that the younger generation is turning away from television and turning to games.
I've nearly completely switched from TV as an entertainment mechanism to video games on my PS2 and my PC. And I'm 33.
Besides, wasn't there just something published that said the average gamer is around 29-30 years old?
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
We already do. Played SSX3 at all? 7-Up dnl boards, banners, balloons, and other equipment all over the place. This just means it will become even more blatant.
SmashTech - No smashing of tech involved
G4 Growth Story Here
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Hear hear! Same sense for me and my wife. Nothing good on TV at night or all re-runs because "sweeps" is starting/ending...Tired of it all. We just started playing multiplayer James Bond on the XBox during the regular TV time.
In my own very jaded opinion, the only thing worth watching nowadays are the occasional PBS/History Channel specials,Mythbusters (gotta respect the "Scientific" blowing up/smashing of stuff), Simpsons. I guess I just don't get the draw for the Reality Shows?
Sig it.
My boyfriend and I do not watch TV (we're in the early to mid-20's age bracket). In the evening if we want to kick back instead of working on the computers, we usually play a game together in front of the TV. However, I'd love to have Discovery, CNN, History, Comedy Central, but I'm not willing to pay $40 a month here for cable for all the crap when I just want that small set of channels. Therefore, it's no TV for us, which surprises many people. And I can't say we miss it all that much either. It's much more fun to play a game together, interacting and talking strategy rather than staring mindlessly at the screen.
Interesting topic to explore, but there are some issues i think you need to address.
... that averages 10 minutes a day. Frankly, when I watch tv, I don't see ANY public service announcements, unless you count the crawl detailing the latest winter storm advisory. At any rate, I get the feeling that 10 minutes a day might be adequate air time to announce any public emergency information.
... for 250 million people in the US (that's an outdated figure), that's 1000 hours a year. About 2.75 hours a day per person. Seems reasonable to me.
"80 percent of television is devoted to commercials and stories about violence and war." : Lumping together a History Channel documentary about WWII along with the latest infomercial about Ron Popeil's juicer/dehydrater/rehydrater doesn't seem fair or accurate.
As for 0.7% of airtime for public service announcements
As for 250 billion hours in front of the TV annually
Additionally, commercials don't cause materialism. People still have free will, mind you. The TV isn't that bad.
My wife and I just had a baby, and I tell you this, TV is vorboten. I have the entire Robotech series on DVD. Friends have other anime series. My mom has every Disney movie made on VHS.
Folks, we don't need TV. Between us, our friends, and our extended families we probably have several childhood's worth of programming.
Outside and play if it's a nice day. Movie or video game if it's nasty out.
I plan on collecting a ton of educational (or just plain cartoony cute) games for her to play. And if I can't find anything decent I'll write it myself, damnit.
If you can't control when it stops and starts, you don't have time for it.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Very funny. Now sit and think about it a little.
Your average adult goes to work for 8 hours a day. They also usually sleep for 8 hours a day. They also spend some time commuting, fixing breakfasts, etc. They're not watching TV during that time.
Unless you're unemployed, that 6 hours slot is not just a quarter of the day. It's practically _all_ the time they have to feed you ads and faked news through the idiot box. Erm... I mean through the TV.
There's a reason why that's TV prime time. Because for a helluva lot of people that's the _only_ time when they can possibly watch TV. (I don't know about you, but I'm not watching TV at 2 PM. My employer would have a fit if I did.)
If you've lost those 6 hours to video games, you've just lost the viewer. That's it.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
<pedant mode> Max was actually a Valkyrie ace first. The video game skills are just an extension of that.
But the video game battle made for a great scene, though.