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TV Losing to Video Games

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the game-all-night-and-party-e-ver-ee-day dept.

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.

26 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Results: by Vo0k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From 5pm to 11pm I go watch TV, read some book or do anything but websurfing, as due to all the online gamers my shared connection slows down to a crawl and you just can't do anything reasonable online.

    --
    Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
  2. It's too bad we don't hear things like.... by thesadjester · · Score: 5, Interesting

    TV is losing to reading books.

    Even with the advent of the American coffee shop and the massive book retailers (B&N, Borders, etc.), people just don't read much it seems.

    I've heard book sales are up, but not reading, which is highly interesting. It means people buy books with the intent of reading them but never do. Or they just want to seem smart? Who knows.

    --
    -gabe
    1. Re:It's too bad we don't hear things like.... by frankthechicken · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Reading amongst young kids is up here in the UK.

      Admittedly this is taken from an article in 1999, as unfortunately I can't quickly find a more recent article, though I do remember hearing that reading is especially bouyant amongst young boys compared to previous years, mainly due to the power of Potter and his magical ways.

    2. Re:It's too bad we don't hear things like.... by AbbyNormal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm a little confused by your statistics? Statistics on people buying books are easy (Sales receipts) but where did you hear about the Reading statistics?

      Personally, I don't have time to read much (except on airplanes)...too much video game time is out there.

      --
      Sig it.
    3. Re:It's too bad we don't hear things like.... by TGK · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I concur.

      My wife teaches 10th and 12th grade Social Studies. Most of the kids she teaches have never read a book for fun in their lives. Every peice of reading they do that comes on dead tree media is assigned to them by a teacher.

      This astounds me. I have been working on one book or another since I could read simple sentances. Here these kids are, about to go to college, and they've never read anything just for the hell of it!

      The Internet argument is well and good, but that raises another problem. Because these kids haven't read much of anything, they are totaly unable to determine which sites are legitimate resources and which are some half cocked crackpot spewing his dimwited theories about whatever the topic at hand happens to be.

      Years spent in chat rooms and expecting instant answers to all questions leads these children to trust whatever source pops up first from their yahoo search, and if the text is too in depth for them, rather than puzzeling it out, they find someplace where it is presented in simpler terms. In short, they're more likely to cite something from geocities than a .gov domain.

      These children of the internet age are approaching the greatest informational tool in human history with no reservations whatsoever. Unfortunately, everythig you read on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt [except of course this post].

      I think that while the internet and chat rooms do encourage reading to a point, the net result is that your average child is damaged more than helped by the content and format these places encourage. My wife has graded papers, formal papers, with LOL, OMG, ROFL, WTF, and STFU written as if they were actual words used in human conversation.

      When your child's history papers can trigger a spam filter there's something wrong with your child and what you've done to educate that child. If this is happening in high school it is probably too late for your child's teachers to save him or her. I'd like to say we're learning from our mistakes, but I don't think we are.

      Note: I'm posting from a public terminal. Spell check I hath not. Mis-spell things I have. Write my disclaimers as Yoda would I shall.

      --
      Killfile(TGK)
      No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
  3. Great by YuppieScum · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just great... now we're going to get product placement in video games.

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    This sig left unintentionally blank.
  4. Lesser of the two evils? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't know about you, but I would prefer my kid to play competer games than watch cartoons, especially if he was gaming with a friend.

    It is far less a passive activity, reactions, planning and memory all get a work out whilst playing games. Though of course I would still rather them outside running around or reading a book, but in the event of a rainy day there's nothing wrong with a bit of gaming.

  5. Interaction by somethinghollow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At least the games interact with them. I gave up TV for my computer years ago. One factor, subconciously, was that I was able to interact, whereas TV, I just sat, stared, laughed on cue, and watched commercials when I was told to.

    Traditional video game consoles (I know this is changing with things like XBox Live) don't offer some of the same communication builders (e.g. IM, Voice IM, message boards, creating websites, etc.), but at least you can tell it what to do instead of it telling you what to do. And something about building hand-eye-coordination. I guess that is a plus, since remote controls don't require that much hand-eye coordination.

  6. No TV by Voxxel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I honestly don't even watch TV anymore. I download a show if I want to see it, commercial free. TV in general just blows.

    --

    If a million monkeys randomly pounded on keyboards, they would all log into AOL.
  7. Re:REAL wastes of time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    And when you get hungery you can have a Sim-Sandwich.

    We used to joke that one of the couples we knew were probably 'upstairs watching the Sims have sex.' That's how addicted to that worthless crap they were.

  8. Fo damn sure... by Dracolytch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm one of them. Being able to game on-line, and talk to friends over the 'net while gaming is a very satisfying passtime. It's more interactive, more social, and more exciting.

    You never know if the game will end in your favor or not... You really have to work with your friends to make it happen!

    ~D

    --
    This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
  9. What a very fair study that is by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sony studies gaming habits finds that most games are played from 5pm to 11pm

    This just in: studies show that all games are played between 00:00 and 23:59, TV networks are worried!

    I mean come on, 5pm to 11pm is 6 hours, that's a quarter of a day. Even if it's a "span that encompasses TV prime time", that doesn't mean people play games for 6 hours. What if people play games most of the time during dumb shows, and during ads, and stop to watch their favorite shows?

    What I'm saying is that the study seems way too coarse to deduce anything useful from it. Ideally, it should show console vs. TV usage by the minute.

    Also, you'll notice that Sony, a manufacturer of consoles, did the study, not an independant, impartial organization.

    In short, this article doesn't bring much useful information.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:What a very fair study that is by redune45 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "Sony, a manufacturer of consoles,"

      Sony is also a manufacturer of TV shows and movies

      --
      redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
  10. Ad-supported Video Games? by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With the fall-off in TV ratings, it seems that ads will soon be creeping into computer games. This will include product placements in traditional games and free games that market products. I notice that EA already has a director of advertising sales.

    With no "fast forward" in games, players will have little choice but to be exposed to these product placements (other than avoiding/abandoning the game). I wonder if game makers will offer dual-versions of games -- an ad-free version for $99 and an add-supported version for $29? Given people's tendency to by the cheaper option, wonder which version will have the highest sales?

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  11. I don't even really watch tv anymore by d3am0n · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm your average 23 year old male college student. However TV is horrible lately, I just download the only 2 shows I like (angel and enterprise) and never go near the television itself. Maybe if the networks stopped with the reality shows and started putting back some well written high production value shows, i'd be more inclined to come back. As it is however, I'm not going to sit around and watch crap for days on end when I only really want to see 2 hours of programs per week.

  12. Re:Simple Reason by adamruck · · Score: 2, Interesting

    right on

    I hate tv(dont play games either but thats a different story)

    Here is a clip from an essay I am working on.

    -----

    The average American watches about four hours of television a day. Annually Americans spend two hundred and fifty billion hours in front of the tube. Some people might argue that there is good quality content available to watch. Over 80 percent of television is devoted to commercials and stories about violence and war. Content that contains public service announcements only consists of .7 percent of the total (A.C Nielsen Co). Television has a massive affect on our society. These affects include behavior due to prolonged exposure to violence, materialism due to the ridiculous number of commercials, and health problems due to the sedentary nature of watching television.

    -------

    television is shit

    --
    Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
  13. Re:Cinemax still reigns supreme by _PimpDaddy7_ · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I thought it was called SKINEMAX...

  14. Re:Simple Reason by tekunokurato · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't think he was saying that demographics weren't changing as well. He didn't say "what person...?" He said "what kid...?"

    Also, you, me him -- we're NERDS, y'know? Pong and adventure weren't enough to draw the average person away from TV, even if they dres US away from TV (well, I'm a bit younger, so let's say FF1 and Dragon Warrior for me). GTA, on the other hand, IS good enough to draw the average person away from TV. Trust me, I and my friends have plenty of little brothers, and they and their friends watch The OC and a little bit of Real World, but not much else, anymore; they play way more games. Very different from the family sitcom gatherings when we were younger.

    --
    Read jack phelps dot net
  15. Older Generation, Too by handy_vandal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    of course the real point of all this is that the younger generation is turning away from television and turning to games.

    Not just the younger generation. Tomorrow is my 43rd birthday. When I was a kid, I watched plenty of TV ... but for the last decade it's been nothing but games, games, games.

    -kgj

    --
    -kgj
  16. I have to plead guilty to this. by MoronBob · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I buy no less than 2 unix, linux, or technology related books a month. I also have a wife and two kids that keep me from getting much reading done. I try to read at work in between puting out fires. The end result is that I have a great library which I dont use much. The upside is that I don't have to go far to get answers when I need them. I also have a PVR to record TV programs and can now selectively watch what I want which leads to much less couch time and more Joystick time.

    --
    Telecommuting! What about socialization?
  17. Re:Must be students by dthree · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Good one!

    My boss used to come around the office around 6 or 7 and say "stop working, its time for a Marathon game." There's nothing more stress relieving than stalking around claustrophobic hallways with 2 shotguns, waiting to blow your boss's (eh, his character's) head off. When we switched to UT, he couldn't really keep up and stopped gathering games.

    --
    "I forgot my mantra."
  18. Re:Not just the "younger generation" by buford_tannen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've nearly completely switched from TV as an entertainment mechanism to video games on my PS2 and my PC. And I'm 33.

    I've done the same, and I'm 21.

    When my TV died in college about 3 years ago, I didn't bother replacing it. Now I just listen to the radio and play games on my PC.

    If domestic radio gets boring, I switch to shortwave. I actually invested in a $150 Grundig radio instead of buying another TV.

    And I can't say it was a bad choice.

    --
    Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen
  19. Re:Not just the "younger generation" by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Allow me to add my vote to your anecdotal evidence. The fact that this is /. is guaranteed to skew any results anyway, so I might as well pipe up. I own a 1978 Sony front projection television, the kind with the green and purple tubes, and the mirror, and we had cable television for a while but comcast gouges you hard so we just shut it off. The cable modem service is cheaper by $15/mo if you have digital cable television ($45/mo for the most basic of basic digital cable plans) but even so it wasn't worth $30 because even with three people in the house at the time (myself, my girlfriend, and her cousin, who no longer lives here thank god) we didn't watch enough TV to justify it. Why? Because I've got a cable modem, we have several video stores in town, and I have a netflix membership (though if I don't get some money and pay them soon, they're going to terminate it. sigh. Time to start modding X-Boxen for money or something.) My television exists as a monitor for the watching of assorted media, the Panasonic DVD-S35S I often crow about around here plays standard and nonstandard VCD/SVCD, and DVDs, so that's most of what I watch; The rest gets piped into the bedroom to the Xbox and played on Xbox Media Player over the network or off CDs/DVDs. Television has gone straight into the shitter and my favorite shows tend to end up on DVD sooner or later, like Babylon 5. THAT was a show that attracted me strongly to the television, proof positive that you don't have to have the highest production values to make a show worthy of devotion. The problem today is that TV studios throw money instead of talent at a problem, and they end up with slickly-produced schmaltz. This has always been true, but it seems like it's gotten a lot worse lately, for example ABC is crawling with the "home and family feel good" kind of material, they're laying on the religious angle really hard and I just can't stomach it.

    By comparison, games of any value whatsoever (which I believe is most of them, even though I wouldn't play most games because I think they suck) stimulate the mind and the body both, and most importantly, they are not a "push" technology. You don't have to be there when the content is delivered (I know with PVRs you don't have to either, but more people have video game systems than PVRs) and you make the choice as to what and when.

    Perhaps as PVR use spreads, more people will watch television - and I suspect it will be PVRs that lead to video on demand. Content providers will be able to ensure that commercials are played. Eventually it will probably turn to a pay-to-watch model, but I guess it'll be some time before we find out.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  20. total OT digression by mapmaker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think I can tell by your post that you used to watch the cable channels you listed but don't actually anymore. Know how? Because you listed TLC as a "guy" channel.

    See, I haven't had cable in a few years, but I used to watch The Learning Channel all the time in the mid 90's. It rocked - remember Connections and then Connections 2? THAT was quality TV! That was GUY TV! But lately I've had a few glimpses of today's TLC at a friend's house, and I've been shocked and dismayed at what has become of by beloved Learning Channel.

    I mean, Trading Spaces? WTF? TLC is now some kind of hybrid between Better Homes & Gardens and The Real World.

    They've even gone all "Kentucky Fried Chicken" with their name - no more mention of "The Learning Channel" at all. They're just "TLC" and they have nothing to do with Learning or education at all.

  21. Re:Commercials by aynrandfan · · Score: 2, Interesting
    this woman is missing in Minnesota, hell people go missing in my local area every day, why did she rate?

    You actually raise a valid question; why is the dissapearance of some blond, cute white girl being made into such a big deal compared to the dissapearances of others? As a UND student (where Dru went to school) and resident of Grand Forks, one reason is perhaps that this shit does not happen around here often. Dru's dissapearance (and, likely, murder) scared the shit out of everyone around here; the local stores were sold out of mace and pepper spray in an instant, and UND had to revise it's policy concerning mace/pepper spray on campus. It was like a bomb dropping.

    The fact that it was such a freak incident may have made it "newsworthy."

    If people in your neighborhood get kidnapped and killed every day, people, including the news media, may (I say may) get desensitized to it, and not treat it as "news."

    Not the best explaination, just my $.02.

    --

    ----

    "Ours was a free culture. It is becoming much less so."-Lawrence Lessig

  22. Re:Commercials by ShortedOut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I only meant to use that as an example. It made National News for *weeks*.

    Like the Jean Binet Ramsey case, children get murdered every day, why did that case make it?

    I guess the formula is:
    If victim = pretty white blonde girl then hype the dogcrap out of it
    else
    Let local news carry it

    It's just like the Scott and Laci Peterson Case, why does it get so much airtime? The trial isn't even over and they've already had a made-for-TV-movie about it for goodness sakes.