Orson Scott Card on Games

RexDart writes "Author Orson Scott Card has published an essay on modern gaming at the Ornery American site. Titled Brain Training, the piece touches on many points in the ongoing debate on videogames. While Card concedes that 'there are brutally violent games' and that games are addictive, he argues that videogames and games in general are excellent brain-stretching exercises, and expands from that into intentional mental workouts as a lifestyle and calling."

Comments

Reminds me of this(japanese only) DS game.

[incom]

http://ds.ign.com/articles/631/631268p1.html

Re:OSC and gaming

[Elwood P Dowd]

Dunno what grandparent was talking about, but my understanding is that he wrote the novel version of Ender's Game only because he wanted to set up the character for Speaker For The Dead. Dunno if that means he's unhappy that people liked Ender's Game so much.

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Orson Scott Card is a worthless asshole:

Within the Church, the young person who experiments with homosexual behavior should be counseled with, not excommunicated. But as the adolescent moves into adulthood and continues to engage in sinful practices far beyond the level of experimentation, then the consequences within the Church must grow more severe and more long-lasting; unfortunately, they may also be more public as well.

This applies also to the polity, the citizens at large. Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.

The goal of the polity is not to put homosexuals in jail. The goal is to discourage people from engaging in homosexual practices in the first place, and, when they nevertheless proceed in their homosexual behavior, to encourage them to do so discreetly, so as not to shake the confidence of the community in the polity's ability to provide rules for safe, stable, dependable marriage and family relationships.

His anti-gay backwards bullshit is illustrated in his novels as well. For whatever reason I am no longer able to appreciate his work on any other level.

Re:OSC and gaming

[Marc_Hawke]

He didn't say you SHOULD experiment. He's saying that if you do something wrong as a child, you're still a child and people expect you to make mistakes, so they don't KILL you over your first. As you grow older you need to stop making mistakes. If you don't stop, you'll need to be 'encouraged' more and more, which translates into more severe punishment.

Perhaps he make a poor word choice, but I think it's still obvious that he probably doesn't approve of homosexual acts even if you are just a teen.