Just to toss in my proverbial coinage to what i can only hope is an already large heap of similar such opinions: i have no intention of making a judgment on the moral implications of gaming. I hate to pull out the "people are starving/earth is dying" card, but let's face it, there are a lot more important things to be doing these days than playing video games for 50% of one's day, as I've personally experienced people doing. I do understand that some games are resulting in fundamental changes in the way people approach problems. I understand that we all need to play. However, i think that we can only start truly modelling alternate realities when those alternate realities take into account the welfare of all of our fellow human beings who just happen to be born into societies and/or circumstances that don't offer them the same opportunities for physical and intellectual development as others. As someone who was fortunate enough to be born and raised in a relatively affluent environment, I view it as a *responsibility* to devote a certain percentage of my life to helping others who weren't as fortunate as I was. If you want to play and help people out at the same time, then become an artist. That's what I want to do. But i don't quite buy the argument that you're playing twelve hours a day because you're training to benefit humankind by optimizing trade routes for your city-state or something to that effect (this is an observation based on no experience with recent games, but I think that it does well in illustrating my point). Ever read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card? Highly recommend it.
****note:if you don't want to know what happens, then don't read again until you see three more asterixes!!!
Child gets hired to train in a military program for his country due to an imminent alien re-invasion. Trains with computer games. Plays what he thinks is the final simulation, but then is told either right before the final battle or right after winning it (here's where my memory gets a little blurry, though I'm leaning toward the former option) that he's destroyed the alien civilization. He then realizes the error of his unconscious action tries to make amends for his actions, etc. After this the book gets a lot more, shall we say, mystical. Personally, I think that it points toward men (the sex) realizing that they've destroyed their feminine, creative instincts in their virtual worlds. But I've also been reading a lot of Hesse, Jung, and Wilhelm Reich recently.
****
But I think that those who have read the book or just read the summary will surely agree with me when I say, "Q.E.D., baby!" (well, maybe not the "baby" part...).
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Just to toss in my proverbial coinage to what i can only hope is an already large heap of similar such opinions: i have no intention of making a judgment on the moral implications of gaming. I hate to pull out the "people are starving/earth is dying" card, but let's face it, there are a lot more important things to be doing these days than playing video games for 50% of one's day, as I've personally experienced people doing. I do understand that some games are resulting in fundamental changes in the way people approach problems. I understand that we all need to play. However, i think that we can only start truly modelling alternate realities when those alternate realities take into account the welfare of all of our fellow human beings who just happen to be born into societies and/or circumstances that don't offer them the same opportunities for physical and intellectual development as others. As someone who was fortunate enough to be born and raised in a relatively affluent environment, I view it as a *responsibility* to devote a certain percentage of my life to helping others who weren't as fortunate as I was. If you want to play and help people out at the same time, then become an artist. That's what I want to do. But i don't quite buy the argument that you're playing twelve hours a day because you're training to benefit humankind by optimizing trade routes for your city-state or something to that effect (this is an observation based on no experience with recent games, but I think that it does well in illustrating my point). Ever read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card? Highly recommend it. ****note:if you don't want to know what happens, then don't read again until you see three more asterixes!!! Child gets hired to train in a military program for his country due to an imminent alien re-invasion. Trains with computer games. Plays what he thinks is the final simulation, but then is told either right before the final battle or right after winning it (here's where my memory gets a little blurry, though I'm leaning toward the former option) that he's destroyed the alien civilization. He then realizes the error of his unconscious action tries to make amends for his actions, etc. After this the book gets a lot more, shall we say, mystical. Personally, I think that it points toward men (the sex) realizing that they've destroyed their feminine, creative instincts in their virtual worlds. But I've also been reading a lot of Hesse, Jung, and Wilhelm Reich recently. **** But I think that those who have read the book or just read the summary will surely agree with me when I say, "Q.E.D., baby!" (well, maybe not the "baby" part...).