In response to "The Myth of the Media Myth" from The Escapist Forum: I really enjoyed reading your article - thanks very much.
I have a few points to make, in no particular order:-
1) Games are definitely addictive I know because I have been addicted to them and playing at 4am when I have to go to work 4 hours later. There again, I suspect that virtually all pleasurable sensory activities are addictive. If a person was not addicted to games they may well be addicted to something more harmful.
2) What parents probably will not say is how pleased they are that they know where their kids are and know that they are keeping themselves occupied and not being a pain around the house.
3) The media is the source of the problem, their objective is to sensationalise everything. Only emotions sell papers and gain viewing figures. Think of some of the seven deadly sins (no I am not at all religious), these are the media's tools to sell advertising space. Hate, lust, envy, greed... and anything else that gets the emotional juice flowing will lead to repeat newspaper purchases or more TV viewers. The media drives opinion far more than it represents opinion.
4) Games are an easy target because they are typically believed to be played by younger people and younger people typically have less of a voice. They certainly do not populate the upper echelons in the media industry.
5) The damage that games do (and let's face it they do some damage because there is rarely smoke without fire), is negligable in comparison with the damage done by false media representation (eg. pretending crime/terrorism/the economy/disease etc is worse than it really is).
6) Hollywoood, the film industry and popular culture does far more to harm society than games ever will. We rarely see the amount of fuss made over films which glorify violence and yet these are real people performing imaginable acts which cause pain and suffering and in some cases depicted as the heroes/heroines for doing so.
7) Games can be very educational. My personal obsession was with WWII games and I actually learnt a great deal about the conflict by playing them. I also taught myself to program because of my love for games and wanting to replicate them.
8) Games are a great deal of fun. I have had many gaming highs and not very many lows. I have also made friends through games and was an active part of a large community in a perpetual online fantasy game. I got to know my compatriots so well that I feel we actually enhanced the quality of each others lives through our shared experiences online - yep, I really mean it.
9) Games definitely result in less exercise and less face to face socialising - let's face it, it's a fact. It only becomes harmful though if people spend all day doing nothing else. I do not see the same level of criticisim levelled at people who just watch TV all the time. I'd sooner my child was playing games than watching TV because they are actually doing something rather than doing nothing or being indoctrinated by the box in the corner of the room. Although, having said that, I'd sooner my child did a mix of several things rather than just watch telly or play games.
- FranzSigmar
Great article. I tend to pose this question to most parents and adults I encounter who are prejudiced against violent or sexually explicit videogames: Would you ban your child from the library because there are some books about war, death, sex and rape?
The hypocrisy of videogame hate never ceases to amaze.
- Andrew Sheivachman
