A nice article about a misunderstood culture (read if you have time)

[Allen Grimes]

Hey guys, I found this article the other day and I wanted to post it here because of a comment made by one of the members here a while ago that I found pretty offensive.

This article doesnt go into too much detail, but it gives a little glance into the culture of video gaming. Most people only hear bad things about video games and dont understand that there are really a lot of good things about them.

Contrary to popular belief, video games can make you smarter, boost creativity and even increase your athletic ability among other things. Video games can educate you in ways that no other form of media can (especially historicly accurate video games), because of the interactivity and the amount of time spent with the games. I first learned of Gengis Kahn and Gandi through video games when I was a child as well as countless other things. Even the some of the most violent video games have more positives than negatives.

If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them if I can.

Also if anybody is interested, Nintendo is coming out with a new system that is aimed towards older people and people who never played video games. The controller that they are making is much simpler to use than the current style and promises to make it easy for a first timer to get in and really enjoy a video game.

I would be happy to try to explain, in a logical way, anything that you might not understand.

Here is the article, thank you for reading.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/wright.html

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Good read Allen.

I started out palying the basics, Atari etc, and then onto the game arcade stuff, and then into computer games, Doom etc, the 1st person shooter is my fav type, but not the massive blood and guts, I like HalfLife for example better than Quake, way more problem solving.

The biggest thing I have against these games is how time consuming they are :D I'd have to give up wood working!! :eek:

Anyways, good read, I'm glad you posted it.

Cheers!

[Allen Grimes]

Hey Stu, I started out with the Atari too. And I agree, about game preferences, I would much rather play a game that makes me think, than a simple shoot everything that moves game.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Interesting article, Allen. I never did get real caught up in the computer and console games, although in the 80's I played a lot of Defender at the local 7-11.

Fast forward a lot of years, a buddy of mine got an Xbox, and tried to convince me I needed one. I resisted for a year or more, until one night when he put in the Midway Arcade Classics disk for me, and opened up Defender on his big screen TV. He beat me in a couple of quick games, but I decided to buy an Xbox and secretly practice at Defender until I could beat him. Never did end up playing Defender on my Xbox very much, because with the handheld controller it just wasn't the same. I did, however, get sucked into driving/racing games, so most of the games I own are driving games. (I've only got a few...maybe 6 or 7.) The article makes a good point about watching a video game as opposed to actually playing one. I know that driving a Lamborghini fast through a mountain course, or driving a Subaru WRX on winding gravel roads can get my adrenaline up pretty quickly. The only downside is that it's such a time sink, so I had to make sure I didn't spend too much time playing. Now that woodworking has pretty much consumed my spare time for the past year, the Xbox hasn't seen any use.

As an aside, one interesting point the article mentioned is the "read the manual" mentality versus the "start mashing buttons" approach. In my day job as a writer for a software company, I have to appeal to both crowds. I write the help files and user's manuals for those who want to read them, but the graphic designer and I also put a lot of work into the user interface, with the intent of making it intuitive and easy to figure out without further instruction. My attitude is that if the interface is doing its job, there should be no need for the help and manual.

- Vaughn

[Ed Lang]

I started with "pong" and then later the Invellavision came out!

I was 23 when I saw Pong!

Guess I just let out how old I am.

[Larry Klaaren]

I was right at 30 when my partners kid got addicted to Asteroids, almost flunked out of seventh grade before he beat the game.

Now that same kid is my partners partner. I showed that game to my son once. Doesn't seem like much these days.

The only time I got hooked on a game was Ms. Pacman. I had to limit it to a dollar a day, during noon hour, then had to get back to making calls. Must have been 1984-86, somewhere in there.

[Robert Mickley]

Vaughn, if your into racing games you need one of these bad boys

http://www.force-dynamics.com/video.html

The Tim allen of game controllers :D

[Scott Loven]

I am waiting for the x box woodworking II simulator to come out. They had to call back version I when a hacker found that you could actually simulate serious woodworking injuries if you had the right cheat codes.
Scott

[Allen Grimes]

First of all, thanks to everyone who responded. I'm glad to hear that some of you share even a minimal interest in video games.

My point here though wasnt to talk about the games themselves but instead to try to counter some of the bad press that video games, and the people who play them, get.

I've read a few insulting remarks, on these boards, about the "Nintendo Generation", that I am a part of. But I feel that those remarks stem from the lack of education and from all the unwarranted, bad press that video games get in general.

The truth is that scientific studies have been done in the past that prove that video games actually do more good than anything, but sadly, nobody ever hears any of that. The press is all about reporting bad news whether it is true or not.

Over 150,000,000 people play video games worldwide, yet a few stupid kids, with bad parents, blame their stupidity on video games and now all video games are bad.


I am waiting for the x box woodworking II simulator to come out. They had to call back version I when a hacker found that you could actually simulate serious woodworking injuries if you had the right cheat codes.
ScottActually Scott, Nintendo is the company who is most likely to make a Woodworking simulator. Nintendo is the only company (right now anyway) that is making games specificly for intellectual enhancement and they are the most likely to make games specificly for teaching.

They actually had a turning demo for one of their handheld systems, but it was never sold to the public.


I have no affiliation with Nintendo

[Bill Lewis]

Stu,

I'll have to look for Halflife. I too like to play a good 1st person Vid game every so often. I usually save it for around Xmas time, when I usually take a few weeks off.

I go back to the original Castle Wolfenstein. No not the one done by ID in the early 90's, but the one that came out about 1980 and was a 2D on an apple computer. Later on the wolfensteins, doom(s) and quake(s), but another favorite of mine was ultima Underworld, not the same as the Ultima series. The Underworld was 1st person unlike the Ultima's. Unfortunately they only did two of them. I always hoped they would do another. Much more problem solving.

Of course I did the Atari thing and the arcades too at the height of their popularity. In fact my mother just made me take back my old atari. I was going to throw it away, but then I thought I'd plug it in and mess with it for old times sake. 30+ years old and I bet it still works even though it's been stored in some awful conditions. Someone told me they are actually selling these things again.

I never did get in to the Xbox/PS/PSII thing. The resolution on PC gaming was always better.

Edit:
As for the artilce, I glossed over it a bit, I'll read it in detail later. I do have to say that I just jump right in to the game, and ony go back to the manual if I have to, which when using a keyboard instead of a gamepad, is pretty soon.

For all of the good and creative things that video gaming can bring out of a person, I can also tell you we have raised a society of computer hooked people without much experience doing anything else. I can tell you we have not yet found a recent graduate engineer who has much hands on experience doing anything at all. They don't seem to have any real hobbies. Out of all of the mechanical (and other) engineers we have interviewed lately only one could tell us that a diesel doesn't have spark plugs. It seems that no one builds models any more, or works on their car, or builds things. If you know of a graduating engineers, send'm my way (MD/VA/DC). We're still interviewing.

[Randy Cox]

Allen,
I agree with your comments 100%. Placing the blame on video games to me seems like just a cop-out for bad parenting. If a child is taught right form wrong from the beginning, a video game is not going to influence their decision making process one little bit. Now to brag a little bit...My son was a "Video Playing King". He was like the master of the neighborhood when it came to most of the games he played. I kept tabs on most of the games he played, and some were extremely graphic to say the least, but not once did I step in and censor any of them. He knew that school and chores came first. When that was done, his time was his to do what he wanted. He's now 19 years old and graduated last year as Valedictorian of his class, scored 31 on his ACT and received a full 4 year scholarship to a state collage. Not one time in his 19 years of growing up, has his mother or I ever had to spank him. I kind of like to think that he was brought up right. JMHO.<O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p
Randy<O:p</O:p

[Allen Grimes]

Randy, that is great.

That is exactly the type of thing I am talking about, you have an extremely successful son who plays video games. Yet if a trouble maker plays video games the games get the blamed, not him.

Anyway, seriously, stories like that make me happy. There are not enough people bragging about their children who, though they play video games, are smart, educated and successful. I applaud you Randy.

For Stu and Bill,

You guys know that there is a Half Life 2, right?

[Bob Johnson2]

Also if anybody is interested, Nintendo is coming out with a new system that is aimed towards older people and people who never played video games. The controller that they are making is much simpler to use than the current style and promises to make it easy for a first timer to get in and really enjoy a video game.

I think I should be offended, they're going to make it simple, for us simple folks.

Last time I played a video game was when I bought my son the original Nintendo, played Mario Bros. By the 3rd game my son, the 8 year old, was beating the pants off me. For about a month I played him at least a dozen times a day, lost every game. I gave up.
He went on to become a pretty good engineer fixing jet engines, and still plays video games.

Let me know if they come up with a game where older folks can beat younger ones.

[Allen Grimes]

Actually Bob, Nintendo isnt just making a simple game system for simple people, they're trying to revolutionize the industry, by bringing video games one step closer to virtual reality with their new controller. At the same time they are making it much easier for a non-gamer to pick up and play.

That said, you may have your wish with this one. Instead of moving around 2 joysticks with your thumb you will hold a motion sensitive controller.

If you are playing a shooting game, you would simply point it as if it was a gun and shoot. If you were playing a sword fighting game you would swing it like a sword. The same would work for a tennis racket, baseball bat, or golf club. In a boxing game you would hold a controller in each hand and throw real punches as opposed to pushing button combinations.

If you are really interested I can post some links to some articles and videos about the new controller and system.

Anyway, great to hear about your son, you must be proud. Also good to hear he is still playing video games. But then again those of us who played them all our lives, never stop playing them. :D