Ranking
Original Post
Are video games harming society?
Ok, although threads about video games being good/bad/ugly tend to end up as cesspools, I think there is a wide enough scope of topics to discuss within this heading for us to make this work. These topic include but probably are not limited to:
  • Whether it makes kids insensitive/violent/fat/satanist.
  • Addictive games can be pretty devastating for some people.
  • Whether they distract people from doing more productive things with their time.
  • Whether they condition people to be lazy or impatient.

Feel free to talk about specific video games but bear in mind that individual examples do not usually make too much of a difference to, or prove much about, the bigger picture.

I was motivated to make such a brain-numbingly unimaginative discussion by purely selfish principles rather than any genuine burning interest in the matter, so please forgive the somewhat sloppy manner of this post.

P.S: the satanism and fat thing was a joke, I didn't mean it.
Last edited by Zelda; Feb 25, 2015 at 09:21 AM.
Good morning sweet princess
  • Society is probably not the word I would use in this context.
  • I don't believe video games can harm our society as a whole.
  • However, I believe video games are achieving all of your 4 points on some people.
  • Maybe a better title would be "Are video games harmful" or "Are video games effecting lives".
Last edited by Zelda; Feb 20, 2015 at 01:00 AM. Reason: I assumed the format was a mimic of bullet points. It looks nicer this way.
oxisudofrenohypoglycemolicodin
I have been playing video games since I was 5 or 6, I am a perfectly healthy person (Now 14). I am in no way fat, nor have i ever had any medical problems that suposedly come from gaming. I still function well with society, i have friends, i have loved and been loved i participate well with others just fine, i am goalie in lacrosse and goalie leads the whole defense, I'm just fine. When people say that gaming is harmful, i would like to say, look at me, do i look in any way shape or form "harmed"? When you see a person that is fat and also happens to like gaming, you can not assume it's because of gaming, it is either the person can't help it (they may have an EXTREAMLY weak metabolism.) or it's the persons fault. I am a gamer, i am perfectly sane, i have not been scarred by anything i saw in games nor am i compelled to go start a school shooting. The media gives gaming a bad reputation when really it's not the game's fault, it's the gamer's fault.

Originally Posted by d3noth View Post
Society is probably not the word I would use in this context

I don't believe video games can harm our society as a whole

However, I believe video games are achieving all of your 4 points on some people

Maybe a better title would be "Are video games harmful" or "Are video games effecting lives"

d3noth has the right idea, and i said the same thing, it's not the game's fault, it's the gamer's fault
Last edited by Zelda; Feb 20, 2015 at 12:55 AM. Reason: Removed annoying smug rhetorics and made it into one paragraph.
If you take pewds for example, video games can be crazy good for a person. For pewds. On average, it depends. It really depends, because for how much I would like to say they're no good for personal growth (because it requires specific work, which gaming isn't this specific work, at least in my case).

However, a lot of non-gamers also tend to not perform well in life and not achieve the goals of life.

btw, I'll oppose here
Originally Posted by ilikepie57 View Post
d3noth has the right idea, and i said the same thing, it's not the game's fault, it's the gamer's fault

Why is it a gamers fault? Most addicted gamers your age to even my age (which is quite a few years more, basically). Started playing and used
to play a lot as kids. Kids don't have fully developed mind, have less life experience and are not held full responsibility for crimes by the legislation
of most countries. Why should they solely be held responsible for wasting their time and not solving they problems by being addicted to games or
playing them in a way which harms them?

Especially regarding most of them starting to play, a lot, regularly, from an even earlier age (less responsibility).

I think for at least underage people, it should be at least about half responsibility to system and maybe family why is this dude like playing games
and not solving shit regarding his life? It probably has to do with the environment of his peers, other students, his other time how he spends it
how the people surrounding him react when playing /no playing too much and in other aspects of life? Does he fully comprehend how it affects him
and what steps are required to make up his mind to live more efficiently and / or putting this or that amount of quality hours into this or that pursuit (
which most addicted or gamers who're harmed by gaming probably don't even do good 2/3 of that)
Last edited by JSnuffMARS; Feb 20, 2015 at 12:49 AM.
-_-
Originally Posted by d3noth View Post
Society is probably not the word I would use in this context

I don't believe video games can harm our society as a whole

However, I believe video games are achieving all of your 4 points on some people

Maybe a better title would be "Are video games harmful" or "Are video games effecting lives"

Nothing we interact with doesn't effect our lives. Most things are harmful in some way or another even if they end up being better as a whole. I personally think that video games have (or more accurately eventually will have) more influence than you are giving them credit. They are (obviously) an art form and an entertainment industry. It is possible to imagine someone hundreds of years ago applying your attitude to video games to painting or music perhaps, admittedly fine art and orchestras were less accessible back then, but so was everything else. While art and music work by effecting individual lives, they also have small political effects. When you apply this to more accessible and easily expressive forms of entertainment such as a book the effect increases hugely.

Admittedly it is more likely that websites are the predecessor to books rather than video games because books can be much more educational (more expressive than video games), but things which effect lots of people effect society. I have very little understanding of how they effect society, which is why I chose the threads title (aside from the personal selfish motivations I mentioned in the thread starter). Trust me, I wouldn't


ilikepie57: Did you even read d3noth's post? He raised a completely different argument to you.

As for the rest of your post; you are a single example. Reliable scientific results almost always require repeated tests to check whether some results are anomalous. Just to clarify: I have a problem with the fact that you think you playing video games and not being fat means that nobody becomes fat as a result of video games, you are just one 14 year old kid out of tens of millions (possibly many more) of gamers. Next time focus on the tens of millions of people who play video games and don't go on killing sprees rather than the fact that you are not fat.

Sorry if I am being harsh. I can't deal with people who post every damn sentence on a new line. It makes no sense; this isn't poetry and your points are not short enough to be bullet points. Please stop that shit, I will just shift it onto the same line.
-----
Despite what I said about the title of this thread. Feel free to talk about whatever aspects of life you think gaming is relevant to.
Last edited by Zelda; Feb 20, 2015 at 12:59 AM. Reason: <24 hour edit/bump
Good morning sweet princess
Are video games harming society?
What a silly question (no offense).

This really isn't suppose to be a question that takes years of pondering and debating. This isn't some phycological wonder or the world's unanswered question. Instead, I feel it is a simple question with an equally simple answer...

It's pretty much asking if guns kill people. The answer is NO!

Why? Because video games don't control people. People control themselves. Those who chose to spend days and days playing video games are choosing to ruin their lives, mentally and physically. Yes, games are addicting and do require a certain amount of willpower and responsibility to keep gaming from getting out of hand, but that's the gamers responsibility.

#CommonSense
...Surely you have more productive things to do then read my stupid signature...[TA]|[TF]
Originally Posted by beansprout
What a silly question (no offense).

This really isn't suppose to be a question that takes years of pondering and debating. This isn't some phycological wonder or the world's unanswered question. Instead, I feel it is a simple question with an equally simple answer...

It's pretty much asking if guns kill people. The answer is NO!

Why? Because video games don't control people. People control themselves. Those who chose to spend days and days playing video games are choosing to ruin their lives, mentally and physically. Yes, games are addicting and do require a certain amount of willpower and responsibility to keep gaming from getting out of hand, but that's the gamers responsibility.

#CommonSense

Dude if you read "Are video games harming society" as "are video games the cause of school shootings" then I feel like you perhaps shouldn't be giving lectures on common sense. "Harming" can mean such a wide variety of things and is such a subjective term that it will inevitably happen in some way or another for most things within reason. Now, in the title I obviously meant "harming on average" or "harming overall" but nevertheless, you might want to look into some verbal reasoning skills development courses at some point in the future.
Good morning sweet princess
Video games really will never harm society. The child playing the video game (I am just taking a child as a "victim of gaming") learns how things work. Yes, games can be addicting, but you have control over how you enjoy your life. I think that video games actually helps society and the person's mind who is playing the game to expand on knowledge. There are many types of games out there in the world, many are like FPS or Puzzle games. In FPS Games, you learn how to shoot people, duh. But, adults may think that those FPS Games won't help the child or ruin the child's mind. In the child's perspective, he has to know how to shoot and where to shoot. There are also many consoles he/she can play on. For example, playing a normal Call of Duty game on the PC. The child has to learn how to use the W,A,S,D keys or the up, down, left, right keys, he will also have to learn the buttons for reload and strafing (if there is) and etc. Puzzle games are self-explanatory. They challenge the human mind to think and solve the puzzle. A good example of a nice puzzle game that is known is the Portal series. Portal 1 and Portal 2 have their funny bits and stuff. But, in between the funniness, you have to solve how to get past all the levels. MOBA games challenge you to use your mind to quickly respond to certain things. MMORPGs or MMO/RPG games teach you how each individual ability works. Sandbox games like Garry's Mod gives the child creativity and imagination. Yes, there are various types of games that I could list and tell you the good stuff here. But, let's see how bad these games can get. Sometimes, games can cause seizures because a child is affected by epilepsy. But, it was the child's choice to get into that game. Overall, my opinion is that games DO NOT harm society.
RedPanda won't fuck his dog
I agree KooKoo. At the end of the day, it's all about the gamers self - control and less about the games themselves ;)
...Surely you have more productive things to do then read my stupid signature...[TA]|[TF]
Due to the nature of mainstream media demonizing video games (In the US.(They're getting better though!)), it makes it very hard to speak for anyone except for yourself.
Originally Posted by protonitron View Post
Whether it makes kids insensitive/violent/fat/satanist.

It is very easy to say that the violent nature of most video games desensitize kids to violence, gore, sex, etc. when you look at games such as The Evil Within, Resident Evil, Dead Space, and Amnesia. And I totally agree with this sentiment when all you see is these sorts of games. In my head, I believe that I could handle seeing someone with their guts out in real life, or watch someone get their arm chopped off and hardly flinch. But when I think about it more, I don't think I really could. Seeing fake blood and overly showy gore don't prepare you for the real thing. Hell, cops who have been on the force for years and years say that they still have a hard time seeing gore, regardless of how many times they've seen it before.

As for making kids more violent, some of the arguments can be recycled here. Increased exposure to these things would make it seem like they would be more prone to violence. However, in my own experience with playing games, I do not feel urges to shoot up schools and the like. Nor do I think that I feel like I want to hurt someone personally any more than the next guy.

Fatness is one of the contestable points though. While video games themselves do not make people fat, excessive play coupled with lack of exercise and bad diet definitely contribute to the subject becoming fatter. In the last year alone, I've gained ~40lbs(19kg)(went from ~120lbs to ~160 as of right now), and I am well past my growing years. I rarely go outside and I eat fast food and fatty snacks nearly every day. The only reason I don't look like Fat Bastard from Austin Powers is that my metabolism is way too fast for my own good, and really helps in keeping me thin.

As for making kids Satanist...I'm not really going to address this one, since that question is silly.

Originally Posted by protonitron View Post
Addictive games can be pretty devastating for some people.

This goes right back to my statements about fatness. The only reason that kids get addicted to certain games is because they play them without breaks in between or without exercise. I am also a culprit of this, in which I have had TF2 downloaded on my computer for over a year, and I have >700 hours clocked on the game. By my count, I've averaged two hours a day since I've downloaded it JUST playing TF2. I've played other games as well, but none so extensively as that. So potentially three or four hours a day playing games on average. I'm not sure if there is a chart for healthy game playing, but I'm positive I'm over the limit.

Originally Posted by protonitron View Post
Whether they distract people from doing more productive things with their time.

Again, this goes back to playing games too much. While some games can insert tidbits of science and history, most games aren't a good source of education, and they certainly don't help you get a 'traditional' job.
Originally Posted by protonitron View Post
Whether they condition people to be lazy or impatient.

Games are fun. People want to do things that are fun. So people who play games are likely to return to playing games. Since most games involve you sitting on a couch and moving your thumbs around, this promotes a sedentary lifestyle. A few people that I know have circumvented this by placing a treadmill in front of their TV, so they can walk and play games at the same time. The good thing about the introduction of wireless controllers and controllers with longer wires is that they allow this sort of thing to happen, and people can exercise and play games at the same time. My SO does the same thing while watching Netflix.

As for impatience, I would agree with this point wholeheartedly, though it's not games that is the culprit here. It's the introduction of the internet and allowing technology to become so personalized. We can access tons of information so quickly, that we become entitled to it and expect everything to work perfectly the first time. When it doesn't, we get upset. Even my older relatives get miffed when the wifi blips and their Google search turns up a "this page could not be displayed".
Last edited by Zelda; Feb 20, 2015 at 03:20 AM. Reason: Small ocd terminology changes.
All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’'s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.