anyone wanna give their opinion on videogames for a paper?

[bluecollarninja]

well,

i'm writing a paper on how video games have effected our culture since the 1980's, i'm doing post crash to present. i'd like to get your opinions on how video games have been perceived by society at large. your opinion of video game censorship and ratings, and the media demonizations of people who play violent video games turning into killers.

so uh.

fire away.

[digitalpress]

Who's our audience? What's the paper being written for?

[Kess]

Woah, joe, any flashbacks to when I asked you a question similar to this? :lol: :lol: :lol:

[maxlords]

well,

i'm writing a paper on how video games have effected our culture since the 1980's, i'm doing post crash to present. i'd like to get your opinions on how video games have been perceived by society at large. your opinion of video game censorship and ratings, and the media demonizations of people who play violent video games turning into killers.

I'd recommend learning how to spell affected before turning in a paper on the effects of gaming on culture Got any more specific questions? I'd help out.

[Achika]

I hope we don't go to the same school--but here's mine:

Seems as if at this very same time I'm doing a paper on a similar subject. Videogames as 'Art & Politics' Just an idea, but I'm including how games have influenced politics (Everquest, Mortal Kombat, etc.) and how politics have influenced videogames (Project Gotham, Flight Simulator 2002, etc.)

Controversy that's been caused by Doom (Columbine--indirect but still worth mentioning), Mortal Kombat (ESRB), Berzerk(2 teens have heart attacks), Everquest (Mom Vs. Sony), Death race, Beat Em and Eat em, Dave Mirra XXX (3 retailers won't pick this one up with a 10 ft. pole) and a plethora of others. Like this guy that died after playing like 86 hours straight of online gaming.

It's definately grown--

"More people in North America own a Playstation 2 game console than subscribe to the top 12 daily newspapers cominbed."

-Source Bacon's 2002
Sony Holiday 2002 Catalog

Well, that's 'part' of my secret, I'll be damned if I give the good quotes up and it's up to you to find the reading material and links.

[bluecollarninja]

audience is my college peers.

class is intro to mass communication. video games as a tool of the media. i'm trying to liken a video game to a book but with much more interactivity.

and thanks for telling me how to spell.

just throw out your opinions.

[theaveng]

The closest game I've ever played that felt like an interactive book was Final Fantasy 9. With the fairy-tale setting, the whimsical music, and the cute little characters, I felt like I was watching a magical book instead of playing a videogame.

And then there's Final Fantasy 10 or Star Wars: Starfighter which feel like interactive movies. The animation is so realistic and the story compelling, that you feel like you are actually a character IN the movie.


As for impact on society, I figure that a nut is a nut. A person who is insane enough to start killing people would have done exactly the same thing 100 years ago before video games existed. Look at Billy the Kid. Did he kill dozens people because he played too much Doom??? Of course not! He killed people because he was screwed in the head.

In my view, people who blame games or movies are trying to find the easy answer. The REAL answer for homicidal maniacs strange killing sprees requires more digging into the pyschological nature of human beings. The real answer is an internal, mental problem of the individual.


What games CAN do is promote mental development. Video games require strategic thinking, careful planning to reach mission objections, and hand-eye coordination. As entertainment goes, video games challenge the brain more than anything else in existence. I'd rather see our young children and teens playing video games than vegetating in front of the television or drooling over drugs. Video games have as positive an influence on today's generation as books had on earlier generations.

[Arrrhalomynn]

I'll just give my opinion on censorship and age-ratings.
I'm strongly against governmental censoring. If someone creates something with sex and violence in it, it's their own choice. Forcing censorship on these things is an attack to their artistic freedom. Nobody should have the freedom to adapt their products/art but the creator of it.
I am in favor of age-ratings. Some games need an adult mind to understand and appreciate the game and put it into their right perspective. Games like Mortal Kombat or GTA3 aren't suitable for easily influenced kids. There's no way I'll ever let my 6 year old brother play or watch these.
If a game developer wants to sell his games to minors, he himself should adapt them so they will get the right age rating. Nobody should force him to this and it should be his own free choice.
It would be best if he would, just like most musicians, make 2 versions of it. 1 that's adapted to younger people, and 1 that has everything in it that was originally planned.

[maxlords]

audience is my college peers.

class is intro to mass communication. video games as a tool of the media. i'm trying to liken a video game to a book but with much more interactivity.

and thanks for telling me how to spell.

just throw out your opinions.

The only thing the media uses games for is to try and prove that Doom creates snipers

As for games, I've always felt a good game is JUST like an interactive book. That's why I collect RPGs. I've always played games first and foremost for the stories, and I always buy the games that I love the stories on. Games like FFIII (6), Mark of the Kri, Wild Arms, Suikoden, and many others really are like playing through a story. Instead of just describing t he battles, you get to play through them yourself, and YOU have the opportunity to control what happens. Like a book (particularly a novel), RPGs are linear, and while they may have multiple branching pathways (like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel), they take you to specific midpoints and ending points to tell that story, so you're really not just dragged around at random.
In fact, some of the stories I've played through in video games are BETTER than many of the stories I've read. As games continue to become a "more adult" genre, the stories mirror that growth in their own complexity, making it more worthwhile to play games for the stories, in my opinion. Anyway, that's my two cents worth on that.

[Dobie]

Video games, like any media, are merely a reflection of culture. They are a product of a particular time and place, but not directly correlational with a particular event (i.e. Columbine or the "sniper"). Over time items like movies, games, etc. begin to represent the culture they come from. So in terms of "effect" games have on our society--I say they are like a book or a painting. They are an artistic expression of our time period, and are produced by the contemporary trends and psyche.

[TRM]

I did a report somewhat similar to this last year...I'll see if I can dig it up and provide you some more info.

As for impact on society, I figure that a nut is a nut. A person who is insane enough to start killing people would have done exactly the same thing 100 years ago before video games existed. Look at Billy the Kid. Did he kill dozens people because he played too much Doom??? Of course not! He killed people because he was screwed in the head.

Billy the Kid really didn't kill too many people, infact he was a pretty alright guy at first. Honest worker and stuff, then he killed a few when he robbed and stuff, though not as many people as was claimed. Billy was then killed by Pat Garret, somewhat friend, in the Maxwell House in New Mexico one dark night.[/quote]

[Achika]

Everything can be a scape goat, but I'm sure videogames did have an influence in some peoples death....

2 guys having a heartattack imediately following a game of Berzerk in the arcade

[bluecollarninja]

good stuff you guys....


keep it coming.

[theaveng]

Everything can be a scape goat, but I'm sure videogames did have an influence in some peoples death....

2 guys having a heartattack imediately following a game of Berzerk in the arcade

Guys also have heart attacks playing football. Or running. It's the HEART that is flawed (perhaps too many McDonald's hamburgers?), not the game.

[Achika]

Guys also have heart attacks playing football. Or running. It's the HEART that is flawed (perhaps too many McDonald's hamburgers?), not the game.

And people still blame football. Your point?

[Iron Monkey]

Iron Monkey Tells.
Videogames for the Spirit is most Welcome!
Best to fight Hand Controller than punch Others.
Iron Monkey do Both!

HAAAAAAAAI!

[kainemaxwell]

Video games always been a release for me from the stupidities of society. Where else can you fufill childhood games of "let's pretend" by being a knight in armor, a cop, a flying superhero or a speedy hedgehog?

[lionforce]

I recommend reading the "Phoenix: Fall and Rise of Videogame" books if you haven't already, throughout my gaming years, the industry has changed so much from 8-bit pixies to 128-bit 3-D rendered giants, its amazing just how fast this entertainment industry pushes itself and when it comes down to it, the gamers are what make a break this industry, sometimes we just don't realize how much control we do have over the market. If we all banded together tommorrow and said: Let's break the industry, By the next day, this industry would be broken. I hope that helps ya some and good luck on the paper

[Achika]

More than Phoenix, I would recommend Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon by Arthur Asa Berger (it has a whole section on narratives, compairing games and stories) and The Medium of the Video Game by Mark J.P. Wolf, which discusses videogames as a cultural icon, archetypes, etc. Both are recent books, so the info is pretty much up to date.

[slapdash]

More than Phoenix, I would recommend Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon by Arthur Asa Berger (it has a whole section on narratives, compairing games and stories) and The Medium of the Video Game by Mark J.P. Wolf, which discusses videogames as a cultural icon, archetypes, etc. Both are recent books, so the info is pretty much up to date.

I haven't gotten to Wolf's book, but to say "recommend" in the same sentence as Berger's book without "I don't" at the beginning just seems wrong. It's horrendous. I heard others say it and had to find out for myself, and they were right. I don't recommend Berger's book unless you want to see a negative protrayal of games, and even then it isn't done especially well.