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In Cyberspace, Games Play YOU
By Cameron Sorden | October 31, 2007
The Buffalo news has a hyper-sensationalized news article about the many dangers of online game addiction. I always get annoyed when I read stories like this, but at the same time I’m conflicted about it. After all, it’s a reporter’s job to find the interesting and relevant bits of news and post about them. While only posting quotes and news stories which support your view of the story is questionable practice, it gets people reading and learning about issues. Many gamers dismiss online game addiction out of hand, but I’m not convinced it’s that simple. You can be addicted to anything, and you can’t really say what causes the actions of other people.
However, I do think it’s ridiculous when you get stories about people who abuse their children and blame online game addiction. Letting your baby die because you were too busy raiding doesn’t mean you’re ill and that you need help. It means you’re a bad person. Feel free to argue with me as much as you want, but their are plenty of alcoholics who manage to fight their addiction without killing their children.
What really annoys me, however, is that the majority of the traditional news coverage on online gaming is highly negative. While we’re starting to see more stories about the social and mental benefits of interaction in online spaces, you still see a majority of stories which have highly negative spin associated. The problem is that the people who don’t play these games are far likelier to read those types of stories than the positive ones, since the positive ones usually come from game-related sites and journals. We wonder why so many politicians score political points by hammering our favorite hobby in their speeches, and this is why. Blame the media!
Seriously though, I really wish we could get to a point where enough people hang out online that we don’t have to suffer through such one-sided stories. It probably won’t happen until the current generation of youngsters, feverishly clutching their neopets, grows up and becomes contributing members of society who view online games with the same complacent indifference that the current round of parents have for stuff like Dungeons and Dragons, the insidious Satan-promoting mind-sucking demon of their youth.
And then we can get all mad at our children and talk about the evil dangers of laserboarding, sonic blade fighting, mental chess, or whatever the hell foreign and supposedly dangerous activity kids will be doing in 20 years.
Topics: Random |
October 31st, 2007 at 11:47 pm
You can’t really blame politicians for taking up the anti-videogame banner; by which I mean it’s the only logical side for a politician to take on the debate.
It’s far easier to argue against violent videogames than it is to argue for them. You get to tout the “protect the children” card, and gods know you don’t want to be seen as not caring about “the children.”
You don’t even have to go all Jack Thompson on the matter. Which is to say, be a completely illogical jerk on the matter.
Continued over on my blog, if you’re interested.