Why do people condemn gaming?

[Civ001]

*removed post*

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Not sure where you live, where I am nobody gives a damn what your hobbies are as long as they don't involve kicking puppies or something. Older people tend not to understand gaming because it didn't exist when they were growing up but people even as old as my parents (early 50's) played video games when they were teenagers so they get it. I can honestly say that in my experience it's no big deal.

 

[filli_noctus]

Because it's still the newest form of media and more conservative people don't like new things. It happens with every new media form (other examples of this include comics, television, films and even printed books). A similar trend can be seen with music genres (more noticeable as they come around more regularly than new media), famous examples are the backlash against rap, hip-hop, heavy metal, punk, and rock and roll but even genres that all tend to get clumped together as 'classical' these days weren't immune - Stravinsky's Rite of Spring almost caused a riot at its premiere.

As to when it'll go away, either when something new comes along for reactionaries to hate on or when everyone born before the '80s is dead. Most likely the former.

 

[bonefang]

i was playing with England, in EU3, just formed Great Britain.
My grand pa, who was visiting my place, gave me a peice of his mind for playing as "Ingrez" o.0

 

[GoodGame]

Because it's still the newest form of media and more conservative people don't like new things.

meh Twitter and txting (or #ing) is probably the newest form of media. I have to say, I don't get that.


I'd have to say the same for the emergence of portable MP3 players. I didn't get the allure of bopping around with earbuds at work and school with little white boxes.

Video games have been culturally ingrained at least since the 1970s, and broadly so with Nintendo consoles and PC gaming (1980s/1990s). They're definitely not emergent or alien at this time in 'Western' culture.

Most recent hatred of video games has more to do with politicians and the attempt to describe video gaming as psychologically training people for random acts of violence. I'd say it's not even necessarily a matter of conservative politics. Politicians have a long history of scape-goating to avoid blame themselves.

 

[GrayingGamer]

I think it's pretty easy to understand why a lot of people don't like gaming:

1. Some games are extremely compelling, causing people to spend huge amounts of time on them at the expense of other healthy aspects of their life. See the "gaming addiction" thread. Regardless of how much video games are to blame in these situations, it's still not hard to understand the general perception.

2. Many games are hyper-violent. I think this one is more generational - most young people seem to intuitively understand that violence in video games doesn't cause the person to be violent in real life, but for people who are older, that's not so obvious. It's clear the media still gets lots of traction with stories about violent people who play(ed) violent video games.

 

[Sonereal]

2. Many games are hyper-violent. I think this one is more generational - most young people seem to intuitively understand that violence in video games doesn't cause the person to be violent in real life, but for people who are older, that's not so obvious. It's clear the media still gets lots of traction with stories about violent people who play(ed) violent video games.

It also is a good scapegoat. If a media outlet blames video games for a tragedy and any or all antisocial behavior, then it won't lose viewers with the demographic probably watching it: older adults with children or grandchildren.

However, if a media outlet actually tried to look deeper into antisocial behavior and reached the realistic conclusion that an individual's behavior is shaped by more than just playing video games, that outlet might be in trouble. People don't like it when they feel like blame is falling even slightly on their heads.

This leads to situations where a parent thinks they're a good parent if they simply forbid his or her children from playing video games. After all, if video games promote antisocial behavior, then taking away video games should promote social behavior.

1. Some games are extremely compelling, causing people to spend huge amounts of time on them at the expense of other healthy aspects of their life. See the "gaming addiction" thread. Regardless of how much video games are to blame in these situations, it's still not hard to understand the general perception.

This, on the other hand, is a legitimate stance up to a point. However, a person can get addicted to just about anything yet you don't ban food because you're afraid your child will have an eating addiction.

On the other hand, if a person has an addiction to reading, it is "fine" up to a point far higher than being addicted to video games.

Most recent hatred of video games has more to do with politicians and the attempt to describe video gaming as psychologically training people for random acts of violence. I'd say it's not even necessarily a matter of conservative politics. Politicians have a long history of scape-goating to avoid blame themselves.

Yet they're perfectly content with America's Army.

 

[scheva007]

Television was also widely regarded as being bad when it came around, now video games have taken that role.

"Despite being a more active and interesting past time, video games have been more demonized than the goggle box ever was" Charlie Brooker

^^ true, the NRA always blames videogames, but sees no problem in bringing out its own game where you shoot people in the face....

 

[CivCube]

They don't condemn gaming. They ridicule a stereotype about gamers that is still unfortunately true in many places.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Guns dont kill people, violent video games kill people.

 

[Sonereal]

Guns dont kill people, violent video games kill people.

You can pry my dualshock controller from my cold, dead hands.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I remember some recent news at TV. The headline was something like:"little kid who killed his grandpa with a shotgun previously had access to a violent videogame" (GTA5 IIRC). Curiously it seems no one had any concern about the boy having access to a shotgun...

 

[GoodGame]

Yet they're perfectly content with America's Army.

Branding at work.


I won't deny that there is still questionable morality often portrayed in video games, but the same is said for all sorts of media. There's lots of questionable morality portrayed in headline news networks, but we don't blame them for some reason.

It'd be nice if more developers and other manufacturers of media content would consider being more original than re-processing the anti-social message of the last 1000 iterations of some popular video game. But it's obvious that people love to scape-goat these things too. Case in point: I read an article describing the random sucker punching of strangers in NYC as a 'miley' effect----young people desparate for some fame (LOL that the author decided to scape-goat Miley for such an unrelated thing. It'd have been as funny if they scape-goated Mike Tyson's Punch Out).

 

[civ_king]

i was playing with England, in EU3, just formed Great Britain.
My grand pa, who was visiting my place, gave me a peice of his mind for playing as "Ingrez" o.0

As an Indian how dare you play the country that conquered, exploited and oppressed your people?

 

[FriendlyFire]

Guns dont kill people, super violent video games like "dance dance revolution" kill people
/facepalm

Morbid Items Found In Adam Lanza's Home Revealed In New Report

Authorities searching the home of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter discovered these items and more in the days following the massacre. The findings are detailed in a report released Monday by Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice and the lead investigator on the case, State Attorney Stephen Sedensky III.


A GPS device found in Adam Lanza's room shed light on trips he was taking prior to the attack:

The routes taken indicate a number of trips from 36 Yogananda Street to the area of a local theater where a commercial version of the game “Dance Dance Revolution” is located.


Video Games
Video games found in his "basement computer/gaming area" include but aren't limited to:

“Left for Dead”

“Metal Gear Solid”

“Dead Rising”

“Half Life”

“Battlefield”

“Call of Duty”

“Grand Theft Auto”

“Shin Megami Tensei”

“Dynasty Warriors”

“Team Fortress”

 

[da dick]

i'm in singapore and most of the elders seem to think gaming is some kind of evil addiction(well , it can be but compared to casinos and the whoring our "betters" are into, i think they're giant hypocrites), and we actually have a few fulltime gaming professionals. i pretty much can only talk about gaming with like-minded people around my age or younger.

oh, i think lesbian games are still banned here.

 

[Sonereal]

i
oh, i think lesbian games are still banned here.

 

[Civ001]

i'm in singapore and most of the elders seem to think gaming is some kind of evil addiction(well , it can be but compared to casinos and the whoring our "betters" are into, i think they're giant hypocrites), and we actually have a few fulltime gaming professionals. i pretty much can only talk about gaming with like-minded people around my age or younger.

oh, i think lesbian games are still banned here.

Dungeons and Dragons got the same criticism as well.

 

[Tahuti]

1. Those who condemn games don't play games themselves and in many cases, they likely haven't even touched a video game.
2. The reasons to condemn video games sound compelling, as video games may contain ideas and concepts that when brought into contact with the wrong mind may inspire violent actions, even though its more a problem of the person's mental health than video games.
3. If your political constituency contains people elderly people overly concerned with public safety, they may be swayed by 1. and 2. and thus your political survival may be ensured by condemning video games.

 

[SouthernKing]

He's probably referring to where he lives (Singapore?)