Video games will be the RUINATION of Modern Society!!

Slip Kid

LongRd. wrote:

I've done both at the same time...use your own gun, not the game system's.

too funny

Vedderlution_Baby

imalive wrote:

I can't agree with that. Books and movies (IMHO) expand your mind (and your vocabulary). Video games, not so much. Sadly, books are being replaced by video games..... although I did see a guy at work with a book.... a HALO book! Part of the "trilogy," he told me.

Alright. So books are good but video games are not. Yet this guy is reading a book because of a video game. So even if that book is from a video game, it's not an actual book? By the way, role playing games are essentially interactive books. Role playing games are heavily story driven games that on most part, require a lot of reading, a lot of strategy, and a lot of time. Best example, Final Fantasy Seven. Ask anyone who's played and enjoyed this game how they felt when a certain event took place involving Aeris. That game had an amazing story that took characters and evolved them into not just people you were using, but people you cared about and wanted to learn about. Just like a book. And your actions affected the outcome of the book. You literally got to participate in what they went through.

gobrowns19

Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:

Alright. So books are good but video games are not. Yet this guy is reading a book because of a video game. So even if that book is from a video game, it's not an actual book? By the way, role playing games are essentially interactive books. Role playing games are heavily story driven games that on most part, require a lot of reading, a lot of strategy, and a lot of time. Best example, Final Fantasy Seven. Ask anyone who's played and enjoyed this game how they felt when a certain event took place involving Aeris. That game had an amazing story that took characters and evolved them into not just people you were using, but people you cared about and wanted to learn about. Just like a book. And your actions affected the outcome of the book. You literally got to participate in what they went through.

Very good post. To this day, Final Fantasy Tactics had the best storyline and character development of any movie i've ever seen or book i've ever read.

PearlJamaholic

and staring at a tv for countless hours a day watching amercain idol and dr phil isnt?

some of the better stories ive come across lately have been in video games. i havent seen a horror match silent hill, metal gear is in a league all its own. gta and wow might be mindless fun. but alot of games are very story driven, unlike 90% of whats on tv. and those that arent arent all the pointless. why watch nascar when you can play gran trusimo? so while people sit and watch american idol, some people are playing guitar hero.

and its been mentioned rpgs had a fair amount of reading involved, something tv shows dont require. and i remember reading an article when mgs for ps1 came out that it had more spoken dialogue than terminator 2. so todays video games can easily place more, which means they can develope stories and characters to a level that movies cant with out being 4+ hours.

i think video games are a step up from tv and movies.

PatrickBateman

I am 6'5", 185lbs, my looks have been compared to Brad Pitt, drive a hybrid '67 Camero, play professional hockey when I am not saving starving children in Africa or filling in on drums for Led Zeppelin and I don't smoke.

How real is that?!


Video games CAN be a waste of time, but you can say that just about anything.

know1

Video games aren't so bad (I don't play them, though).

It's parents that are ruining society.

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

i know for a fact Civilization and Alpha Centauri games have expanded my mind. Sid Meyers games are so complex i feel like i need a degree just to play them.

DOSW

imalive wrote:

Touche. But at least we're exchanging ideas, polishing our writing skills, interacting, etc. Message boards are real; video games are make believe crap!

Welcome to 1992!

Rhinocerous Surprise

DOSW wrote:

Welcome to 1992!

Which is, fittingly, the year I started playing computer games. 16 years later, I'm doing an English degree in college, and am quite happily sesquipedalian.:D

Wobbie

PearlJamaholic wrote:

and staring at a tv for countless hours a day watching amercain idol and dr phil isnt?

I don't "stare at a TV for countless hours:p. I've never watched American Idol or Dr. Phil.

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

Right. Cos Meet The Spartans and Norbit are so much more intellectually stimulating

I wouldn't have seen Norbit on a bet! I'm not talking about crap books or crap TV. Glad I got y'all fired up, though . Kinda thought I might.

Rhinocerous Surprise

imalive wrote:

I wouldn't have seen Norbit on a bet! I'm not talking about crap books or crap TV. Glad I got y'all fired up, though . Kinda thought I might.

Well, at least you've got good taste in movies.:D
I guess that's the point I'm trying to make though - sure, there are crap video games out there. But there are also games that engage the mind, heart, and lungs (if you're playing on the Wii). To pin the ruination of society on video games is like pinning Satanism on rock n' roll - a knee-jerk reaction to a new form of entertainment.

PearlJamaholic

imalive wrote:

I don't "stare at a TV for countless hours:p. I've never watched American Idol or Dr. Phil.



I wouldn't have seen Norbit on a bet! I'm not talking about crap books or crap TV. Glad I got y'all fired up, though . Kinda thought I might.

sorry you didnt get me fired up. but as the person above mentioned not every movie is a classic but neither is every video game. so it seems unfair to say norbit, or whatever doesnt count, but ET for atari does.

but american idol is the top rated tv show currently running, so that does say something about tv viewers, at least the majority. and the fact that there are like a million cis and law and order shows which are the same thing over and over and over.

Wobbie

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

I guess that's the point I'm trying to make though - sure, there are crap video games out there. But there are also games that engage the mind, heart, and lungs (if you're playing on the Wii). To pin the ruination of society on video games is like pinning Satanism on rock n' roll - a knee-jerk reaction to a new form of entertainment.

Fair enough. Let me revise my initial post.... GTA and its ilk (along with Norbit and its ilk) will be the RUINATION of society !!!!

hguz73

You can play GTA, you can watch Friday 31th 100 times, you can even read Charles Manson's diary, you can even hear Marylin Manson all day and non of that would affect you unless you have a deranged state of mind. It's all about mental health.

paige_peach

know1 wrote:

Video games aren't so bad (I don't play them, though).

It's parents that are ruining society.

Amen to this. It's parents that should be teaching moderation and morals.

Which, by the way, anyone see the news story about the kids stealing copies of GTA? There has to be some proof in that!

Rhinocerous Surprise

imalive wrote:

Fair enough. Let me revise my initial post.... GTA and its ilk (along with Norbit and its ilk) will be the RUINATION of society !!!!

GTA isn't really as bad as you might think - it's more of a satire than the murder-simulator the media makes it out to be. Besides which, it's rated M - if kids are playing it before they learn to read, it's a problem with the parents, not GTA.

I don't really mean to keep on arguing with you, specifically - I just get the feeling that all the negative press video games get (such-and-such inspired Jimmy to KILL, etc.) sometimes colours the views of people who haven't had much exposure to the medium. GTA is really no more subversive than a film like A Clockwork Orange, and that was maligned in its day too - but now it's considered a classic piece of artistic shock cinema.

PearlJamaholic

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

GTA isn't really as bad as you might think - it's more of a satire than the murder-simulator the media makes it out to be. Besides which, it's rated M - if kids are playing it before they learn to read, it's a problem with the parents, not GTA.

I don't really mean to keep on arguing with you, specifically - I just get the feeling that all the negative press video games get (such-and-such inspired Jimmy to KILL, etc.) sometimes colours the views of people who haven't had much exposure to the medium. GTA is really no more subversive than a film like A Clockwork Orange, and that was maligned in its day too - but now it's considered a classic piece of artistic shock cinema.

but there is a difference. gta is fun(well 3 was, i got bored with vc and sa, and have no interest in iv), clockwork orange sucked, good book though.

but if we are gonna get into the violence of video games vs movies, show me one game that has anything close to hostel or maybe we can go further and look at cannibal holocaust.

that is one thing that does irk me about video games. an m rated video game shows boob and the world goes all crazy, and they arent even real boobs. yet they sell those college frat boy movies, like porkies or american pie and its ok cause its rated r. same with violence. didnt the latest rambo movie have some insane kill count? rated m should equal rated r. both are 17 and up. so why dont they get equal treatment?

Rhinocerous Surprise

PearlJamaholic wrote:

but there is a difference. gta is fun(well 3 was, i got bored with vc and sa, and have no interest in iv), clockwork orange sucked, good book though.

but if we are gonna get into the violence of video games vs movies, show me one game that has anything close to hostel or maybe we can go further and look at cannibal holocaust.

that is one thing that does irk me about video games. an m rated video game shows boob and the world goes all crazy, and they arent even real boobs. yet they sell those college frat boy movies, like porkies or american pie and its ok cause its rated r. same with violence. didnt the latest rambo movie have some insane kill count? rated m should equal rated r. both are 17 and up. so why dont they get equal treatment?

Agreed - games are still looked down upon as "kids' stuff", when in fact, they matured beyond that years ago. Where the cinema world seems to be regressing with countless mindless remakes, video games are pushing all kinds of boundaries. Games like Knights of the Old Republic and Bioshock make you consider the moral consequences of your decisions, the Total War series lets you not just learn about history, but participate in the famous battles, and games like Giants: Citizen Kabuto and the Sam and Max series are far funnier than most Hollywood movies.

This is without mentioning that the fact that the player is actively participating in the events keeps them far more mentally active than watching a movie. Except now I have mentioned it.

sachinc

PearlJamaholic wrote:

but american idol is the top rated tv show currently running, so that does say something about tv viewers, at least the majority. and the fact that there are like a million cis and law and order shows which are the same thing over and over and over.

I'm with you but when you see the hundredth generic movie tie in hit no. 1 sales charts you feel as pooped as anyone who watches American idol (and not for the stupid people at the start)

HushBull

What will ruin a society is people making such radical judgements about things they don't understand or enjoy. We get it, video games are not your idea of fun. However, there are many many productive people living in a functional world that deeply enjoy their polygons. And there isn't anything wrong with it. In moderation, which is obvious.