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Gamer Generation
Apr. 17th, 2007 08:05 pmI am watching a TV show about gaming on Discovery Times right now. It's called "Gamer Generation". They talk about the phenomena that is computer\video games right now. It starts off with talking about how the younger generations are the ones who are the early adopter of games, etc.
They say in Korea pro gamers are celebrities with all kinds of adoring fans and big cell phone endorsements and million dollar careers. You know what their career path is after that? Stock broker.. is it just me or does that sound kind of.. anticlimactic? It looks like Starcraft is the huge game for competition over there. It's no wonder Blizzard is still going to be bringing out updates for it I read they are going to bring out a universal binary for OS X for it.
They also talked about "America's Army" and how it's designed and used to recruit soldiers. I cringe though when some guy suggests that games are a good way to desensitize a person to death. I cringe in general when I see that bald guy talk because he seems in my opinion to overanalyze the reason why we like to play games. Sort of like how they show Freud always spinning things to be caused by sexual frustration.
With AA it's supposed to be like a person plays it and then says.. I want to do this for real! But I agree with those people who say that a game can't prepare a person for the horrors of war. Personally I don't even like shooters that tread into the territory where they are trying to be "realistic" like Tom Clancy or perhaps AA.
Syrians are complaining that in games you are always killing Arabs but I have to say... they simply are playing the wrong games. There are plenty of games where you don't kill Arabs. They think those games are training people to kill Arabs. In my case however for example I have "killed" all the characters in Mortal Kombat many times but if someone dressed up as a MK Ninja and walked down the street my first impulse wouldn't be to kill him! I can see some people really take games seriously though and these two middle eastern kids I where seeing where saying they like this new game that they are playing that was made over there because they feel like they are killing people from isreal.
Also or me there is worlds of difference between killing a few pixels and even thinking of killing a real person. To be honest I think that should be the way it is for any sane person. Video games aren't real and they are not like real life.
It's kind of hard to say that video games never inspire real life violence when you see stuff like that though. But again this sort of thing happens with all kinds of entertainment. I know for a fact that some people have reacted to movies, music, comic books, etc. the same way and it makes it seem like everyone reacts that way.
When I see people talk about things like that though it almost makes me feel like maybe I should feel.. more aggressive and violent having played so much games in my life but I don't. Just like me having taken martial arts as a child doesn't make me feel like becoming a UFC champion.. *shrugs* WIth games I am also like.. well.. it was fun but afterwards it was just a game after all.
Here's some more examples. In a game I wouldn't mind killing a huge bug but in real life I would think twice because it's probably dangerous and or gross. Depending on the situation in a game I might trudge through toxic slime or lava or electrified water but I would never do that in real life. There are a lot of examples like that... and I repeat: Games are not real!
But.. there is at least one thing that has become taboo for me and that is games having to do with sex or relationships with other players online. One reason is because in my experience cheating is cheating no matter where it is. To say I've had troubles with this sort of thing is an understatement. My attitude now is why ruin a good thing like for example a visual chat with stuff like that?
They say in Korea pro gamers are celebrities with all kinds of adoring fans and big cell phone endorsements and million dollar careers. You know what their career path is after that? Stock broker.. is it just me or does that sound kind of.. anticlimactic? It looks like Starcraft is the huge game for competition over there. It's no wonder Blizzard is still going to be bringing out updates for it I read they are going to bring out a universal binary for OS X for it.
They also talked about "America's Army" and how it's designed and used to recruit soldiers. I cringe though when some guy suggests that games are a good way to desensitize a person to death. I cringe in general when I see that bald guy talk because he seems in my opinion to overanalyze the reason why we like to play games. Sort of like how they show Freud always spinning things to be caused by sexual frustration.
With AA it's supposed to be like a person plays it and then says.. I want to do this for real! But I agree with those people who say that a game can't prepare a person for the horrors of war. Personally I don't even like shooters that tread into the territory where they are trying to be "realistic" like Tom Clancy or perhaps AA.
Syrians are complaining that in games you are always killing Arabs but I have to say... they simply are playing the wrong games. There are plenty of games where you don't kill Arabs. They think those games are training people to kill Arabs. In my case however for example I have "killed" all the characters in Mortal Kombat many times but if someone dressed up as a MK Ninja and walked down the street my first impulse wouldn't be to kill him! I can see some people really take games seriously though and these two middle eastern kids I where seeing where saying they like this new game that they are playing that was made over there because they feel like they are killing people from isreal.
Also or me there is worlds of difference between killing a few pixels and even thinking of killing a real person. To be honest I think that should be the way it is for any sane person. Video games aren't real and they are not like real life.
It's kind of hard to say that video games never inspire real life violence when you see stuff like that though. But again this sort of thing happens with all kinds of entertainment. I know for a fact that some people have reacted to movies, music, comic books, etc. the same way and it makes it seem like everyone reacts that way.
When I see people talk about things like that though it almost makes me feel like maybe I should feel.. more aggressive and violent having played so much games in my life but I don't. Just like me having taken martial arts as a child doesn't make me feel like becoming a UFC champion.. *shrugs* WIth games I am also like.. well.. it was fun but afterwards it was just a game after all.
Here's some more examples. In a game I wouldn't mind killing a huge bug but in real life I would think twice because it's probably dangerous and or gross. Depending on the situation in a game I might trudge through toxic slime or lava or electrified water but I would never do that in real life. There are a lot of examples like that... and I repeat: Games are not real!
But.. there is at least one thing that has become taboo for me and that is games having to do with sex or relationships with other players online. One reason is because in my experience cheating is cheating no matter where it is. To say I've had troubles with this sort of thing is an understatement. My attitude now is why ruin a good thing like for example a visual chat with stuff like that?
