Video Gaming is like watching an action-packed, story-driven, ornate-animation blockbuster movie, but with a challenge.
Photo from flashgamestrategy.com
You are the main character, you control him, you do the nonsense and awkward jumping and jogging around. It’s interactive, you choose the way you want the story to fulfill.
Parents say it promotes violence. There’s a reason why certain games are age-restricted. There are video games for kids – Mario and his unending quest to save a princes or Hannah Montana dream show. The hardcore ones are for the emerging adults to adults. And like Hannah Montana, we know it’s a dream world. What we do in the games doesn’t necessarily reflect how we function in society.
People say it’s a waste of time. Nothing is a waste of time if you enjoy every second of wasting it. But I understand where this is coming from; there are professionals who risk their jobs by shutting down his life for video games. It shouldn’t get in the way of responsibilities, be it work, school, and relationships. Like in any areas of life, moderation is key. Too much of anything could bad for you, so it’s all about managing time.
In playing video games, there are numerous instances where a person’s decision making is tested. That’s where one’ll get to know that certain decisions have hefty consequences, so next time you will decide better. And of course, the slower you are, the lamer you are in the game. Video gaming improves your reflexes, making it quicker and faster.
It also works your problem solving skills, creativity, self-confidence and in recent years, fitness. On top of all, it incomparably improves mood. It is among the best stress reliever out there!
Researches as proofs, Nintendo Wii can help improve motor functioning for recovering stoke patients; kids “soar” with their grades; and quite contrary to beliefs, video gaming aren’t so geeky. It improves social skills rather than keep you on your own. There are many more benefits, but this is not a psychological report so I’ll stop there.
And by the way, if it helps the gaming industry, I will continue buying $60 games – it’s well worth my money and time. $0.99 speaks for itself, you get $0.99 value of pleasure – repetitive, quite boring.
Why do you play video games?
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Moment Matters 
I’m a big video game fan and it’s always annoyed me when adults say that they make you more violent. Now it seems we can prove them wrong. Hooray! Thanks for this interesting post.
Hey Tom! If it makes us violent, there’ll be alot of us, goodluck staying alive haha. What are the likes you play?
I have to admit I’m not a huge player of the gun type games; I like Skyrim, Warhawk (PS3), the Uncharted Series and LittleBigPlanet is by far my favourite. How about you?
I like shooters, but not as much as I like adventure and RPG! Uncharted is my best game, best of PS3 for me! And it’s great that we get inside spoof of naughty dog. I haven’t tried LittleBigPlanet, but my brother did and hated it so passed on the game.. Though we have very different gaming acumen so I might like it if I tried
Have you seen the Penn and Teller “BullShi@#” on this topic. You would most likely find it amusing.
I’m not aware of that.. I probably will, can you link it here? 🙂
FPS mostly, just for fun. Nice to jump in and save the day after doing some armchair travelling through books.
RPG and Adventure is my genre but can I say Call of Duty for the win!!
Video games – love WII – because you can play so many different games and together with the family, games that are not violent! I’m a strong believer in that the games make us more violent … we have made violence into entertainment through games and films, not right.
I love Wii as well, the games are for family and friends, which we all love playing with. Ohh, good times! Nintendo has less violent games too. As for the rest of it, violence could affect kids, as they learn through modeling but for the adults ones, I don’t think so. It’s just for fun for us, heck fun! 😀
Your point on the cost of games is a good one. While it’s great that many new players have begun to enjoy video games through iOS and Android platforms, one would hope that this might lead to further engagement in more well-developed and complex gaming options. Games like Angry Birds may be very popular, but the best that the gaming world has to offer lies elsewhere.
Well my friend it’s not veering towards that. iOS gaming is shifting the demand, even Nintendo was pressured to release Mario in smartphones, which is completely absurd but that’s the truth. Vast money is gaining in smartphones now, which could really hurt the gaming industry if you’re looking at the quality of prevailing games. Let’s support console gaming!
Yeah I know that the money in smartphones is growing, and it will, no doubt, continue to grow. What I would like to see is either a) people begin to outgrow being exclusive smartphone gamers, or b) smartphone technology and game developers begin to put together a more comprehensive slate of game options that offers a little bit more than the traditional repetitive smartphone game.
I hope it’ll be the first one. It’s hard to develop cutting edge gaming technology on smartphones, because it’s too small. Maybe it’s an economical thing, these times it’s more prudent to cut spending on gaming and resort to cheaper alternatives. Hopefully, not for long. I still stick to console gaming 😀
My husband and I are all about the RPGs (Elder Scrolls, Fable, Fallout), but with four little kids, we’ve also started playing a lot of board games (Carcassonne, Catan) on the Xbox, because that way the midget mob can’t get into the box and lose half of the pieces 🙂 Our kids aren’t allowed to play them yet, but that’s more a function of limiting their screen time than anything else; we have Wii Storybook Adventures for them, but they’d rather spend their hour of screen time watching Spider-Man ’67 (score!) or My Little Pony.
We’re NOT fans of young children having their own handheld gaming systems, but that’s more because too many parents use them as a way to park their kids in a corner and not have to, you know, parent them, than for any other reason. There’s a lot of research out there that says the more time kids spend in front o video screens of any kind, the more problems they’ll have with their academic and social development. Everything in moderation, right?
Peace be with you! Kelly
You know what’s funny? I remember having a gameboy at a young age and sometimes it would consume my every waking moment. So much, I hardly remember a family vacation I went on.
I say this to say I don’t think handheld systems are bad for kids, but they will miss out if they are not careful!
Then again, I beat the final Pokemon gym leader.
Oh you’re a gameboy guy too? I’m a pro Pokemon gamer. I do trades and link battles, cool stuff. Then save file was corrupted, what the f?! You’ve said it, they’re not bad for kids, but it can take too much of their time, they lose certain important moments
Everything in moderation, right. I’m okay with kids playing video games, but not too much. They still have that social skills to develop, and you don’t want a child to be comfortable being all by himself. Let him play outside too, with other kids. I see it often in society, giving children handheld systems to keep them occupied – lazy parenting.
Rock on, RPG gamers!
Any kind of game…I am a true blue gamer. I have played numerous games back from 1995. back in those days I used to play on 8 bit gaming consoles. From 2000, I had switched my focus in PC gaming. I have almost 600 PC game titles with me. FPS, Racing, Simulation, RTS, RPG, Survival, Horror, Tycoon, Puzzle, Arcade, Board…the list is endless.
Earlier I used to play for more than 6/7 hours each day. I was sleeping for 3/4 hours on those days. Now I have cut it down to one hour on weekdays and 2 hours on weekends. Games are great fun, to learn, to think, to use the decision making skills, to navigate throughout complex world, to react faster. It teaches us a lot about different cultures as well.
Recently I bought a Gaming System based on Intel Core i5 3.3 GHz, 16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM, nVidia 560 GTX Overclocked edition, 500 GB HDD, Ausu PH67V Glod Motherboard and 700W power supply. It is simply an awesome system.
Two days back I had finished Mass Effect 3. Currently I am playing L.A. Noire, Alane Wake, NFS Most Wanted, Railroad Tycoon, Metro 2033 and Age of Mythology.
YEAHA! It’s an awesome system. My first gaming console was PlayStation, and I grew up with its generations so I’m pretty much a PS boy. Seems like you play any game at all, good times! I can relate, I used to play that long but not for long, I told myself I have cut it to function well.
Do you mean that you play different games all at once?
I love video gaming, from the first time I held the paddle to the coleco vision pong game we had when I was a kid to what it has come to today with xbox, wii , and ps3 and I really look forward to what will be
yes….30 minutes in a stretch or may be 5 different games each week…this way I can divert my mind…
I’m also looking forward to the future of quality gaming, and I averse smartphones games. Not that it’s not fun, it is fun especially when on the go but not to replace what we have in home consoles. Am I making sense here? Haha
you certainly are 🙂
I LOVE how you mentioned, “Nothing is a waste of time if you enjoy every second of wasting it.” That is so apt! Thank you for liking the Jim Morrison post. Hope you drop by often and up my readership from 4 to 5. Haha.
I try with my spare time to visit your homepages as well, my way of appreciation 😀 Thanks for your words too!
The Gravitar link (clicking on your picture on this page) brings me through to your gravitar page – but there is no link in your gravitar to your blog – could you amend that? I am curious as to what you are writing. Hope you can help.
Oh thanks for informing me! I have my personal links below the name “Moment Matters”. I mean, that’s how I see it when I click it. Would you mind to check it again? 🙂
That’s my favorite part too! I chuckled out loud when I read that line, because it’s a REALLY GOOD STATEMENT! Instead of feeling guilty over it, we need to just enjoy ourselves while doing it. We need a break from reality every now and then. hee hee 🙂
You guys don’t know how delighted I am upon reading your fascination! Except, I don’t see my reality as purely work, my reality is a balance of work and enjoyment. It’s a kind of boring life when you are on the extreme of any of it 😀
Haha! True, “reality” can be fun too! Especially if your “work” is doing what you love!
I love most types of games. Expect sports games. I’m dedicated to PC games and don’t go for consol games. I remember when all games were released for both formats. I don’t want to buy 3 different consols to run games. I still want my large content games with replability factor. If I want highly repetative mini-games, I’ll just play them on facebook or msgames or popcap.
I suck at PC gaming, my fingers are just so used to controllers. I find it extremely comfortable than keyboards. By releasing console exclusive games, they keep the competition. That’s another reason why I love PS3 – the exclusives are epic good!
I am a huge gamer… I don’t limit myself to any single type of game. You may have read on my blog that Portal 2 was the best game to come out last year, and I stand by it. I also can’t help but play through all the great new XBLA indie games(FEZ, Braid, Limbo) when they come out.
I also consider myself a huge music fan, and if I had to say one type of thing over the other promotes violence…it’s music hands down. The music I enjoy actively promotes violence, in fact. Not that hearing it will make me go punch someone. It’s all about the person and how they are raised, etc.
I wanted to try Portal 2! Having to use your mind in games is a plus for me, other than just messing around or trial and error types. But I also dig a few games just for fun, and among them, Rockband (and Guitar Hero)!
Thanks for reblogging Matt! Keep on the gaming spirit haha
Thanks for the comment! Also this is a very cool post. My husband’s and I love for video games brought us together and now 7 years later we still play together. Whether it be Halo or COD. And our friends love games too. We play online almost every night! We love the excitement of when we hear of a game we are waiting for has a release date. Also I should note that when I moved in with my now husband our game collection doubled. We love busting out the SNES and play some Mario Kart together.
I enjoy online multiplayers too, even though all of them are strangers. Must have been more exciting when you know who you are shooting with/against. Yeah, sometimes I miss the pixelated games too
Great article. Video games are story telling at its best. Not only do you get to hear the story, but you get to be a part of it. And motion controls now allow for an even more immersive experience.
You are part of the story, true! What an experience 😀 I appreciate your thoughts
I love video games! Some might thing I’m too old, but mostly I play them with my kids. We have an XBox and a Wii. Like everyone is saying… “moderation” is the key to fun times in this arena. One of my husband’s favorite things to do to unwind is to play COD on the Xbox. I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but my hubby is a pastor and after a particularly stressful or overwhelming day at work he says, “Now it’s time to kill some people” and goes upstairs to the XBox on our wonderful little flat screen tv. Don’t worry, he’s kidding around, fighting the war in a video game doesn’t mean he’s gonna bring a weapon to church the next time he preaches. Haha! 🙂
i completely agree, the best stories ive seen have been in videogames, especially in the uncharted series and portal 2
As an adult gamer I get debated with, about this subject all the time. Its crazy.
Distinct generational differences, but I like your writing.
— YUR
HAH! See, gaming isn’t bad for anyone. Great post. It makes me want to get back to gaming again …I miss FPS and adventure games. They always helped unwind.
Reblogged this on Preconscious.