Are video games bad for culture?

I think the people you have in your head, and I admit are drawn to fantasy(sometimes by the necessity of entertaining themselves), are going to be "ignored" by society regardless of if they play games or not. Games do not cause it. Before vid games - there was star trek, before that, lost in space, before that dime novels....

Tell me what is so great about "socializing" what is the great addition to "culture" that you are talking about - usually mindless stuff like weather, career promotion, how much fucking crap you have in your house ,etc,etc -

 

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The video game culture. Interesting ring to it. Sort of like Pop culture - but in an imaginary world of gamers. The lack of face to face human interaction, however, is disturbing in this culture.

 

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Not necessarily. People still meet to play games together, attend conferences on developing products within the industry (E3, for example), and with the advance of video and telecommunications services, some of the latest video game software allows for video and audio chat. There is a video game console called the XBOX 360, which has an online service called XBOX Live that has at least a million subscribers. This service allows people all over the world to play games together, communicating using a headset or video camera. Did you know that there are "professional video gamers" who actually make money competing against other people in tournaments? I won't call it a sport, but it has similar implications.

 

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That's interesting. But, have they devised a way for gamers to make out over the box?

 

I think virtually everyone is there to game, it's just a byproduct that if a girl shows up she's going to get a couple guys talking to her, like walking into a bar full of guys or conversely a guy walking into a bar full of girls. If a girl shows up at a sporting event with mainly guys she'll probably get equally hit on. I'm sure most women realise this but it's fun to bitch.

 

Technically the whole culture can be shaped to be different than peoples current opinions, that however is entirely down to media and of course corporations.

After all how many "Famous" Gamers are now sporting the new games console of a well known company wearing a particular brand of sports shoes (made for keeping your feet comfortable) while wearing other merchandising brands?

Currently none, mainly because the whole "Flare" thats usually kicked up in Sell out popular cultures has yet to truly spark off within the gaming industry. However with that said, it's on the way.

More Gaming conventions, Greater changes to the television networks in the form of true gaming channels made to glamourise, perhaps even better marketing trends to encourage socialism among other areas of concern. (Like productivity.)

Of course the Gaming culture would become that like any other, Manufactured.

 

my wife plays video games with me alot.

and i have always played playstation games with my friends at my house or there house. how is that not social?


peace.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I was a kid during the 80s. Much of the video game culture I've been exposed to over the years is anything but isolated, and limited to introverts.

My whole family used to sit around the living room and play pong.

There were also the arcades......
I remember when the whole pac man craze (well - technically, it was pac man fever

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) started. Every place that had a machine was surrounded by 10 or more players who were all talking smack, and trying to reserve the next game. The same thing happened with the release of each new 'hot' game (IE - centipede, Galaga, battlezone, Gauntlet, karate champ, tron, star wars, Bad Dudes, Heavy Barrel, arkanoid, operation wolf, etc). I remember a lot of females playing Ms Pac Man, and frogger. I remember there were HUGE crowds of people gawking in amazement at Dragon's Lair when it came out. I remember the whole pecking order that formed around the machines, and keeping up with who's next.
In later years, there were also the "Street Fighter II" and "Mortal Combat" epochs......huge crowds......people cheering.........and there was always one kid at every arcade who knew all the power moves/fatalities, and nobody could beat him. When I was over 21, I went to the bars, and played games like Golden Tee.

Although I've never played the game myself, I understand there was a huge 'dance dance revolution' craze whose participants included trendy young males/females.

What about Halo? Countless times have I sat around a living room with a bunch of guys (plus someone's extremely bored girlfriend) drinking beer, blowing each other up, and laughing about it. The same with sports games like "Madden football", or Hockey, or Basketball.

As I posted earlier, there is the whole lan party/Quake con scene (which is also largely responsible for the case modding fad).

at any rate.....point being video games are far from being something guaranteed to erode social interaction.

 

Civilization is really bad for culture.

psik

 

Video games are awesome...personally, I can't see video games posing any significant problem for any collective culture.

I'd say pornography is more detrimental to any culture than video games. But hey, who am I to say this...