So many people doubt gaming in society. They bash it, hate it, attack it and pee on it. To those people I ask, Have you ever slayed a dragon? I have. Have you ever flew a ship in space to defend against an alien horde? I have. Have you ever explored tombs in search for great treasures? I have. Have you ever tossed a bird at a pig? I have. Gaming is the new reading. Before gaming people had to use solely their imaginations. Today, we use imagination and have the means to interact with those imaginations. And the best part is we get to see othe people's imaginations come to life. The benefits of gaming are vast, much more then the cons. From teaching someone hand eye coordination to expanding our thought processes, gaming is here and will always be here. I am a gamer dad who does believe that games can influence bad choices in children. But they can influence much more good choices. In this case the good does out weigh the bad. When it comes to kids all it takes is proper parenting. While your kid is inside playing games, his chances of being kidnapped, hit by a car, joining a gang and more are cut nearly in half. Then again fat boy needs to get out and play. Balance is key. But how amazing is it in the year 2013 we have the ability to show others our thoughts and not just tell them about em? Amazing! I have fought dinosaurs, battled wizards and smacked a few "hoes" and I'm alive. Games are like our dreams. Many things happen in dreams but ultimately you wake up and are safe. Our dreams happen as a means of our brains processing our daily thoughts and as a defense mechanism. We expand this by reading, watching and gaming as well as interacting with loved ones and other gamers. Imagine what people would have thought of gaming in say, times of Jesus. Or ancient Greece. Or the time of the Vikings. Every single time I just mentioned would react in one of two ways. 1. Your a witch and you would be burned at the stake. 2. They would be amazed and speechless. All this gaming stuff happened in around 60 years or something like that. Imagine the future. Imagine what gaming will be like 20 years from now or even 40. Appreciate what you all have today. Officially right now, you are the newest of mankind and alive during a time of constant change and wonderful inventions from a wonderful mankind. Ignore....no, don't ignore, set aside the bad that people do from time to time and love the fact that we live in a world where the majority of that world has the ability to share their thoughts and dreams with us, via entertainment media. Gaming. Just a random rant here. Sketch ObeHitGamer Creator
I made the mistake of being curious at the flashing lights of an asteroid cabinet when I was ten years old. Ever since then I've wasted untold hours of my life achieving virtual goals when I could have been achieving real life goals. Good luck to your kids in finding that balance ! Lol I joke - my family and career say I found somewhat of a balance I guess. Lol. Nice post btw. Really enjoyed the read !
Real life goals are influenced by imagination. Stories we tell to kids influence them to acheive real world goals. If someone failed in life because they spent too much time gaming, then it's their own fault. Mature adults have balance when it comes to gaming and real world. Kids like to spend more time gaming then achieving but that's just kids. Proper parenting can put them right. But I'm sure alot of people will disagree. Those people failed because of their own choices, not because of gaming.
Until ios, I wondered why so many people loved to slingshot birds at pigs. Now that I own All the games, I still wonder why...
I've pondered thoughts such as your post and even tried to explain gaming to those that don't a few times. Reason why I enjoyed the read very much. Its almost a relief at times to come to TA for the commonality we all have in gaming, especially after a rough day at surviving in the world. Thanks for posting.
I like playing games. That's why I'm on this forum. But everything in moderation. Some people, especially young kids or teens that I'll meet when they venture out, play games too often. It's just ridiculous, they never get out, they have little to no friends, their bodies are thin and pale. They don't realize that there's a real world out there for them, school and work and girls and hobbies and ANYTHING. Sure videogames are fun. But when I look back on my life in 50 years, I don't want to remember slaying dragons or having an amazing k/d. I want to remember my spouse, my friends, my siblings, my parents, my family, my accomplishments, the differences I've made. I want something tangible. I tend to view videogames as a relaxing thing, a hobby of sorts; a way to kick back. Something I certainly enjoy but would be horrified to see take over my life. It's not a lifestyle. And I most certainly disagree that it's in any way similar to reading a book, but that's really something far too big to get into in this post. Am I suggesting what I just railed against is what you said? No, of course not. But I am just throwing my opinion out there. I'm not knocking games, I'm just trying to keep them in perspective.
JBRUU - I completely agree. I think it varies from person to person though. Tangible things versus memories and thoughts. The thing is that tangible things can fade or be lost. Typically, memories stay forever. What is more important? A friendship with another human, face to face, or a memory of a great adventure? Friendship. Now, here's te cool part. That friendship will be based on your thoughts. What do you have to say, and common likes. That said, take my best friend, Danny. We are both 30 year old family Gus who grew up together, gaming. So when he comes over we share a passion for virtual entertainment and stories. Sometimes our conversations flip to real world stuff....that's when we get bored. Take moveies as an example. I do not want to watch movies based off real life possibilities. Give me aliens, give me super heroes, give me magic. Expand my mind. I can watch the news if I want to see a murder go on a killing spree. Or controversy in the white house. However those things I cannot get from real life is bigger things. Once you learn about the universe and how vast it is, you no longer are just interested in planet earth. It's like gta games. Once you set the bar you don't care to go backwards and play something lesser. If you meet someone who doesn't game or read fantasy stories, they tend to be boring. Think of it this way. If it wasn't for fantasy or stories of things that might be possible but isn't now, you wouldn't be using a computer. We wouldn't be flying to space. We wouldn't have hardly anything we have today. So it's important to imagine and have these experiences so that future mankind will have a goal to reach. Don't be a recluse and sit in your home gaming all day. You need to expand your mind, then go out to the world and execute your capabilities. Oh and on books being like games. They are the exact same accept gaming has one more thing. Interactivity. A book tells a story. A game tells a story. But a game allows you to manipulate said story or change it to your liking. Like RPGs. Then when you sleep your mind sucks all this in. They say it's a fact that what you experience in your day, at around mid sleep your brain replays those scenes and places them in its so called vault. So I can say that because my brain doesn't recognize that dragon as not real, that if I were to ever fight a real dragon I would have well over 50+% better chance of winning versus other people. Because my subconscious mind has archived the steps to take a dragon down. People who obsess over the sims type of games would probably be pretty awesome at real world social skills if they tried. Lol
But, I have made friends playing ios games! The proof is here on Toucharcade. But maybe you are all just imaginary, and even Jbruu is my friend, though we rarely see eye to eye over Dead Trigger. I even have a friends list on Toucharcade! What for? I got no idea!
Gaming is fun, but when you think about it, it's usually the community that we enjoy more. For instance I have a lot of games and still end up on touch arcade instead of actually playing them. Even other games I have, they are usually either multiplayer games or single player games which other friends are playing so we can talk about it. Wait a minute, what does this have to do with the rest of the thread???
I like gaming, I just hate gamers. Jealous, whiney, self-righteous, bitter, ungrateful little bastards. They give it a bad name. I'm sure things used to be better than this.
In my opinion, there are two kinds of hardcore gamers. There are the people who like games across many genres and consoles (which I like to classify myself as), and then there are the whiny little douchebag hardcore gamers, where every game has to contain at least one female in a bikini and bra, at least 37 uses of the word F*$! and a massive amount of blood to be good, and it has to be as realistic as it can, in their opinion Literally, the only genre I don't like are FPS's, because, in my opinion, the only good ones released in the last 5 years are Borderlands (1 and 2), Far Cry 3, Halo, Left 4 Dead (1 and 2) and the zombies mode in COD Also, my opinion is Nintendo>iPod/Andriod>Microsoft>PC>Sony, and E games>M games I just created a lot of hate for me, didn't I?
Yeah, a bit. I'm still waiting for Nintendo to do something noteworthy after the N64, meanwhile I'm enjoying the likes of XCOM and Ni no Kuni on PS3. Kidding about the hatred part though, I don't mind people having opinions, I just can't stand them arguing relentlessly about their superiority. Especially when it's clear they know very little about the platforms/games they're hating on.
There's something to be said for a more "mature" game. Ever played BioShock? Best. Shooter. Ever. Story, gameplay, level design, choices, everything.
To my previous posts point, I consider gamers and Call of Duty players two separate things because of that. A gamer is someone who gets on a game and has fun, gets good, still has fun, and becomes excellent, and still goes outside, and is able to moderate it to what it is, a game. You can't let the game become your life, because your life will be shit. The people who play a game from morning to night, without stopping to do anything but eat, if even that, who's life goal is quick scoping, like the majority of CoD players, which is the majority of gamers it seems, are just miserable little bitches who's Mom bought them an Xbox too soon, who then never leaves said moms house, gets fat, and wastes away ten years for that MOAB and is a complete dick to everyone, with a screwed education, no life, no job, and eventually dying of a blood clot from lack of movement. I'm using CoD as an example cuz that's just my personal experience with people like this. I know too many people like this. So yes, for the most part I hate gamers. But then there's gamer that's still grounded to life, like most of you on TA, like most of my real life acquaintances, and like the people you find on BF3 compared to CoD, but lets not get into that. But that is why I play iOS, why I don't pay CoD, and why I visit this forum, and don't visit any other gaming forums. I play way too much video games but at the same time, I spend more time with football, my snake breeding project, working out, hunting with my dog, drawing and photography than I do Battlefield, so.. That being said, I agree with the OP
I stopped playing FPS back when Quake 3 Arena hit the dreamcast. I do like borderlands etc but they don't give you the same feel as the old school ones did. My point if the original posts is to point out that many see gaming as just a past time. A hobby. But it isn't. It's not only a culture but its life effects are up there too. Gaming today seems like a bunch if movies that got "rushed". All the creativity has disappeared accept in a few games. Kingdom Hearts, Phantasy Star Online, Monster Hunter or even devil may cry series are the exceptions. Among others of course. When I was a kid I had experiences with gaming unlike I do today. Occasionally a game releases that re kindles that ole flame but very seldomly does it happen. This is why I own a Nintendo 64, sega Saturn, sega dreamcast etc. I own about 150 pc games. Ranging from gothic to call of duty. I did myself researching games (touch arcade etc) more then playing them now. The answer is for swag to release a new console and get back into the battle, or reboot the same ole dreamcast with a new presentation. IMO. I find myself updating iOS games and reading what's new in the change logs more than I play them. I dunno why but it is probably due to me being a game hacker for past 15 years. When I created the onehitgamer website it was all about game hacking. We banned people who attempted to hack online games and focused on those who hacked single player games. I started with the old Gameshark Pro for ps1 and because I in a since "code" and reverse engineered games I think it has everything to do with why I obsess over change logs. Those days were amazing and even though I still hack games today, I still don't get that old feeling.
I only play new games. I don't want to play as a man with a moustache, I want a beard. I don't want to be a short and fat plumber, I want to be in the army.
