Tuesday 6 March 2007

Ban These Evil Games

Why do games receive such bad press?

A moral panic is a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behaviour or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society.
This is the problem that computer games constantly face. The fact of the matter is that computer games don’t make you a violent person even if the content is violent, anyone who actual plays games knows this. It makes sence that playing isn’t going to create a dangerous person. If we take a look at the reasons some one may become violent it is usually due to a scaring experience. Playing a game is fun, not tragic, if anything gamers more passive.

Violence on TV and computer games seems like it is immoral and parents cant be blamed for being concerned. However there is no real reason why it would cause someone to abandon their moral values and take to the street murdering their friends.

Huzings idea of the magic circle goes some way to arguing this. When beginning to play a game you enter a safe area, you play in the games special context, a context that is unrelated to the real world. It has its own rules. On entering the circle you know to change your behaviour and attitude to play the game in its context. It makes you know how to act. For example in a first person shooter FPS game you can kill people and die with no consequence. This idea can be applied even to the oldest of games like chess. Playing chess is a simulation of war, but no one will accuse the chess club of undermining moral values and being a waste of time.

This idea of a lusory attitude where you change your mental state to play a game is like a safe guard from letting the behaviour leak out of the games context. People know the difference between the two contexts. It is almost patronising to accuse gamers of violence when you consider these ideas.

Are games a waste of time and a bad influence?

You would think it is safe to assume so. It can be seen as sitting inside playing for hours on end to accomplish goals on a game that lead to no gain in real life. An exception could be online poker, this can become an addiction. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the real life gains are more apparent, lulling the user in with this feeling of accomplishing something through play. Well perhaps we are accomplishing something through play, even if it is not earning (loosing) us money.

Huizing describes man as Homo-Ludens, Man as a player. This looks at the importance of the play-element in culture and society. The idea is that play is very important to humanity. It is a primary category of life, integral to culture, just like language war and knowledge. Dr. Spock’s the author of a baby and child care book claims that ‘computer games are a colossal waste of time’. It seems to me that he has failed to consider the importance of play to people. Play is likely a very influential thing in a chilled development. It could be responsible for sculpting a child’s future skills and interests. Considering this not only are games not a waste of time but they can be a positive influence too. The assumption is that play is something else, a more important activity than it is given credit.

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