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The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.

Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.

Children are the primary market for video games.

Almost no girls play computer games.

Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.

Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.

Video game play is socially isolating.

Video game play is desensitizing.

Most of the stuff you just read, is WRONG!

Read entire article here!

Most of the stuff I read isn't news from 2003.

that stuff is wrong and i dont even know if they can be called stereotypes. However.

most videogamers are fat lazy couchpotatoes who eat junkfood and have a "neck-beard" is a common stereotype. While it may not apply to many people who like to play games, i did know a few people who match the desriprtion above. Also coincidentally most of the corpulant people i met, just happen to like videogames a lot and a few had neck-beards.

i like videogames a lot myself but i have no consoles i play on the computer and not very enthusiastically either, (i am more addicted to internet), i do notice that i am lazy most of the time, i do eat junk food and while i dont have a neck beard, i usually dont bother shaving untill the beard becomes too itchy or uncomfortable.

so while i am skinny i think the rest of my charecteristics fit the stereotype very well even tho i am not into games as many who come from that stereotype i still enjoy playing videogames which automatically targets me as a messy, lazy junkfood eating geek. And really i do believe that videogames actually turned me into such a person because if i never would have got into videogames, i know i would be a different person than i am now. Much of what drives me forward in life today, can be tracked back to videogames. the reason i repair computers is because i did so as a kid so i could play computer games on them its that simple

the 8 stereotypes above are just complete madeup media BS because the polititians needed someone or something to blame.

What list is this, two thirds of it is the same with a different approach...

Aggression: it is very easy to find out if video games cause mass increase in aggressive behaviour or not. Do anything that you like to act differently in contrast your average days. Be a bit alone, and break something. Or punch the wall . Will it make you more relaxed, or a fighting maniac?

As for that "expression" thingy, i don't really see what that should even mean. Game making, now that's an artform, but... playing it?... what?

It's in connection with the social life of the player. It's not a way of expression, it can liven up friendships or a whole family's life. But it depends, there ARE the games that make people basement dwellers nerds smashing chips all day and die in his 30s. This is NOT a stereotype. The stereotype is that "it can only happen due to video games" !

Actually, i just remembered about my buddy whois infact kinda agressive, like he wont hurt anyone for no reason, but when he is angry or something, he tells me he just wants to beat someone up (never does tho) anyway, i am really not sure what to think about this but his is huge fan of World Of Tanks, and i am just not sure if he lets his agression out in that game, or is the tank-combat MMO provoking him to get agressive. Um i am not even sure where i am going with this but i just remembered my other friend who also liked to play vodeogames. But he was one of those people who really hated to loose and when he does start to loose he becimes genuenly angry and agressive he might trow a controller at you or angryly make up something abou the other guy cheeting. Now that i remember, its not just videogames, its also board games and probobly other competative things. He is normally a very nice happy non agressive friendly kind of guy. after writing this paragraph here i realised that videogames really have nothing to very little to do with most peoples behavior. I tried to prove myself wrong here but i came to the same conclusion that the whole videogames cause violence thing is BS

now about videogames are primarly marketed at childeren. In russia its true. We dont have raitongs for them here, and most parents here are fine with violent videogames (its almost the same as how their oparents generation played war with each other with toy guns) so a kid can easily buy GTA4 or manhunt 2 around here
(unlike in america where Gamestop refused to sell me a copy of GTA4 because according to them my state issued drivers permit that proved i was 18, wasnt good enough to be considered valid ID even tho i was 19 at that time and didnt shave for a week. i couldnt have looked like i was underage, then my friend who looked like he was 16 but had drivers licence to prove he was 18, they didnt want to sell it to him either but unlike me this dude raised a scandal on purpose for the sake of bying me that copy of GTA4) So yeah in russia videogames are seen as things for kids, and kids are mature enough to play.

almost no girls play videogames. I dont know how accurate that is it might be different for different people, but i never met a girl who liked to play videogames.

videogames are used to train soldiers, and i am no psycologist but from what i read on this subject is most people who never been in a war or killed anybody, (new young recruits) mentally cannot kill someone of their own species. (sure some might think they can but when it comes to it theyll proboly not do it). The army knew about this aspect and the army always need young men (and women in some countries) to be able to fight and kill other humans because thats what their job is. So they subconciasly train the new recruits. Instead of regular target practice, the recruits would shoot at targets that are shaped like a human or have a human figure drawn on the target. Apperentley this kind of subconsios conditioning makes it easier and less stressfull for the rookies to kill his human enemy. and once you experienced the mental shock of killing one or 2 humans, the mind just learns to cope with it. Another related thing i read is that the enemy is always called by whatever names they can apply to them that dont sound human. All the enemies are communists or terrorists or nazis or socialists, which if repeated to you over and over again depoicting them in a menecing mannaer, you eventually forget that the terrorist you killed was a human. to you all he was was a terrorist, you forget that he is a human.

This Process is called Dehumanisation, so yes some of it is true and i dont really know if videogames can lead to dehumanisation but i think they do contributute in some way. I have committed entire genocides on virtual people in a computer videogame console, yet i dont think i can work up a nerve to kill a person if i was handed a gun and told to shoot someone. I honestley dont if i would or would not because i never killed anyone before and it certainly wont be easy on my conciosness. I stull dint think i would kill a person just because i killed 100 virtual people in a videogame, and i think many would agree on that. (also it depends on the circumstances of who and how you kill)

Some videogames are a good form of expression. Most people on this forum who make games are proboly exoressing themselves in some form, leaving a bit of yourself in a game.

Videogames are socially isolating the players. Well thats different from merson to person, I myself can boldly claim that yes videogames are a form of social isolation for me at least. I dont like mutiplayer games for some reason, never got into them, and when i play games its usually single player games and usually during a period where i want to escape the problems of this world as well as its people because frankly i dont like most people, and i perfer to avoid socialising with peoplebecause i find most pleople to be in one or another way unpleasamt (yes there are exeptions and some people are cool i agree, and yes i am socialising wioth you guys now but to me you are nothing more than a collection of icons and avatars who have the mind of their own... and i bet id hate most of ya in real life ) JK guys

i dont even know about the last one but every culture has something descensotizing. sooo thats my output

these two are kind of true: there is way less females that play games than males, and games CAN be socially isolating, depending on addiction issues and how well the person in question chooses to handle real life after starting to play games

Quik: I kinda have to disagree, games do not cause social isolation. If one get's isolated, then he has a natural tendency to do so. It's not the game that causes it, it's the user that uses the game to isolate himself. It's all up to the user.

I kind of said that:

Ah, misread your post. Then we agree

weird thing is that ALL my friends play videogames, including all the girls (and that is quite a lot...)
even my parents do/used to (they mostly play facebook games now, but back in the days it was CS 1.6 and Quake 3 hardcore)

In no way is that true, it depends on the kid's mental stability state, Parents should have their child checked for mental disorders, even minor ones, before letting them play any video games, also have their impressionability rate checked.

Saying that games used for military training, and games used for civilians are the same is like saying Nerf guns are the same as rubber training rounds.

I dont know about this but i heard that American Army is a game/sumulator used for military training, i also heard that Chinese developed a similar computer game that is used to train their army

good call xD

I'm quite sure that Airsoft would be a much more effective way to train the armed forces. Atleast for the infantry.

as far as iam concerned that is true...
but isnt Arma and the likes better suited for that i must wonder, since they seem more realistic overall

Ah! Its this thread again!

I think a lot of training exercises are done with paintballs.

I would actually go with GRAW series because ARMA (1 and 2... haven't tried other versions) feels a lot more technical and has a really awful AI and completely rubbish gunhandling. I guess it could be used to familiarize soldiers with various field commands or equipment...but, come on! A simple piece of paper would do a much better job.

I just have the feeling that ARMA disguises a really poor tactical shooter beneath open landscapes, lots of vehicules and some army shenannigans. And really really really lifeless Design choices and soulless NPC/Enemy characters...and of course: no athmosphere whatsoever.



What? No! You shouldn't encourage parents to make tests on their kids like that. There is too much elitist parenting horsecrap going on out there anyway. Look... just don't let your kid play any violent stuff until it reached the age of 14..and from then on he'll do what he wants anyway. Also if you have a child with mental disorders and you send him/her to a public school these will grow to major disorders through puberty anyway.



-Wolf

Airsoft is far, far, far more commonly used as a training weapon for law enforcement agencies everywhere. The weapons look and feel almost identical the actual weapons they mimic.

I know this because my father is the Crisis Response Team trainer at the prison he works at.

hence why i said "and the likes" operation flashpoint was my original thought but i lost the name lol xD

They do.

I was working at the hotel the officials stayed in for the Melbourne commonwealth games in 2006. The security forces used to guard the building all used a 3d game map of the hotel to familiarize themselves with the layout.

That particular hotel would make a brilliant death match map.(It was the Vic hotel on little Collins if any of you are familiar with it)

I asked one of them if i could have the level, he said no.

dammit.