Page 8
Greensboro. N.C
Player 1: Begin!
Kyle West
Staff Writer
For the past few years,
it has been fashion
able to blame some of soci
ety's problems on video
games. First, it was teenage
violence, now it's un-creativ
ity. There are some, like Pat
Walsh, an English teacher at
T.C. Williams High School
for over 30 years, who see
video games draining our
generation of its creative tal
ent. The topic disturbed him
enough to write a piece for
The Washington Post on it.
The question is, do they?
I'll admit I'm a pretty hard
core gamer. I've spent
countless hours burning my
eyes on a CRT screen, gam
ing until my hands no longer
function. But I'd hardly say
my gaming has sucked my
creativity dry.
I write, make films, mix
CDs, and read voraciously
as much as I game.
Previously, video games
have sometimes interfered
with my studies, but there
are always days where
you'd rather nail your hand
to a desk than go to school.
I've skipped a few classes to
beat people down in Halo,
and have spent many sleep
less nights gaming with my
friends.
Playing video games isn't
about the violence, or the
myth that gamers enjoy
being alone. And it's not like
only geeks play them, 90%
of boys and 40% of girls
these days plays video
games, according to PBS.
We play games because
they bring us closer, they
teach us about things in our
selves we didn't know, they
drop us into a world so vivid
and so alive we fall in love.
I have a friend in Canada
studying Classics, who plays
more video games than any
one I know. Yet he also is in
the middle of writing a four
teen book series based on
ideas he got while playing
Point/Counterpoint: Video games
video games. So
far he's done with
one, and is work
ing on the second.
I also find ideas for
stories while play
ing games.
Also, many crit
ics argue that
because video
games provide no
"real life skills,"
there is no point to
them. The same
argument could be
applied to books.
Some books do
enhance "real life
skills", but most
are fiction, or
merely intellectual
ly enriching. Yet
the written word
has become a sacred institu
tion, founded on the stories
and worlds created in books.
We're not losing our cre
ativity to video games. We're
just as creative, but some
times we'd rather play
games than read. Books use
words to tell a narrative,
while games use images.
Some of the best games
draw from literature, history
and anthropology, to create
vivid, new stories for the
next generation. And
although a part of the enter
tainment business, the video
game industry is also striving
to make video games into
works of art, much in the
way that film evolved from a
business into an art.
We need to see video
games, not only as a form of
entertainment, but also as a
new form of media and art,
and even as a profession.
Recently, there have been a
few professional video gam
ing leagues established, the
Association of Gaming
Professionals (AGP,
www.theagp.com) being one
such league. With more and
more attention going to
video games, the future
looks bright. Not to mention
creative.
FORUM
KEVIN BRYAN/PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
Player 1 and Player 2 duke it out
Player 2
Taleisha Bowen
Staff Writer
My name is Taleisha, and I play video
games.
Not incessantly, but certainly obsessively. I
may go for weeks without touching a console
controller - but then I'll pick one up out of
boredom and not set it down for days at a
time.
Keep these facts in mind when I tell you that
video games are hazardous to real life in
many ways. While people may argue that
video games increase creativity, improve
hand-eye co-ordination or sensory motor
skills, I say the video games suck players in
and never let go. They contribute to the ram
pant obesity in our country and numb players'
minds.
Of course, there are times when mind
numbing isn't a bad thing. But there are cer
tainly effects to getting too much of any bad
thing.
Part of the electronic hazard comes from
just how technologically advanced video
games have become. When I was six, sitting
down in front of the original Nintendo system
couldn't keep me occupied for very long.
Admittedly, this was mostly because I sucked
at the game and three lives weren't enough to
get me very far, but also because the graphics
were very 80s and the plotlines were kind of
lame.
But current video games? They're sexy all
high-resolution and high density polygons and
involved, intricate plotlines. They suck you in
visually and don't let you go until you suddenly
realize that you haven't moved for 12 hours,
www.guilfordian.com
staring at a T.V. screen.
This phenomenon is more common than
you might think.
Take, for instance, Halo 2, which was
released on Nov. 9, 2004. The game made
more than $125 million in its first day on the
shelves, and newspaper editorials rang with
teacher complaints of students skipping
school to try to beat the game.
The "kill all aliens" game has a following
consisting of more than just nerds and
geeks. While playing the game isn't neces
sarily an anti-social event - have you seen
the recent blurbs in the Buzz advertising
Halo tournaments? - it, and other video
games, will lead to neglecting other things.
In fact, in weeks following the release of
Halo 2, more than one woman was complain
ing that she couldn't get her boyfriend's
attention-he'd been seduced by the siren call
of the X-Box.
Around the release date, I also noticed that
several men were missing from some of my
classes. They emerged days later, unshaven
and unwashed, muttering things like,
"Spartan - Scarab - Tartarus."
I think what amuses me most is that the
Halo games originated from a set of books
about alien/human relationships in the future -
very typical sci-fi stuff. I can't help but wonder
how many of the game's aficionados would be
as absorbed in the books.
Now, this isn't a rant against Halo in particu
lar, but video games in general. Halo just hap
pens to be a convenient target.
Video games are designed to engage the
players. It makes fiscal sense to design them
that way-after all, the better the gaming expe
rience, the more people will by that game, and
the more likely they are to buy future games
by the same company.
The problem is, as I've said, that players get
sucked in to the games, neglecting other
things that need to be done. I know I've
plopped down in front of a console multiple
times instead of doing homework. In fact, I
managed to log about 30 hours re-playing
Final Fantasy X during finals last semester
(not to mention multiple hours spent watching
a housemate play the game).
Did I pass my finals? Yes.
Could I have done better on them with 30
extra hours of study time?
Undoubtedly.
I'm not saying that there's no place for video
games and other down-time activities. I'm just
saying that it's too easy for time spent playing
video games to take over a person's life in a
manner that other leisure activities rarely have
the bells and whistles and graphics to do.
But maybe it's just my imagination. Maybe
no one's really getting carried away with their
gaming and every gamer has firm control over
the potential to lose all sense of time spent in
the virtual world.
But do I really believe that?
Not at a 11.3€
Jan. 21, 2005