Is Obama anti video games? Some writers have been pondering his recent comments, notably “don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox” from his recent speech to school students and the following quote from the NAACP’s 100th Anniversary dinner:
“For our kids to excel, we must accept our responsibility to help them learn. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour”
In my opinion, games can be as nourishing as books and, indeed, give us access to different types of experience. Indeed, they have become more complex and demand higher levels of thought, similar to that of many books. This is good for education. I’m not saying all games are great for our mind (some novels definitely aren’t), but many — as discussed ad nauseam in the blog — can be. I mean, books were scorned for being an anti-social activity in the late 1700s when they were becoming more accessible. I think that history will treat video games kindly and portray these views as anachronisms [see Steven Berlin Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You for an interesting take].
For some interesting reflections on the Obama issue, read:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32778805/ns/technology_and_science-games/
What do you think? Do Obama’s sentiments vis a vis games indicate someone who does genuinely believe they are evil or someone who just has a warped view of gaming? Does this proffer the view that most gamers are Dorito-munching Halo leets with their baseball caps aligned with their eybrows?
The text of his speech is completely reasonable. It’s obvious that he’s referring to kids who spend hours playing Halo or Grand Theft Auto, and let it cut into their social life and homework.
This post comes across as being overly defensive. It is a fact that it’s easy for kids to become addicted to and waste their time playing insubstantial games. What Obama has addressed in his speech is a reality that needs to be addressed by parents.
I grew up with videogames, I’m able to distinguish between pulp and quality, and I understand how much time a child should spend playing them. When I’m a parent I’ll make sure my children don’t waste all of their time on Gears of War 7 or whatever is popular at the time, just like I won’t let them spend all of their time watching trashy shows on TV. If they do have an interest in games, I’ll make a point to introduce them to good age-appropriate games. But right now most parent’s don’t understand games, so aren’t able to expose their kids to the good and “nourishing” ones.
When someone suggests that kids should stop playing games and spend more time with homework, then claiming that person “hates videogames” is hardly constructive. What you’re defending is the children who spend their lives shouting obscenities over headsets. What should be done is a movement within gaming culture to promote games appropriate for children, so that way the game-illiterate public won’t have any reason to “hate videogames.”
Agreed. And maybe it is overly defensive, but that’s more a reaction to the idea that video games are somehow opposed to books in terms of their intellectual value.
But, at the end of the day, we do encourage you to make up your own mind. Sure, the post is on the extreme side, but it is a blog and not purporting to be news.
I’m going to sit on the fence here. I think Touché bitch makes some valid point – games should be seen as having intellectual merit like books, a complete rebuttal is (or will be) a dated thing to do — but I agree with John in so far as calling Obama’s words “hateful” is unhelpful.
In any case, I do acknowledge that TB did not actually say that Obama hates games but simply posited it.
Keep up the great work guys!
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