Don’t get caught in a loop – the trap of Video Games

4 thoughts on “Don’t get caught in a loop – the trap of Video Games”

1. Geoff Peters Post authorAugust 24, 2012 at 1:58 pm

   Jeremy writes:

   Certainly games are an opportunity to be creative. Look at a game like Minecraft. In all it’s blocky glory, people love building things. It’s in a virtual world but it’s still a creative process.
2. Geoff Peters Post authorAugust 24, 2012 at 1:45 pm

   Jeremy writes:

   Hey Geoff, you’ve touched on some really interesting things. I’ll start off by saying that I agree with you on the whole. We need to be cautious about spending too much time with video games. As a video game developer, I’ve often wondered h
   ow I’m contributing to the world. There’s a fews things that I wanted to commment on:

   Video games fall into the category of entertainment that people indulge in as a form of stress reliever. It’s the thing you do after you’ve made your contribution to the world and you want to unwind. Movies, books and music (which I know it’s something you feel passionate about) also fall into category as well. They are there for our enjoyment.

   They are everywhere. We’ve integrated them into our daily lives. It’s something we might engage in on the bus, or, as you mentioned, with our friends in a friendly co-op or competative game. It’s when we use it as a means of supplanting our lives that it becomes unhealthy. We get stressed out and depressed so we shrink into our shells and video games give us an excuse to not participate in the world.

   I laughed when you commented the addictive quality on Zynga’s Farmville. I’m not a fan of the company. They are everything that’s bad about the industry. But like all entertainment, there’s Michael Bay movies, Harlequin Romance novels and junk boy bands. They are quick gratification forms of entertainment that don’t really offer much in return.

   I think specificly, you’ve touched on the fact that we’ve still not socially integrated them. They are a young media in compared to movies, books and music. We have a better feel for when to put down the book or turn off the movie. (Music has the added perk that it can be a companion to almost anything we do so we don’t need to be as cautious about it) We need to learn to be heathy about our video game habits.

   Cheers.

   PS:Sorry for the small essay. :)

   Geoff writes:

   Thanks Jeremy. Very interesting to hear your perspective and I agree with you and find it fascinating. Yes I think the medium of video games has incredible potential for good in the world, for artistic expression, creativity, and for strengthening our lives. Look at how people create films using computer game characters and engines, I believe it is called “Machinma” or something like that.
3. Geoff Peters Post authorAugust 24, 2012 at 11:49 am

   Pathsounds writes:

   Video games played a huge part of my life growing up; I don’t play them anymore, but what really captured me more than anything was the music. It’s where I got a lot of my inspiration as a composer, especially classic RPGs like final fantasy. :)

   Geoff writes:

   nice! Yes I agree, the super mario brothers theme and Final Fantasy music is amazing. I also really enjoyed playing Civilization on PC when I was young.
4. Geoff Peters Post authorAugust 24, 2012 at 11:49 am

   Woggyflush writes:

   I don’t play any computer games any more. Especially NOT the brutal “shoot them up” types. But the 2 positive points about computer games in my opinion are:

   1.) the creators are creative (but the players are not, obviously….just like Disneyland. The creators were creative in a way, but the people who spend their holiday at Disneyland are not)

   2.) for beginners, computer games can help people lose their fear of technology, learn how to use a computer…and then do better things with it

   Geoff writes:

   thanks Woggyflush, great comment! I agree!

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