Video games rot Brains?

[saindak]

. . . Since I love video games I naturally found this thread interesting. From what I know and what I've heard and from what I've read here I would have to agree with Rayadragon that It's not so much the game itself but the time spent on the game. I've also read studies that show games help hand-eye coordination. And how can video games damage your imagination? I think that a vivid storyline and interaction is what makes a game a game and what's really fun about a game. Because you get to use your imagination and pretend your really IN the game. But of course if you don't spend your time on homework you won't get the grades you need to get the job you need to get the money you need to buy the video games. . .

[ZucaTreangeli]

Lately though it also deals with the amount of effort going into games when the person is not playing..

It seems logical to me that games like WoW have a high rating of immersion, the person gets really really into the game (some even died from it because they forgot about real life body issues).. The point is that I know a lot of people who think about such games during their day (ooh ooh, have to my character ready for a 4 hour raid) and thus cannot focus correctly on studying or tests, their mind is too immersed in the fantasy world of a game to really allow them to focus on their actual lives.

Thats what I think anyway .

I luckily stay away from games which are too addictive like the massive multiplayer rpg's.. I really have no need for them despite them looking good ^^..
I stick to strategy every now and then and found that it is easy to switch away from, just save the game and thou art gone :P
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[Hyraxylos]

This is just a myth that, like so many others before it in countless past generations, parents started to try and prevent their children from enjoying themselves in any way whatsoever. It's true! Actually ALL adults who work with children don't want people under 18 to do anything fun, but really parents are the center of the whole thing. Apologies to those familiar with my strange urges to blurt out random completely-unsupported conspiracy theories; this one is actually for real. I think it's psychological somehow.
You see, grown-ups don't want kids to have fun because they don't want them to learn anything. This is because they don't want their kids to become smarter than they are, which is really quite silly actually because everyone knows that kids are AUTOMATICALLY smarter than their parents by default! But before video games, parents used to say that television rots the brain. And before that it was reading (which now adults say is GOOD for us). And before that it was running around outdoors.
To wrap up my little sermon I'd like to counter this foolish little lie with a much better assertion, and one which I feel certain many here will agree with me upon...

SCHOOL ROTS THE BRAIN!
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[ZucaTreangeli]

[Hyraxylos]

What parents (not ALL of them, but a pretty large portion) have always aspired to do is to control their children. To do so, the parents must ensure that their children make the exact same mistakes that THEY made. However eventually these people learn that they CANNOT control their children and slowly grow to accept this fact. But not all parents do, sadly. Some may refuse to fund a child's college education because of that child's choice of religion, or a certain political viewpoint they have, or... just about anything. Some parents even cast their kids out onto the street for refusing to fit the pre-conceived notion of an "ideal" child.
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[ZucaTreangeli]

[Ragnarok]

It's also getting off topic, no? Video games, people!


Anyway, the "____ rots brains" argument seems primarily to be one of excess. Pretty much anything (video games, TV, playing outside, reading, whatever) done to excess will result in lessened performance elsewhere. That much, I think, is pretty much indisputable.
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To win against an opponent stronger than yourself, you must not be weaker than that opponent. - Takamachi Nanoha

[Raven]

It's also a question of which games and what type of intelligence.

Example: The Myst series. If any set of cames will increase your critical thinking and problem-solving abilities it's them.
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The Lichen grows slowly, atop of a rock.
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But mightn't it be somehow greater than we?