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Pinning problems on video games
December 10th 2008 21:28
Yep, we're all used to video games being the black sheep of the moment. Right now, the claim of choice seems to be that playing video games will turn you into a killer. A desperate, trenchcoat wearing villain!
Also, 'experts' on network news love to bemoan how video games are reducing men into infantile beasts, incapable of interacting with another human being.
Now, as a further addition to laughable correlations, men are accused as becoming more and more infantile, refusing to grow up and settle down, thus depriving society of their able-bodiedness.
Kay S. Hymowitz writes in the City Journal about this sad state of affairs, linking juvenile-acting men with sleazy magazines and television networks that show comedy.
"...it’s time to state what is now obvious to legions of frustrated young women: the limbo doesn’t bring out the best in young men. With women, you could argue that adulthood is in fact emergent. Single women in their twenties and early thirties are joining an international New Girl Order, hyperachieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling, and dining with friends [see “The New Girl Order,” Autumn 2007]. Single Young Males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3, and, in many cases, underachieving."
It's from this one paragraph that I find it easily to dismiss this article. Hymowitz finds it prudent to compare the young women of this generation as go-getters, "hyperachieving" at work, then relaxing with socially acceptable leisure activities like "shopping, traveling and dining". Conversely, she denigrates the young men of the same generation, labeling them as "underachieving" because they drink, chase floozies and play video games.
Are you kidding me? Look, Ms. Hymowitz, I'd say that you've got your biases on your sleeve. Why is shopping considered to be the apex of cultured leisure? Shopping? In my opinion, shopping is vain consumerism, and I would consider it the cause of many of the problems of the youth today. Driven by materialism, greed and the desperate desire to define yourself by buying into it.
I find the idea that shopping is considered a hobby to be unusually offensive. What is redeeming about it? The common answer is that the person is interested in fashion, but that seems nebulous - I could say that I'm interested in video production while I'm watching pornography, couldn't I? Why is shopping accepted as something to do? It's literally the act of spending money in exchange for goods or services, a simple mechanism of our society.
Hymowitz shrugs off men by claiming that we enjoy "hooking up", drawing a line between the word hooking and the noun hooker. That's dirty. Sex? Sex is dirty, filthy, immoral. Men are vile, vile animals for wanting it, and by hooking up, they're nothing better than street criminals, paying for sex.
When young women travel and dine, is that nothing to do with sex? Or is it magically free from sexual desires, achieving a level of academic contemplation and enjoyment of fine living?
Worst of all, Hymowitz casts blame on the video game in particularly odious paragraph:
"Nothing attests more to the SYM’s growing economic and cultural might than video games do. Once upon a time, video games were for little boys and girls—well, mostly little boys—who loved their Nintendos so much, the lament went, that they no longer played ball outside. Those boys have grown up to become child-man gamers, turning a niche industry into a $12 billion powerhouse. Men between the ages of 18 and 34 are now the biggest gamers; according to Nielsen Media, almost half—48.2 percent—of American males in that age bracket had used a console during the last quarter of 2006, and did so, on average, two hours and 43 minutes per day. "
Hymowitz's italics indicate her disbelief that anyone could spend so much time playing video games which she links to games "for little boys and girls". She suggests that the games that men play now are as infantile.
Yes, some games are infantile. Some games are mindless.
But what if we were writing that someone watches television for, on average, two hours and 43 minutes per day. Indeed, the majority of Australians that I meet seem to hit this number, once you factor in watching the morning news, the evening news, Big Brother and So You Think You Can Dance With a Millionaire?
If you gave me a choice between watching free-to-air television in Australia, or playing two hours of "Rome: Total War", I'd pick the game, depending on what was on TV.
As I wrote last week, "Rome: Total War" is a historical war strategy game, which taught me, immediately, about the Marian Reforms and the success of the Roman legions in Europe due to the professionalization of military roles.
Playing this game gives me an appreciation for how difficult it would be to attrack through the Alps, or how strained it is to maintain a large naval fleet. The game also simulates how conquered cities are likely to revolt against foreign masters, and other civilizations might turn on you, despite flowery words of diplomacy.
That's a game, yes, but serves a very powerful educational tool. Are you asking me to give that up, in favour of passively observing popular TV?
*this image is from TimesOnline
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