Put Down Your Games and Read Your Books

Barack Obama said:
We know that every father has a personal responsibility to do right by their kids – to encourage them to turn off the video games and pick up a book; to teach them the difference between right and wrong; to show them through our own example the value in treating one another as we wish to be treated. And most of all, to play an active and engaged role in their lives.

Source Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/19/taking-time-be-dad

You can find it as the third-to-last paragraph at the end of the letter. (right below the picture). It's a well-to-do letter and I think it's all great and everything I read I agreed with up until I read that paragraph containing that statement; it was at that point I stopped reading immediately. A thought crossed my mind. -Are games ever going to get past that generation's bias? There are exceptions, and I know of several members here that are excellent exceptions, but by and large, this is still the majority attitude games face at the heart of society.

What is it that games have to do to win the appreciation and respect they deserve from the majority of those who are parents today? What great work of composition still needs to be developed to make it apparent games are here to stay, and they matter A LOT!

Are we still waiting for our Alfred Hitchcock, or Mark Twain of Gaming? Or have we already gotten our masters, and these things must take time? Do people like John Carmack, Will Wright, Gabe Newell and others have to wait for the day until a composition of history will recognize them as great artists and collaborators of games? -And will that time come sooner or later?

These are just a few frustrations I meet day-to-day with older sentiments about games, and I think it stems a great deal from ignorance more than anything. Can you guys answer some of my questions? -What do you think about the social-scape of games today in the media? What kind of respect do games receive in your country?

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Being that generation myself, I think there's misconception on both sides. I believe what he meant was to take a more active role in raising your children.
It's a belief that ppl use game consoles and such as babysitters nowdays so they can get on with their own personal agendas.
I partially agree with this as I see it with younger parents whose lives are busier than ever. I don't let my g-kids sit for hours and play on the computer or consoles we have but instead make them go out and do things as we used to as kids, and I can see the difference. If the oldest g-son brings a friend with him he'll want to do things outside and his friend will mope because my g-son doesn't want to play video games and he has no desire to out and play other things.
This is extreme I agree but it's true we use technology to help raise kids to keep them busy so we can do what we want.
I think the whole gist is to get out with your kids and have fun with them and teach them about the real world and not what you get from games. Not that games are bad and can't be played, just don't use them so you can go do your own thing.

I'll talk more about it later.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

A thought crossed my mind. -Are games ever going to get past that generation's bias? There are exceptions, and I know of several members here that are excellent exceptions, but by and large, this is still the majority attitude games face at the heart of society.

I think Obama's letter was a little infused with his wife's mission to combat childhood obesity, and not quite an attack on video gaming in general. I agree with you though riven, theres a certain stigma with video games that is sedentary to people's life styles, BUT I really see anyone not admitting to the recent addition of Kinect, PS3 Move, and Wii to be very short sighted. AT least theres more action involved these days.

That being said: Theres nothing wrong with reading a book. I'm still an advocate that reading (with paper pages) stimulates the brain in child's development, and its critical that they get that. Not so much for people over 20, our brains don't need it any longer. Maybe a revision to his post: Encourage your child to take a break from video games.

That being said too theres nothing wrong with a father participating with his child in something his child loves to do. I wish sachmo was here to comment, hes a father that games, and a doctor, his opinion would be interesting on this piece.

Are we still waiting for our Alfred Hitchcock, or Mark Twain of Gaming? Or have we already gotten our masters, and these things must take time?

Although these people were considered masters in their time, I think a lot of work isn't considered masterful until their time has passed (much like any great artist's work isn't really valuable until the artist passes a way).

Do people like John Carmack, Will Wright, Gabe Newell and others have to wait for the day until a composition of history will recognize them as great artists and collaborators of games?

John Carmack has said several times in interviews that hes not the artist, hes an engineer. He only creates the canvas for real artists to make their work (same really goes for the game design, he says he designs the engines). Gabe Newell I don't see as an artist either, hes more of a business owner, he takes no real part in the design process. He just picks which projects to move forward with. Will Wright, yeah for sure.

Well, to pick up from the bottom and work my way up, I'll say John Carmack is a modest artist; the guy is a genius of the things he figures out; programming is a creative practice. He helps design the framework in which the art is shown. He was pivotal in the history of gaming.

Newell, now not an artist, has given his technical and business oriented prowess to the field that has enabled a model of games to flourish. I mention him only as a great collaborator and enabler of games. He should be recognized and respected for this. That's just my clarification on that, but I agree with those observations Omega.

omegaslayer said:
I think Obama's letter was a little infused with his wife's mission to combat childhood obesity, and not quite an attack on video gaming in general.

That's probably true, and I agree. It was mentioned as an effort to call out the issue as sgtfly said "to take a more active role in raising your children." Which is well-to-do and I highly promote that. It's that games are the usual scapegoat to blame these things on is my concern.

Books are great too, but no one dares discriminate against them or use them as a scapegoat to describe or paint a picture of a child committing a sedentary act when even though they certainly can be used as such. "Timmy, stop reading all the time and go outside and play!" -And yes, Sachmo would be an excellent opinion on this matter.

sgtfly said:
It's a belief that ppl use game consoles and such as babysitters nowdays so they can get on with their own personal agendas.

That's probably true as well, and a shame that happens, but isn't is an advantage games have? -To be so quick to get in to, to be appealing and generally fun looking? That any kid can be immediately attracted to a set of rules with a theme? Just make the theme and set of rules more lofty than killing the bad guy, and you just may well have a recipe for learning something worthwhile!

These advantages of games could be used in the same scope books are and have been used for centuries. I'm a big proponent of games in the classroom, and not just video games, word games, board games, you name it. If I were a teacher I'd invent games into my curriculum to explain the things I'm teaching. Same goes for high school as well as elementary. Games have such great potential to teach, and yet the only stigma that sticks about them in the media are the sedentary acts committed with them by kids and their maybe not-so observant parents.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

I like the observation form sgtfly, because it comes back to my belief that parents have a very large role in a child's development, but parents choose (or are forced to choose because of their situation) not to raise a child, and just rely on television and video games.

These advantages of games could be used in the same scope books are and have been used for centuries. I'm a big proponent of games in the classroom, and not just video games, word games, board games, you name it. If I were a teacher I'd invent games into my curriculum to explain the things I'm teaching. Same goes for high school as well as elementary. Games have such great potential to teach, and yet the only stigma that sticks about them in the media are the sedentary acts committed with them by kids and their maybe not-so observant parents.

It would be interesting if a study was done. I recall using Reader Rabbit when I was 5 (?) in 1990 on the Apple II to "learn" to recognize words.

Like all things in life theres a healthy balance to be had. A few evenings gaming a week and a few evenings getting out seems reasonable to me.

The generational divide is nothing new. Sure the older cavemen were intimidated and confused by the the young cave teens and their new fangled clubs and fire.

Its how the older generation cope with change. They critisise it, call it dangerous, the root of all the things they dont understand.

US kids are way fat though... forced treadmills with electric fencing round them should be installed at the high schools.

The generation gap as it's called is not as big as it once was. I still game and use my computer alot, so do my children and my grandkids.
The difference is how I raised my kids and in turn they raised theirs. We didn't let hem sit for hours and play games on nintendo and Atari "Back in the Day". They also haven't let there kids do it either, and I see a difference from some other kids our grandkids hang out with.
They seem to have more imagination and want to go out and interact with ppl and are more active.
My biggest concern is not with games actually but interaction nowdays. It may sound silly but my concern is texting. "Back in the Day" we had to go out and find ppl to do stuff, you had to actually talk to ppl, or you talked on the phone.
Today it seems to be all texting which to me is less personal than other communcation forms. I understand it has it's place and it is a useful tool in situations, but it can't replace the human voice and or face to face interaction we have with others.
I think that's the whole thing with this is get up, get out and enjoy the "REAL" things in life out in the world with your kids. It's telling parents don't be selfish with your time and show your kids what's out there. Don't stick your kids in front of all these toys so you can do your own thing w\o being bothered by them.

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Light is faster than sound:That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Your riches in life are family and friends, everything else is just a distraction.

They need to start putting out games that aren't immature masturbatory glorification of violence that's also mass-media supported.

It's not so much people not "recognizing" games, it's more or less that, from the outside in, video games look kids toys trying to be for adults. At least that's how people see it.

A few things need to happen to publicly legitimize video games as a medium:

1) They need to grow up

I love games as much as the next guy, but there's hardly a realistic portrayal of women in the genre, and even then they're not generally playable. Games are primarily marketed on violence, most of the time, and the violence and gore is over the top. Publishers are still making games in the mind-set of a 13-year-old.

Big games that discuss topics like deeper emotional relationships just ... aren't around. The deepest games we get are either niche titles, or widely panned.

Heavy Rain is probably the closest we've come to scratching this kind of surface.

It's strange too, considering that video games could tell a much more complex and involved story than film ever could, it's disappointing to see this not taken advantage of.

2) The audience needs to grow up

So, I'm not talking about the 15-year-old dude who thinks it's great to curb-stomp people in Gears of War. I'm talking about the 31-year-old dude who doesn't like anything more complex than Quake. They're the people who actively voice their opinions against any sort of complexity being shown in games, and they also generally think all these issues are "silly".

These people are the people who represent games to their demographic (family, co-workers, etc) and based on their descriptions (immature) these people are just adding to how those people, who are already biased against games, think; very counter productive.

3) Business models need to change

Currently ... publisher business models are shit. I don't even think they need to get rid of physical distribution to handle this ... it's really their internal investment strategies and what games they green-light and what games they don't.

I would argue, movie licensing has also damaged the industry in many ways.

It's more about who's taking what and where and how they utilize their code-bases (not very much) You end up with massive publishers who have wonky code-bases and engines that people can try to slap together, but they still require massive tinkering to even get it to work. This is a pretty terrible process.

Publishers also take WAY too large of a cut. They need to work out a business model more akin to film in some ways where teams get paid percentages in addition to wages, rather than just some flat wage, or being denied those because they decided they don't want to give up a quarter of a billion dollars.

From a publisher's perspective ... this is like playing the market ... and that really stifles creativity.

They need to look at it as breaking even + a little more. Rather than, Call of Duty levels profits. They need to actually properly market the game for more than the first week of its release (including supporting it after it's shipped). They need to not fire people who gave them a million dollar franchise so they can keep more profit share and milk the franchise further until death.

4) Everyone who likes or loves the medium of video games ... need to treat it with more respect

The very fact alone that people can legitimately argue that it doesn't matter if games are art ... is a bad sign.

If you think of games as nothing more than pure entertainment, then you're equating the entire medium, especially to people who don't use it, equivalent to trash tv or smut.

Currently games, in general, are close to be legally considered similar to pornographic materials in the united states ... this would kill the medium, plain and simple (it would also open the flood-gates for other mediums to be controlled). By shrugging this off and saying, "Well, it'll be fine, because this happened to books and music and comics too", is not going to help. Video games have to earn that respect to become a staple in modern culture, not just appear to be something akin to drugs or porn (both of which are very popular).

People can use video games as a scapegoat because of games like Postal or Gears of War. Because video games basically started in the "blockbuster violence" period ... it appears it's all they're good for.

People who love video games need to show their respect for the medium, and promote it, as a medium ... not as your favorite games.

They need to do things that help it, not hurt it.

Because, in general, even people who like video games ... if they're over a certain age, still act like it's a side thing to everything else in their life, like riding motorcycles, or reading.

We need more activists and people who are going to respect the medium and intellectually defend it who aren't people in suits who are doing it purely for profit.

Until any of this happens ... video games are going to be demonized, called toys, and continue to be misrepresented in the public ... until they're censored. And at that point in time ... it would be incredibly difficult to bring gaming back.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

omegaslayer said:
I wish sachmo was here to comment, hes a father that games, and a doctor, his opinion would be interesting on this piece.

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Satchmo lost ALL credibility when he argued that ADHD is not, nor is it ever misdiagnosed. His argument was not only misinformative, it was completely biased in favor of doctors. I am not saying this just because I dislike the guy. He lost credibility with the entire Snarkpit for that argument. He still showed up from time to time but he never again said anything people took for "informed opinion"

As for this discussion.. My opinion is this: Younger adults are in fact using video games as an electronic baby sitter. Its a sad fact. Its not a mindset of a generation. ITS THE TRUTH!. That said, there are games out there, if used properly can be informative. My youngest son has a mild form of dyslexia. It went undiagnosed for long enough, that the school tried everything it could to get him on ADHD drugs. We finally found a doctor that knew what it was. After some tests, it came back dyslexia and not inattentiveness. I as a parent took my sons love for video games and ONLY bought him games that he would have to read in order to play. Mostly RPG's and their ilk. Yes, someone can figure out some of the games without reading but its very difficult to play one AND ENJOY IT, without reading the options and choosing a path. He eventually learned to read with his affliction and is now a bossman where he works. I'd like to think it was my doing but who knows? He might have had the initiative without my forcing him to read... shrugs

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Orpheus said:
Satchmo lost ALL credibility when he argued that ADHD is not, nor is it ever misdiagnosed. His argument was not only misinformative, it was completely biased in favor of doctors. I am not saying this just because I dislike the guy. He lost credibility with the entire Snarkpit for that argument. He still showed up from time to time but he never again said anything people took for "informed opinion"

Never knew that happened :/. I guess my own opinion was "ill informed" about requesting his opinion. haha

omegaslayer said:
Never knew that happened :/. I guess my own opinion was "ill informed" about requesting his opinion. haha

Truth be told, I think it better you form your opinions without my biased viewpoint. You may never have had any opportunities to dislike the guy.

Sadly, I'll never again view his words with anything but scorn. Arguing with someone is all fine and well, We all do it and are the better for it but to be a doctor and deliberately misinform people is unpardonable.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

It'd make sense if the guy sides with doctors considering he is one. Chances are what he was talking about was from a research perspective or based on the assumption that all doctors were like him (I don't know if he's a good pediatrician or not, but there's plenty of doctors who don't give a shit about their job or patients)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I was always a little sceptical about his credentials.

Fishman. My one, almost true love. How'ya been?

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Been ok, I suppose. I felt bad about just disappearing from here without a word, but I knew most people would probably forget about me before they realised I was gone. I recovered a bunch of my mapping stuff from an old hard drive, but I've got no idea what most of it is for now, so I don't expect to be releasing any maps anytime soon.
Which is a pity, because the world would be a much better place.
lol
waves to everyone

Hey dude. It's been a while that's for sure. I knew when you left because you offered to design and build a connection zone for the community compilation map we were working on. I sent you the files but you never responded! So myself and Zein finished them up. I hadn't heard from ya since. Been a while.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202