Video games cause more harm than good

Thank you, ThaAwesome1. Good luck to you also. Video games do more harm to society then they do good for society. Unimaginable situations- Video games put their users into unimaginable situations that often represent true moral and philosophical dilemmas but keep their audience detached from the consequences of the dilemmas. If a person was in a situation where aliens were trying to destroy their planet, maybe they would actually put on a bionic suit, pick up a gun, and fight the aliens to victory or death, we don’t know. Perhaps from playing a video game such as Halo, they would be more likely to perform in the same manner as Master Chief. But it stands to reason that if a person were more likely to become enlisted in the Navy after playing this game, wouldn’t the same likely hood apply to the people who play Grand-theft auto to become a criminal. Is a person who plays Need for Speed more likely to become a street racer than someone who has never heard of the game? Lifestyle Advertising--The U.S. Navy endorses games like Halo because it is advertisement that encourages youngsters to become recruits. Every game is an advertisement for the lifestyle it portrays. Even if every GTA player does not become a criminal, their mind is being programmed during continued game play to condone things like drug use, sex trade, police murdering, reckless driving, car stealing, car bombing, etc. And if you don’t do it right the first time, you get a second chance, and as many chances as you need until you perform the task to the game makers satisfaction. Encourages Lethargy— The mind can process images faster than the body can react, but the mind does process every image it sees. The events that occur in the game are indistinguishable to the mind from actual events. This is proven by gamers claiming to have actually completed the tasks in the game. The mind tells the body that it needs the same amount of calorie intake to perform the virtual task as it would to perform the actual task. But the body isn’t putting out the same amount of energy needed to perform the actual task. The body while playing the video game is in a relaxed state exhausting a little more energy than it takes to sleep. Artificial Achievements – Games are riddled with artificial achievements, but the reality is that a disk goes in to console and come out the same disk. All the points and unlocks mean nothing to anyone else except the gamer. Why should they? Points are intangible and have no function outside of the game. They are locked away in a corruptible save file waiting patiently to be reawakened the next time the player chooses to access them. That is not the case in real life. Achievements come from labor and repetition and there is no one standing over you waiting to congratulate you for every little thing that happens. Real life achievements build on themselves and never leave, they apply to you all the time even if you switch careers. Achievements and points from one game do not carry over to another. If some people spent the same amount of time manipulating the real world as they did video games, we would have thousands of musicians instead of Rock Band, and farmers instead of Farmville, and city or park developers instead of Roller Coaster Tycoon and the like. Praise is like a drug, we yearn for it and we are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. It certainly is gratifying to get that praise when all it takes is a few moments kicked back on the couch. Unusable skills -- Why do the real thing when you can play the video game. Economically it makes sense, I don’t know the exact cost of the following things but I know buying the video game pretend version is a lot cheaper than snowboarding, motocross riding, race car driving, and going to war. But is the gamer actually getting the benefit of a knowing how to do the things they are gaming? No, they aren’t. It takes a lot of stamina, strength, and training to pull of the stunts performed in video games. This is where the mental degradation from video games comes into play. Not only are many of the stunts impossible for the imperial athletes, but all of the stunts are impossible for the gamer who may accomplish these feats with nothing more than a flick of the wrist, or thumb. The continued use of video games trains the minds to believe the only way to accomplish the given tasks are through the video game. Impaired Social Interactions – Life is real easy when others move instantly in your control. If you are person who doesn’t believe the tasks are actually being performed by you, but rather a proxy avatar, a true mental restriction has taken place. It is the same as saying the words of a dummy are not the words of the ventriloquist who operates it. The results between the dummy and the avatar are the same. If you say crawl, the avatar crawls. If you say kill, the avatar kills. There is no task (within the confines of the game) that your avatar will not do. More importantly, they will never question your decision making skills even if it means death. The avatar will never complain as humans do, and you don’t have to care about avatar feelings. You never have to check up on NPCs to see if they did the tasks you asked them to do. They just come back later and tell you whatever the game makers predetermined them to tell you. You don’t even get to decide what you say back to them. There is no yelling or dismissal of friendship, and if you do get to choose a response, the responses are limited. Yelling at a TV, or controller, or plant, or whatever else you take your frustrations out on do not affect the game play in the slightest. Try yelling another human, the responses change depending on your relationship with each other and combined personalities. These are my initial points what are yours.