Does this ruin it for you?

Okay so first off here is the ME 2D Beta

So, let’s be honest , most of the reason why some things are appealing is because they are so discouraged. This includes soft drinks, candy . . . 

So what happens when all the sudden you hear that, hey! This stuff isn’t all that bad, does it lose its appeal? Hopefully not, because despite all the arguments coming from Jack Thompson (blech) there is still a lot  of positive things that come out of video games. I’ve been hearing about them for a while so I was a bit surprised when I see gonintendo with an article from CNBC bringing up this well researched subject. 

However! I was a bit disheartened when I discovered the entire article was about Madden. Okay, so I have nothing against Madden, none at all, but seriously . . . Madden?! I’m guessing this was mostly because EA (God bless them) were defending their franchise using this particular game. I guess I would have liked to see a bit more in depth information then just the fact that playing Madden heightens your knowledge of football. Understood . . . but is that really all they could come up with?

I know, I know, all the negative aspects of video games, it promotes violence (unproven) and kids spend too much time in front of the TV (which they’d probably do with or without video games).

So, why don’t I just give my personal take here. This is going to come from a combination of personal experience as well with discussions with my mother. 

My mother believed, for a brief while, that video games were a negative influence in the household. She thought this until she actually sat down and watched us play them. If you were to speak with my mother now she has a completely different point of view. She said that all the games we played had so much math and percentages, it required us to think and react quickly. Instead of going at the pace of the things around us, we were going at the pace of the game. The more advanced the game, the quicker we’d react. 

Think about it for a minute, let’s say you’re playing something like . . . Tony Hawk (yeah yeah skateboarding.) You are about to go for a hardcore grind when your finger slips and you lose it, you instinctively press a few buttons and turn it into some combination and YES!! There you have it. 

Here is another interesting tidbit, apparently those hours of playing Trauma Center might be a good idea after all. Who saw this one coming . . . hand-eye coordination, perfectly good right? I dare say it might even help such things as teaching oneself to react even under pressure. Sure, real life doesn’t give you continues, but at least video games could teach you to think rationally in a dire situation right? 

Let’s see if I can put it in another way . . . my mother took me and my three brothers to take handgun lessons in 2001. I was okay at shooting, not too amazing, but still better then most of his female students. Then the teacher (a policeman) gave us a scenario, an intruder breaks in and runs at you. At this point he made the target move towards us VERY quickly, I fired off my shots and ended up getting all the shots right on the target’s head. Now, let’s put me in a game of Halo. Brad will attest I am okay at the game, not a huge fan of first person shooters. However, if you put me in a situation where I’m being attacked I all the sudden become extremely accurate. Coincidence maybe, but I’m not so sure . . . I think that video games me more of a fight then flight reaction to situations like that. So, DESPITE the fact that for some reason people discourage video games for girls I think they’re good for any girl to play. 

I understand that some people have issues with video games because of the assumption that all video games suppress women and all that jazz. I get it, princess gets rescued, girlfriend gets captured, blah blah blah. Honestly, that stuff just made me decide that in no way would I ever put myself in a position to GET captured. Also, despite what many people like to say, girls WANT to be rescued. I know people hate to admit it nowadays with girls being equal and all, but come on. As far as I’m concerned video games give boys and girls an equal playing ground. Super Smash Brothers Brawl for instance, its a game I can compete with guys against. Really it just takes a person to decide to rise above the whole button mashing then, and all the sudden it works. 

I’ll probably indulge on all this a bit later, this is just a random ranting session. Or maybe y’all aren’t even interested anymore 😉