While I don't watch TV, I finally recognized I have a problem myself with video games. I've wasted countless hours playing them. Not having any cable, it's the only reason my TV is ever on.
Can Video games be as addictive as television? I say 100% yes, but we are the ones that have to wake up and see the addiction. Recently I started to notice this in myself. I am a very selfish person to not see it years ago when I would waste all my time as a kid playing Donkey Kong or Mario.
Has anyone seen the new XBox ONE coming out soon? This is like Big Brother. It stays on all the time and watches you. It has facial recognition software, and is every bit of scary as you dreamed of years ago when you called the TV the one eyed monster. This is straight out of 1984.
Video Games
Re: Video Games
I think that the addiction potential of video games is comparable to television, perhaps even greater. When I was a youth I remember that we often chose playing PC games over watching television and we would play such games for hours and hours.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction
Re: Video Games
The new XBox has certainly spurred some privacy concerns.JuniorMan wrote: Has anyone seen the new XBox ONE coming out soon? This is like Big Brother. It stays on all the time and watches you. It has facial recognition software, and is every bit of scary as you dreamed of years ago when you called the TV the one eyed monster. This is straight out of 1984.
source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/w ... -xbox-one/"Here are the facts. One, the Xbox One is designed to be "always on"; even when you turn it off, it just switches to a low-power state where it can download system and game updates and listen for certain Kinect voice commands. Two, the new Kinect, which comes packaged with the system, has to be connected to the system in order for the Xbox One to function."
[...]
"There are some legitimate concerns to having an ever-present, always-on camera in your living room watching and listening to you while you use the Xbox One. The most immediate involves how the Xbox shares its data with marketers and content owners. Microsoft can talk about anonymization and privacy protections all they want, but the ability for third parties to access data on exactly what you are doing in front of your Xbox One has some creepy implications."
It isn't perhaps so likely that Microsoft will use this technology to monitor people actively, at least not for the time being. However, the concept itself is frighteningly similar to the "telescreen" in George Orwell's novel 1984. The bit that concerns me the most is that people willingly adapt a technology that theoretically could be used for surveillance. Hopefully such a use still is far off, but if our privacy is continued to be eroded away, then people would perhaps eventually get used to the idea of potentially being watched. At the very least it is possible to imagine that law enforcement eventually would get permission to get access to such a device in certain cases, in the same way they tap phone calls today.
Re: Video Games
P.S. I'm moving the topic, I hope you don't mind! 
Re: Video Games
Nice posts, yes the XBox One reminded me of 1984 right off the bat. Do you even need all that crap to sit down and play a video game?
A few years ago Starcraft II came out, and I found out you have to be connected to the internet 24/7 to play that game. This alerted me, because years ago I used to play the old one on a computer that had no internet at all. How come I need to be on the internet just to play the campaign? That's how computer games are now. You can't even play single player games without internet connection and they sell you this message that it's the only way to be able to play it (lie).
That's what will happen with XBox One. It is straight out of 1984, big brother to the max. They will tell all these kids it's OK and it will help them and they need it and like sheep they run out and buy it. I have an XBox but I haven't played it in over a year.
Video games have turned into life things. That's the problem i really have with them. There's nothing wrong with a little game like Donkey Kong or Mario or a Sports game I think. I would much rather play Tecmo Super Bowl than sit down and have to watch a football game 4 hours and get my brain toyed with from advertisements every 5 minutes.
But look at the Grand Theft Auto video games. I played these for years, and I can tell you with each new installment in the series they get more and more life like. I didn't even buy GTA IV because of this. I thought it was too much like living a real life instead of a video game. The games have this imaginary world in them and give you this control to do crazy things with violence, it's so easy to get warped into them. I have seen there is a new one coming out, and I will gladly say I will not be picking it up. GTA is not the first one, there is also the Skyrim games I've heard the same thing about, and those roleplaying games like Fall Out 3.
Using GTA as an example the early ones like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City were more like games but still introduced the reality of "living life in a game". Now today, in the latest one (GTA IV) the game goes so far to be realistic that you have friends in the game that call you on the phone to do friend activities similar to socializing in real life. You have to think about it, would you really want to go bowling, drinking, to a comedy show, or out to eat at a restaurant in a video game or in real life? That's the real question it comes down to. It is almost as if the video game makers figure the people playing these games have no social life, so they give them one with the video game.
I don't think I have to bring up anymore Blizzard games (World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft) they are the one company that has World of Warcraft and all the insane stories about people killing themselves from playing those games nonstop. I actually knew a friend in real life that started playing World of Warcraft, and he literally stayed on his computer for 16 hours one day just to level up. There's been countless stories in the media all over the world with people going on 24+ hours crazes playing these games and killing themselves in the process. One man I believe in Korea, he played it for 28 hours straight until he collapsed and died in front of the computer screen. This is what I mean about people living in these games instead of real life.
A few years ago Starcraft II came out, and I found out you have to be connected to the internet 24/7 to play that game. This alerted me, because years ago I used to play the old one on a computer that had no internet at all. How come I need to be on the internet just to play the campaign? That's how computer games are now. You can't even play single player games without internet connection and they sell you this message that it's the only way to be able to play it (lie).
That's what will happen with XBox One. It is straight out of 1984, big brother to the max. They will tell all these kids it's OK and it will help them and they need it and like sheep they run out and buy it. I have an XBox but I haven't played it in over a year.
Video games have turned into life things. That's the problem i really have with them. There's nothing wrong with a little game like Donkey Kong or Mario or a Sports game I think. I would much rather play Tecmo Super Bowl than sit down and have to watch a football game 4 hours and get my brain toyed with from advertisements every 5 minutes.
But look at the Grand Theft Auto video games. I played these for years, and I can tell you with each new installment in the series they get more and more life like. I didn't even buy GTA IV because of this. I thought it was too much like living a real life instead of a video game. The games have this imaginary world in them and give you this control to do crazy things with violence, it's so easy to get warped into them. I have seen there is a new one coming out, and I will gladly say I will not be picking it up. GTA is not the first one, there is also the Skyrim games I've heard the same thing about, and those roleplaying games like Fall Out 3.
Using GTA as an example the early ones like Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City were more like games but still introduced the reality of "living life in a game". Now today, in the latest one (GTA IV) the game goes so far to be realistic that you have friends in the game that call you on the phone to do friend activities similar to socializing in real life. You have to think about it, would you really want to go bowling, drinking, to a comedy show, or out to eat at a restaurant in a video game or in real life? That's the real question it comes down to. It is almost as if the video game makers figure the people playing these games have no social life, so they give them one with the video game.
I don't think I have to bring up anymore Blizzard games (World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft) they are the one company that has World of Warcraft and all the insane stories about people killing themselves from playing those games nonstop. I actually knew a friend in real life that started playing World of Warcraft, and he literally stayed on his computer for 16 hours one day just to level up. There's been countless stories in the media all over the world with people going on 24+ hours crazes playing these games and killing themselves in the process. One man I believe in Korea, he played it for 28 hours straight until he collapsed and died in front of the computer screen. This is what I mean about people living in these games instead of real life.
Re: Video Games
I agree that computer games can become somewhat of an alternative reality, especially the so called sandbox games where players have an considerable amount of freedom.JuniorMan wrote: [...] Video games have turned into life things. That's the problem i really have with them.
[...]
I thought it was too much like living a real life instead of a video game. The games have this imaginary world in them and give you this control to do crazy things with violence, it's so easy to get warped into them.
[...]
I actually knew a friend in real life that started playing World of Warcraft, and he literally stayed on his computer for 16 hours one day just to level up. There's been countless stories in the media all over the world with people going on 24+ hours crazes playing these games and killing themselves in the process. One man I believe in Korea, he played it for 28 hours straight until he collapsed and died in front of the computer screen. This is what I mean about people living in these games instead of real life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_game
Usually freedom to choose is a good thing, but when a computer games become a world of its own, then the artificial electronic world can eclipse the real world, like when people play computer games non-stop.
Re: Video Games
Grand Theft Auto is the best example of a Sandbox game. You could spend years going through one of those games just to explore. Personally, I think you have to be bored out of your mind to do this.
I think the video gamers need to give it a rest, instead of fighting make believe bosses and crime lords in these games, they should be helping us fight the real crime lords.
The video game obsession leads me to believe, it's one of many reasons I truly don't have a doubt in my mind if we ever had an economic collapse, the majority would not survive it.
I think the video gamers need to give it a rest, instead of fighting make believe bosses and crime lords in these games, they should be helping us fight the real crime lords.
The video game obsession leads me to believe, it's one of many reasons I truly don't have a doubt in my mind if we ever had an economic collapse, the majority would not survive it.