Video Games: A British Debate

[Black Dragon37]

2 British MPs have voiced their thoughts on video games and the gaming industry.

On my right side:
The British Minister for Creative Industries and Tourism, and Labour Member of Parliament Shaun Woodward has called for the video games industry to sponsor an academy (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12292) to support students interested in working in the industry.

On my left side:
British Member of Parliament Boris Johnson believes that video games are rotting the brains of children (http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=14877) and are adversely affecting literacy levels, especially among young males. He wants people to "just say no" to Nintendo and to "paralyze" the PlayStation.

Vote and discuss. :)

[Viper]

Shaun knows what he's talking about. Boris is a British Jack Thompson who has abaolutely zero experience in the field he is set on destroying.

[frosty]

British Member of Parliament Boris Johnson believes that video games are rotting the brains of children and are adversely affecting literacy levels, especially among young males. He wants people to "just say no" to Nintendo and to "paralyze" the PlayStation.

Really.... put an illiterate person in front of a game of Final Fantasy 7 and see how far they make it into the game... Geez, this world is populated by some stupid people. I wonder if Boris is illiterate.


Left a reply on his site.

Dustin Rudzinski said:
January 5, 2007 7:19 PM | permalink

You are so full of BS it stinks when you sneeze. For you to make a claim as outrageous as videogames making children illiterate... Do me a favor. Go buy the Playstation game called Final Fantasy 7, Or any other Final Fantasy title for that matter. Now try to make it through the game without reading a word. In fact, get a person who is really illiterate and make them try to finish even part of the game. They'll be so damn lost they'll give up after only a short while. Videogames improve literacy, hand-eye coordination, ability to work as a team (play an online multiplayer title), social skills (again, in multiplayer titles), problem solving skills (games are full of brain busting puzzles), and patience. Without those things, you won't make it far at all in any modern day game that is worth playing. But of course, you wouldn't know that because you don't actually play them. You just take your little observations of someone else experiencing a game and try to bash them based on that. I could walk into a movie theater, see people sitting in their seats with flickering reflections in their eyes, stuffing their faces with over-buttered popcorn and 10 gallon Coca-Colas, and easily make claims about them very similar to what you have said. However you don't see me calling for an end to movies. Why? Because I can be open minded enough to sit down and enjoy a few from time to tim and understand that though there may be some popcorn stuffed fat losers that do nothing more than sit in those theaters wasting their lives away, the vast majority of the people in there are just like you and me. The movies aren't rotting their brains.

[Matt]

Boris is a lot of things, and illiterate is probably one of those things.

[gljvd]

I believe that all entertainment should be used to teach as well as entertain .

However what it teaches could vary and I don't see why there can't be more ultimas out there instead of gtas

As for rotting some kids minds , I think some games do , do this , not the majority though . Schools and parenting should simply be improved and so should programing on tvs as these are the real problems .

Trust me i work at a school and see the problems

[Crow]

i agree on everything Boris say's since he's like....awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOivzoRc0I8

i understand that Boris say's it rotting their minds as in they are more focused on that rather than anything of general importance "maths etc..."

if we encouraged them to get into the field we'd have 90% of people making games

however some games do help people, like all those brain training ones


EDIT: Boris was educated at Eton College, where he was a King's Scholar, (after his expulsion from The Oratory School) and read Greats at Balliol College, Oxford (his time is commemorated on a wall in the college bar as "a Balliolite who achieved more than you ever will" along with Graham Greene and Howard Marks), where he was a Brackenbury scholar, and President of the Oxford Union. It has been claimed that, tactically, to gain the Presidency he touted himself as a Social Democratic Party supporter, then a dominant current at the University, though he denies that he was more than their preferred candidate (Pandora column, The Independent, 9 August 2006). While at Oxford he was also a member of the Bullingdon Club, an exclusive student dining society known for its raucous feasts, and was involved in the British-Arab University Association.

[Matt]

:lol:

Amazing.

[koten]

I think both side's oppinions are terrible.

On one side, you have an idiot who doesn't know anything about a subject he's condeming. On the other you have a man who wants to send the game industry down a one-way path to Holywood by "educating" students on what makes a game good.

[D3adcell]

I don't like the boris jackoff so I voted against him. I wont understand how videogames are worse then movies or a book? Videogames are basically a movie that you control, though the story is usually so much deeper (lasting anywhere from 10-100 hours instead of 1). There is tons of reading.

Plus if you play the right games you can learn about history etc. Like in high school I got alot of bonus points on my history test because I was able to name ancient civilizations (thanks age of empires).

[Black Dragon37]

I'm not surprised that only one person has spoken of Shaun Woodward...

[Black Dragon37]

Trade body TIGA has welcomed recent statements made by MP Shaun Woodward, on the need for a dedicated 'games academy' (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22134) to benefit the UK industry.

ELSPA director general Paul Jackson has called on Boris Johnson to take a closer look at videogames (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22048) following the Tory MP's outspoken criticisms of the medium.

Public perception of games still lags (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22188) behind the reality.

[Gookanheimer]

I think both side's oppinions are terrible.

On one side, you have an idiot who doesn't know anything about a subject he's condeming. On the other you have a man who wants to send the game industry down a one-way path to Holywood by "educating" students on what makes a game good.
Interesting point of view. I'd rep you, but I have to spread it first :P