• About

LIVEdigitally

Is Online Gaming Creating Citizens or Monsters?

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Jeremy Toeman

There’s an interesting article up on MSNBC right now regarding kids and online gaming.  Some highlights:

Game experiences “can be quite valuable from the standpoint of civic and political engagement.”

Video games can provide hands-on learning opportunities for kids that can be much more meaningful than reading a textbook. For instance, you can play a mayor in “SimCity,” and get a close-up look at what it takes to build and maintain a community.

Helping a newbie get his sea legs in a game simulates the real-world experience of volunteering. And playing games online can expose kids to people with worldviews that differ from their own — in positive and negative ways.

Many of the of the 1,102 teenagers polled said they’d encountered hostility, racism and sexism while playing online — stuff that can certainly happen offline too, says Kahne.  “Just as some playground experiences are enriching and some are unpleasant for young people, one can imagine that that would be true in the game world.”

I’ve played games “online” for two decades (I used to play Populous against people over dial-up back in the 80s).  I’ve played pretty much every category of game online, from real-time strategy (aka RTS, like StarCraft or Command and Conquer) to first-person shooter (aka FPS, like Doom, Quake, or my current fave Call of Duty 4) to casual games (like Hearts, Spades, Scrabulous). And while I can’t claim to be excellent at any of them, it’s certainly clear that I’ve wasted many many hours of my life so far.

After reading the MSNBC article I couldn’t help but wonder how much video game playing the researchers had done.  First, comparing any aspect of SimCity to running real cities is like comparing playing Call of Duty 4 to, say, war. I’d say the most practical skills I’ve gained from video games include my abilities to use a bucket of water to catch rapidly dropped bombs, I’m pretty damn awesome at shooting down evil catpeople in spaceships, and I’ve always been more cautious around @’s, D’s and L’s than I am near o’s and g’s (bonus points to anyone who can name all three games).

Also, the comments about helping newbies are very domain-specific.  There are some games where this is true, but I’d say the majority of n00bs (as they are actually called) pretty much have to fend for themselves or have a real-life friend come over.  Playing Call of Duty 4, for example, has near-constant mockery of anyone making basically any mistake, or even using certain weapons.  Playing RTS games, on the other hand, you are more likely to get some constructive help/tips, but this generally comes long after being demolished in the first 10 minutes of the game.  I am not a World-of-Warcraft player, but I’d assume that’s an easier place to make friends.

I think it’s also pretty clear that the researchers haven’t spent much time on Xbox Live, which is the den of monsters as far as terrible online behavior is concerned.  I’ve never heard such a quantity of hate-filled kids (and sometimes adults, but mostly kids) in a room, and it’s clearly language they’d never use off-line.  There’s something very wrong about the amazing level of anonymity the Xbox Live experience presents, as I sincerely doubt we have a generation of evil-minded children running around the country.  But I do ponder the particular home scenarios for these kids, and wonder about their unsupervised and more importantly, uneducated time online.

A few years from now my wife and I will have to decide about what we’ll be comfortable with in our home regarding Internet use, which will specifically include gaming.  I think it’ll be important for us to teach responsibility and general codes of conduct.  I’ve never felt the ability nor desire to become a racist arrogant sexist moron while playing video games online.  But maybe that’s because when I was a 14-year-old gamer, I didn’t have 35-year-olds to beat up on all day and all night.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Reddit

Related

Posted in Gaming | Tags: Gaming | 4 Comments
« Review: TuneUp Finds Missing Music Meta Data
I Have a Bad Case of Gadget Ennui »

4 thoughts on “Is Online Gaming Creating Citizens or Monsters?”

  1. Davis Freeberg says:
    September 17, 2008 at 9:27 pm

    I’ve tried to get into online gaming, but always encounter two issues. The first is the hostility that you point out. To a certain extent this is a problem for other things (like blogging and message boards) that also allows for anonymity, but you’re right about Xbox being a sewer. The second issue that I run into is that online isn’t well suited for the casual gamer. Even the games that I’m good at, I get schooled in and it sucks all of the fun out of the game when you are winning less then 10% of the time. I’m not sure how others are able to get help from the more seasoned players, but have found that they are more interested in blowing me out of the water then in helping me get better.

    A while back, I think that you had suggested a casual gamer community or maybe it was an over 40 league and I think that that could really help. 14 year olds are the ones who have the time to get good at a game and their behavior reflects their age. If I had an opportunity to go up against other working stiffs who want to relax after a hard day’s work, I think it would be a more enjoyable experience. As is, online gaming is less of an option for me now because I’m not willing to pay $15 a month for 6 hours of entertainment on a game like WOW and I’m not willing to pay Xbox anything because the experience is so frustrating.

    Reply
  2. Dan Rubin says:
    September 17, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    Kaboom and Wing Commander engaged more of my formative years than certain school grades. Who can forget the joy of editing autoexec.bat and config.sys files so that you could get such incredible game enhancements as seeing the pilot’s hand moving my ship’s stick? My pilot, the cleverly named “CatSlayer,” was the envy of the Tiger’s claw.

    On topic, I played CoD online for about ten minutes before I realized that getting head sniped by racist pre-teens just wasn’t the charge I was looking for. That followed a 30-minute exploration of Gears of War, an experience enhanced not only by getting chainsawed every 45 seconds, but also the constant racial slurs.

    There are reasons I play Rock Band, by myself, at home.

    Reply
  3. Dave Zatz says:
    September 18, 2008 at 4:13 am

    Davis, in some of the ZNF comments and the TCF I’ve seen at least one or two mentions of adult gaming groups – I assume it would limit some of the silliness.

    I traded in my Xbox for a PS3 and the Xbox at least allowed me to rate asses and in extreme cases report them. No such feature on the PS3 as far as I can tell. I’ve been playing CoD4 and SOCOM withOUT my headset – less community feel, but less stupid people.

    Reply
  4. Pingback: ZNF ‘Round The Web

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

Recent Posts

  • Back on the wagon/horse?
  • 11 Tips for Startups Pitching Big Companies
  • CES 2016: A New Role
  • Everything I Learned (So Far) Working For a Huge Company
  • And I’m Back…

Archives

Pages

  • About

Archives

  • January 2019
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004

Categories

  • Convergence (81)
  • Gadgets (144)
  • Gaming (19)
  • General (999)
  • Guides (35)
  • LD Approved (72)
  • Marketing (23)
  • Mobile Technology (111)
  • Networking (22)
  • No/Low-tech (64)
  • Product Announcements (85)
  • Product Reviews (109)
  • That's Janky (93)
  • Travel (29)
  • Video/Music/Media (115)
  • Web/Internet (103)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© LIVEdigitally
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.