I disagree. You definitely have to keep exerting effort in order to continue to advance in a video game. Gamers can be unbelievably disciplined. IMO, the difference is that there is a much more rapid return on investment, with next to no risk.

In a video game, there are very few surprises or unexpected consequences, and it’s easy to measure your progress toward a goal. Also, when you actually follow the story (instead of just moving on to the next objective), it can be really cool to see everyone in the village come out to cheer for you – the hero of Townsville! (Even the chickens.) The thing is, IRL, you don’t often have those luxuries.

Video games certainly stimulate many parts of the brain, though they really don’t seem to help students to be self-motivated and willing to problem solve by going out and finding solutions rather than picking one form a few presented them by the creator of a game.

Disagree here as well. A quest given in a video game might tell the player to “defeat the mighty dragon Xathrax,” but rarely gives much in the way of strategy. It’s up to the player to figure out what battle strategy will work most effectively – whether through trial and error, reconaissance, or online research.

(And this is coming from someone who finds video games incredibly closed-ended.)

I never experienced television and games as having any kind of hypnotic, brain-numbing allure which made the likes of building blocks, Legos, books, digging holes in the backyard, climbing trees, exploring the woods, etc, seem dull and unappealing. On the contrary, they all co-existed very peacefully for me. I was also an aspiring writer from a young age, and would frequently watch TV and movies with an eye to ideas that I might want to use in stories of my own. When my brother and I played video games, we’d make up stories about them together, and use those stories in our own fantasy play later on. They were an addition to that fantasy play, for us; an enriching element, not a substitution.

One complaint that frequently gets bandied about among gamers, from what I’ve seen, is that many people who criticize video games for being detrimental to children and teens don’t actually know that much about modern video games at all. And this isn’t a baseless complaint: many critics of video games seem to believe that video games are universally violent shoot-em-ups or Grand Theft Auto, or don’t realize that game technology has advanced since the days of Pac-Man, and still believe that all games are nothing but crude sprites mindlessly eating or shooting things, to the accompaniment of electronic bleeps and bloops, with no rhyme or reason behind any of it.

While I won’t deny that there are video games which are quite graphically violent (though those are generally sold with warnings and “mature” ratings, and parents need to take responsibility for keeping an eye on what their kids are playing to make sure it’s appropriate for them), there are a lot which aren’t, and a lot which require patience, concentration, and attention to detail. Japanese RPGs in particular often have fairly complex stories, with detailed characters who grow, develop, face personal conflicts, and confront their own fears and hangups. While they generally still don’t quite have the depth of the plot or characterization found in a good novel, players whose primary interest is in shooting and blowing things up usually don’t have the patience for the relatively large amount of text and dialogue in these games. (The fact that some of them sell extremely well, though, like the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series, seems to suggest that there is a substantial market of gamers who enjoy games with lots of text and in-depth plots.)

In fact, there are some contingents of game players who complain about the unbalanced ratio of story to gameplay in some games– some think that certain games or certain series are too much like interactive books or TV shows, at the expense of fun gameplay. Contrarily, other factions within the gaming community will deride such critics for having no attention span, being unwilling to think in depth or to spend time on anything that doesn’t provide immediate gratification, etc. There are games which don’t, in fact, provide much immediate gratification, if you just pick them up and expect to have fun right away– not just because some of them take you through long story segments before you’re allowed to play at all, but because some have complex mechanics and strategy and rely on getting the hang of a complicated skill or level system (sometimes to a degree mandating in-game tutorials) before you can really get into the “good parts” of the game.

As for the technology, I’ll say only that graphics and music in games have advanced to a point where I’ve run into quite a few people who were inspired to pursue studies in computer animation or music composition, because they were so inspired by the visuals or music of particular games.

Many people are also unaware of the existence of a burgeoning “fandom” culture on the Internet, in which fans of particular books, TV shows, video games, etc, create “fanfiction” and “fanart”– stories, art, and comics based on the plots and characters of their favourite media. While the quality runs the gamut from abysmal to excellent, some of the best work is genuinely good and creative, shows at least an adequate understanding of the elements of art or of fiction writing, and (in the case of writing) impeccably spelled and punctuated. And while fandom has its own cliques and factions, some of these factions are quick to criticize and deride anyone who spells poorly, writes sloppily, mischaracterizes the characters they’re writing about, or plagiarizes others’ work– so quality of work is encouraged through peer pressure, not through the influence of adults.

Children and teens who devote their free time to fanfic and fanart (speaking from the perspective of someone who spent a lot of time in fandom as a teenager) are obviously not responding to their favorite media by shutting down into a state in which they passively expect to be spoon-fed entertainment. Rather, they’re using it to fuel their own imaginations, composing new adventures for their favourite characters; or they find it a useful way to practice their own writing or art, if they aspire to create their own original work. And while the vast majority of the fanfiction I’ve seen could do with some editing, sometimes a lot of editing, a lot of it is obviously the product of very active imaginations– even if the author’s knowledge of grammar, spelling, etc, or of plot and style, isn’t adequate to doing their ideas justice.

Some creators of fanart and fanfic also devote large amounts of time to their work, putting in hours at a stretch to complete a picture or finish a multi-chapter story. So for them, at least, the “quick” entertainment of a TV show or video game is clearly no bar to being able to put out the effort and focus required for a sustained creative endeavour.

Personally, I’ve lost interest over the years in TV, and watch it only rarely, but I still do play video games. I can play them for hours at a stretch, but I can just as easily spend the same number of hours reading or working on a jigsaw puzzle. And I still spend quite a lot of time ruminating, thinking to myself while externally appearing to be doing little or nothing, going on long walks to think, etc.

In fact, I’d suggest that we who grew up with electronic and traditional entertainment side by side need to be listened to and taken seriously by educators concerned about new media’s effect on children. Not just because of the personal testimonies we can provide as to how TV and games did or didn’t sway us away from books or personal creativity, but because we may be able to provide insights into how new media could be used to enhance the learning process– those raised without video games and similar can only conjecture as to what actually goes on in kids’ heads when playing; we can tell you what happens, from our own experience.

(And BTW, I’ve played some games which were excruciatingly dull and boring; even some normally entertaining games can become wearisome when you have to spend hours gaining levels, searching for rare items, or trudging around mazes. There are times when shutting off the console and grabbing a book provides far more immediate pleasure and gratification.)

I would be more worried about excessive stimulation robbing a child of the opportunity to be contemplative and self-directed. Some of my children’s friends spend a great deal of time playing video games. In my opinion, the games’ challenges are fairly simplistic, when compared to the challenge of manipulating sand, for example, or mastering a piece of music. A little bit is fine. Too much time spent on video games robs a child of the chance to interact with the complex, 3-d, non-programmed real world.

I think people who were big readers as children tend to think narrowly about other ways to interact with the world. There are unlimited positive ways to live out our lives and to raise our children. I’m always suspicious of any claims to one right way.

Both kids have more of an attention span then most kids I know, my daughter especially. Both are also homeschooled which I sometimes suspect is a more important factor for them in terms of their attention span then video games.

As a single female with no children, I still have a valid opinion on kids and I have some very good advice to give to parents from a neutral experience. I am very analytical and I do pay attention to what is going on with both the adults and the children. I am hesitant to give advice to anyone, but when I do, it is because I have a very strong reason to do so and I have based my advice on a lot of thought and research.

Most of the time I am “blown off” by parents because I am not a parent. I don’t claim to always be right, but I have seen the disasters that have happened when my advice is ignored simply because I am a non-parent and then often these same parents follow the horrible advice of a fellow parent just because the other person was a parent.

I hear constantly from parents that non-parents just don’t understand. I am 39 with non-parental experience with kids and I am not some young inexperienced person in life. We non-parents understand more than many parents think we do, and sometimes we understand the truth that parents will not admit or accept.

If Marcotte is wrong, say why she is wrong and attack on logic. (Jumps off my soapbox)

Also, no one seems to have addressed the disconnect between the stimulation of video games and the way 99% of schools operate today. Whether you agree with the way schools are run or not; whether you think video games overstimulate in a good or bad way; the way that video games cause the minds of young people to develop is disconnected from our current education system.

Stimulation in school is not, and in my opinion should not be, handed to students in the way that video games engage students. It’s expected that students will make an attempt to engage in material, which in my school happens all too rarely. Video games certainly stimulate many parts of the brain, though they really don’t seem to help students to be self-motivated and willing to problem solve by going out and finding solutions rather than picking one form a few presented them by the creator of a game.