Soapbox: Video Games and Youth

I am a video game addict. Not was, am.

While I have done ok through the course of my seminary career I still have my ear to the sounds of the electronic gaming industry. I realize that I could open up a whole can of worms here, and I might.

What is often missed is that people are not very stupid anymore. Sony made a very very large advertisement mistake this Christmas when they hired an advertisement company to use ‘viral’ marketing. (viral Marketing is basically a word of mouth marketing, but using internet tools such as myspace, blogs, etc etc) Three days later: Sony had removed the information from the site and had been found out. (Link) Next fun thing is the Christmas releases of both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. How bad was it? Gaming stores gave individuals redeemable tickets after robbers held up a line waiting outside overnight.

Now I don’t care how anything really gets advertised, more than anything I normally buy second hand stuff in a technology oriented system. Any computer is outdated normally by the next year, and video gaming systems have a life span of about three. Here is where it gets fun: video game consoles (Xbox, Playstation, Wii) all have price tags starting at $400 and up. That is more money than I spend on food in a month. Add on the joy of games at $50+.

Now I have never been a true console gamer, I normally try to barrow a console and play the games that I want to once through and then be done with them. My vice has always been computer games. Most notable was the modification for Half-Life called Counter-Strike. In my heyday I could sit down and play for 5 hours straight with only breaks for a refill of my soda, or get another snack. I can rationalize the time spent as well; at least to myself, others might disagree. Shortly after college I got out, and let that part of my life go.

Even in college I had my limits: it was the age of Everquest. One of my early rules in playing games was that I would not pick up a game with no ending, nor would I pay money beyond an Internet connection to continue to play the games. Today there is World of Warcraft. How popular is it? It has been on Jeopardy.

Blah blah blah … so what’s the point I’m trying to say here? Seminary class: Youth and Evangelism Final project. One of the choices is to spend some time in an area where youth hang out and just listen in on conversations. In the back of my head I want to find an Internet gaming café and hang out there. I know of a 300 computer/100 Xbox café south of Irvine (40 min drive) that is open till 2am on Friday night. One of the largest fights in my ministry to youth has been that of dealing with technological attraction to video games. The literal truth in some cases has been that paying for the kid to play on the computer is cheaper than a baby sitter and the kid has more fun. Now granted most conversation over video games are those complaining about how the game is cheating them or some other player is cheating, but there is a who culture of video gaming that I would say (blind guess) 85% of males have been exposed to, what is scary is the slow growth of female population find interest in the games. (At least of people that I know) One of my old high school girls could probably put on a clinic at some console games. (She can also hurt me if she really wanted to, so I try to stay on her good side.)

I concede the point that there are some people who should not play video games. Not for reasons that uses up time, but for reasons of mental instability. I know of multiple stories where individuals have logged onto games, then killed themselves while logged in. (I just don’t feel like using my google-fu) I have had friends where the relationships within games were more important than those outside. I could take this into a whole different realm of online anonymity, but that takes a whole rant unto itself.

Part II to come next week when I get some free time ...