lungfish posted:

babyfinland posted:
This sort of stuff also reinforces and facilitates ridiculous lies in the media like "precision bombing" because you've seen in happen in movies a hundred times so it seems plausible

Why isn't this plausible? Military tech is some of the best in existence and I knew a guy who did laser-guided bomb work while in college. (He died in Iraq)

His joke: "I've blown up missiles worth more than my college education."

lol you think we would use that sort of technology even if we had it

you dont understand what war is

germanjoey posted:

ilmdge posted:
i made a big post at wddp about how much i think video games are wrecking human development. i cant see it now but one of the things that bothers me about them (besides being addictive and sedentary and violent etc etc) is that they desocialize human beings and reduce communication to worthless unthinking ejaculations like pwned. the generation growing up with facebook and iphones and these games is going to have the worst ever social skills and will be individualistic as shit.

would you mind reposting it here? I pretty much agree in general, but im not as quick to pin "intrinsically bad" on the combination of computer + game so much as them being particularly exploitable.

k i made a new account to dig up some of these mediocrte posts (im banned for some reason, somebody tell me why pls)

In the United States, video games are a $10.5b industry employing almost half a million people. 64% of parents believe video games are a positive influence on their childrens' lives.

*record scratch* and yet this exactly is why video game production must be halted.

That's hundreds of thousands of people working to what end? This vast misdirection of labor is making kids more sedentary, so they sit on the couch languorously drinking mountain dew in lieu of more healthy alternatives. So that instead of a neighborhood game of basketball that can be played on any small street or soccer in any yard, we're amplifying childhood obesity and stunting social development. What's more, I'd contend that video games aren't actually more fun than these alternatives, they're just more convenient. Our technological progress ends up just setting society back, and making us less healthy, both physically and socially (and lack of social development leads to lack of empathy). Kids don't play outside anymore like they used to.

Especially with the internet, there's always games out there to be had. One can sit around playing Starcraft for hours and hours...

A South Korean man has died after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks.

The 28-year-old man collapsed after playing the game Starcraft at an internet cafe in the city of Taegu, according to South Korean authorities.

The man had not slept properly, and had eaten very little during his marathon session, said police.

Multi-player gaming in South Korea is extremely popular thanks to its fast and widespread broadband network.

Games are televised and professional players are treated, as well as paid, like sports stars.

Professional gamers there attract huge sums in sponsorship and can make more than $100,000 a year.

The man, identified by his family name, Lee, started playing Starcraft on 3 August. He only paused playing to go to the toilet and for short periods of sleep, said the police.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official told the Reuters news agency.

He was taken to hospital following his collapse, but died shortly after, according to the police. It is not known whether he suffered from any previous health conditions.

They added that he had recently been fired from his job because he kept missing work to play computer games.

Small minority

Online computer games are some of the most popular and largest growth areas in interactive entertainment.

Players can easily get immersed and feel compelled to play for hours at a stretch, particuarly in massively multiplayer online role playing games - MMORPGs - in which thousands of gamers play and interact in shared fantasy or science fiction worlds.

Reports of gamers spending 10 to 15 hours a day in front of video games, such as the highly popular World of Warcraft and EverQuest, are becoming more frequent. Experts say gamers should take regular screen breaks.

...

More than 15 million people, or 30% of the population, are registered for online gaming in South Korea. The country also host the annual World Cyber Games.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm

Video games are unique among all forms of entertainment, even other sedentary ones. Usually, a friend won't invite over another friend to sit around and watch TV for hours. Even if they watch a movie together, this activity spans a set amount of time. Not so with video games. Have a friend over, and sit on your asses playing all day. In fact, video games don't even require a friend to come over anymore; instead one can just spit vulgarities into an XBox Live mic.

Or how about board games? They seem to be the video game's predecessor, and yet they're an entirely different ballgame. Video games can make one a shut-in (poop socks), they can be antisocial behavior, while board games require the physical presence of other human beings, and social interaction. Just takes 10 guys running off a bunch of Monopoly boards to provide children with hours of fun and the lesson that in capitalism, the rich get richer and everyone else gets bankrupted.

This isn't just a bunch of unsourced hysteria. There have been a few studies that back these ideas up.

Video Games, Not TV, Linked To Obesity In Kids
ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2004) — Despite conventional wisdom, simply watching television is not related to a child's weight, but playing video games may be, new research indicates.

"Children with higher weight status spent moderate amounts of time playing electronic games, while children with lower weight status spent either little or a lot of time playing electronic games," say Elizabeth A. Vandewater, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of The Great Shit Wastes in the Journal of Adolescence. "Moderate" play, while it sounds benign, can have a great impact, given the large number of American children who play electronic games.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040318073351.htm

Video Games, Not TV, Linked To Obesity In Kids
ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2004) — Despite conventional wisdom, simply watching television is not related to a child's weight, but playing video games may be, new research indicates.
http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/408/60891.html

"To our knowledge this study provides the strongest evidence for an independent association between time spent playing electronic games and childhood obesity," says Nicolas Stettler, MD, pediatric nutrition specialist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, in a news release. "Our findings suggest that the use of electronic games should be limited to prevent childhood obesity."
http://children.webmd.com/news/20040702/video-games-tv-double-childhood-obesity-risk

"While both television and video game play can be reasonably be considered sedentary activities, video game play was related to children's weight status while television was not. This may mean that video game play, but not television use, is indeed displacing the time children spend in more physically demanding pursuits."

HOURS spent playing on computer games could be as damaging for children’s teeth as their overall health and fitness.

Teenagers are more likely to snack on sugary foods while absorbed in computer games.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health-news/2010/04/05/teeth-take-a-hit-when-computer-games-lead-to-bad-bites-91466-26174981/

Those aren't all different studies but it all supports what I also am logically concluding.

We have laws requiring people wear seat belts and they're just. Let's help people be good parents by halting video game production. Afterall, there are over 5,000,000 existing already, and it's commonly argued that 2d games are superior to 3d. Let's shrug off this capitalistic drive to create Madden 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and so on.


And I haven't even gotten to video game culture yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb5ev2Dp4I0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD4Y-dhoHBA

Enthusiasts of military-style first-person shooters are not well known for their progressive thoughts on the matter of gender. The organizers of a large LAN party in Texas, scheduled to celebrate the launch of Battlefield 3, have decided the best way to deal with any slurs hurled at female gamers is to simply forbid them from attending.

http://kotaku.com/5824084/well-thats-one-way-to-combat-misogyny-in-gaming


In conclusion, video games lead to desocialization and replace skill-building activities and productive work and ultimately are a harmful seduction tempting a noble humankind into backwardness and ill health.

---------------------------------------------------------------

any subscription-based game must be designed as addictive and permanent out of market-based necessity, WoW is a huge timesink and however much you play theres always incentive to play more and to surrender your life to it more fully.

and the military video game complex, of course they'll always make video games to "imitate" life, that is, to glorify violence and brutalize people into callous support of whatever is the west military mission de jour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNSQTJDy3Uo

Or military missions of the past... as in CoD: Black Ops

----------------------------------------------------------------

its almost as if fat loser kids are drawn somehow to fantasy worlds where they can live out better-than-normal lives and regain some sense of ego and identity hmmmmmmmm

I wanted to expand on these types of responses. Check out this insane article about Japanese people going on romantic getaways with their virtual girlfriends:

ATAMI, Japan—This resort town, once popular with honeymooners, is turning to a new breed of romance seekers—virtual sweethearts.

Only in Japan, Real Men Go to a Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends
Dating-Simulation Game a Last Resort For Honeymoon Town and Its Lonely Guests

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

Since the marriage rate among Japan's shrinking population is falling and with many of the country's remaining lovebirds heading for Hawaii or Australia's Gold Coast, Atami had to do something. It is trying to attract single men—and their handheld devices.

In the first month of the city's promotional campaign launched July 10, more than 1,500 male fans of the Japanese dating-simulation game LovePlus+ have flocked to Atami for a romantic date with their videogame character girlfriends.

The men are real. The girls are cartoon characters on a screen. The trips are actual, can be expensive and aim to re-create the virtual weekend outing featured in the game, a product of Konami Corp. played on Nintendo Co.'s DS videogame system.

"Atami has always been a romantic place, but it is now a romantic place for a modern generation," says Sakae Saito, Atami's mayor.

Love Plus+ re-creates the experience of an adolescent romance. The goal isn't just to get the girl but to maintain a relationship with her.

After choosing one of three female characters—goodie-goodie Manaka, sassy Rinko or big-sister type Nene—to be a steady girlfriend, the player taps a stylus on the DS touch-screen in order to walk hand-in-hand to school, exchange flirtatious text messages and even meet in the school courtyard for a little afternoon kiss. Using the device's built-in microphone, the player can carry on sweet, albeit mundane, conversations.

If the real-life Romeo earns enough "boyfriend power" points—by completing game tasks like homework or exercise to become smarter and more buff—the reward is a virtual trip to Atami.

In the game, the couple tours the local landmarks. The girlfriend changes into a yukata, a casual summer kimono, to go see the fireworks, and then they stay overnight at the Hotel Ohnoya. It is known for its cavernous, white-columned baths in the style of Ancient Rome.

In his first visit to the real-life Atami, Love Plus+ gamer Shunsuke Kato planned to walk around the city and see the sights familiar to him from playing the game. One small hitch: his girlfriend, Manaka, was giving him the silent treatment.

She was upset that he had been so busy at work that he had been playing the game only 10 minutes a day. "On days off, I spend one to two hours with her. I guess, compared to the people who come here, our relationship is a bit lukewarm," said Mr. Kato.

Located at the bend of the Japanese archipelago and a one-hour train ride from Tokyo, Atami has definitely seen better days.

The number of overnight visitors has dropped by half from the peak in the late 1960s. The main shopping area has many boarded-up storefronts—a lot of them defunct bars, clubs and other remnants of the city's heyday as an entertainment mecca.

The city is going all-out to indulge ardent Love Plus+ fans.

At the real Hotel Ohnoya, which opened its doors in 1937, the staff is trained to check in Love Plus+ customers as couples even if there is only one actual guest. Says Atsurou Ohno, the hotel's managing director, "We try not to ask too many questions because we want them to be able to remain immersed in that game world."

Some devoted fans will go so far as to pay twice the rate—most hotels in Japan charge per guest not per room—to indulge the fantasy that they are not there alone. A night's stay, at most, can cost $500 though many rooms are cheaper.

In Atami, the Love Plus+ fans—mostly men in their twenties and thirties—stand out. Unlike the deeply tanned beach crowd wearing very little, they are often pasty and overdressed for the heat in heavy jeans and button-down shirts.

Tatsuya Fukazawa, a 19-year-old college student, was visiting Atami for the first time on a recent weekend. In a small waist bag, he carried his Nintendo DS. Once he turned on the device, his virtual girlfriend Manaka Takane—a Libra who enjoys making pastries—greeted him in a syrupy sweet voice.

"There isn't a lot of romance in my life and this helps me cope with some of the loneliness," said Mr. Fukazawa with a chuckle.

Adding real elements to the virtual relationships is central to the Love Plus+ series. The games can be synched up to an actual calendar and clock, which means playing the game too late at night might mean that the virtual girlfriend is already asleep. Players are expected to remember important dates like birthdays and holidays.

Local businesses are feeling the love.

Yamadaya, a shop selling processed fish cakes on Atami's main shopping street, started offering special Love Plus+ fish cakes at the end of July. On top of a rubbery square white cake about the size of piece of toast, Yamadaya draws the characters' faces using black squid ink. At 450 yen ($5.30), the store has been selling out its daily allotment of 150 cakes—50 for each girl.

Korean barbecue-inspired restaurant Hien says a quarter of its customers are currently game-related. For 5,000 yen, customers get a special Love Plus+ menu of Japanese beef and side dishes.

Kanji Nagasawa, Hien's owner, says he is accustomed to making small talk with customers, but the Love Plus+ crowd often sits in silence and plays the game while eating.

"We've been stunned," Mr. Nagasawa said, "how happy this makes those customers."

Alas, the boom ends this month, when the imaginary characters have to go back to school.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703632304575451414209658940.html

understand and enjoy some escapism, but video games tempt one to totally retreat from life. Because of these games, people who have trouble fitting in also have to struggle with the temptation to self-isolate, a complete escapism, replacing the physical existence around them with a virtual one. These people previously would have had more continued social exposure and could have developed better interpersonal skills and a more healthy worldview; they could have real relationships with other real people, even if it's just with other similar awkward ones. Instead they turn their back on the world. In the above story they are quite straightforwardly substituting video game characters in place of real love. Love!!!

"Atami has always been a romantic place, but it is now a romantic place for a modern generation," says Sakae Saito, Atami's mayor.

This is the modern generation? Lonely men going to love hotels with their Nintendo DS?

In Atami, the Love Plus+ fans—mostly men in their twenties and thirties—stand out. Unlike the deeply tanned beach crowd wearing very little, they are often pasty and overdressed for the heat in heavy jeans and button-down shirts.

Instead of confronting the world, you can now be a shut-in loner! What a brave new world we have today, thanks to video games! And I know this seems unfair because I'm talking about just this specific game, but I'd argue the same thing applies to WoW, the most popular game in the world. People let these games consume them, the artificial world seems so much better than their real life that they abandon their lives, married husbands and wives leave their partners and children for some fantasy projection they have of some guild member.

Video games (many kinds) destroy people's ability interact in a healthy manner with their fellow humans. Desocialization leads to empty, unhappy existences and empty thrills. It leads to selfishness. Video games replace potentially healthy activity with sedentary activity. They glorify war and violence and brutalize gamers. Video games are shit.

ilmdge posted:

lungfish posted:
The above lengthy post in short: A person can potentially waste a lot of time playing video games, therefore video game production must be halted.

This line of reasoning can be applied to literally everything, including posting on forums.

Not only is posting on forums not as appealing to children, it is also much healthier.

depends on the forum just as it depends on the game. -_-;;;

Impper posted:
how can i most efficiently while away my meaningless existence

Prob. prison

SomeIsraeliFuck posted:
i can't dunk, too short and jewish.

same (former literal, latter figurative)

watwatsen posted:
The only recreational activity congruent with Global Peoples' Revolution is large quantities of psychedelic drugs while chopping firewood

who are u, friend, that advocates such an abuse on the very spirit of man as somehow desirable? who has earnestly posted excerpts of new-age mysticism as if it has anything to offer us? why do you suggest an activity of Pure Reaction above all else, total escapism, born out of complete individualism - such an oblique retreat from material reality, resorting to willing illusions ignorant of & to the masses --- why?



you wish to live instead with phantoms? to play in the chaotic order, in all its violence? there is no practice more counterrevolutionary! look around you, the boomers you likely revere stand firmly for global capital and nothing else! Eldridge Cleaver arrested Leary for doing what you do now, as it should be! you do not help us, you take part in this abuse and you consign yourself to defeat. the congruity you claim is false. you're a liar.

Impper posted:
there's some jewish player in the nba and i've seen him dunk, so being a jew is no excuse really, though i suspect he's one of those russian "jews" who got exported to israel in the 70s, the son of them at least

there are several jews in the nba, i'm just bad at sports, maybe cause i spent my childhood years playing video games rather than sports.