Friday, August 12, 2005

C. Rosen on Videogames

Christine Rosen's high-minded and engaging indictment of videogames in the New Atlantis is, as usual, great reading. In addition to being a wonderful writer, Rosen may also be the premier techno-scold of our time. Now, if I could only convince her to write about blogging . . .

In defense of videogames, however, I will say that the aspect I most enjoy about them is what Rosen sees as their biggest problem: It's a playground of the self. For example, had I been born in slightly different circumstances (ie someplace where I was surrounded at an early age by car people), I could easily have fallen into the tuner culture. As it is, I'm fascinated by it--just not fascinated enough to spend thousands of hours and dollars pimping out my own ride. But a game such as Need for Speed: Underground gives me enough of that world to sate my appetite.

That can't always be a bad thing. Unless you're over 30 and have a real job and real responsiblities. Oh. Wait.

Never mind.

5 comments:

That Dude said...

I'm 34, have 2 kids a wife and am in a very high level non techie job and I spent 2 hours building my team for ESPN NFL2k5. I wont even mention that I spent 45 of those minutes doing the Draft Combine, trying to figure out who I would draft after making shrewd trades so that I had 11 draft picks. oops

Anonymous said...

I'm 33, wish I had kids, a project engineer who travels about 30% of the time and love video games. Just the small escape from the real world that it gives you.

Not to mention, when I'm travelling, it is usually to small towns with nothing to do. The games really help pass the time.

Maybe if I had kids it would be a little different, but I don't think so.

Some of the games that have taken up my time:
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
God of War
Madden
NHL 2005
Any James Bond game

Anonymous said...

Hey, it's not like your wife could even complain. Anyone who has ever seen her stand in front of a Ms. Pac-Man machine and quickly get joystick blisters from beating the high score can attest.

SquirrleyMojo said...

some guy in vietnam just died from playing video games 30+ hours straight . . .

Anonymous said...

Madden NFL games
GTA2
USNF97
Wolfenstein 3D
Harpoon 3
TACOPS

All I have to say in response to Ms. Rosen is that having read the piece, I don't care for her attitude.