Japanese Researcher Finds Gaming Stunts Brain

Bill Gates writes: "This story at the Guardian describes research done in Japan showing that playing video games in youth prevents development of the front lobe, leading to violent behavior." Turns out what at first appears to be arbitrary, mind-numbing violence may turn out to be just that. It seems this study might have returned different results, though, if it looked at the effects of video games which require lots of calculation instead.

Re:And people believe this ???

[error0x100]

Have any of you ever heard that gaming causes violence apart from dubious research projects that started showing up after Columbine ?

In the 50's, there was a lot of media noise and "parent scare" about how comic books caused "juvenile delinquency". Some comics were even banned [1]. This whole violence-in-video-games thing is just history repeating itself.

[1] Pogo, by Walt Kelly, Volume 11, ISBN 1-56097-339-0. Choice quote .. "with comic book censorship now a fact in Hartford, I look forward to an immediate drop in the crime rate in that fair city" (William Gaines, founder of MAD).

(Hmm .. a /. post with actual references .. how unique)

Re:Impossible

[Fred Ferrigno]

Quick guide to getting into a UC:

1) Take a lot of AP classes. It doesn't matter if you get good grades in the class, just good scores on the tests.
2) Write a good personal statement. Hype up personal tragedy and overcoming difficulties.
3) Do well on the SAT II. SAT I counts for shit.
4) After school activities do matter. Sucks for us antisocial types, but it's true.

If you've got the rest, you can have a shit GPA and not only get into college, but get a free ride to boot.

Re:This story highlights a serious problem

[error0x100]

"Ironically, then, precisely at the time when both the Executive and Legislative branches of government are agitating for a reduction of gratuitous (and maybe non-gratuitous) violence in the media, the U.S. has been on a five-year downward trend in violence statistics. According to FBI crime statistics, both violent crimes (including murder) and property crimes are down substantially, in all regions of the country, both urban and rural. Some drops are very dramatic. For example, between 1993 and 1997 murder in Los Angeles dropped 48%. In Boston it dropped 56%. Divorce is down, marriages are up. Teenage pregnancies have dropped, unemployment is down. Moreover, recent government reports tell us that the number of weapons brought to high schools has dramatically declined" (http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/violenc e.html [calstatela.edu]

Note that this is IN SPITE OF both increased amounts of violence in the media over the last ten years and a large increase in the number of children who spend a lot of time playing violent games. And it is additionally in spite of computer games being, as you say, "more seductive" and "more involving".

I'm afraid your view of a "downhill slide into violence and depravity" is not reflected in real statistics. More likely its just a popular view that you've adopted - possibly the usual jaded cynicisms that people get as they age .. the "when I was young kids were sweet and innocent, but kids today have no respect and don't read anymore, and society is going to the dogs" syndrome. In all likelihood, the "serious problem" you refer to is just perception. Society has always been violent. A few hundred years ago, for example, it was normal to take your kids on a "family outing" to see public executions (hangings or even beheadings) in the town square. That was normal then, but most people I know would think that todays 'precious fragile children' would be irreperably psychologically damaged by something like that.

Anyway, there is a lack of correlation between your gloom-and-doom viewpoint and real-world statistics. Such widespread negative perceptions are probably more likely the result of mainstream media focusing disproportionately on horrible, but statistically highly unlikely events, such as Columbine.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

[The Ultimate Badass]

It is unacceptable to present broad crime statistics as evidence of falsehood on this topic. The majority of crime in the US is not juvenile crime, and is not relevant here. The linked article is quite evidently biased. Here, I offer an alternative article, proving that the years in which computer games saw their greatest rise in popularity also showed a surge in juvenile crime! [ncjrs.org] Since 94, juvenile violent crime statistics continued to rise, at a slower rate, until the Columbine tragedy prompted a crackdown on delinquency and antisocial behaviour among teens. So there's your proof, unencumbered by political bias.

The five years preceding 1999 showed a drop in crime statistics purely because of broader social trends, particularly a general increase in prosperity, plus a marked increase in police activity in troubled areas, such as South Central LA. (Watts is now an armed police camp, inundated with social workers.)

Re:I forget who said it

[ez_TAB]

"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around darkened rooms, munching magic pills and
listening to repetitive electronic music."

-Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc. 1989

Re:I forget who said it

[el_nino]

The line was made up by British Comedian Marcus Brigstock. It's been going around the Net unattributed for a while, which always seems to make people randomly attribute it to someone rather than admit that they don't know. I've previously seen it in a print magazine attributed to Bill Gates.