The popular view of video games seems to be that they entail someone sitting with a controller in their hands, shooting people on a screen. Of course, this is a simplistic view, and there are several other kinds of video games. However, the ones which fit in with a stereotypical idea of what the games…
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It is hard to talk about video games for a long time without mentioning Grand Theft Auto. And it is hard to mention Grand Theft Auto without talking about the controversy about the game, a controversy which is whipped up every time people have a difficulty in trying to sell newspapers or attract viewers or…
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Some time around the middle of the 1990s, there was a widely held belief that the future of video gaming was the Virtual Reality headset. In the future, we were assured, there would be a lot less watching a screen while playing with a video game controller which made things happen about ten feet from…
More infoHands up if you have heard someone say “those video games are no good – they rot the brain and poison the mind“, or something that approaches that attitude in terms of an emotive response to video games. Now, put your hands back down. Put your hands up if you regularly play video games and…
More infoAlthough the present generation are frequently attacked by their “elders” for the way in which they behave, it is fair to say that there is a certain amount of that criticism which goes over the top. Certainly, the way that some people react to video games it would be no exaggeration to say that they…
More infoYou will hear it said a lot, if you spend much time around gamers or their friends or parents – or indeed if you yourself are a gamer. The word is spat out with real feeling, but the way it is said is almost more mocking than angry, and it seems to cloud the real…
More infoOne of the things that is used as a stick with which to beat the gamer is the idea that gaming is a “fantasy world“. Some people do believe that the player sitting with a controller in his or her hands has reverted to a child like state in which they cannot tell the difference…
More infoThe rise of sport simulations on video game consoles started a few decades ago, but the advances that the medium has made since then are quite something to behold. There was a time when whatever sport you enjoyed, playing it on a video game would be somehow unsatisfying. Unless your chosen sport was golf, it…
More infoThe popularity of video games has changed in ways more subtle than many of us ever give credit for. Yes, it has become a growth industry due in no small part to the way it has offered people what they want. Cerebral games are now more cerebral, violent games more violent, and games featuring hedgehogs…
More infoA clever comedian once said that the idea that video games influence human behavior is a ludicrous one, pointing out that if the games we played in the 80s had influenced what we did then, people would have been running around in darkened rooms with flashing lights, swallowing pills as they went. He may have…
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