“Video Games Are Evil”
Wednesday 9 September 2009 @ 10:32 am | By Sol 32 Comments
Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino used his keynote speech at CEDEC game conference to offer some insight on what he believes is contributing to the “death of the planet”.
“I think that video games are evil,” says Tomino. “[Gaming] is not a type of activity that provides any support to our daily lives, and all these consoles are just consuming electricity! Let’s say we have about three billion people on this planet wasting their time, bringing no productivity at all. Add 10 billion more people, and what would happen to our planet? Video games are assisting the death of our planet!”
On the surface it appears to be simple baiting, but provocative statements aside, he urges game designers, “to create a game that does not negatively affect our daily lives and is something that is considered more productive.” He goes further stating the over-reliance on technology to produce games has separated us from the core idea: what we are trying to accomplish.
As a non-gamer, one may point to stories of game addiction, virtual violence played out in the real world, or a bevy of other neuroses felt by gamers as the “evil” games cause ; but as a gamer it is clear games are not evil, and the varying shades of grey are only understood by a gaming subculture. The problem is no one listens to the people who understand the details, rather those that make the most noise.
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Abraham 'Velcor' Duarte
David 'KidKobun' Bruno
Ivan 'Nahu' Lozano
Random J
The same can be said about anime. NEETs and hikikomori’s arise from anime influence. So you can say that anime is evil too. And this would prove Tomino hypocritical since Gundam has roots in both anime and video games. I hope it was all a ploy and some kind of reverse psychology joke. If not, then I LOL @ him.
There are those out there that would argue wasting away watching TV shows is better than wasting away playing video games. “At least they know about stories and characters,” was the argument, iirc.
Anyway, I’ll just dismiss this as another old man that doesn’t understand what passes for entertainment in young’ins today. Granted, I think he would rather have people outside playing catch or paintball.
The same can be said of Gundam models – a waste of natural resoucres needed, electricity consumed, and trees killed to make the boxes *stares at my 12 boxes of gundam models*
I think the man is correct about energy consuming game consoles. I hope someone makes a soar powered DS like the GBA game Boktai Solar Boy Django came with a mini solar panel
Bullshit analysis from Tomino. Video games have the same necessary role as all forms of entertainment – as a social pressure valve, and as an economic drive. The same demand for video games also develops the market for computational advances – of which has impact not just in the entertainment field, but all elsewhere.
Geez, it’s not only video games, Tomino-jichan >.>
I agree in some aspects with that guy if you compare videogaming to another, more pure hobbies, let’s say reading, or practicing a musical instrument;
While in videogaming you might someday find a game that can give you a message, something that would be in fact helpful with your life and your personal growth, or a compelling story with stunning descriptive methods and vivid storytelling, in Books you’re most probable to find it, and in music (classical music, not douche guitar) the experience and satisfaction you get from practicing and playing constantly is incomparable.
They also spend less in plastic!
I think that’s the main point of Mr. Tomino. Getting hobbies that are more productive and/or leave you more to your personal growth, instead of generic FPS’ and Long-ass RPG’s that tell the same old story with cuter graphics.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Videogames and most probably stop playing them when I get really older but I also cherish the satisfactions I’ve gotten from other hobbies that I would have never found in anime and videogames.
It’s all about balancing, you know?
balancing according to who’s scale? not all books are as productive as one might think.. and where is the line drawn? and if such a line is drawn… what will happen to choices and preferences… “douche guitar” is not a general concept but one also based on preference…
even if it was classical music or non fiction books its time spent not being active in a way other than a self satisfying one which is what playing video games, reading fiction novels or comic books or whatching movies/anime is spent..
a “douche guitar” player can also get that incomparable satisfaction after practice, finishing a chapter or an issue…
its not that the hobby is “pure”, its just older… new tech leads to new hobbies and they’re not necessarily impure, just new. i’m sure old hobbyist also got chewed for not doing something more productive in their time.
while i do agree that hobbies are an outlet and nor really directly productive , i disagree on the grounds that they’re productive indirectly.
it relieves the mind.. from stress and pressures, and a peaceful mind is more productive than a stressed one…
of course every light casts a shadow… social withdrawal syndrome, hikikomoridom and others… which not necessarily have their root in popular culture.
I sometimes forget that very important part, Kuroneko (the douche guitar part), but still, I think that (staying with the guitarist playing douche music example) after dedicating so many hours to playing that catchy song, or nailing that solo, wouldn’t you feel the need to get to a higher rank, a higher level of difficulty, a higher level of music?
That’s where my opinion[card] is activated; The will to become something better is what a lot of people today (and since always I suppose) are lacking.
Imagine that this guitar dude starts searching for, let’s not say difficult, but richer music, with different chord progressions, different colors and different feelings that cannot be found in common music. If this dude manages to accomplish that, the sole act of investigating beyond what’s expected and taught in society by his own means and will will get him to be at least a better thinker.
To play something that may be awkward to normal ears, to cause uneasy sensations; to express yourself with more emotions than happy, sad, irate, and melancholic. I personally believe that. . .with an education that stimulates going beyond the boundaries of thought and society will make you a better person, and no, I don’t mean a better person to society, but a better human being. And that’s what really matters.
Nevertheless, that’s just one utopian example with a hobby that is open to “evolution” so to speak, and of course it can be applied to literature, comic books, movies, and even videogames (sorry, I don’t think Barbies and Bratz will take you anywhere) because there is a wide variety of products for different kinds of minds, with the opportunity to level up. The problem is when we, the people, defend blindly that our selected hobby is enough for us to reach certain maturity.
tl;dr
In the end, what that guitar dude (or any hobbyist) wants to do with his life is obviously his decision, and he will get satisfaction over whatever achievement he’ll do, no matter how small but, if he sticks just to 1 hobby, to 1 genre, he’ll be losing the real treasures humanity has to offer, and these treasures need a lot of mental preparation, and (you guessed it) that preparation isn’t taught, it’s discovered.
Open your eyes, boys and gals. Always try to improve, and I don’t exactly mean getting a 100% on a song on Guitar Hero.
. . .and by balancing, I mean that: balancing (your activities).
Phew, good I stated it was tl;dr
and a good read it was xD
*throws away bratz and barbies*
i mean… err…. right!
i do agree that balance is key, stating that video games are evil is a bit too much though xD
i mean… just about any hobby hast the potential to reach higher ranks.. or stay stuck…
and while video games are a contributing field (getting back on track with the destruction of the world), they’re i guess a small percentage of other ‘evils’ that are part of the ecological onslaught, since it takes energy to produce just about anything… and sometimes to consume it.
Yeah, andnow that I think of it, stating that Videogames are evil is overreacting. I suppose he said it because it’s already inseparable part of young culture in 1st and some 3rd world countries and with that, some other pastimes, will be, sadly for most, overshadowed.
Shouldn’t you recycle your dollz?
Bullshit… Reading fiction and and watching movies might be as wasteful if not more, than playing games. You take up a hobby because you enjoy it, it entertains you and satisfies you. On your scale, games and “douche guitar” might be a waste of time, like reading Locke and playing “douche piano” might be a waste of time on someone else’s scale.
Like Kuroneko said, where’s the line drawn? Nowhere, that’s what I say. Clasifying “hobbies” as pure or less pure is as retarded as judging what qualifies as a hobby and what doesn’t. The only person who can say if ‘x ativity’ is a waste of time is YOU when YOU get tired of doign it and realize its a waste of time. Not when by some arbitrary measure, ‘x activity’ gets classified as “a waste of time.”
Because in your book, playing “douche guitar” might be a waste, but in someone else’s so can playing Albeniz and Tárrega. Its not about “balancing anything” because if someone doesn’t enjoy playing an instrument or reading a book, why should they adopt those as hobbies? They can do whatever the fuck they please and none ofus are anybody to say otherwise.
the balance mentioned is when it comes to setting time for yer hobby.. and time for work/studies or other things…
there is such a thing as being unproductive even if you enjoy that. this usually happens when it extends to pathological situations like social withdrawal syndrome or those similar… where hobbies are not just a past time but an escape. A person under such circumstances wont regard a waste of time as such and doesn’t actually make it right.
but the type of hobby is each persons choise =)
whether its tickling a wonderful complex piece on the ivories in between readings of Shakespeare or just strumming away at the same 3 chords on a guitar between issues of the X-Men.
As this Italian saying goes:
A person without culture is just another potato sack that eats and shits!
As a small comment i read in a question and answer letter section at a nun magazine, that if it was right to play videogames as a passtime, and they answered that while it is not a sin, it stops you from doing valuable activities for both spiritual improvement, productivity, and all in all, beign useful and caring for the ones living around you, because most of all, there is always very little time, and miss-spending it in something that is not enrichening you, not helping you make profit, not making you learn something benefical, not making you helpful on your household, all in all, made videogames something much more nocive than positive, and that is why they discourage people at playing videogames.
In any case, even if i am kind of religious, i will not fret from playing R-Type before sleeping, xD
although i think his evil is more on the ecological stand point than the religious kind…
Miyazaki should jump on this idea… a dystopian future where video games brought about the downfall of civilization and ecological balance… now humanity struggles to become productive and restore the resources of the world and humanities former glory. xD
i jest, but while i do worry about the environment.. i don’t look to point y finger at a particular demographic as the cause for its destruction.
No, don’t jest. I’d definitely watch a movie with that theme and then buy the Bluray version even if I don’t have a Bluray player!
fine.. i shall use my wasted talents and perhaps make this into a doujinshi xD
i’m sure i can develop the plot in my free time which is quite abundant these days xD
sounds like a nausicaa rip off though xD
or perhaps i wont.. sometimes i get lazy when drawing
-__-
*destruction ensues*
Videogames ARE evil and we’re all horrible excuses for human beings. I thought this was clear, same for anime, comics, rock n roll and science.
I’m the best excuse for a human. And it’s nice to see discussion and not flaming…
I can’t say gaming is evil, but rather the gamer who interprets the experience.
religious and environmental groups seem to have a hard time understanding that God is just playing “Sim Earth”, and good o’l Jesus sits by his side playing “Black&White” with dad and the Fallen one.
oh!.. i just been clicked to go and feed the cats.
Ahahaha! I’m a Buddhist.
I’m Pagan .. my God Pantheon plays MMORPGs
xD
…Buddha plays RPG/Puzzle games of enlightment o.-
Where’s the problem???
saying consumerism is evil is like saying the past 600 years were evil.
naw, we just didn’t know it was evil until now
10 billion people!
Tomino is obviously worried about our neighbors on Mars as well!
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So what????