Monday, May 02, 2005

Video Games Make You Smarter

Ha! Now I can justify playing XBox for hours on end. But seriously, this does sound like an interesting book. The premise, that television shows are getting more and more complex, requiring the audience to keep up, seems to hold up well. I also agree with the idea that complex thinking is required to determine methods of manipulation within video games. I'm still unsure that books, as a medium, are dead, or inadequate, because I've still got more information packed into less space, more easily accessed on certain topics, say World War I, on my book shelves than is available on the web. Don't even get me started on the idiocy of the History Channel.

1 comment:

Nylarthotep said...

Not convinced. I truly doubt that playing video games helps at all. Maybe some cases on some minor memory work out, but hand-eye coordination is pretty much rubbish. Yeah, your hand and eyes work together, but in the real world I use other parts of my body with the hands and eyes. Firing a real weapon takes more than pointing and pushing a button. (I'm fully convinced that Granted is being sarcastic to a certain extent. I've seen him kick the kids out the door to find a little life in reality.)

As for TV, I watch the news and some things like sci-fi for entertainment, but as for complex thinking, not a chance. Mysteries on the idiot box never give you enough information to think out a scenario and the new CSI shows don't even give you enough information, not to mention they pull out some very esoteric information as evidence.

I hardly ever watch the History channel, because in some cases they get things wrong, or don't provide any perspective or alternate views. And as for "discovering" some new history, they usually are just re-enacting something that has been around for several years.

I'll stick with books. In depth knowledge and discussion is much better for the mind than which house wife is the horniest this week.