PixlBit

I play video games to escape my hellish reality. Who cares if they are relavent to real life or not? There is some relavance to be found out there. Plus real life is boring lol. 

Agree with this. That's why Saints Row: The Third is so much more fun than GTA 4.

If done in moderation, it's a form of recreation. And better than TV, in my opinion.

Yes Gaming is better than TV.  My husband will argue against that from time to time, but TV allows people to sit, stare, and avoid any thought process.  Gaming works your mind. 

And to sum up your excellent blog, gaming is only irrelevant to people who don't participate.  I don't like golf, but I don't knock people who enjoy it and most of all actually watching that stuff.  

Exactly, ever since I was a child, video games provided an escape from my nightmarish childhood, and it helped me cope with a reality that otherwise would have killed me.  I don't need games to be culturally relevant, and that's not to say that they can't be - Catherine is one of my favorite games of all tiem - but I enjoy getting to wreck face in Contra 3, and to save the entire fucking kingdom in Rocket Knight, and beating the living shit out of EVERYONE in Streets of Rage.  But what's hilarious is that these experiences in virtual worlds actually gave me skills and ideologies that applied in a positive way when it came to being in the real world, so derp.

Was the Commencement Speech given by Roger Ebert? lol

I wonder what that superindendent did in his free time, or did he not believe in the concept? Unfortunately, in college, when I was still an Assistant Hall Director, I felt limited in who I could go out and have a good time with by the fish bowl nature of my job; mostly, I'd just grab a drink with a coworker after a particularly stressful week. Tell that guy I found out that networking I would have done if I'd not felt that limitation, turns out, is actually fairly relevant to getting a job in reality land. I don't think the 100+ places I applied to prior to my current freelance cared I was Magna Cum Laude and had managerial experience. ... I also should have learned to speak Spanish fluently, but that's besides the point. haha

The movies I was able to see and games I was able to play kept me sane when I couldn't get sleep cause a thousand 18 year olds decided to be a jackass all at once.

Cool of your brother to sing and play at graduation like that.

I'm proud of bro-in-law Ben. He's now in his third year of college majoring in music.

If that superintendent had only mentioned gaming as a waste of time once or twice, I wouldn't have been so irked. But it seemed like it every other sentence he was saying what a waste of time playing video games was, and he went on for a good 20-30 minutes. And I'm betting he's a golfer. Now talk about a waste of time!

"Gaming is a waste of time!  It only distracts you from issues in the real world, like being miserable with your life, career of choice, or marriage!  You should take up a 'grown-up' hobby...I recommend alcoholism."

LOL. I don't think that was quite what he meant, but yeah.

I'd have been pretty furious listening to that too. Study your whole life. Why bother wasting any of your life enjoying it? This speach sounds so asinine it makes me even more shocked to know this was the school's superintendent, not just a student trying to win browner points.

Not just that school's superintendent, but the superintendent of the entire region's schools.

I know its easier to say than actually put into practice but when I've encountered people like that I just ignore it because usually folks who say things like this about gaming or other things they usually don't know anything more than what they are told. If someone works hard, and wants to relax by playing a game, what gives someone else the right to judge? Folks need to stop judging others, and enjoy their own lives.

That was why I blogged about it. No way was I going to change his mind and it gave me something interesting to write about.

I could mention some people that are revered by higher learning who played games avidly when they weren't being geniuses such as: Marcel Duchamp, who played so much Chess that he started making a living at it; Igor Stravinsky, who used to love Spaghetti Westerns (I know that's not gaming but he might have played Call of Juarez or Red Dead Redemption if he lived today); Joseph Haydn, who played cards regularly with the staff of his employer's estate; and Wolfgang Mozart, who was obsessed with Billiards and played daily.

    I've also heard theortical physicists talk about "gaming", meaning a way to test ideas by setting up a simulation. It makes me think that the act of gaming is just another way of thinking about things. So then maybe, if you don't game, you don't think. How about that for an insult to said schoolastic?

All of that's great in moderation. You're definitely on the right track to how everyone will begin to think in the future! We just have to remember to limit our children's amount of video games and stay well rounded, because I know some kids who halucinate video games even though they only play for a few hours every week. They try to play in mid air during school sometimes.

Maybe that's a good thing?

I might be overstating it a little bit. I do know kids who are pretty much ignoring life because they're so much into gaming.

And they might be TV couch potatoes, too, or completely retreating into comic books. Like Patrick said, limiting the amount of time and the paying attention to what kids are playing is key.

But that wasn't what that superintendent was talking about. He was saying that time taken for gaming was a waste of time that could have been spent doing something else. And he reiterated that about every other sentence in a speech that lasted at least 20 minutes. I know, I kept looking at my watch...

My step-father does scenario work with groups about sustainability. It's pretty much gaming, but without a console. And I think maybe he's worked on some sort of tabletop-type game for his scenario work, too.

I chuckled at what Caesar post. Aka, how "social drinking" to the point of drunkeness is considered "normal" yet heaven forbid you pick up a videogame controller.

Society puts so many pressures on us to fit within conceived molds. What do I have to say to that? Frankly it's better to do what we truly enjoy doing as opposed to living a lie. I'm a gamer and that's just how it is. As hobbies go mine is not that dangerous nor does it encroach upon the happiness of others.

I have to agree with Ben on this one Tami; I think "it's better to do what we enjoy as opposed to living a lie" pretty much nails it.

Plus; if it weren't for video games, I would NEVER know how to save the princess if I dino ever stole her. lol

That wasn't the point this guy was making. He was saying that time spent gaming was time wasted. That time spent gaming was being spent on something irrelevant to the real world. I'm sure given enough time, he would have moved on to the evils of reading fiction that wasn't considered the classics, too.

Well I'm sure this guy has his own hobbies which could also be considered "wastes of time". Personally I think playing games helps hand & eye coordination and sharpens problem solving skills. It's also a good stress reliever. I find after a decent gaming session I tend to be less bitter and angry about things.

we're all a bunch of game-playing hooligans here on 1up -- er, I mean Pixlbit.  

yeah that principal was obviously an idiot.  one day, games will be more socially acceptable, I think, but for now, to hell with those  bastards.  

He's old school, and not in the cool way. I resented the implication he was making that if kids spend any time gaming, they'll turn out to be slackers all their lives.

I agree with you, Tami.  Damn shame we can't tar & feather his ass just for fun. 

We were wishing we'd had a selection of rotten produce at the time. 

"You silly,boorish people and your video games! With your Traystations,and your XBOX 120's and such. Living out your fantasy lives through the exploits of groups of pixels." Oh yes,I can almost hear it now. The idea that all gamers are brain dead morons offends me to the core. My primary reason is this...gaming is entertainment at it's purest form. It sparks creativity and deep thought processes at times. People like that guy do not get it. And they don't want to! Because to do so brings them down to our lowly level. We are a bunch of idiots to them.

Time wasting slackers. Yep, that's us. We have amounted to no good what-so-ever.

Bah, stuff like this is a pain. In the end it doesn't really matter. There are many more people out there that know what his guy says is idiocy. It's just difficult to listen to some dolt in a public forum using the opportunity to slam a hobby he probably knows nothing about.

That was pretty much it. It was almost three years ago now, and I've gotten over it, but it was a pretty good blog and I figured I'd share it with people that might not have seen it the first time I posted it.

As long as he did not equate it to being a child melester, like Ralph Nadar did. That pissed me off.

This was before Nader made his asinine comment. I'm sure this guy would have latched onto that comment!

So sad. All that schooling and no sense.

More likely..Maybe..He just said that cause he had some experiences with kids failing classes because of gaming?? So in his opinion he thought it was wasted time??? I agree to a point..Instead of doing your school work and taking care of school, you are gaming all the time. But like you said. Not only you but many other games, played their favorite games and did well in school. So to say gaming is a waste..Yeah ok..Like you said I bet he does play golf lol

I think he's another one who's behind the times. Twenty years ago it would have been D&D he was lecturing about.

My parents have always dogged me about playing video games, even though the time I spent doing it wasn't nearly as bad livng with them as it was when I moved out. I swear, the only reason they support me now s because I have the ability to potentially make money on it through contributing to the general media pool. While this is true, it hasn't happened yet. My mother keep asking when I'll get paid for it. All I can say is, "hopefully soon."

My pops never did get my older brother's and my interest in games. And he'd say so, loudly and annoyingly sometimes. My mom doesn't get it either, but she accepts it.

Gaming is old enough to have earned its right as a hobby, rather than be relegated to a kid's toy. The issue is that it hasn't been around long enough for the majority of people to accept it as such. So it still needs time to grow and a certain generation of people who think ill of it need to die off. ;)

Yeah, pretty much, lol.

I can see the validity of both sides of the argument. On one hand, I love playing video games and will continue to do so for the rest of my days most likely. On the other, I don't gain anything from gaming outside of entertainment and, when my metabolism slows down, weight lol. Sure - I'm sure my eye-hand coordination is decent because of it but outside of a skyrocketing achievement score I haven't really learned a new skill that has benifitted me or achieved anything meaningful. If you spend the time you play videogames doing something like taking up karate or learning to computer program or something you end up with a new skill. Regardless, we choose to spend our time this way and we enjoy what we do so it doesn't matter if someone doesn't agree with us.

In my line of work, the increased hand-eye coordination is invaluable. I do a lot of maintenance involving all kinds of equipment, one of which is a chainsaw. You can never have too much hand-eye coordination when using a chainsaw! The other things I've noticed are better problem-solving skills and increased spatial awareness (being able to determine how much lumber, gravel, or stepping stones I'll need, as well as if something will fit into a given space). But that's just my experience.

I don't know. Since I joined this site I've encountered nothing but sharp and savvy individuals. They are everywhere on here.

It's nice after dealing with the trolls and immaturity on a lot of other sites, isn't it? But yes, I know what you're saying.

Tami, gaming is a waste of time. So are books, movies, and any other activities we love. The point is that these wastes of time bring us happiness and provide us with an experience that real life could never hope to replicate.

Preaching to the choir, Blake. I know that, but that old fart doesn't.

Two things I thought of today pondering this blog. First one is the fact that the same men who might condemn gamers for doing it are often hypocrites. They will spend hours on end watching football,basketball,and golf[ a lot of that!] on TV. Who is wasting time there?  Second thing I thought of is drones. I did a blog about them recently. The guys who fly those things are often skilled gamers. So in a twisted way they are using skills they picked up playing games. Granted it's a pretty messed up way to apply them. But future uses of this technology might be for good reasons.

OMG! My parents would watch TV endlessly and it bugged me so much, that when I left home for school, I stopped watching TV for years. I still don't watch live TV and only get a weekly movie or TV show from Netflix to watch on Sunday nights. And whenever I go over for visits, I think of bringing my 3DS and always decide not to because it would be viewed as immature.

Sounds like the guy was one step shy of proclaiming that rock'nRoll is the devils music. Can't stand old out of touch coots. God help me if get like that when I'm old.

I have a couple of older friends who are kind of like that. One of them proclaimed on Facebook yesterday that we need to get rid of violent video games. I started to reply and just decided to walk away.

Close-minded people piss me off. He probably has never read any of the countless studies that are being done about the benefits of video games or has never sat in front of a video game before and enjoyed one. His first game could have been Demon Souls and well he might have an argument for being so mad at video games. There is no argument to be made that TV is better for you than video games. Has anyone sat down and watched the countless brain numbing reality shows that are on? I have and they are entertaining but teach me all but one thing to make sure I hug my future children so they do not end up like those people. 

If I didn't have video games to escape and relax from the outside world, I'd be chilling with Chief all up in the Coo Coo's Nest. Everyone gets something different from their gaming experiences and thats why it relates to the "real" world. Because at the end of the day, its all about what can keep you sane.

Bingo. And it's funny. this guy was probably at least 25 years yonger than my grandmother, who asked me one day to tell her about why I like gaming. She'd just read an article in AARP about the benefits of puzzle games keeping the mind sharp in people with early stage Alzheimers and was curious.

Its a shame that he is superintendent. With all that video games and education have advanced together, he will never bring that experience to that school district and be able to help learners that could benefit greatest from unconventional teaching methods. 

What I find really ironic about those that slate gaming is that they too will have some equally 'useless' hobby that takes up a significant ammount of their time, I bet he plays golf for example! being human we all need an outlet that helps us forget the real (and quite often boring) real world. Any way Tami I think you'd be a good advocate for gaming, you have an amazing passion for nature and gaming alike, you've already listed some of your pretty exceptional achievements and I have to say contiune to impress me! I'm sure a stick in the mud like that would even have to admit defeat in the evidence for the 'gaming is debate' you present before us!