• Throughout time, games and playing around was seen as unnecessary, immature, uneducational, and of lesser self-respect. I, for one, believe this stereotype had made its way to present day parents and adults. I disagree with them.

    Unlike the first Namco’s hit, Pac-man, games have changed. It is no longer jump the barrel and climb the vines. Games have advanced in academic values so highly these days that without a good sense in the brain, you are not expected to pass a game. Games are no longer just hand-eye coordination. One in particular, the Fire Emblem series by Nintendo, is a classic of the RPG tactics. In the game, the player is expected to command a band of mercenaries as a tactician. Without the use of mathematic calculations, scientific logical sense and probability of individual battle outcomes and the ability to foresight enemy moves, you will not be able to get passed the first ten missions.
    Such as games like Gunbound, introduced by Softnyx and later adapted by IJJI, the laws of projectile motion, air resistivity, and Newton’s Laws of motion play into effect through the game. The player must calculate his angle, the initial speed of his projectile, the force exerted on the projectile by the wind, and obstacle which block the projectile before making his move, under a limited amount of time. Without a thorough training of mathematic approximation and physical knowledge, it may be even impossible to get close to the target.
    In other cases, like Kart Rider, made by Nexon, the player is made to understand the law of friction, centripetal force, and acceleration and deceleration. As the carts are driven across the map, without a sense of frictional resistivity and centripetal force, every curve will be a downside to your game play, thus a player must get familiar with such laws before hand.

    Mathematics and science is not the only thing introduced in our games. Taking the some famous titles such as Ragnarok Online, Age of Mythology, and Mabinogi, we can clearly see that some games are out there to introduce to the young various cultures and their mythological aspects. Such games can motivate kids to further venture into the mythical aspect, in order to truly know what kind of characters they are messing with in game.
    Variety of games reveals variety of culture. The Age of Empire concepts the historical traits of the past warring nations and parties, giving off the unique sense of history by living it as the commander-in-chief. Without background information of each race and nation, the player will be trouble to look back and check which nation favors what in which conditions. If the player is knowledgeable, all he has to do is relive history, or change it within their powers.
    Also, you will never find a better place to make use of the word troubadour, minstrel, ballista, oblivion, riposte, emblems, and similar vocabularies in your everyday life. Students complain everyday on how their memorized vocabulary will go to waste, as they are not practiced in everyday scenarios. However, video games are a place where SAT words are considered normal. I mean, you won’t find Marquis Phaerae street talking to Prince Zephiel, now that is abnormal. (another Fire Emblem allusion)

    Health comes to be an issue with video games. Video games create obesity and dulled sense of vision. The thing is, there are worse diseases in the world that wait without video games. As an example, being out doors include continuous exposure to sunlight. Sunlight is a series of electromagnetic waves including the deadly Ultraviolet ray and Infrared ray, which can cause cancer. The next time your mom tells you to go out and play, know that they are secretly adding the message, “Go catch a cancer.” Why do you think Olympic track and cycling athletes suffer from cancer and Lee Jaedong, a professional gamer, does not? It’s the exposer to all the electromagnetic waves.

    Physical issues aren’t the only issues that are being conjured up against video games. Social health is also put against games. They speak of how being home all day playing games are ruining the social life of present day children. How they should socialize outside. The truth is you get less social experience out of games then in game. Approximately how many people do you associate yourself with in your neighborhood? My high school, which is claimed to be overpopulated, has a student body that is approximately over 4000. Imagine you associate with half of them. That is 2000 people and including your everyday people out of school. Let’s say there are about 1000 people you get to meet. That is 3000. Now, take the hit Nexon game MapleStory for example. In one game there are over a million people you can socialize with. Let’s say you meet a quarter of those people. I believe that is 250,000 people. In an international server like that of any mass multiplayer online games, you do not only meet New Yorkers, but those people in the Philippines, in Asia, in Europe, in South America, and all over the world. One of my best friends online lives in Australia and we laugh every Christmas how unfair it is that Australia is 90 degrees outside. My friend who lives in Michigan taught me the four seasons in Michigan: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Road Construction. I don’t thing you can learn those things in New York by just being a non-gamer.

    Stereotypes are everywhere. La crosses players being called down for one rape incident, Zinedine Zidane’s actions questioning soccer, outrageous priests making bad names for the church. Stereotypes also do not exclude video games. However, I would like to point out that this wide spread of false rumors upon games have gone too far. It’s about time the truth was revealed. As Marcus Brigstocke once said, “Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.”