> You learn valuable things from playing videogames?
Sure. The best games are elaborate puzzles. Puzzles of plot, of people, of machines, and of combat.
But...I read for fun, too! So I game because it is fun. But it is clever fun.
My point was just that I don't think video gaming is any more socially isolating and atomizing than any other sort of thing people do for fun. As others pointed out the most popular games come with a collaborative part that is played online.
I am currently playing one of the nerdier Role Playing games - Mass Effect 2. There is a no online play but people still discuss and share thoughts on the game in chat forums and wikis. Discussing the game is necessary if you ever want to experience all of the dynamics; there simply wouldn't be time to figure it all out alone.
It is at the surface a space opera - kill the bad guys before they wipe out all civilization. That part is fun like a good movie is fun. But beneath that layer is a complex story interweaving galactic politics and economics, and it has much more depth than certainly any mainstream TV show or movie. There is an entire galaxy, so everything from genocide and slavery to expansion and conquest to xenophobia to commerce to inter-species sex is addressed.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the game is that you are only able to unlock certain plotlines by spending time interacting with the non-player characters in the game. They are of course crude replicas of real people, but it is interesting to see how the authors' vision unfolds and how it differs from how I imagine the characters to react when I engage them.
My girlfriend describes this game as "the lesbian one where you just walk around and talk to people" because that is probably where the bulk of time is spent, and my female character is currently in a relationship with a member of a species that is entirely "female looking."
It will take me the better part of a year to work my way through this game, as I only play a few hours a month.
Back to my main point - tales of video games being in some way different sound much like what was said of movies, TV, the Internet at one time. Probably books, too!
Matt
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This is a good game, it's called, The Truth.
-Dimitri Moisevitch