Why don't more people play video games?

3 points by hhorsley 12 years ago | 9 comments

Why aren't video games as mainstream as TV or movies? Where does the social stigma come from? Is it just the social stigma, or are there other reasons?

lgieron 12 years ago |

I think most people associate video games with games based solely around reflexes and (shooting, jumping) accuracy. When you think about it, these games are just more advanced variants of throwing rubber ball against the wall (or whatever prison inmates did in their cells to kill time before they got TV). They provide no way to enrich or better your life whatsoever (well, ok, better reflexes) and can be even thought of as detrimental - while playing these games you're not excercising your social skills, your intelligence and judgment, not to mention your body.

TV or movies on the other hand, even the most stupid and superficial ones, put you (virtually) in a social context, where you can observe other people, think about their actions, think about how you would've reacted etc. Stories or characters in TV movies can be inspiring (meaning can influence your goals/actions in a positive way) or can be a cautionary tale. While it's theoretically possible for a game story to achieve the same, in practice the stories and the execution ("acting" by 3D models) are too weak for the positive effects to kick in. The models are probably a lot to blame there - since it's been shown that various facial expressions are one of main ways to estabilish empathetic communication, faces of in-game 3D model are just too fake to trigger the right neurons.

hhorsley 12 years ago | |

I think these are interesting points.

Two clips you might find interesting: - Brian Wong of Kiip talking about how Counter Strike made him good at photoshop (I don't think this is a serious counter arguement to your point): http://youtu.be/BAx7Npsrin4?t=4m40s

- Gabe Newell (Valve) and JJ Abrams (Lost, Alias, Star Trek) talking about similarities/differences between narrative in video games and movies, and at the end announcing that they're working together on one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7mihllgiro

CodeWithCoffee 12 years ago | |

Another key factor is that watching TV/movies is a fairly passive activity - whilst you do have to concentrate on what is going on, you don't have to think particularly hard about it.

On the other hand, video gaming can be a fairly active activity (depending on the game) because you far more in control over what is happening and you have to make decisions. For some people, this makes it very dull because they don't find having to think about what they are doing relaxing, whereas for other people watching TV is dull because they aren't doing anything.

tarun_anand 12 years ago |

Definitely social stigma attached to it... when people think of their kids playing video games they extrapolate that to them flipping burgers at local joints as opposed to studying or watching TV that can still not come in the way of getting respectable jobs

hhorsley 12 years ago | |

Where did that stigma come from?

ghostdiver 12 years ago |

It's not a social sigma at all. Most of video games are just boring and tiresome. I used to play a lot, but now it's just pointless, playing modern games is not fun.

Prices for AAA+ titles are also ridiculous. Experience went down the toilet, but prices are the same or even higher, something is wrong.

hhorsley 12 years ago | |

Why do you think games are unable to stay interesting even though Chess has never had to change and the movie industry finds a way to be interesting every year?

mjn 12 years ago |

Mobile games seem to be getting close to ubiquitous. Angry Birds has more active players than a typical Hollywood blockbuster gets viewers.

hhorsley 12 years ago | |

Good point