I wouldn't say games are the main problem, more like time management.

I play video games more or less 5 hours a week; games like Final Fantasy & Resident Evil. I'm in pretty good standing with my grades and college ( I'm a senior). Games don't bother me much but I know some people who do have a hard time managing their time. Everyone has their own evil that makes school tough, right now I have a bad case of Senioritis ^^.

Yes and no

Games can be addicting at times but even then there are proven benefits of playing video games. plus there are also games made to help with education and they even include the mario party case  

I'm learning towards the "Peter" out of the posts so far. I agree that there is an inherent ability to differentiate between fiction and reality, but the wall is not so impermissible as to disallow video games and other forms of media from influencing society by creating distinct impressions and concepts of their themes and motifs. Also, while the increasing amount of graphic content and violence in video games is only part of a trend in all sorts of media, it does not mean that the contribution is negligble. 

Having said that, the same question being asked here was raised over comic books, films, television, even sensational novels in the past. In the end, each was gradually accepted as forms of literature and the same should go for video games. Literature can create distinct impressions and influence its audience with concepts, but this influence can be considered positive as well as detrimental, just as the constipated tortoise and others says.

It's a fine line between denying the negative influence of video games and heightening it out of proportion. If I had to evaluate the responses here, I would say they are biased in favor of video games, but many of the points are valid. Video games are not separate from consequence, but that does not incrimate them as a definite evil.

Okay, I should start by saying that i'm an AVID gamer. I play video games like Dragonball Z, the Kingdom Hearts series, and Final Fantasy games. I've been playing games like this since I was at least 7 or 8 (I'm currently 18) and I haven't experienced any violent outbursts. The thing is, kids should know the difference between video games and reality after the age of about 6 or so. If the child is violent, it may just be something in the household that they are in, not the games. My little cousins (ages 7 and 6) have been playing Smash Brothers for at least a year now and they don't go around beating each other with hammers because it happened in the game.

Now as a teenager, you should DEFINITELY know the difference between game violence and real violence. If you see someone getting blown up in a game at the age of 14 and you think you should go out and blow up your best friend, then there is something wrong with you. You should know better than that. But if you don't, then there is something extremely wrong with your mind and you shouldn't be playing those types of games in the first place.

With the work thing, if you manage your time (if you're a teenager) you should be able to get work done. Either tell yourself that you're only going to play for twenty minutes to an hour before you do your work. Or do some work and then play a game in between as a break, then go back to your work and finish it so you can have more time to just play games. To be honest, I'm in college and I spend most of my time shirking rather than doing the work that I'm supposed to do for school. But that doesn't mean that I don't do my work. When younger children are playing games, either as the parent you should limit their time, or make sure they are playing educational games. That's why they have Leap Frog and Jump Start games. They were created for the shear fact of educating small kids while they had fun and played. But that doesn't mean to let them play games instead of doing their homework. If nothing else, make school a game. Make learning fun, play games with you child.

When I was learning about money in elementary school, my mom used to play card games with me for pocket change. She would get me to accomplish what the school wanted me to do for homework, and I'd have fun. Not to mention, I knew more than most of the kids in my class due to this. There are also certain games that make you think and challenge you. My little cousins learned how to get around obstacles thanks to some of the games they play on the Wii and other game systems. Strategy and role play/adventure games challenge you. If they have a plotline to them that you have to follow in order to continue, you'll learn to get around obstacles and it pushes you to think harder. Honestly, there are more to video games than face value.

If you know how to handle video games time-wise and reality-wise, there's nothing wrong with them. People just need a scapegoat to place everything on when children lash out on inner thoughts that they've always wanted to act out.

I think that videogames, like books or movies, are a medium with which ideas can be presented and interacted. You hit on two questions: first, the question of the content of the games, and second, the question of gaming in moderation.

Gaming is inherently more interactive than watching a movie or reading a book. Thus, the connections in ones mind formed by a game connect to more senses than either of the other mediums, leaving a stronger impression. It is true that certain ideas can be portrayed in books that wouldn't be fun in games and, by extension, games tend to focus on certain topics that are exciting and highly interactive (war, sports, strategy, adventure, etc.). However one must question the idea that videogames are more violent than another medium. Movies and TV shows display brutal, over the top violence every day. Books leave the images up to the reader, but this might have a stronger effect than other mediums because it forces the reader to imagine all of the images and create the scene in their mind.

The second question, moderation, stems out of a disconnect between our generation and our parents' generation. Moderation is not something that is built in to the human being. When something is pleasurable in sme way, instinct often tells us to gorge ourselves on it until we can take no more. One of the jobs of a parent (in my opinion) is to help children recognize and combat our animal instincts. Obviously this takes time, and is not an easy task, which is possibly why it doesn't get done as frequently as possible, and we see more of an effort to have the government fill the role of parenting. Of course this is ridiculous, because a proper parent will not need to rely on the government to tell their children what is right and what is wrong.

Ultimately, I believe that parents are leading incredibly busy lives, and are not practicing moderation themselves, let alone teaching their children how to live in moderation. Without a sense of moderation, we see children and teens gorging themselves on the adrenaline rush of videogames to the detriment of the rest of their lives. At the same time, we see society gorging itself on the excitement of violence and sex and scandal, and forgetting to have some moderation and balance.

-Peter

 no.