videogames

[grey_wolf_c]

Pippin wrote (stress mine):
> Oh, poor Goat...that happened to a friend of mine. She got 
> stranded in a Los Angeles hotel room with  four-year-old twins. 
> That was when she broke down and bought them the *video 
> game system she'd sworn they'd never have*. She says it saved 
> her sanity.
>
> Pippin

(going off a tangent)
I've always wandered about this: what is this thing with parents and 
videogames? I've seen loads of examples of people raving about the 
wickedness of videogames (not unlike people raving about the wickedness 
of Harry Potter) for all my life, and I've never understanded what's 
wrong with them. 

Look at me: some of you know that English is not my first language. 
Nonetheless, it's very good (I've got an official paper saying that I'm 
proficient at English), and most of my vocabulary and forms of speech 
come from two places: books and video games, the second being much more 
vast than the first one. I may have some 40 English books (most of 
them, I know them by heart, and can recite passages from them, 
specially when looking for canon), but I've played over 100 videogames, 
most of them with the text-volume equivalent to a long novel. I can, 
for example, make accurate descriptions and comparisons between ancient 
weapons, explain combat movements and describe the sociopolitical 
structure of a middle-age's kingdom, and all of it because of 
videogames. It may seem useless, but any for of knowledge counts 
(incidently, does anyone know what exactly is a lochaber axe?). 

Not only that, they are an ACTIVE form of entertainment (unlike the 
TV), which means I haven't been idiotiziced into submission by the 
telly, instead I have a good hand-eye coordination, reflexes and 
enquiring, puzzle-solver mind. I may not get much exercise, but still I 
go out an hour a day for bike-riding (and walk to and from University).

I rutinely get the best grades of my year, and it's normally laid down 
to the fact that I read a lot, but I have long suspected that the fact 
that I face logical and strategical problems in my videogames has 
helped me in pattern recognition and information pinpoint (knowing 
what's relevant and what's not), which is increadibly useful when faced 
with mathematical problems of the type I get at University.

So, what are the arguments AGAINST videogames, and why haven't I turned 
into whatever you're fearing I'd might have turned into?

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who hopes no-one takes this as a personal attack, since it's 
tone is maybe a little too strong