Why scientists should stop researching video games
Just a rain shower ago, I highlighted a stunningly surprising piece of research suggesting that video games feed the male need to dominate.
My Sunday has been infiltrated with news from yet another bunch of huge brains. This time, it's the chaste scientists from Brigham Young University in Utah, who have spent money to discover that the more you play video games, the more your personal relationships will suffer.
The researchers crunched their numbers simultaneously with their granola to reveal that increased video game participation brings with it increased involvement in something called "risky behaviors." These seems to include things such as the abuse of alcohol and illegal substances.
For example, those of you who play video games every day apparently smoke twice as much as pot as those who indulge their Grand Theft Auto demons only occasionally--and three times more than those for whom video games are a mortal sin. That could mean that you pot-smoking gamers are, perhaps, 21 and male.
Naturally, the big Brigham brains didn't just emit portents of, um, doom. They also offered some hope--that's what researchers are supposed to do. They suggest that the link between gaming and behavior of a less than social nature is only "modest." And they are living the dream that family-oriented video games like Wii will somehow prove not to be antisocial. So, kids, give up killing people on screen, and take up tennis.
Please forgive me if I find this research a touch difficult to swallow with my blueberry muffin. If I put the two pieces of work together, I find that gamers have a desperate need to dominate, and therefore smoke a lot of pot and have bad relationships. It all seems a little fanciful.
So, because this country needs all the money it can get, I would like to save these scientists' time, money, and brains. Here are the results of my multibillion-dollar research, undertaken all over the world.
Some people play video games; others don't. Some smoke pot; others don't. Those who play video games include silly little boys, slightly less silly little boys, men with large responsibilities for whom video games are the only release after they've put the kids to bed, women who--guess what?--just enjoy playing, and millions of other people who play them because they find them fun.
Yes, my friend Cristiano is very pale because he starts gaming at midnight and doesn't finish till 6 in the morning. He is still a nice man. And he doesn't appear to smoke pot. But his girlfriend is getting a little annoyed. Less because he sleeps at the wrong time of day and more because he is so pale and putting on weight. There's is also the fact that he has started to speak in a strange Martian-like language.
Unfortunately, no research will ever prove that gaming is a threat to society. Because it isn't. Unless you want to believe that Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney behaved as they did because of an uncommonly excessive affection for pinball at the arcade in their youth.
We are all weak. We all need something to take our minds away from the sad elements of reality. Some choose video games. Others choose Brooke Hogan or the fabulously pretty cast of Twilight.
Please, dear scientists, will you just put your brains to solving the world's economic crisis? Because if none of us has jobs, we won't be able to buy any more video games. Thank you so much.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
a ) companies, universities or organization agreed with such lame studies, and even giving funds to it.
b ) the lack of imagination of those scientist. Their inspiration came from their reduced world :computer, games, lab and nothing else much.
1. We all have full time jobs.
2. We are all responsible members of society.
3. We all have lives, some have wives already.
Video games haven't ruined us yet. In fact they have saved friendships because now I get to TALK to my friend's who live hundreds miles away instead of reading messages on facebook or internet chats we all get to partake in something we all enjoy a few nights a week before bed. If it wasn't for video games my life would be much worse.
I'm curious if Mr. Matyszczyk actually read the study or just echoed what other people were saying about the study. If so, don't be so quick to reject the findings of this study. It is very, very easy to get involved in gaming to the point of excluding everything else, and addiction to gaming is a very real problem in the world today.
I don't play computer games anymore, and I've found myself to be a much happier and productive person since I've quit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
In this context 90% of all studies in social theory (and practice) can be dismissed as having low (if any) worth. The same rule applies to the publication of scientific and technical results (as any conference-goer will affirm). It is still amusing to see an opponent of the followers of Ned Lud; but, for the file of me, I cannot figure out how to tack the "ite" suffix onto the name "Matyszczyk!"
- by Wak_Em January 28, 2009 8:06 AM PST
- ...those pinhead "scientists" forgot to mention the positive affect of gaming on the economy starting with the pizza and Chinese food industry. If we start scaling back on gaming, these providers of gaming friendly fare will be laying off workers and affecting the entire economy. Less gasoline bought, less tire ware, less liability insurance premiums. Less delivery drivers. The suppliers will not be delivering ingredients, laying off truck drivers. Utilities will provide less power as a result of lower demand as a result of everyone going to bed before 9 pm. Fewer cars being sold because of less ware and tear on the delivery vehicles. Get the idea? Gaming is the engine of our economy. Those pencil-necks hate America.
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