Video Games

Hey all,

Who here plays video games? I do. Lots of people say that video games are bad for you because they waste your life and are not productive. Some even say that the more battle-oriented ones encourage violence.

Well, here's what I say to that.
One, all things should have an amount of moderation to them. If you can balance playing video games with school/work/whatever else, you're not wasting time. There's a time for work and a time for play.
As for not being productive, it's been tested and proven that video games improve a lot of characteristics. They teach organization, strategy, reaction, and analysis. Some games can even teach you other things, like music (guitar hero), architecture (minecraft), and economics (strategy games in general).
And they do not encourage violence. I have not heard of one case of a person turning into a murderer or serial killer because they played too much MW3 or Black Ops or whatever. They do not encourage people to be violent; in fact, they can be a good stress reliever. There's nothing better than taking your irritation out on an AI.
What they DO do, however, is desensitize you to the seriousness of death: so that when you hear of our soldiers dying overseas, poor children in Africa starving, yada yada, you're just like 'meh, that's horrible'. They teach you to devalue life. That's the only real downside.

As for games that I actually play: here's the ones I can remember (all PC games, not counting my Wii, which I don't play a whole lot):
Star Wars Battlefront II
Stronghold Crusader
Age of Empires III
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds
Chessmaster
Minecraft
Spiral Knights (not often)
Bookworm Adventures

And that's it. Tell me about some you play! If you don't play video games, well, good for you. You can do other productive things. XD