Computer games - Good or Bad?

Since its inception, video games have always been a topic of debate. There was a generation that complained that children lost their "real" childhood games and developed various ailments including obesity due to overdose of video games and lack of other kind of physical activities. Later concerns were raised on the impact on young eyes due to continuous viewing of the CRT monitors. Elsewhere there were reports of violent behaviour attributed due to overdose of computer games with violent scenes and situations.

All this while hard core gamers were being born all over the place. There were theories about how games where good for children. In fact it was reported here that computer games increase the visual attention. In fact currently the computer game industry has taken a colossal form with very big players like EA, Eidos Interactive, Sony having great stakes.

But the question still remains unanswered are they really good or bad?

My answer is that it all depends where we draw a line. For example, playing for relaxation or for just venting out your frustration on Need For Speed rather than on the road is definitely a good use of the game. At various occasions i have been able to learn something by playing games. Like i learnt about "Huang Di" the legendary chinese hero or about Sun Tzu who authored the ancient chinese text "Art of War" while i played the game "Emperor".

My brother who is an ace gamer when it comes to FPS games can tell you more about guns and firearms than a local cop and i can vouch for that. In fact he identifies the weapon, tells its make and finally the use and weak points. Of course this is not only because of the games like SWAT or Max Payne but also because he did a little bit of his own investigation. However, the idea remains that it intrigued his interest and he has definitly gained something because of this.

Now comes the bad part...There have been cases where people have played their way to destruction. Countries like China and Korea have dedicated deaddiction centers for compulsive gamers. In some cases computer game addiction is considered as bad as drug addiction.

To conclude, I feel that the old saying, "Too Much is Too Bad" is fully applicable to computer games as well.