Are games a waste of time?

October 13th, 2008 Comments Off

This was a question posted at Friendfeed last Thursday. It was a simple question I had with a co-worker and we both need answers from different people with different opinions and perspective. Here’s the result:

I ?d playing Starcraft and Warcraft + Playstation. :) – Me

Expensive but by no means a waste of money – Joe Dawson

Moderation :)directeur via NoiseRiver

Heck no. If something is fun and/or entertaining, it’s never a waste of time. – Alex "Lasagna" Scoble

Nope – Lindsey Smith

Only if you do it wrong. – Bored

for a Philosopher’s take — think of the value of drinking parties (Plato) – Michael Maranda

Depends on what type of games you’re talking about. I think there’s a lot more value in complex tabletop games and games like chess than in dumb Flash games online or whatever. – Rochelle

I have pretty much abandoned gaming in favor of social media. I was a several-hours-a-day PC gamer for 10+ years. I like to think that SM has more possibility of a return on my time investment than WoW did. – Daniel J. Pritchett

Nope, because I rock at Star Wars Battlefront II. – Steven "The One" Perez

I sure hope not. I was really sucked into Sims 2 for a couple years. Now I play a few times a week. Mostly to design houses. :) But, I’m still a sucker for ‘casual games’ like Diner Dash, etc (bigfishgames.com). I get lost in trying to beat the damn things. – Yolanda

Games recharge my brain and leave me refreshed to think about other things, a lot like a good walk. – Jennifer Dittrich

one exgamer says no – Dobromir Hadzhiev

No. Games can improve mental and physical dexterity, mental acuteness, memory, etc. There have been studies done. And *applauds* Alex’s answer. – JMakesAwesomeSauce

Honestly, I’d rather read a book. :)RachelW

Depends on your priorities, but for me, I enjoy games. – Rodfather

no. Because some times you just need to escape the doom and gloom :-)Duncan Riley

Not if it’s Sorry or Life. – Thomas Hawk

Games are a release from the horrible world outside. They can bring joy and relaxation and bring down your stress life. They are a great interactive entertainment media. How is that a waste of time? ;-) Waste away I’d say. :-DKol Tregaskes

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted." – Bertrand Russell — Sometimes it’s wasting time, just like movies and reading, sometimes it’s useful. It does have benefits for hand-eye coordination, problem solving skills, teamwork, tactics, reflex improvement, vocabulary, cash management, etc. – xero

I don’t know… is maintaining sanity a waste of time? – Michael W. May via twhirl

Only if you think it is. :)Mona N.

Absolutely not a waste of time. – Clay Newton

Scrabble stimulates neurotransmitters. – Shelly Weiss

Really, I don’t think that matters so much. What’s important for our health is to intentionally indulge in completely frivolous "waste of time" activities on a regular basis. Playing games, feeding ducks in the park, blowing bubbles, coloring with crayons. If it feeds your spirit, do it, no matter who says it’s a waste of time! – Heather Sillypants Mina

Everything is a waste of time, then you get put in the recycle bin. Use your time the way you want to. – Sam Levine

No more a waste of time then being on FriendFeed. I can gain social interaction using both and at the same time be happy that I took something away from each. (No matter how trivial, it’s still a small sense of accomplishment and fun.) – David Cook

Thanks for participating guys. Appreciate it! :)You (edit | delete)

I’ll come back and answer once I finish Missile Command – Glen C

It has been argued that humans are "homo ludens" more than they are sapient. That said, I personally find that they can easily become a time tax, and tend to avoid them, preferring to spend that time on more solidly creative activity. – david beckwith

 

So, having read all the above opinions, what’s your take?

The Javascript RockStar Dude Is Dead. Long Live The Konami Code!

August 30th, 2008 1 Comment »

jQuery.com pulled the Javascript Rockstar graphic responding quickly to user feedback.

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The jQuery team left an Easter egg on the website as a token of appreciation. Just enter the famous Konami code to view it.

Hint, it’s really cool!

Blizzard.com watch

June 27th, 2008 Comments Off

The eyes seems to have been revealed compared to yesterday which I blogged at Tech Blog Philippines.

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My guess is Diablo III. Blizzard recently grabbed the domain Diablo3.com as reported here a month ago.

UPDATE 07/28: Yes it is Diablo 3!

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Woo! Cool! View the teaser trailer here.

Do you love NES games? Have Firefox? Good!

June 8th, 2008 4 Comments »

FireNes is a new Firefox plugin you can use to play all those NES game goodies without downloading a NES emulator or those game packages. You simply download FireNes, restart your Firefox, open up FireNes over at Tools >> FireNes. That opens up over 100 NES games. Games you played when you were a kid (at least for me), now right on your Firefox sidebar.

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Double-click a game you want and it opens up automatically without even downloading anything after!

To save you time on the controls, it’s the X & Z. You can view the controls by right-clicking any game on the sidebar.

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By the way, FireNes runs on Java (if that means anything to you at all). Also, here’s the English translation if you can’t understand anything on the site.

Enjoy your favorite games and have a good weekend.

–aj

What happens when worlds collide? DC Universe VS Mortal Combat

April 22nd, 2008 Comments Off

Have you ever thought that a Batman VS Subzero duel would become a gaming reality? Or a Shang Tsung VS Superman, or even a Princess Kitana VS Wonder Woman?

Don’t fret geeks! Here comes Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe!

So, can’t wait? Yeah! Me too!

–aj