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You have to learn to let go. The idea that books, magazines, databases or any form of information source can and should be kept for perpetuity is laughable. Items in a library need to be weeded and space is the major reason why. I know all of you want to keep your precious books, and I do to. But who’s going to pay for it, you?... — the other me

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November 17, 2008

U. of Connecticut Creates Online Forum to Discuss 'Video Games and Human Values'

What’s the best argument against those who say video games are destroying society? That’s the first discussion topic fielded by a new online center about the intersection of video games and “human values.”

The center is led by Roger Travis, an associate professor of modern and classical languages at the University of Connecticut. He kicks off the discussion with his own take, which basically defends the cultural value of digital amusements:

“The best argument (in my classicist’s opinion) is that if the Iliad and the Odyssey didn’t destroy society, but instead made Western Civilization great, video games are quite possibly doing the same thing right now,” he writes. “Even if Plato thought Homer should be thrown out of the ideal state, it’s turned out, 2500 years later, that we can have our Plato, and our Homer too, and still do some pretty cool stuff, culture-wise.”

Michael Abbott, an associate professor of theater at Wabash College who is also working with the new online center, describes the project as an “online nexus for courses and scholarship to advance our understanding of how video games and their culture can constructively shape our values and enrich society.” —Jeffrey R. Young

Comments

1. I’m proud to say that at the college where I teach we’re graduating better & better video game players all the time__ the problem is that they can’t keep their pants up and everytime I use the men’s room, I’ve got to flush the urinals after them.

   — KD    Nov 18, 08:36 AM    #

2. KD, beautiful response! Very funny (& sad).

   The use of violence in Homer seems different somehow than the use of violence in, say, Grand Theft Auto IV. And if we place any faith in the notion “We become what we think,” perhaps cultivating even a virtual existence in which behavior is based in no code of human or religious values diminishes our capacity for achieving our potential for compassion, harmony — even for the joys of transformative literature.

   — BD    Nov 18, 09:11 AM    #

3. I should add that Adbusters magazine, #80, published an article, “Virtual Morality” by Andrew Tuplin, that touches upon this topic (available online: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/80/virtual_morality.html).

   — BD    Nov 18, 09:20 AM    #

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