You know, I've read a lot of nonsense over the years by people making sweeping generalizations about one "generation" or the other, but this guy really takes the cake. Most of his assumptions are so off the mark, I don't really know where to start. Suffice to say that most of his characterizations of Boomers could be made about most "generations" who have reached similar stages of life, and probably will be said about "gamers" as well when they start getting within spitting distance of their AARP cards. Given that I'm posting so late(which, as a Boomer, though albeit one young enough to have played childhood Pong, is out of character, given that I'm supposedly obsessed with pleasing my superiors at all costs), I won't even attempt to go through this stuff. Suffice it to say that I think a lot of this is bull biscuits, written by a guy who's obviously angling to snag some high-paying corporate consulting gigs by scaring the guys in upper management.
I'm not much for games myself, video or otherwise. I never got off on plunking quarters into Pac Man or Donkey Kong and video arcades made my head ache. My kids like 'em, though. We got a Game Cube when my oldest was 8 or 9 and he did indeed promptly disappear into the basement, where he stayed for the next 5 years. Maybe he gained all sorts of valuable skills that will be of great use to him in the brave new world and a shiny new consciousness that I will never begin to understand. But he sure didn't get much fresh air or sunshine and whatever problems he learned to solve aren't ones he'll face when he actually has to live his life. Sure, he had friends over sometimes, but I really don't think racing Mario's cart provides the same or better quality of experience as going to the park and playing ball. He's not the only one, of course--I noticed early on in my parenting career that kids don't play outside anymore, not the kind of unsupervised, unstructured play that was universal not so long ago. True, Boomers only had 3 TV channels, but they spent way more time actually interacting with the real world and each other, and they expected very little from adults. Perseverance and resilience aren't qualities that are developed only by making it from one level to another in the self-contained environment of a video game. Maybe gamers are so antsy not because they're so eager for challenges but because they're in situations they can't get out of just by swiveling a joystick.
That all being said, I don't deny that people coming up are very different in some ways than older people--they always are. I thing the author vastly overstates those differences(many of his characterizations of gamers--their supposed impatience with hierarchy, their inability to learn in "traditional" settings--I read 15 years ago regarding "Generation X" and were made about the Boomers before that), but no doubt, there are, for better or worse, some there. I don't know about the corporate world, but I doubt anywhere else is facing anything like the knowledge gap he fears. Everything I've read, especially since the economic Ragnarock, suggests that the Boomers are going to be on the job for quite awhile.
As for the future of gaming, I'm not really qualified to say, but my guess is that games will just become more immersive, until people never have to stop playing them for any reason at all. Only old people will take walks or go to the beach and their great grandkids will write articles about how limiting must be to have to feel like you have to be in touch with reality every once in awhile. In any case, my kid doesn't play video games nearly as much as he used to. He's got friends he plays music with and he spends a lot of time doing after school activities he didn't do before. He seems much happier than he did when he spent every waking moment holed up in front of the screen. But then, I'm speaking from the other side of the Great Divide.
No comments:
Post a Comment