Gamers: A Generation of Irresponsible Homeowners
Posted by Marc Leacox on April 3, 2008Is gaming creating a generation of adults who have no clue about the real-estate market?
Today, American households are becoming more and more saturated with videogames. Many have cited the benefits of a gaming based culture – improved hand-eye coordination and problem solving skills to name a few – however, these benefits may be outweighed by startling new trends. Many economists remember the popular multiplayer game, Ultima Online, whose pervasive real-estate based gameplay inspired a generation of irresponsible homeowners. Cambridge University released the findings of a ten year case study on the effects of heavy videogame consumption last Friday in a new report, “Children, Games, and Learned Behaviors”.
As a recent development, the Cambridge study links the monolithic popularity of World of Warcraft with a resurgence in gold farming and griffon riding among America’s youth. Richard Garriott, known by his videogame moniker, Lord British, dismisses the findings as a weak attempt to disenfranchise a booming videogame market, “Just because I developed and played Ultima Online and I happen to live in a castle… the media loves to sensationalize these stories. Most of my friends who play games don’t live in castles.”
Garriott’s words haven’t convinced everyone of his innocence however; many still blame Ultima for the mining, taming and homeownership epidemics of the late 90s. “We’re still dealing with the consequences of the 90s housing bubble” says NY Economics Student, Lorry Melgrove, “With the rising value of gold, are we ready to deal with this new crisis?”
For years, politicians have drawn the link between videogames and abhorrent behavior, but without any clinical evidence to back up their claims, they were passed off as out-of-touch bureaucrats. Now, parent’s appeals for regulation against the harmful effects of games hold a newfound sense of validity. Gamers, however, present an ever persuasive argument against this movement – it’s the parents’ responsibility to teach their children not to make questionable financial investments or to spend weeks inside cold, hazardous mining shafts, not Washington’s. While this debate rages on, one thing is now quite clear, all those hours your children spend in front of The Sims is instilling terrible home coordination and reckless hygienic habits.
Psychologist, Gregory Mutz, “These computer games reward certain behaviors; they send a message to kids that these behaviors are acceptable.” Mutz, who played a key role in organizing the Chicago based group, Parents Against Game Addiction (PAGA), explains, “If you are going to tell kids, ‘yeah, its ok to sell off your tamed nightmare, rare dyes and valorite platemail to buy the deed to a two story wood and plaster house’, well that’s not something I want my kids learning.”
Mutz retells the heart wrenching story of his brother’s unquenchable serial homeownership. After liquidating his retirement fund, Lionel Mutz spent the three latter years of the 1990s going from state to state, taking out loans and purchasing novelty homes. At the end of it all, Lionel was forced to give up half of his 9 homes as part of a divorce agreement, and he can only see his son on weekends and holidays. But this isn’t the only horror story.
San Montigo Mayor Allejandro Garcia recalls the crushing despair of discovering his dreams of subjecting the town to devastating natural disasters and raising taxes above 50% to finance carving his favorite Garfield comic into the side of a nearby mountain were unattainable outside the distorted mayoral based gameplay of the Sim City series.
Gregory Mutz, “The question we should be asking is, ‘what can game makers be doing to encourage financial responsibility?’” On this point Lorry agrees, “Mr. Garriott may be comfortable in his castle, but working class Americans can’t afford to buy homes and horde gold. The industry should do more to educate their consumers about the very real dangers of their games and the importance of not losing touch with practicality.”
Related posts:
Leave a Reply
