Follow-up

People who try to tell you why video games are good by saying all the things that they are useful for - improving hand-eye coordination so that people can fly remote missiles and do laser robot surgery - don't actually like video games and have no clue why they are important. That's like someone telling you Shakespeare is important and useful because you can use it to teach kids how to read. Shakespear is not about being useful and practical - Shakespeare has incredible value in and of itself. And a good video game has that value as well. They can improve hand-eye coordination. And decision making skills. And diligence. And critical thinking skills. And pattern recognition. And technological understanding. And cultural awareness. And musical ability. And a million other things that most people will never realize. But every video game is unique. Or at least all the good ones are. And lumping them all together as a tool for teaching hand-eye coordination, or holding that up weakly as their only virtue is the same as saying that all books are useful for teaching reading. Yeah they are but so many of them have so much greater value that you are ignoring. If you think that the best excuse for letting kids play video games is that they will have better hand-eye coordination, and there are a few careers where that will serve them well - you need to go play some video games. Tetris, Mega Man 2, anything made before 1995 with the word Mario in it, Half-Life, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, Initial D, Police Trainer, Time Crisis 2, Galaga. And for the love of your mind, THINK while you are playing them.