I am just going to keep this simple.

What are the positives of gaming?

What are the negatives to gaming?

Try to put one of both in your initial posts. Feel free to add more.

Positives of gaming:

It can be fun

Negatives of gaming:

It can svck up your time

Net score:

Neutral (like pretty much every other form of mass entertainment)

Really, video games are entertainment, it's not some deep thing, at least in my book.

Gaming is terrific, if it's handled correctly. It's a form of entertainment, and amusemant is good.

The problem is with the people who game. It's an asocial activity, and it doesn't necessarily appeal to the most active and socially capable people in society as much as the outcasts and rejects. Gaming is a no judgment area, where skill is more important than who you are. You can be the biggest [censored] up on Earth, you can hate yourself, but if you're really good at WoW, you get positive reinforcement. This means that you'd see less desirable elements, misogynists, antisocials, and just plain [censored]s, alongside spineless, passive, and lazy people.

I'd also point out that these people existed well before Pong. They were just your book nerds, film nerds, music nerds, and so on before.

Gaming itself is an activity. Most activities, unless you're torturing people, aren't bad. They're a way to kill time. And not everything has to be productive.

The problem is that people don't look past that. Entertainment is far from a shallow thing. It colors the beliefs and morals of huge swathes of society. It imprints on its audience. It is a deeply rooted part of any society. It isn't overt, but covert. I am not some conspiracy theorist or anything, but clearly Video games and other artforms, have an impact on society. It would certainly benefit us to figure out what that is, rather than just watch it go by.

Positive: It can be moving; it entertains, excites, if scares you -- it draws you in and puts you at the helm.

Negative: as amazing as that sounds -- its purely fictional and carries no real sense of tangible accomplishment or experience that most people would hold over reality.

This isn't something general to a media form, that would be specific to a specific release and then you start getting into censorship.

Information in and of itself (which media/art is) is neutral, completely. What people do with information is either positive or negative.

The positives and negatives are the same for any form of entertainment involving sitting in front of the TV/PC. I voted positive as gaming has had little negative effect on me and my life; in fact it's helped me maintain my brain when I could no longer play my keyboards, guitar or enjoy the simple pleasures that I used to.

Positives: It's a hobby that can bring joy to people, myself included.

Negatives: The anti consumer attitudes of some companies.

Overall I'm inclined to say gaming is a positive, like every hobby that people enjoy. No one should have the right to say someone's hobby is a bad thing, as long as it isn't hurting anyone else it's fine.

Possitives;

-Gaming is a great outlet for stress.

-It promotes imagination

-I brings together people of similar interests

-It combines the story telling of books, with the visuals of movies.

Cons:

-it brings together people of a similar interest

-Highly time consuming