Rocket Science: Games Don't Cause Crime, May Be Key to Education
Rocket Science: Games Don't Cause Crime, May Be Key to Education
May 19, 2008
A NASA researcher speaking at a University of Manitoba workshop discussed using video games as an educational tool and disputed supposed links between games and criminal behavior.
As reported by the Truro Daily News, NASA's Daniel Laughlin said:
Since 1993, violent crime in Canada and the U.S. has declined by 50 per cent and during that time the video gaming industry has exploded. If video games were really linked to crime, then we wouldn’t have seen that decline in violence.
Laughlin is the learning technologies project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Baltimore. The space agency is working on an MMO to sharpen math and science skills among high school and college students:
I’d love to see a space-based game where the players are placed in real careers — astrophysicists, aerospace engineer. It would be a game where you need the expertise of real science to succeed... It’s got to be fun, first. Without the fun, no one will want to play it and it won’t be successful. But it has to use real science.
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Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
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Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
I guess NASA is part of the consp1racy now.
Pssht, scientists. Always using logic and attempting to further education.
Hrm.
Properly done such a MMO could be an EvE killer. Unlikly but the concept has some potential. One of the big complaints about EvE as a space sim is it's fantasy physics......
Unlikly but the concept has some potential. One of the big complaints Dissertation writing about EvE as a space sim is it's fantasy physics Dissertation help
The correlation between crime rates and videogames "exploding" is just as big a pile of stinking logic-poop as the 'he had played a violent videogame at some point in the past, so it had to be an effect'.
Just because the asshat pulling the spew from his wazoo is on your side doesn't make his "point" any less assinine.
John Bruce is that you?
E. Zachary Knight
www.editorialgames.com
Probably not, considering he acknowledged that the "videogames are a factor in crime" is shit. 'Course, Jack is completely batshit insane.
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
@ Anonymous
It's basic statistics. Correlation is necessary but not sufficient for causation.
For the population as a whole, the fact that the two measures (crime and video game play) are going in opposite directions is enough to preclude the belief that playing violent video games increases the likelihood that a typical person will act violently in the real world.
That doesn't mean that some individuals may not be affected by playing violent video games; there may be some people who are more sensitive to the effects or, more likely, for whom playing violent video games in some way is a marker of risk for violent behavior in the real world. (For example, having high cholesterol is a marker of increased risk for having heart disease.) But that's very different from saying that the games cause the behavior.
@ Anonymous
If you mean that the idea of games causing lower crime rates, then I'd agree with you.
Is that what you mean? Or are you disagreeing that the crime data is wrong/faked like a certain someone?
this scientician is simply ignoring the hype and fearmongering to linger on piddly facts. what a moron.
Here are we -- and yonder yawns the universe.
Because the first thing I think of when I think of fun is astrophysics...
Oh, and, with all the eloquence I can muster: Suck it JT!
-ConstantNeophyte: always the newb, ALWAYS.
i'd agree on the "fun != astrophysics" theory, until i found out my little brother was having intense conversations about mutated virus strands. so yeah, diff'rent strokes and all that.
Here are we -- and yonder yawns the universe.
OH MY GOD, VIDEO GAMES FOR SCHOOL?!?!?!?! THERE'S GOING TO BE A MASS MURDER RIOT ON OUR HANDS!!!!!!!
Who knows what it means? Perhaps games do lead to a decrease in violence, maybe not. Hell, who's to say that the rates wouldn't be even lower were it not for video games. The whole damn thing is a giant question mark.
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
Lets alter time & find out! Now where did I put my TARDIS?
Damn, now I can't say it's not rocket science anymore...
Personally I'd love to see some well done science games, that don't go so far as to be unplayable by people without a degree.
A biology one where the player can study simulated bacteria and virii, analyze the genetic code of animals, etc. Maybe a real CSI game that doesn't fail and doesn't rely on TV fantasy for solving cases but actually uses realistic crime scene set-ups that make the player really work to find the clues and piece them together. NASA engineer game designing new space suits, rockets, shuttles, etc.
Done well I think all of these and more could be made and generate interest in their respective fields while preparing our youth to have the critical thinking skills and knowledge to be successful in college/their work. For an example the biology one for bacteria/virii could be the reverse of that Pandemic flash game, and you have to come up with a cure to a deadly disease before it kills off all humanity. I could get behind a game like that.
Crime flourishes when unemployment is on the rise and when our economy is down. Most of the people who are doing desperate acts are those who are less fortunate and illiterate. I know that most parents can’t afford to send their children in school because of financial hardship. With the rising college tuition fee, there’s no doubt that the number of the children who are not going to school this year will increase. For others, acquiring education loans such as the student loan is a big help in order for them to pay their tuition and miscellaneous fees. However, it can seriously add to your burden, and are a leading cause of people needing debt relief or looking into bankruptcy. Discharging student loans under bankruptcy is difficult; to do so would require meeting the hardship standard. If they figure into a bankruptcy, most likely the filing would be under Chapter 13, and student loan repayment would be continued. It would also be better to use a payday loan if you come up short on a payment than letting it slip or using a credit card. Read more at http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/04/24/pay-student-loans/