i'm of the opinion that people who compare video game "addiction" to heroin addiction should be injected with heroin for a few weeks, and then restate their case after the withdrawal.

but i suppose i am biased.

Think of it this way...

Video Game Industry = Business = 18 billion dollar industry

In most cases, many people get hired during crunch time or before a large project and sometimes prove themselves in these cases and can keep there job for a long while.

If theres restrictions it will kill the existance of crunch time and speculation in the industry because companies wont need the extra help to hit deadlines, they have

Government staggering release dates, cancelling release would cause many people to lose their jobs because thats how the industry works.. people get hired in crunch time and before development , some parts of the industry might be static. But most of it is small game companies and even the large ones dole out contract would and hire on spot for projects.

Many people losing jobs = higher unemployment

unemployment = worse economy

18 billion dollar industry receeds...

There has to be a US Govt. economist or advisor taht is a hell of a lot smarter than me and would forsee this... I dont think theres a chance they will mess with release or constrict the industry in and of itself. They MAY do something about advertising or require somewhat of a play cap per day or so but nothing to jeprodize the industry.

People don't get hired during crunch time. Well, maybe a few QA testers (who then get laid off afterwards), but Brooks' Law means that adding people to the dev team during crunch time could only cause slipped deadlines.

Also, the severity of crunch time has nothing to do with release dates (beyond the fact of their existence), and everything to do with management practices and the prevailing culture of development. The fact that the government hasn't started doling out mandated release dates probably has much less to do with economic considerations, and more to do with the fact that our society is, for the most part, capitalistic.

Quote:

Original post by Lost I think that Nick Yee at The Daedalus Project has the right view. (here) From the report: Quote: If someone dies while watching TV, that is not newsworthy. If someone dies on a golf course, you can bet that you won’t see it on the 7 o’clock news. But every time someone dies when they’re playing online games, it will be all over the news. We treat the Internet and online gaming as if no other media forms or leisure activities exist. On average, people watch 25-30 hours of TV a week, yet we seldom question whether people watch too much TV these days. But is that because TV has become a socially acceptable “addiction” that everyone is guilty of?

I think this is key. The reason we're still seeing reports of "OMG video games are evil!" is that the current older generation doesn't know anything about them. They are still new and scary, perfect for fearmongering politicians to advance their agenda or shock-hungry news corporations to hook in some viewers. If FOX news broadcast a story that went "Today, a guy in Idaho died while watching television. Television makes your head explode!!!", old Aunt Bessie isn't going to believe it, because she's watched lots of tv, all of her friends have watched tv, and none of their heads have exploded. Ditto if FOX ran a story about how books make your face melt, or doing the crossword will cause you to murder your family. However, if FOX says "There's this new thing called "x-box"! It's a dangerous drug that will cause you to kill your family, and then makes your face melt and your head explode!!!!", then Aunt Bessie's much more likely to believe it, since none of her friends have ever heard of x-box, and it sounds scary and looks like one of those evil black robots from the sci-fi channel that are always melting people's faces. Plus, she's pretty sure little Nephew Johnny has one, and he's a downright troubled child with his black clothes and funny haircut, and anything that the tv says might be causing it is probably causing it, because it surely couldn't be his parents' fault.

My point is... in fifty years, this will all have blown over. We will be the old folk shaking our canes and ranting about how things were better back in our days, and we'll know that video games don't make people crazy. However, we will all be thoroughly convinced that this new-fangled "quantum virtual reality cyberscape" is nothing but a cesspool of filth and poor morals, and that it's what's causing all the kids to go around doing hover-by laser-gunnings.