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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 4910579" data-attributes="member: 59082">Actually, you're right that I am making a judgment about different kinds of imagination, but "what I feel worthy" has less to do with my personal tastes and experiences as it does to something qualitative. To illustrate, here is a quote from Samuel Coleridge:The difference I am pointing to is between what Coleridge calls (secondary) Imagination and Fancy. I think Tolkien's term "secondary world" is directly related to this, as a function of secondary imagination. Fancy deals with fixities; nothing truly new or vital is generated (not "new" in the sense of novelty, but in the sense of a living quality).So I am saying that, at the least, most of what comes about through video game is "Fancy" and not "Imagination." Not all, but most.I agree with the first part, and this is exactly why I take issue with video games because, I believe, they are antithetical to the healthy development of imagination, even working against it, replacing it with a kind of simulationist fancy.Sturgeon's Law, eh? I agree with this, but the quality of the video game or RPG is not really what I am talking about. I mean, I hear you, but that is not why I am "ragging" on video games.One aspect of this is very simple and easy to grasp. When you play a video game or watch TV your imagination is passive; it receives but it does not create. When you read a book your imagination is receptive and active, it creates images. When you write your own work or create art you are being much more active (although there is a major activity of reception, but I won't go into that now).The other side of this is that MMOs don't require anyone else to be there so they can be done whenever you alone have free time, whereas RPGs require 2+ people finding a time to play. Sure I can agree with that, but I'm talking about the effects on the imagination of the two, and in that regard (IMO) MMOs are a big problem.Agreed. I've seen so many people turn their nose up at RPGs without having a clue really what they are about. This isn't helped by the partially self-perpetuated ghettoization of RPGs.Yes, and as I said earlier, there have been three overall peaks or "baby booms" in RPGs: the late 70s/early 80s, the early 90s with Vampire and Mage, and then around the turn of the millenia. It seems like it happens every 10 years or so, so we might see a new development in the next 2-3 years.Believe me, I've thought of doing the research but don't have the time or means at this point. But it is research that needs to be done, imo.In a way it is. And I think TV does "rot your brain" to some extent. This is not to say that I think people shouldn't watch TV but that it should be moderated.Are you implying that my dislike of video games is because I'm over 30 and no longer have the capacity to like new things? <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/worried.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":-S" title="Uhm    :-S" data-shortname=":-S" /> Yes, and I recognized this in one of my posts above. I will mention that most of what you mention relate to the ability to process information in an almost mechanistic sense, but have nothing to do with a more aesthetic (or imaginative) kind of thinking.And again, at what cost? What are the negatives? In the long run we don't really know yet. But some of the short-term effects are pretty obvious, at least with hardcore computer players. My sense is that the effect of excessive play is rather similar to drug addiction.</blockquote>

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