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<blockquote data-quote="Puggins" data-source="post: 4371394" data-attributes="member: 12386">Your conjecture is speculative, groundless and, in fact, flies in the face of quite a few studies which conclude that interactive video games are nothing like television in terms of suppressing or altering a human's thought process or brain patterns.&nbsp; See <a href="http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap05/heather/imagination_and_play.htm" target="_blank">this site</a>, for example, which claims that children's imaginations are in fact stimulated by video games.Why are your opposite assertions not quite supportable?&nbsp; Well, that's simple- you are merely re-drawing a line in the sand in terms of stimulus.&nbsp; You claim that WoW suppresses imagination by feeding users stimuli that they might otherwise have to provide themselves.&nbsp; This is also true of books (which provide stories which readers which readers would also have to provide), plays (which provides visual stimulus, just like warcraft) and RPGs (the DM feeds you a story that you would otherwise have to provide yourself).&nbsp; The fact that you draw your line at MMORPGs rather than RPGs or even farther back is simply a function of your own personal preferences- your parents or friends might have drawn it at RPGs, and you would, of course, disagree.Now, you're right that television has been found to suppress neural activity.&nbsp; But there is a fundamental difference between television and computer games- computer games like WoW demand that you interact with the external world.&nbsp; You must reason, interact and generally remain active while playing good video games, something that television simply doesn't permit.&nbsp; The results are documented and verifiable- television suppresses brain development, video games actually promote it.So please, don't try to justify your distaste for WoW by making groundless assertions of imminent cultural loss of imagination.&nbsp; You don't like WoW- fine.&nbsp; That certainly doesn't make you smarter, more imaginative or better adjsuted than the folks who enjoy it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Puggins, post: 4371394, member: 12386"] Your conjecture is speculative, groundless and, in fact, flies in the face of quite a few studies which conclude that interactive video games are nothing like television in terms of suppressing or altering a human's thought process or brain patterns. See [url=http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap05/heather/imagination_and_play.htm]this site[/url], for example, which claims that children's imaginations are in fact stimulated by video games. Why are your opposite assertions not quite supportable? Well, that's simple- you are merely re-drawing a line in the sand in terms of stimulus. You claim that WoW suppresses imagination by feeding users stimuli that they might otherwise have to provide themselves. This is also true of books (which provide stories which readers which readers would also have to provide), plays (which provides visual stimulus, just like warcraft) and RPGs (the DM feeds you a story that you would otherwise have to provide yourself). The fact that you draw your line at MMORPGs rather than RPGs or even farther back is simply a function of your own personal preferences- your parents or friends might have drawn it at RPGs, and you would, of course, disagree. Now, you're right that television has been found to suppress neural activity. But there is a fundamental difference between television and computer games- computer games like WoW demand that you interact with the external world. You must reason, interact and generally remain active while playing good video games, something that television simply doesn't permit. The results are documented and verifiable- television suppresses brain development, video games actually promote it. So please, don't try to justify your distaste for WoW by making groundless assertions of imminent cultural loss of imagination. You don't like WoW- fine. That certainly doesn't make you smarter, more imaginative or better adjsuted than the folks who enjoy it. [/QUOTE]

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