Each Thursday we ask whether you think a certain object or subject is manly. Make sure to check out past Is it manly? polls. Now for this week’s question:
Photo by Rebecca Pollard
Are video games manly? Vote. Discuss.
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{democracy:15}
Men's Interests and Lifestyle
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Video Games are a valid form of entertainment and continues to gain in popularity. Video Games like anything else, if your responsibilities as a man become neglected, THAT is unmanly.
Video games can be manly. They can be a wonderful way to get closer to your family. And there is always room in life for games. There are some that require great skill and puzzle solving ability to beat.
I guess it comes down to context and people.
I don’t think that video games are by nature manly, but I think that many console makers and game developers cater to a male oriented audience … though “masculine” is not the same as being a “man”
The Nintendo Wii is a perfect example of a console that is not-manly, but does have plenty of games that cater towards guys.
Of any of the games out there, I would say that games such as Knights of the Old Republic and various MMOs are probably the best sources of Manliness because they give you an opportunity to “be a man” not just run around and kill stuff
Of course, REAL men collect coin-op games!
Just my thoughts …
Video games, in my mind, are neutral. The manner and frequency with which they are played determines the level of manliness. There is nothing wrong with a bit of leisurely activity. Playing for hours and hours daily is not manly, but doing any one pleasurable activity for hours at a time could be considered unmanly. All things in moderation.
It pains me to admit it, seeing as I’ve been playing video games on a regular basis since early 2004, but video games are not manly. Especially if you’re comparing it to all the other things on this website that are considered manly.
Yes, they’re fun. But it’s fun spent sitting on a couch slack-jawed for hours on end sometimes and to me, that’s nothing particularly admirable. And we can try to justify it all we want, saying it takes skill and intellect, but it’s a cop out and we all know it. Working hard, falling in love, raising a family, that takes skill.
Video games are like time and money (and it involves both). What you do with it and how you deal with it shows what kind of a man you are. If taken in moderation and played not more than, say, 2 hours a day gives you plenty of time to do other things after having enjoyed a session of gaming fun.
Game content used to be quite meaningful. Some games give you the chance to make moral decisions on certain things, and the outcome of the game was a result of those decisions. It’s fiction, yes, but it helps you to think about the world around you and look at it in a different perspective. Sadly, recent games have lost the depth that makers used to put in them (older games before 1999).
Nowadays games are made only to appeal to the impulsive nature of gamers (guys and girls, young and old). Pleasing on the eyes, stimulating on the senses. The worst are multiplayer type games that are designed to appeal to the obsessive ‘I want it all’ impulses of players, whereby players have to log hundreds of hours to ‘grind’ for the best items they can get in the game so they can have bragging rights.
There was a research (I read in the paper) saying that video games have more effect on men because it triggers their competitive switch, the nature that drives men to want to excel or conquer. I think, the way the world is currently, men have lost their way in knowing which are the right things to conquer. Nay, MAN has lost his way in the way things are. What used to be entertainment has become a counterfeit conquest for man whose will has been lost through past failures, disappointments, or lack of guidance from men that came before.
Notice how video games are a by-product of a generation that was so intent on making money and wealth, neglecting time with their families, that the generation after created these things to fill their own emotional needs (men do have them, they are just of a different kind than women). Now, this effect is spilling over to affect women too.
Real men will make sure what they do have a positive impact on the generation that comes after them. In the bible, King David served his generation and then went to sleep, and his son King Solomon reaped the benefits of wealth, prosperity and peace (but Solomon blew it all on wives and concubines, bringing the nation into ruin, again).
Er, so, video games… what you do with them makes it manly or unmanly.
I would say some games are “manly.” I find some video games are a good, peaceful way to vent some aggression that might otherwise be channeled in less appropriate ways or bottled up. Blow up a few things or shoot some monsters and one feels a bit better.
I’ve scanned the posts and I love the individuals that state that in order to be manly something has to involve nails and fire and some sort of animal blood letting. Please, a real man knows he is one, plain and simple.
If a man wants to play a video game, so be it. If you don’t that’s fine too. As long as a man gets out there, contributes to society, is good to and provides for his family and sets an example for his children, I could care less if he wants to spend time in front of the tube.
Yes, I play video games (not manly enough for some of you), but I also was a U.S. Marine and am now Law Enforcement/EMT/K9. (Does that make up for my occasional dalliance with the gaming world?) I know I’m a man, and could give a rats A## what you think a real man is. Validation is never necessary in a man’s world.
I think a better version of this question is: “Are recreational distractions manly?”
I don’t see video games as being any different from watching t.v., reading a book or playing a board game. All of those are simply activities that people (not just men) choose to engage in primarily for recreation. Sure, you can take any of those things and take them to an extreme and, admittedly, video games are probably the easiest to get carried away with but I don’t think that a person who engages in video games in a responsible way needs to question manliness because it’s not really an issue.
Now, a guy who shirks his responsibilities to play video games, watch t.v., read a book, ride a pony, obsess over sports stats or learn to throw toothpicks with deadly accuracy (which, while cool, is not cool when you have a term paper to write) needs to question his manliness.
As stated before, the stereotype of gamers (30 somethings, mama’s basement, etc.) is not manly. Just remember that not all people, men or women, who play games are that stereotype.
GRUNT* FART* BELCH*
Yeah, if you ain’t doing some broad or werking with ya hands, yous a bunch of pussies!!!
Reading is the werst of all!!! Curled up wit a book to read!!! Dat sounds pretty gay to me!!!
Watching any man sit for hours being unproductive is not manly. Be a man and spend time with your wife and kids. Do something with your time that will leave a legacy.
Definitely.
They are the modern form of ritualized violence
If you look at the average age of today’s gamer, videogaming has definitely attracted an older crowd. Rickey’s opinion that any venture that involves fragging folks with menacing weaponry is most definitely “manly,” but are videogames mature? It all depends on the character of the person who plays the game and their ability to seperate fantasy from reality. Same thing applies to pornography.
Leadership and strategy are not manly traits.
They are learned skills.
Furthermore, sitting on the couch playing a game. Is not the least bit manly.
Getting out and doing your part to make our world a better place, no matter how seemingly insignificant it may appear, is manly.
Logically it may be surmised thusly:
Order is a manly virtue according to Benjamin Franklin.
Disorder is the opposite of order.
Thus disorder cannot be virtuous.
Entropy is that state of lowest energy and highest disorder.
Playing video games vice contributing to the greater good does not improve order and is of a lower energy state.
Thus playing video games is a state of higher disorder.
If disorder is not virtuous.
Then, playing video games is not virtuous.
If virtue is manly.
And playing video games cannot be virtuous.
Then playing video games cannot be manly!
Are movies manly? Is music manly? How about theater? Board games?
Does it also make sense to have a poll asking, “Are books manly?”
Some games are manly some not. It’s all up to the player no the videogame that defines if videogames are manly or not.
Some people were talking shit about what a real man does o does not and the truth is that a real man does whatever the fuck he wants. A real man follows his own path not whatever other people thinks it’s right or wrong.
Well i think it all depends on the game. you can’t compare Call of Duty 4 with Barney’s Hide and Seek. The way gaming is evolving nowadays, along with awesome technological breakthroughs, anything is possible! I wonder though, with technological breakthroughs, like the Motorokr’s awesome Java capabilities, awesome video playback, and full HTML browser the quality of mobile games would be a super breakthrough, and we can start playing all kinds of games on the go anywhere. What do you guys think?
^IMO the Krave is much smoother. It boast a full touch screen with HTML and bluetooth. (motorola.com/krave) There is no competition!
they are because it teaches and test if a man is strong by having it trying to brain wash the man. if he is still ok it proves.
I decided to abstain from voting because I feel that that it’s all defendant on the situation.
Games that require strategy, coordination, skill, etc. are potential Manly games. The addition of well crafted stories, quality artwork and inspiring music don’t hurt either.
Games that rely on mindless button smashing or involve children’s television characters most likely are not Manly. That being said, enjoying said types of games with one’s children will lean these games into neutral territories. However certain typed of actions, such as intentionally causing distress and mis-givings among other gamers though intentional player killing and stealing the hard won items and rewards of others, are not and likely never will be Manly.
When it’s all said and done, the Manliness or lack there of with regards to video games is all dependent upon which games one is speaking of, how one interacts with others while playing and what the circumstances are when one is playing them.
videogames are definetly NOT manliness, all these games transform a man into a boy, I had a lot of games on my PC and I delete them all , Why ? Because a videogame cannot help you pursuit the real passions in life , a videogame keeps you imprisoned in your home for nights making some stupid , useless points instead of going somewhere with your friends or girlfriend.
All that bunch of games create the illusion of happiness just for a few moments and keeps you away from the real life, I speak from a previous experience.
There’s a say: <> and I strongly agree with that.
videogames are definetly NOT manliness, all these games transform a man into a boy, I had a lot of games on my PC and I delete them all , Why ? Because a videogame cannot help you pursuit the real passions in life , a videogame keeps you imprisoned in your home for nights making some stupid , useless points instead of going somewhere with your friends or girlfriend.
All that bunch of games create the illusion of happiness just for a few moments and keeps you away from the real life, I speak from a previous experience.
There’s a say: THE THINGS YOU OWN WILL OWN YOU and I strongly agree with that.
Video games are manly sometimes. Games like Gears of war and Dawn of war and Halo can be manly. But only if you don’t overdo it and make the transfer into nerdiness.
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