I can’t agree that video games are better than T.V. as it all depends on what is showing/being played.
E.g. I would rather play Alpha Centauri than watch MTV, and would rather watch The Simpsons than play Carmageddon.
The problem (if there is one) has to be separated into process and content. The content will come and go with games like GTA provoking controversy (of course crime is never glamourised on TV) and others celebrated for being “edutainment”.
But I think the physical process of playing video games, has its good and bad side - you get unfit, pale, and unable to form relationships, but hey! You are a great problem solver with superb hand-eye coordination!
“Computer games don’t affect kids, I mean if Pac man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.” Kristian Wilson, Nintendo
Some video games do “cheat” in a sense that the computer opponent sometimes has an unfair advantage. This has caused me no end of frustration in many games. Never broke a controller yet, but they are built to take some serious abuse, no doubt about it.
Of course, driving also frustrates me in many cases, and so does work, and so does politics.
I think video games are a scapegoat for perceived ills. Unift, pale, and unable to form relationships, papertiger? That can happen without video games, I assure you. If it weren’t for video games I wouldn’t have some of the relationships I have now!
Hasn’t this song and dance been spit at internet chatting, too?
Bah. Remember when comic books were going to ruin America’s Youth? Remember when it was Rock ‘n’ Roll? Now it’s video games. Feh.
If lovin’ the games is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!! 
But in all seriousness, I think its pretty foolish to try and attribute the decline of western civilization to anything in particular. Games aren’t good for kids. Games aren’t bad for kids. Much in the same way that dancing or TV probably haven’t offered a great benefit/detriment to the youth of America-- but people in the right periods of history sure had a good time saying “My gawd, what will become of the children?!”
(incidentally, the correlation between individuals who both wear pants and lack ambition is nearly 100%… Join me tommorrow for the thread “Pants- covering our genitals, or destroying our future!?”)
Seen? I’ve PLAYED four player chess! both with board that was linked to by ITR champion and in a version called “Monster Chess” or “double speed” where two boards are set up, and two games are played, and when you capture a peace, you give it to your partner and they can place it on their side as their piece in place of making a move. (this game is usually played with 5 minute time limit on the chess clocks)
As for the OP, Video games are part of our society now, many children who grew up with them still play. Video games are just a version of interactive TV, and it is unfair to blame them for societies problems. Parents need to recongize their children need exercise and get them out of the house, that is not the children’s fault, they don’t know any better. Adults who don’t exercise have only theirselves to blame. Video games have become one of the fun scapegoats for all of societies ills, like violent movies were, Beavis and Butthead, MTV, Rock and Roll, Elvis, and all the way back to Comic books in the 50’s (there were probably other things bbefore that, but i am no where near old enough to know that). I remember seeing clips of William Gaines testifying before congress on comic books (he did Mad Magazine and the Tales from the Crypt books) when some stupid psychiatrist wrote a book blaming comic books for everything wrong in society.
I’d just like to echo erislover’s last comment with a little personal testimony. I went to a small private school for elementary and high school, and most of the twenty-four classmates I graduated with had been there since I was in fifth grade. This is great if you like the people in your class, but horrible if you don’t, and when I was in seventh grade I didn’t like most of my class at all.
In particular there was this one kid that I really didn’t get along with. We used to do some pretty messed-up stuff to each other. But then one day he got The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Game Boy, which I happened to have as well, and once upon a time he actually called me for help on it. This happened a few more times, and we actually started talking to each other and treating each other decently. We hung out with each other at school a little bit, without fighting; I eventually trusted him enough to tell him who I liked. I’m 20 years old now and a junior in college, and he’s been my best friend since we were freshmen in high school.
All because of a video game.
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that story, and I like to bring it up every time someone tells me that playing games is detrimental to kids’ social lives. Statistically speaking, it might be, but in at least one instance, they turned enemies into friends.
“I’ve actually seen children accuse their video game systems of “cheating” when something bad happens, as if they have some sort of right to win automatically.”
Oh, I have seen soooooooo many games that cheat, and plenty more that are fiendishly hard more or less because some designer inut a arbitrary number that didn’t make sense solely because he or she decided to make it hard.