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Shino
Fade into this fantasy, caught in the web of time
Age: 49
Gender: 
Joined: 15 Sep 2002 |
 Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:57 pm Post subject: So now, games are blamed for park attendance? |
Give it a rest already. Games are not the cause of all of the world's problems.
Jeez, this is getting rediculous.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154478.html
| Gamespot wrote: | Games blamed for National Parks' decline
University of Illinois research touts "Nintendo vs. Nature" hypothesis, which fingers the "sedentary lifestyle" promoted by gaming for shrinking park attendance.
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Jul 21, 2006 6:50 pm ET
Games have long been blamed by social conservatives and certain psychologists for encouraging slothful and/or violent behavior in America's youth. Now, a new study has surfaced that blames games for another societal ill--the decline of America's National Park Service.
A report this week on National Public Radio highlighted a controversial study performed by Oliver Pergams, an assistant professor in biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Titled "Nintendo vs. Nature" Pergams' study was recently featured in the Journal of Environmental Management. It asserts that the emergence of video games, the Internet, and other forms of indoor media has a direct correlation with the per capita fall of attendance at US national parks.
"So, we think it likely that these kinds of increases in sedentary lifestyles and recreation not only affect how much time people have to go to national parks, but how much they want to go to national parks," Pergams told NPR.
Pergams' research was spurred by a per capita decline of attendance at national parks. In 1987, each US citizen took an average of 1.2 trips per person per year to a national park. By 2003, though, that number had fallen to 0.9 trips per person per year. The NPR piece did not mention the fact that, according to the 2000 US Census, the US population increased by over 32 million during the 1990s. It should also be noted the majority of that population growth was in crowded urban areas, many of which are not close to a national park.
Though NPR was quick to seize on the study's antigames angle, Pergams told the site ScienceDaily.com that his research is far from infallible. "This is no smoking gun," he said. "We're showing statistically that the rise in use of these various types of media...is so highly correlated with the decline in national park visits that there is likely to be some association." The NPR report also only briefly touched on another factor that Pergams said is contributing to the decline in the per capita average of national park visitors--rising gas prices. |
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RivaOni
Full English!
Age: 41
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Joined: 24 Sep 2002 |
| Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:35 pm Post subject: |
Not read the whole thing, but "Nintendo vs Nature"? oh please, if anything, in the past year or so, Nintendo have been encouraging you to go outside, what with the the DS an all! |
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Blackmage
Intragalactic Acquisitions Agent Mew
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Joined: 02 Feb 2004 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:12 am Post subject: |
Eh if I'm gunna go to a national park I'm gunna go. A video game wouldn't stop me nor most the people I know. Just noone ever wants to go to them becuase they have so many rules. |
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Hoth
Guitarist
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Joined: 10 Oct 2002 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:00 am Post subject: |
I see their point though. For example. WOW players or people who are gaming most days take time to play these things and leave little else for other activities. They get imerged into these and don't spend time outside as much. Now I dont think its a decline of National Park admissions thats the real pointer. I think they are just saying outside doing non-electronical stuff in general.
Though less people means more camp sites for me to pick from! 
But again. I see the point. The names in the title are shown as specific but not to be specific. |
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Silver Adept
Otaku Lord
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:45 am Post subject: |
Yeah, if you game, you're not out getting into nature and that. In the same token, though, more people are working more hours here in America than before - they don't get enough vacation time to go visit a national park unless it's right there, and if it's right there, then they've probably visited it the one time they want to in their lives.
There's more than just games afoot here, but since games are an easy scapegoat, games are always totally at fault. |
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Nogrick
Everybody DANCE!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:12 am Post subject: |
This whole study is biased. You know I can conclude since people need to go to the bathroom everyday that taking a deuce reduces park attendence. Or listening to music, eating, buying DVDs. You can't just take a growing variable and stick it next to diminishing one and say it affects the other.
I say it's just a pot shot to try and get more people to visit national parks. |
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Legend
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:31 pm Post subject: |
I can definitely see their point. Society today is so media-driven. Kids are raised on video games with less appreciation for the world around them than even when I was a kid. And as a supporter of Nature in general, this disturbs me. Parents rely too much on Television and Video Games to babysit their children so that they can have time away from them. But really, they ought to be enjoying the time they have with them. A National Park, or even just a park down the street would be a great opportunity for that.
Hell, with the technology these days, a regular park could be just as good as video games for babysitting your kids if you want a minute of peace anyhow. You can just take your bloody laptop or your stupid hand-held with you there. That way you can watch your kid and send off your e-mails or play your games.
Blargh. |
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Doot
Cute and Non-Abrasive Hyper Hypo
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:37 pm Post subject: |
Yeah, I don't think the over-inflated prices, long lines, and odor of vomit and pee have anything to do with it. |
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Legend
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject: |
Yeah, because being in a smelly basement with other teenagers, waiting in line for games, and paying 50$ per game, that's not bad at all. |
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Hoth
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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