I think the difference is that you're making it larger and more forebrain than it really is. Or perhaps I'm giving Levy more credit than he actually deserves. Possibly (hell, probably) both.
The issue about cultural and symbolic systems like that is that they work on unconscious levels. It's not that you make a conscious, everyday thing like "Dude, I can do that in Guitar Hero, so whatever". Instead, you make subconscious connections between the ease of Guitar Hero and guitar playing. Over time that has the potential to devalue real guitar playing on a symbolic level.
Obviously you can't draw any real conclusions without research, so this is just conjecture (also see first paragraph of this comment). I'm just against the quick dismissal of arguments like this. I'm in the curious position of being pro-video game but anti-video game positivism.
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Date: 2007-01-27 04:56 pm (UTC)The issue about cultural and symbolic systems like that is that they work on unconscious levels. It's not that you make a conscious, everyday thing like "Dude, I can do that in Guitar Hero, so whatever". Instead, you make subconscious connections between the ease of Guitar Hero and guitar playing. Over time that has the potential to devalue real guitar playing on a symbolic level.
Obviously you can't draw any real conclusions without research, so this is just conjecture (also see first paragraph of this comment). I'm just against the quick dismissal of arguments like this. I'm in the curious position of being pro-video game but anti-video game positivism.