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Now, as we all get ready to return to secondary school, college or what have you, it is time to return to that great question: which is better? School or games? "Easy", you might cry out in mocking tones, "games!" But you are fools to judge so quickly. Here I have written study which can also double up as a media studies essay in the upcoming GCSE year (don't say I never did anything for you)...GAMES VERSUS SCHOOL!
1: The Cost
Video-gaming, much like collecting Faberge eggs and cocaine, is an expensive habit. You'll need to shell out around £150 for any of the three consoles around at the moment. That's not counting an extra pad for multiplayer games, which will set you back about £20, a memory card for £15...and if you want some games to play on it, you're looking at £35 a pop. So, say you want a new XBOX with Halo, Jet Set Radio Future and Fifa, with a memory card to take round your friends houses, and three extra controllers for playing with said friends. That's £350. Then you have the new games (let's say for argument's sake a new game every month), a new memory card when your old one is used up, and the eventual online add-ons...the price piles up. Now, when you go to school you'll need a uniform (let's say £125 for blazer, tie, shirts, socks, shoes etc.), and then a pencil-case full of stationary (£20). So for about four console games, you can be kitted out for about 2/3 years, and then only needing a new blazer or a replacement for the fountain pen you've lost. So, it's pretty obvious that SCHOOL wins the price war.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 1
2: Social Aspect
As mentioned before, you can play games with other people (up to about 8, or maybe 32 if you link up consoles and TVs)...but what about school? You spend 5 days a week, 39 weeks a year with a circle of people. As you progress through the ranks of school, your classes are constantly changing, and eventually you will have different faces in each subject you take. This will inevitably lead to you making dozens of new, close friends after spending so much time with them. Gaming is usually played alone or with friends you already have...playing in arcades can help you meet new mates and eventually, when online console gaming reaches the UK across all three main consoles, you will be able to find friends in cyberspace...but SCHOOL is the way we forge most of our close relationships.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 2
3: Multiplayer
Perhaps not something you take into consideration when thinking about school, but when comparing gaming and school, you must look at the strong points of both. As explained in test number 2, school can give you loads of new comrades...but which is the best when shared with close friends? School, contrary to popular belief, CAN be fun with mates. You can chat whilst the teacher isn't looking, and in more relaxed subjects like Art, PSE and PE you can have conversations with a large group, sharing jokes and stuff like that...but on the whole, School isn't the most enjoyable thing (see point 4) with or without buddies. However, gaming excels in this department. Stuff like shooting your friend in the back of the head with a sniper rifle is much better than looking over his/her shoulder for the answer to question six. With many games, as with fine wines, it is better to share the experience than to enjoy it alone. GAMES wins this round.
GAMES 1 SCHOOL 2
4: Fun Factor
Ask pretty much any person that isn't a complete geek whether they'd rather go to school or play video games on any given day, it's pretty obvious which one they'll choose. Many a song, poem, tv show and/or comedy routine is based upon the hours and hours of boredom spent in the classroom, whereas gaming is an outlet through which you can re-enact famous sporting scenes, kill three-headed alien freaks, snap the necks of evil ninjas and steal a guy's car, switch on the talk radio station and reverse over him. Gaming is probably the quickest growing entertainment medium on the planet, with sales at an all time high: it's fun to play, as any gamer will happily tell you. Rather than being cooped up behind a desk solving algebraic equations, you can be collecting coins in Mushroom Kingdom, or hitting Ken with your high kicks. GAMES win this easily.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 2
5: Impressing People
When you're going for a job interview, you'll need to do it. When meeting old acquaintances, you'll really want to do it. When meeting new people, it makes you feel good when you do it...no, not sticking your hand in your bum crack and then shaking that person's hand, with the smell and everything...I mean impressing. People like Will Smith can say "hi, I'm a rapper AND movie star, with a Grammy award and Oscar nomination." Tony Adams can say "hello, I've captained Arsenal to two doubles, and a European trophy". What will impress more? Your console or your school? "I got a double first from Cambridge". Highly impressive. "I got a Gamecube on launch day"...distinctly less so. "I can speak seven languages" will make jaws drop much lower than informing people that "I can complete Metal Gear Solid on Extreme mode in four hours, including the cutscenes!" ever will. SCHOOL takes the duke once more.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 3
6: Replay Value
When you finish junior school, it's over. Ditto secondary. You'll never need to, and probably won't WANT to do it ever again. Admittedly, some people take night classes, re-do courses or get those tape things to learn new stuff but on the whole, your school life is effectively dead by the age of 21. But what about games? Ten years on I'm still playing Tetris, and five years after purchase I'm trying to beat GoldenEye again. There's also a growing 'retro' market, with Pong cabinets fetching thousands of pounds and people still pouring coins into Space Invader machines at kitsch new-age wine bars and scabby old chipshops alike. People come back to consoles and their games time and again, where many are ready to be free of the shackles of class timetables as soon as possible. In this heat, GAMES definitely win.
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 3
7: Lasting Impressions
I'm sure that when we all grow old, grey and wrinkled we will have fond memories of the first time we caught a Pikachu, when the dog crashed through the window in Resident Evil, and how cool it was when we took Scorpion's leg off and hit him with it in Mortal Kombat...but generation after generation takes great pride in recalling their times at school. When someone put a whoopie cushion in Mr Davis' seat, when Mrs Gunn stormed out of the room and cried...just the other day my dad was telling me the story of how he managed to escape getting the cane. On the other side of the coin, my mum still remembers logarythm tables, no matter how useless they are, and the chemical symbol for Hydrochloric Acid. SCHOOL wins this, the final round.
FINAL SCORE:
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 4
Well there you have it. Probably not the outcome you expected, or wanted...but think about it? Does your PS2 help you to get a job? Will getting a top ten time in F-Zero-X get you new friends? Probably not...but then, would you queue up outside your local Toys R Us at 4am for a Business Studies class? Will your mates stay up all night playing with a protractor? Gaming may not be as important as school in the long run, but it's still one of my favourite things. And I'd much rather be playing Pro Evolution Soccer on Tuesday =D
Thanks for reading, and hopefully ignoring the similarity to SHEEPY's post...
-swander87
****ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS MY OPINION, AND UNLESS SERIOUSLY STATED OTHERWISE, IS NOT INTIMATED TO BE FACT****
1: The Cost
Video-gaming, much like collecting Faberge eggs and cocaine, is an expensive habit. You'll need to shell out around £150 for any of the three consoles around at the moment. That's not counting an extra pad for multiplayer games, which will set you back about £20, a memory card for £15...and if you want some games to play on it, you're looking at £35 a pop. So, say you want a new XBOX with Halo, Jet Set Radio Future and Fifa, with a memory card to take round your friends houses, and three extra controllers for playing with said friends. That's £350. Then you have the new games (let's say for argument's sake a new game every month), a new memory card when your old one is used up, and the eventual online add-ons...the price piles up. Now, when you go to school you'll need a uniform (let's say £125 for blazer, tie, shirts, socks, shoes etc.), and then a pencil-case full of stationary (£20). So for about four console games, you can be kitted out for about 2/3 years, and then only needing a new blazer or a replacement for the fountain pen you've lost. So, it's pretty obvious that SCHOOL wins the price war.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 1
2: Social Aspect
As mentioned before, you can play games with other people (up to about 8, or maybe 32 if you link up consoles and TVs)...but what about school? You spend 5 days a week, 39 weeks a year with a circle of people. As you progress through the ranks of school, your classes are constantly changing, and eventually you will have different faces in each subject you take. This will inevitably lead to you making dozens of new, close friends after spending so much time with them. Gaming is usually played alone or with friends you already have...playing in arcades can help you meet new mates and eventually, when online console gaming reaches the UK across all three main consoles, you will be able to find friends in cyberspace...but SCHOOL is the way we forge most of our close relationships.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 2
3: Multiplayer
Perhaps not something you take into consideration when thinking about school, but when comparing gaming and school, you must look at the strong points of both. As explained in test number 2, school can give you loads of new comrades...but which is the best when shared with close friends? School, contrary to popular belief, CAN be fun with mates. You can chat whilst the teacher isn't looking, and in more relaxed subjects like Art, PSE and PE you can have conversations with a large group, sharing jokes and stuff like that...but on the whole, School isn't the most enjoyable thing (see point 4) with or without buddies. However, gaming excels in this department. Stuff like shooting your friend in the back of the head with a sniper rifle is much better than looking over his/her shoulder for the answer to question six. With many games, as with fine wines, it is better to share the experience than to enjoy it alone. GAMES wins this round.
GAMES 1 SCHOOL 2
4: Fun Factor
Ask pretty much any person that isn't a complete geek whether they'd rather go to school or play video games on any given day, it's pretty obvious which one they'll choose. Many a song, poem, tv show and/or comedy routine is based upon the hours and hours of boredom spent in the classroom, whereas gaming is an outlet through which you can re-enact famous sporting scenes, kill three-headed alien freaks, snap the necks of evil ninjas and steal a guy's car, switch on the talk radio station and reverse over him. Gaming is probably the quickest growing entertainment medium on the planet, with sales at an all time high: it's fun to play, as any gamer will happily tell you. Rather than being cooped up behind a desk solving algebraic equations, you can be collecting coins in Mushroom Kingdom, or hitting Ken with your high kicks. GAMES win this easily.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 2
5: Impressing People
When you're going for a job interview, you'll need to do it. When meeting old acquaintances, you'll really want to do it. When meeting new people, it makes you feel good when you do it...no, not sticking your hand in your bum crack and then shaking that person's hand, with the smell and everything...I mean impressing. People like Will Smith can say "hi, I'm a rapper AND movie star, with a Grammy award and Oscar nomination." Tony Adams can say "hello, I've captained Arsenal to two doubles, and a European trophy". What will impress more? Your console or your school? "I got a double first from Cambridge". Highly impressive. "I got a Gamecube on launch day"...distinctly less so. "I can speak seven languages" will make jaws drop much lower than informing people that "I can complete Metal Gear Solid on Extreme mode in four hours, including the cutscenes!" ever will. SCHOOL takes the duke once more.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 3
6: Replay Value
When you finish junior school, it's over. Ditto secondary. You'll never need to, and probably won't WANT to do it ever again. Admittedly, some people take night classes, re-do courses or get those tape things to learn new stuff but on the whole, your school life is effectively dead by the age of 21. But what about games? Ten years on I'm still playing Tetris, and five years after purchase I'm trying to beat GoldenEye again. There's also a growing 'retro' market, with Pong cabinets fetching thousands of pounds and people still pouring coins into Space Invader machines at kitsch new-age wine bars and scabby old chipshops alike. People come back to consoles and their games time and again, where many are ready to be free of the shackles of class timetables as soon as possible. In this heat, GAMES definitely win.
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 3
7: Lasting Impressions
I'm sure that when we all grow old, grey and wrinkled we will have fond memories of the first time we caught a Pikachu, when the dog crashed through the window in Resident Evil, and how cool it was when we took Scorpion's leg off and hit him with it in Mortal Kombat...but generation after generation takes great pride in recalling their times at school. When someone put a whoopie cushion in Mr Davis' seat, when Mrs Gunn stormed out of the room and cried...just the other day my dad was telling me the story of how he managed to escape getting the cane. On the other side of the coin, my mum still remembers logarythm tables, no matter how useless they are, and the chemical symbol for Hydrochloric Acid. SCHOOL wins this, the final round.
FINAL SCORE:
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 4
Well there you have it. Probably not the outcome you expected, or wanted...but think about it? Does your PS2 help you to get a job? Will getting a top ten time in F-Zero-X get you new friends? Probably not...but then, would you queue up outside your local Toys R Us at 4am for a Business Studies class? Will your mates stay up all night playing with a protractor? Gaming may not be as important as school in the long run, but it's still one of my favourite things. And I'd much rather be playing Pro Evolution Soccer on Tuesday =D
Thanks for reading, and hopefully ignoring the similarity to SHEEPY's post...
-swander87
****ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS MY OPINION, AND UNLESS SERIOUSLY STATED OTHERWISE, IS NOT INTIMATED TO BE FACT****
Page:
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Now, as we all get ready to return to secondary school, college or what have you, it is time to return to that great question: which is better? School or games? "Easy", you might cry out in mocking tones, "games!" But you are fools to judge so quickly. Here I have written study which can also double up as a media studies essay in the upcoming GCSE year (don't say I never did anything for you)...GAMES VERSUS SCHOOL!
1: The Cost
Video-gaming, much like collecting Faberge eggs and cocaine, is an expensive habit. You'll need to shell out around £150 for any of the three consoles around at the moment. That's not counting an extra pad for multiplayer games, which will set you back about £20, a memory card for £15...and if you want some games to play on it, you're looking at £35 a pop. So, say you want a new XBOX with Halo, Jet Set Radio Future and Fifa, with a memory card to take round your friends houses, and three extra controllers for playing with said friends. That's £350. Then you have the new games (let's say for argument's sake a new game every month), a new memory card when your old one is used up, and the eventual online add-ons...the price piles up. Now, when you go to school you'll need a uniform (let's say £125 for blazer, tie, shirts, socks, shoes etc.), and then a pencil-case full of stationary (£20). So for about four console games, you can be kitted out for about 2/3 years, and then only needing a new blazer or a replacement for the fountain pen you've lost. So, it's pretty obvious that SCHOOL wins the price war.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 1
2: Social Aspect
As mentioned before, you can play games with other people (up to about 8, or maybe 32 if you link up consoles and TVs)...but what about school? You spend 5 days a week, 39 weeks a year with a circle of people. As you progress through the ranks of school, your classes are constantly changing, and eventually you will have different faces in each subject you take. This will inevitably lead to you making dozens of new, close friends after spending so much time with them. Gaming is usually played alone or with friends you already have...playing in arcades can help you meet new mates and eventually, when online console gaming reaches the UK across all three main consoles, you will be able to find friends in cyberspace...but SCHOOL is the way we forge most of our close relationships.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 2
3: Multiplayer
Perhaps not something you take into consideration when thinking about school, but when comparing gaming and school, you must look at the strong points of both. As explained in test number 2, school can give you loads of new comrades...but which is the best when shared with close friends? School, contrary to popular belief, CAN be fun with mates. You can chat whilst the teacher isn't looking, and in more relaxed subjects like Art, PSE and PE you can have conversations with a large group, sharing jokes and stuff like that...but on the whole, School isn't the most enjoyable thing (see point 4) with or without buddies. However, gaming excels in this department. Stuff like shooting your friend in the back of the head with a sniper rifle is much better than looking over his/her shoulder for the answer to question six. With many games, as with fine wines, it is better to share the experience than to enjoy it alone. GAMES wins this round.
GAMES 1 SCHOOL 2
4: Fun Factor
Ask pretty much any person that isn't a complete geek whether they'd rather go to school or play video games on any given day, it's pretty obvious which one they'll choose. Many a song, poem, tv show and/or comedy routine is based upon the hours and hours of boredom spent in the classroom, whereas gaming is an outlet through which you can re-enact famous sporting scenes, kill three-headed alien freaks, snap the necks of evil ninjas and steal a guy's car, switch on the talk radio station and reverse over him. Gaming is probably the quickest growing entertainment medium on the planet, with sales at an all time high: it's fun to play, as any gamer will happily tell you. Rather than being cooped up behind a desk solving algebraic equations, you can be collecting coins in Mushroom Kingdom, or hitting Ken with your high kicks. GAMES win this easily.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 2
5: Impressing People
When you're going for a job interview, you'll need to do it. When meeting old acquaintances, you'll really want to do it. When meeting new people, it makes you feel good when you do it...no, not sticking your hand in your bum crack and then shaking that person's hand, with the smell and everything...I mean impressing. People like Will Smith can say "hi, I'm a rapper AND movie star, with a Grammy award and Oscar nomination." Tony Adams can say "hello, I've captained Arsenal to two doubles, and a European trophy". What will impress more? Your console or your school? "I got a double first from Cambridge". Highly impressive. "I got a Gamecube on launch day"...distinctly less so. "I can speak seven languages" will make jaws drop much lower than informing people that "I can complete Metal Gear Solid on Extreme mode in four hours, including the cutscenes!" ever will. SCHOOL takes the duke once more.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 3
6: Replay Value
When you finish junior school, it's over. Ditto secondary. You'll never need to, and probably won't WANT to do it ever again. Admittedly, some people take night classes, re-do courses or get those tape things to learn new stuff but on the whole, your school life is effectively dead by the age of 21. But what about games? Ten years on I'm still playing Tetris, and five years after purchase I'm trying to beat GoldenEye again. There's also a growing 'retro' market, with Pong cabinets fetching thousands of pounds and people still pouring coins into Space Invader machines at kitsch new-age wine bars and scabby old chipshops alike. People come back to consoles and their games time and again, where many are ready to be free of the shackles of class timetables as soon as possible. In this heat, GAMES definitely win.
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 3
7: Lasting Impressions
I'm sure that when we all grow old, grey and wrinkled we will have fond memories of the first time we caught a Pikachu, when the dog crashed through the window in Resident Evil, and how cool it was when we took Scorpion's leg off and hit him with it in Mortal Kombat...but generation after generation takes great pride in recalling their times at school. When someone put a whoopie cushion in Mr Davis' seat, when Mrs Gunn stormed out of the room and cried...just the other day my dad was telling me the story of how he managed to escape getting the cane. On the other side of the coin, my mum still remembers logarythm tables, no matter how useless they are, and the chemical symbol for Hydrochloric Acid. SCHOOL wins this, the final round.
FINAL SCORE:
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 4
Well there you have it. Probably not the outcome you expected, or wanted...but think about it? Does your PS2 help you to get a job? Will getting a top ten time in F-Zero-X get you new friends? Probably not...but then, would you queue up outside your local Toys R Us at 4am for a Business Studies class? Will your mates stay up all night playing with a protractor? Gaming may not be as important as school in the long run, but it's still one of my favourite things. And I'd much rather be playing Pro Evolution Soccer on Tuesday =D
Thanks for reading, and hopefully ignoring the similarity to SHEEPY's post...
-swander87
****ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS MY OPINION, AND UNLESS SERIOUSLY STATED OTHERWISE, IS NOT INTIMATED TO BE FACT****
1: The Cost
Video-gaming, much like collecting Faberge eggs and cocaine, is an expensive habit. You'll need to shell out around £150 for any of the three consoles around at the moment. That's not counting an extra pad for multiplayer games, which will set you back about £20, a memory card for £15...and if you want some games to play on it, you're looking at £35 a pop. So, say you want a new XBOX with Halo, Jet Set Radio Future and Fifa, with a memory card to take round your friends houses, and three extra controllers for playing with said friends. That's £350. Then you have the new games (let's say for argument's sake a new game every month), a new memory card when your old one is used up, and the eventual online add-ons...the price piles up. Now, when you go to school you'll need a uniform (let's say £125 for blazer, tie, shirts, socks, shoes etc.), and then a pencil-case full of stationary (£20). So for about four console games, you can be kitted out for about 2/3 years, and then only needing a new blazer or a replacement for the fountain pen you've lost. So, it's pretty obvious that SCHOOL wins the price war.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 1
2: Social Aspect
As mentioned before, you can play games with other people (up to about 8, or maybe 32 if you link up consoles and TVs)...but what about school? You spend 5 days a week, 39 weeks a year with a circle of people. As you progress through the ranks of school, your classes are constantly changing, and eventually you will have different faces in each subject you take. This will inevitably lead to you making dozens of new, close friends after spending so much time with them. Gaming is usually played alone or with friends you already have...playing in arcades can help you meet new mates and eventually, when online console gaming reaches the UK across all three main consoles, you will be able to find friends in cyberspace...but SCHOOL is the way we forge most of our close relationships.
GAMES 0 SCHOOL 2
3: Multiplayer
Perhaps not something you take into consideration when thinking about school, but when comparing gaming and school, you must look at the strong points of both. As explained in test number 2, school can give you loads of new comrades...but which is the best when shared with close friends? School, contrary to popular belief, CAN be fun with mates. You can chat whilst the teacher isn't looking, and in more relaxed subjects like Art, PSE and PE you can have conversations with a large group, sharing jokes and stuff like that...but on the whole, School isn't the most enjoyable thing (see point 4) with or without buddies. However, gaming excels in this department. Stuff like shooting your friend in the back of the head with a sniper rifle is much better than looking over his/her shoulder for the answer to question six. With many games, as with fine wines, it is better to share the experience than to enjoy it alone. GAMES wins this round.
GAMES 1 SCHOOL 2
4: Fun Factor
Ask pretty much any person that isn't a complete geek whether they'd rather go to school or play video games on any given day, it's pretty obvious which one they'll choose. Many a song, poem, tv show and/or comedy routine is based upon the hours and hours of boredom spent in the classroom, whereas gaming is an outlet through which you can re-enact famous sporting scenes, kill three-headed alien freaks, snap the necks of evil ninjas and steal a guy's car, switch on the talk radio station and reverse over him. Gaming is probably the quickest growing entertainment medium on the planet, with sales at an all time high: it's fun to play, as any gamer will happily tell you. Rather than being cooped up behind a desk solving algebraic equations, you can be collecting coins in Mushroom Kingdom, or hitting Ken with your high kicks. GAMES win this easily.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 2
5: Impressing People
When you're going for a job interview, you'll need to do it. When meeting old acquaintances, you'll really want to do it. When meeting new people, it makes you feel good when you do it...no, not sticking your hand in your bum crack and then shaking that person's hand, with the smell and everything...I mean impressing. People like Will Smith can say "hi, I'm a rapper AND movie star, with a Grammy award and Oscar nomination." Tony Adams can say "hello, I've captained Arsenal to two doubles, and a European trophy". What will impress more? Your console or your school? "I got a double first from Cambridge". Highly impressive. "I got a Gamecube on launch day"...distinctly less so. "I can speak seven languages" will make jaws drop much lower than informing people that "I can complete Metal Gear Solid on Extreme mode in four hours, including the cutscenes!" ever will. SCHOOL takes the duke once more.
GAMES 2 SCHOOL 3
6: Replay Value
When you finish junior school, it's over. Ditto secondary. You'll never need to, and probably won't WANT to do it ever again. Admittedly, some people take night classes, re-do courses or get those tape things to learn new stuff but on the whole, your school life is effectively dead by the age of 21. But what about games? Ten years on I'm still playing Tetris, and five years after purchase I'm trying to beat GoldenEye again. There's also a growing 'retro' market, with Pong cabinets fetching thousands of pounds and people still pouring coins into Space Invader machines at kitsch new-age wine bars and scabby old chipshops alike. People come back to consoles and their games time and again, where many are ready to be free of the shackles of class timetables as soon as possible. In this heat, GAMES definitely win.
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 3
7: Lasting Impressions
I'm sure that when we all grow old, grey and wrinkled we will have fond memories of the first time we caught a Pikachu, when the dog crashed through the window in Resident Evil, and how cool it was when we took Scorpion's leg off and hit him with it in Mortal Kombat...but generation after generation takes great pride in recalling their times at school. When someone put a whoopie cushion in Mr Davis' seat, when Mrs Gunn stormed out of the room and cried...just the other day my dad was telling me the story of how he managed to escape getting the cane. On the other side of the coin, my mum still remembers logarythm tables, no matter how useless they are, and the chemical symbol for Hydrochloric Acid. SCHOOL wins this, the final round.
FINAL SCORE:
GAMES 3 SCHOOL 4
Well there you have it. Probably not the outcome you expected, or wanted...but think about it? Does your PS2 help you to get a job? Will getting a top ten time in F-Zero-X get you new friends? Probably not...but then, would you queue up outside your local Toys R Us at 4am for a Business Studies class? Will your mates stay up all night playing with a protractor? Gaming may not be as important as school in the long run, but it's still one of my favourite things. And I'd much rather be playing Pro Evolution Soccer on Tuesday =D
Thanks for reading, and hopefully ignoring the similarity to SHEEPY's post...
-swander87
****ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS MY OPINION, AND UNLESS SERIOUSLY STATED OTHERWISE, IS NOT INTIMATED TO BE FACT****
Page: