Is There a Way to Test this on a Law & Order Episode?

We have a fair bit of experience with the people who sit in their basements with the blinds drawn playing RPG games and decide the fate of the world. We can also confirm that four hours of listening to the theme songs on Nintendo's "Smash Brothers" is time better spent in a mental institution. All of those kinds of things aside, however, video games are undeniably influential.

What the American Medical Association has been recently debating, along with others, is whether the influence of video games is always positive. Last week the organization caused a stir by proposing idea that video games are actually addictive. Their belief that some gamers, especially those who play online RPGs like Worlds of Warcraft, could be isolated and unhealthy.

But in it's national meeting in Chicago today, the AMA decided that it needed more evidence to support the idea, staying the hands and nagging "I told you so"s of moms and significant others across the globe.

A call for further study of the behavioral, social and physical effects of playing video games will bring out information from both sides of the fence on this issue. Some say that video games actually help those who play them, with positive effects ranging from increased intelligence and obedience to better coordination and accuracy in situations such as, um, surgery. Others say that it increases risky behavior, encourages more aggressive, sometimes violent behavior, and could cause some kind of epilepsy.

We think that there are definitely side-effects on both sides for gamers. It's not hard to say someone is isolated (in their basement) and possibly addicted (to obtaining imaginary objects and maintaining nonexistent lives) when they are playing video games. Still, we have to point out that video games are definitely not a passive way to spend time mentally like, say, watching an all-day marathon of your favorite show on TV. Mentally, they are engaging and, depending on the game, can be educational in a totally weird way.

We do, however, know all too well that they can isolate a person from real life human beings — but that is something we'd argue people generally find their own balance with over time. Then again, if the AMA should look into the physical side-effects of sitting on your ass all day, eating when something is in front of you, and/or the social side-effects of being dead serious when telling friends about how important the scepter you "bought" "in the city" today is, then they just might have a case. What do you think?

Image via jupiterimages.com.