I read this article this mornin on the BBC web site Games will 'eclipse' other media (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7821612.stm).

I was reading it with great interest because I've noticed a change in my own entertainment experience. When we moved house last year, we decided not to bother getting TV hooked up because we found we simply were not watching it. Consequently we do play a lot more video games, especially since recently purchasing and Xbox 360. If found that the entertainment value of gaming due to its user involvement to be much greater than sitting passively staring at a box. I can well understand why other forms of entertainment are dropping off, particularly cinema with the cost of going these days. The last time I went to the cinema it cost me £13.20 for 2 to get in and then another £12 for snacks for 2 people. That's a one off experience, but for around the same amount of money I could but a game and have hours upon hours of entertainment in the comfort of my own home. I could invite friends around and make a night of it for next to nix.

Just wondering if other people have changed their method of entertainment recently...yes, I am fully aware I am leaving myself open for naughty comments :hihi:

I read this article this mornin on the BBC web site Games will 'eclipse' other media (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7821612.stm).

I was reading it with great interest because I've noticed a change in my own entertainment experience. When we moved house last year, we decided not to bother getting TV hooked up because we found we simply were not watching it. Consequently we do play a lot more video games, especially since recently purchasing and Xbox 360. If found that the entertainment value of gaming due to its user involvement to be much greater than sitting passively staring at a box. I can well understand why other forms of entertainment are dropping off, particularly cinema with the cost of going these days. The last time I went to the cinema it cost me £13.20 for 2 to get in and then another £12 for snacks for 2 people. That's a one off experience, but for around the same amount of money I could but a game and have hours upon hours of entertainment in the comfort of my own home. I could invite friends around and make a night of it for next to nix.

Just wondering if other people have changed their method of entertainment recently...yes, I am fully aware I am leaving myself open for naughty comments :hihi:

Call me thick if you like, but if you didn't get a TV hooked up, what on earth are you playing your 360 on?

And yes I agree, I spend a lot more time now online/gaming than watching the TV. And 9 times out of 10 if I do watch the TV it's a DVD or Blu-Ray.

Call me thick if you like, but if you didn't get a TV hooked up, what on earth are you playing your 360 on?


Maybe he meant he didnt bother getting an aerial or cable connection to the TV, thus he can have a telly with his 360 and/or DVD player, but no actual TV reception?

Maybe he meant he didnt bother getting an aerial or cable connection to the TV, thus he can have a telly with his 360 and/or DVD player, but no actual TV reception?

Well TV licencing would still say you need a licence.

nobodys mentioned tv license whats that got to do with the price of bananas?....the threads about gaming, archeo purely mentioned they play games now rather than watch telly.
some people will pick ANYTHING at all purely to have a go

nobodys mentioned tv license whats that got to do with the price of bananas?....the threads about gaming, archeo purely mentioned they play games now rather than watch telly.
some people will pick ANYTHING at all purely to have a go

Obviously the only thing he could come up with to try and disguise the fact that hes made himself look a bit of a cock in his original post

I guess the Nintendo Wii has gone a long way to increasing the amount of time spent gaming.

When the first video games came out in the 1970's most people only had one TV set, so games were played on the main set.

So all the family played.

Then as portable TV's became popular video games were played in bedrooms.

Nintendo have managed to bring gaming back in the living room played by all the family.

So if that carries on then you can easily see gaming overtaking TV watching as entertainment.

I don't watch much TV, but I haven't increased my gaming hours, instead I listen to the radio or music.

Longer term I think it will depend on Nintendo (mainly) being able to keep parens interested in gaming.

If not gaming will move back to the bedrooms.

Hmmm. 'Games are the best', says games boss...

Games are part of a spectrum of electronic entertainment available in your living room. While they're fab, and getting better all the time, we're far from an 'xbox killed the TV star' situation. I want Adam and Jamie busting myths on Discovery; I don't want to chase around after them with a pixelated chainsaw, mashing A and B buttons while winged beasts attempt to bite my similarly-pixelated head off.

I am a lifetime gamer - having begun waaaay back in the 70s with a Grandstand unit, and continued through on various platforms over the years. It is great (as pointed out by ChrisTodd) that gaming has come back to being a family thing, with not only the Wii but the popularity of Singstar/Lips style games over the past few years, or Buzz/Scene It (and my favourite Rock Band).

A games console has been a part of my main entertainment set up for years now, but that's not to say that TV suffers (or indeed movies). I love my gaming, but I also adore my TV shows and films.

I think that rather than these forms of entertainment suffering, what will be replaced by family gaming on consoles etc is traditional board games, and (sadly) trips to the park with the kids - much easier to pop a game in the drive and entertain them that way. Also, rather than a night out at the local pub with a few mates, you hear more of the nights in with Rock Band/etc and some alcohol.

I can honestly say that I have not seen a drop off of cinema admissions over the past decade as gaming has become more prominent - in fact there has been a sharp rise in the UK then a slight levelling off. A big release will still pack the screens.

The fact the article is an interview with an Activision boss leads to understanding of the slightly skewed viewpoint, but does offer a slight smile at this section...

"The moviegoer is passive whereas the gamer is active and part of the game itself," he said, adding that anyone who played QoS would spend more than 50 hours in the company of James Bond compared to only 106 minutes if they watched the movie."

Having played the game, the more realistic liklihood is that anyone who played QoS would be lucky to spend more than 5 minutes in the company of Bond....the game is terrible!

Games boss says that games are the best and biggest form of entertainment.

To quote Christine Keeler, well, he would say that, wouldn't he?

Well TV licencing would still say you need a licence.

I have 2 TVs...I rang TV licensing and told them I have 2 TVs but was not watching television. They asked if I had an internal aerial, I said no, they asked if I had satellite, I said no, they asked if I had a digital aerial, I said no. They said I didn't need a license but they could send a van around at any time and check if I was receiving a signal...I said they could send one, I'm receiving no signal...unless you count the alien communication device I made out of tin foil and have strapped to the drain pipe.

Oh, and people...why do you think I am a man? I'm a woman...is it odd for women to play games instead of watch TV?

I started gaming way back in the early 80s with stuff like Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner on the Spectrum.. Classic stuff, and the original Spectrum version of Ghostbusters cost me my GCSEs IMO, as I was up all night playing that instead of revising, not that I would've passed anyway even I had crammed for them.

Personally I think there's gonna be a bit of a rebellion against digital media for entertainment. T.V. is mostly dull and games can get monotonous - I think there is going to be more of a move towards going out for entertainment (shows' live music what have you) rather than sitting watching a screen.

for the past couple of years people have said games are bigger business now than both music and movies.
games are also getting to the point where they cost more than a film to make, prolly why 2 development studios have closed recently

It's hardly surprising that games are becoming a more mainstream form of entertainment, all those people that grew up playing that grew up playing games in the 70s and 80s like myself are still playing them. They're not the childish things that they were once seen as.