As a Gamer and Hunter, I commend myself for naturally following statistical trends in the larger population.

"A gajillion cable TV channels and the seemingly endless internet haven't really helped!"

Sheesh! Forty-thousand channels and only 150 have anything good on!

I blame Deer Hunter 2.

Id love to wander the mountains with a rifle, but everytime I do that the cops arrive.

IM JUST TRYING TO ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS!

I used to work at a state park in the summer, and most of the people who showed up brought their games, and satellite television with them via ginormous RVs. I'm sure if the park had wifi they would have brought their laptops as well. So some people just bring it all with them, but tent campers are almost extinct.

That movie was so good. It introduced me to a great game called russian roulette. When you feel down just play some and you feel alive again.

What bullsh*t!! They have no clue.
The only reason is, that nature doesn't run on DirectX 10 yet!!!

@Gouki4u: Tent campers. That's redundant. Cause anything more advanced than that, and you're a fucking cheater.

Considering the decline of nature in the name of "Progress", the encroaching sprawl eating up forests and species alike all over the world, I'd have thought people would've welcomed the chance to stay home, power up a virtual Duck Hunt and spare the poor flora et fauna the trampling and discarded shells that hunting brings.
Not to mention the risk of your "good buddy Steve from the bar" accidentally popping you in the chest when you step out from behind a tree and thus the last words you hear being, not the comforting tones of a loved one, but Steve going "Oh Christ damn man I thought you were a deer , Christ!"
In Scotland we hunt once a year, for delicious deer at New Year and have on rare occassions gone to a fish hatchery that features a nice mile long loch from which you can sit on the bank and catch a decent sized fish as opposed to a poor starved naturally grown fish while the kids get taught by the nice man who works for the estate to catch fish from the smaller loch custom designed for letting children learn how to fish and sucessfully land a catch. This way, nature is not encroached upon any more than necessary and everyone gets a relatively high chance of a nice fish for the BBQ.

Funny but playing GoW makes me WANT to go out and work out so I can get naked chicks....

@justhesh: I agree, but I made the distinction because I never saw real campers in later years.

yeah i tend to avoid camping and fishing just due to the fact that I think we should leave nature alone. I don't need to catch fish to live so why kill more fish :-\

Even though, I do go play paintball on occasion as well as camp out in an actual tent. I gotta say that I'd much rather sleep in a bed instead of the ground.

Maybe "this" will save nature.

@Ixero:

lol

Can we post pictures? Let's see...

If not: [www.venganza.org]

(Obviously, since the average global temperature rose while the average number of pirates fell, then the lack of pirates must be the cause for global warming.)

What's my point? Don't fall for the "A then B implies A caused B" fallacy.

Do I disagree with them? I dunno. But I doubt they really have the research to back up any claim of video games being the cause for a lack of desire for outdoor activities.

@ninjafetus: good to see a fellow pastafarian in the comments

I like how they totally ignore factors like TV and the ever growing fastfood industry of the fat junkeating heart of America who couldn't go outside even if they wanted to.

Way to piss on a great entertainment industry because of a country that can't control their abusive lifestyle.

Also, I'm perfect. :p

Of course, everyone knows that Humans have no free will of their own and obey subliminal messags which are secretly hidden in every single videogame made to this day, compelling them to not go outside and breathe nothing but saturated air all day.

I would blame the decrease in people going outside to the decrease of the number of pirates in today's world. See the number of pirates has also been dropping at an alarming rate, but at what cost???

Why not blame themselves & their ever increasing expensive offerings? You get a 8h day for 40$ while some games gets you limitless amount of play time for 15$/h.

As someone who loves the outdoors and gets to National Parks a lot - I have have to disagree with that whole fewer people thing - they are so damn crowded you feel like you are at the mall - not getting back to nature

At least the only woods I'll be getting lost in are made of polygons. Lost Woods ftw.

Parents should just throw kids into the woods.
Not only does it make them appreciate nature, the weak ones die off!

It worked for those crazy Spartans, it can work for you!

The 1980s and 1990s were a period of rapid growth for the entire entertainment industry (and, I suspect, for the average American waist size), not only videogames.
How about home video? VHS and then DVD sure didn't encourage people to dive into the great outdoors.

Strange how you lot equate 'nature activities' with 'shooting defenceless animals'.

Anyway - yes it is bad. BAD. The wests increasingly sedentary lifestyle is a health crisis just waiting to explode (actually it is already upon us). It is probable that within our lifetimes the average life expectancy will decline. That is a serious problem, and not just economically.

Not that it has anything to do with game playing. There's also the whole fear of leaving the safety of the increasingly fortress like houses everyone lives in. The media has its fair share of blame there. As do right-wing politicians using fear to win votes. Note how the time-frame also particularly matches the Reagan years for example.

You know... I'd imagine that any conversationalist with their head screwed on straight should be thankful that we're all surfing the interwebs and playing with our Wii's... pun intended.

Really though, let the forests grow. I am going to CONTINUE to play with my Wii and PDF the living hell out of my documents rather than tromp through the woods with my family and print every document that is sent my way just so I can appease my obsessive compulsive filing disorder.

Shouldn't we be taking care of the forests without pitching tents, anyway? Let's take a step back. The headlines should read "Gaming Industry on the rise, so is the Grizzy Bear population at Yellowstone."

Facts or not, obviously the Associated Press is a little backwards.

bah. screw those guys. I played Endless Ocean for like 2 hours last night. I'm all about nature activities!

Hmmm. Decline found in the 80s and 90s.... That would make the parents children of the 60s and 70s... By God! Hippies! Somehow I can't see a bunch of people who think it's ok for a man to cry wanting to teach their kids to go out and do any sort of wilderness activity.

Well, at least people aren't logging illegally while trapped inside with their videogames.

Early hunter/gatherers used to hunt out of necessity, to stay alive and not because it was sport or a "fun family outdoors activity". Since we live in a time where they have giant slabs of animal for sale at your local friendly grocer this kind of behavior should best be left to crazy and freakishly inbred mountain folk as well as to "manly men" with self-esteem issues.

I think the bigger issue is that with all the media devices today, it is impossible for some people to do nothing except be alone with their thoughts. Fishing, hiking, camping, and hunting are all fairly meditative in the sense that it is you interacting with nature on a one-to-one level. If you superimpose ipods, tvs, cell phones, and videogames on to this experience, then you've destroyed what makes it great, and people wonder why they traveled when they could've stayed at home and done the same thing. The entertainment on demand that these devices provide is antithetical to the simple majesty of hiking into the woods, setting up camp by a mountain stream, catching your dinner and cooking it over a wood fire, and sleeping beneath the stars. Unless, of course, they release a game like that for the Wii.

The decline, found in both the United States and Japan, appears to have begun in the 1980s and 1990s, the period of rapid growth of video games, they said.

Yea, true, and "Pirates vs Global Temperature"

Yes, yes, correlation is not causation and all that, blah blah blah--regardless, they do have a point. There's pretty good evidence that video games do play a some sort of role in the decline of outdoor activities. I'm not saying it's the entire cause, but neither are the researchers; in the first paragraph, they acknowledge that TV, computers and--by implication--the 'net also play a role.

They probably highlighted the "videophilia" thing because it's a factor that any individual can control; parents can shut off the sets and adults can make a conscious effort to enjoy the outdoors.

I obviously don't have access to their report, but I'm going to guess they took a whole bunch of other externalities into account. We can dictate what we do with our own free time; unfortunately, we have little to no control over factors like sprawl, rampant over-development, and poor urban planning.

@Caduceus: Poor analogy. I don't think many people engage in illegal logging because it's "fun"; they engage in it because it's profitable, and the rewards heavily outweigh any risk.

A better one would probably be something like "well at least people aren't littering illegally while they're trapped inside with their video games," or something to that effect.

i still go turkey hunting.

i mean they made a diving sim, why can't they make a camping sim?

@cheeses: Nice stereotyping.

Ever since I was a child I have had a deep phobia of the Woods. I was playing Zelda on my Nintendo Entertainment Systems and I would wander around in the Woods for hours at a time and always end up back at the start. I was so tedious and I was just trying to go somewhere new that I eventually gave up and never went back. Ever since then I have had an innate fear of wandering around in the Woods.

the solution is obvious: put more spawns in the woods.

I don't know. I think it's a combination of factors. The scare mongering media doesn't help either, as some people are to afraid to leave their homes.

@theduke282: I'm pretty sure there are more pirates on the seas today. There are some pretty dangerous maritime passages that are teaming with pirates. For instance the eastern coast of Africa, and the seas around Indonesia and Thailand come to mind.

The main problem is that houses have become too comfortable. A hundred years ago when houses were merely used to eat and sleep people would always be outside and would actually hate being inside. Nowadays people don't like being outside because of the comfort inside the house.

Sometimes I forget that Ash is from Texas.

Quote from eXistenZ:
"Come on, nobody physically skis anymore."

@cheeses: Don't forget to include that hunting deer is a sport for pussies.
Real men don't care to go outside now that all the giant enemy crabs are gone.

I would wager that it has a great deal to do with the amount of time that moder organizations demand from their employees. People who occupy positions that facilitate them having a family are sometimes forced to neglect their families to keep them. "Sorry Billy I would love to go for a hike with you, but I will be out of town on business for three days" Or if I leave my wireless coverage area I could miss an important call.

Furthermore the fact that more people live in urban environments than previous generations would more than likely be a huge contributing factor.

@geekgrrl: WIN!

@geekgrrl: *applauds*

I blame the parents. Kids don't have much opprotunity to get introduced to events like this. Instead the going trend is to protect them: keep them indoors, steralize the environment.

@Limafoxtrot: Parks might be crowded, but it's one thing to go to Yellowstone and go "Ooh, Old Faithful. Ok, kids, back in the car, time for McDonalds!" It's another to spend the night under the stars in Joshua Tree.

I actually like to plan my vacations with National parks in mind. So I actually visit one once or twice a year...

My wife and I play the hell out of video games and have consistently since we met 13 years ago. On the weekends we hike the national parks and trails of California and come home sore but refreshed. We know others who do the same.

She is a doctor so on top of video games not making us lazy, they don't make us stupid either (in fact they used to call her when they needed someone to navigate and operate tiny microscopic tubes because they knew she was good at video games.)

Its called BALANCE. You know when to stop playing video games after an hour or so and you read a book or go for a walk. You don't live on soda and candy alone but you enjoy it now and then.

People should spend less time trying to find ways of deriding video games and more time teaching healthy balances to young people.

The video game industry is lucky to have my wife as a Pediatrician who defends video games and is willing to lobby against politicians and rabid and ignorant people like Jack Thompson who flatly condemn them.