MMORPG on TV

I recently watched an episode of NCIS (no relation to CSI), in which the navy criminal investigation service agents were working on a case involving a reality TV show filmed in a marines camp, "Babes in Boot Camp". Funny, because you could easily imagine somebody coming up with that idea. So the agents talk among themselves about how stupid TV is, but say about one of them "he doesn't watch much TV, because he spends most of his time pretending to be an elf lord in an online game". Needless to say that the guy doesn't get much respect for that alternative, and he is the anyway always the nerd of the team. So not really positive TV coverage of MMORPG here.

But in a way that is the most realistic depiction of MMORPG on TV that I've ever seen. Timothy McGee, the NCIS agent playing a MMORPG is a geek, got a degree from MIT and everything. Not the typical crime fighter. But then, finding the criminal in an NCIS episode often involve things like tracing a mobile phone or crosslinking databases, and I can't see Dirty Harry doing that. Crime fighting has gone modern, and McGee fits right in. So even if his boss makes fun of him, calling him "elf lord", playing a MMORPG is totally in character for him, as this is generally still seen as a nerd activity. And it is shown as something that doesn't interfere with his job, apart from bad jokes, something he does instead of watching TV.

I can live with that. MMORPG as intelligent alternative for the brainy guy, instead of watching dumb reality TV. They could have been nicer about it, but in the end it is a lot more realistic than showing video games turning kids into mass murderers. MMORPG and video games make bad TV, because they aren't really spectator sports. If you show the reality of somebody playing WoW for several hours in a row, it looks very boring, because all the fun happens inside the head of the guy playing. So media often show the extreme sides, the Korean guy playing until he died, the parents letting their child die while playing a game, or the Chinese guy killing another guy over the theft of a virtual sword. Showing a kid playing a violent video game and then going Columbine on his high school makes more interesting viewing than the reality, which is harmless enough. If you took violent video games out of this world, the kids would go back to watching violent TV, and you'd get the same discussion all over again. Video games are mainly entertainment, an alternative to TV, and just like there is good TV and bad TV, there are good games and there are bad games. It is good to show online games as part of the ordinary lfe of people, not as something threatening. Thanks, McGee!