[LeifCarrotson]

1B hours played. Think about your experience with a couple hundred hours, and then multiply that by a few million similar instances - how much productivity has been lost? Or how much history has been learned, friendships built, and strategy developed? Similarly, how many billions of hours have been spent browsing Facebook, for better or worse?

I think one of the most important ethical questions we can ask ourselves is how can we write great gaming, working, and social networking software that has a net positive effect on the world through the hours that are spent in it.

[dcw303]

You have a fair point in regards to responsibility. I'm guessing that I think similiarly to you that these experiences are subjective?

One person's addiction with a 4x strategy game is another's gateway into a lifelong fascination with building complex information systems. One person's compulsive Facebook checking leading to depression is another's connection with family members when they're working overseas.

There is an ethical responsibility in creating technology, but there are many shades of grey in how people use it.

[cellis]

Think of this as many hours spent NOT learning homework doing rote memorization (or literally anything else unproductive), and I think you'll find it more palatable. Game playing, especially of the Civ variety, builds problem solving skills.

[jerf]

1 billion hours played sure is a lot, in some ways.

Of course, humanity racks up a billion person-hours now every nine minutes, so in another, probably more meaningful way, it's not much at all.

[animal531]

It falls into the whole consumer vs producer idea. Very few people ever stack up on the producer side.

[Sven7]

Well said.