Okay, I will keep this short and sweet. WGN did a news segment last night on video game addiction. Now if you saw that video, you have just saw the biggest amount of BS that the news media has managed to pull out of it’s ass.
Apparently, according to this video, video games are the new crack cocaine. I am not sure I caught that quote, but it was used in a teaser segment. Once you watch this video, you will come to the conclusion that the video game industry’s horrific image problem has very little to do with Jack Thompson, or Hillary Clinton. Rather it begins and ends at the feet of a blatantly sensationalistic news media, who cares nothing about the facts, but only for the cheap ratings stunt.
A good follow-up to our earlier posting of ABC News affiliate WPVI-TV’s ridiculously sensationalistic story slamming Nintendo.
I used to work at a head shop. We’d have customers so desperate for crack pipes that they’d blow other customers in the parking lot for the five bucks needed for the pipe. When I see a gamer blow someone for five bucks to get his fix, I’ll concede. Until then, I think it’s BS.
You worked in a head shop? Har.
According to Thompson, a gamer might blow someone’s head off.
Yeah, I don’t think I can get that image out of my head now. John Dvorak selling bongs….
Wow. Not sure how to feel. It’s like finding out your dad used to run a Chicago speak-easy or something.
Why do they hate me and my friend Grand theft auto….. i think ill go cry in a corner now.
No, no, Scott. That was Steve Newlin doing the post; an old Detroit boy who probably worked at a head shop because he couldn’t stand to put wheel nuts on Pintos 8 hours a day.
… I don’t think I can get that image out of my head now. John Dvorak selling bongs….
Common, Scott..
It was Steve, not John.
And crack pipes, not bongs. 🙂
…they’d blow other customers in the parking lot …
You can’t buy that kind of publicity, as I’m sure it became common knowledge.
Wow. That’s crazy talk. I never sawed handles off someone’s motorcycle to make a joystick for GTA.
Maybe not exactly the same level as crack addiction, but it’s hard to deny that video game mania has helped turn our youth into overweight, ADD-afflicted, superficial mush-brains with a propensity towards violence and type 2 diabetes.
And the upside is…….???
Well, at least rural folks and others who lead a sheltered existence get to find out all about pimps and ho’s. That’s a good thing, right?
When I was younger it was MTV, then the games, my Dad says for him it was rock and roll and beer. Each new generation has it’s *addiction* that gets turned into *breaking news* by unimaginitive local news stations.
But the reason kids are fat and lazy is the fault of the parents. Mom and Dad buy 80% of the food most kids consume, and if Mom and Dad can’t get past the driveway of a KFC, or Mc Donalds or Pizza Hut, it’s no wonder kids eat crap and get fat. When will people learn that kids DO follow their parents example, even if they won’t admit it.
Steve:
I had Atari too. And it sucked. Not even the weakest-willed kids would sit in front of crap games like that all day Saturday and Sunday, and after school during the week. Not for “Frogger” or “Pong”, that’s for sure. High-tech games, where pre-adolescents can peek up the skirt of the latest ho, listen to digitized voices dropping F bombs, and commit crimes with no fear of retribution, are a whole nother ball of wax.
And as to the TV shows, there weren’t 500 stations, showing everything from demolition derbies to reality TV trash to soft-core porn anime back then either. Back then, Saturday morning cartoons (now available 24/7) and Clutch Cargo after school were plenty.
If your contention is that parents all of a sudden became shitty, nationwide, in less than a generation, how do you explain THAT?? Playing the kids’ video games when they’re at school, perhaps?
My parents didn’t try any harder than parents do nowadays to get me off the couch, but somehow today’s kids WILL NOT GO. Somehow they (and everybody else’s parents too) got me off the couch, onto the bike. And I didn’t grow up to be obese, a mushhead, a gun-toting killer, or a type 2 diabetic. And what’s keeping today’s kids on the couch isn’t Frogger and “I Love Lucy” reruns, it’s video games and trash TV.
Steve
I’m confused.
You worked in the head shop. But the head was outside in the parking lot?
May God bless video games, the media doesn’t.
Mister Mustard:
Yes, video games have come a long way since the Atari 2600 and yes, there are a ton more channels to choose from when you watch television. However, I agree with Steve in that most parents just don’t seem to care nowadays. Our society continues to want everything faster and easier. We thrive off of convenience. So which is more convenient, spending 30 min to an hour in the kitchen making dinner or waiting in your car for ten minutes until someone hands you dinner thorugh a window…?
Now, for the video game arguement. Again, I believe bad parenting has a lot to do with this. Like Steve, I grew up on Atari and got hooked. Yes, the graphics were crap but it was fun at the time. Now I said I got hooked on Atari but I still played sports, did yard work, and played outside. This was because my parents were involved in what I wanted to do. They supported me when I ran cross country and cycled in high school. They were interested in why I loved video games so much and influenced me to start working with computers. I graduated from college with a degree in Computer Science and I love video games even more today because I find the technical side of game development so fascinating.
My best friend is a game developer and has a 6 year old daughter. He plays video games with her but he also encourages her to play sports. She plays outside just as much as she plays inside because he’s involved with what she does. He doesn’t let the TV or video games raise his children for him, which a lot of parents seem to do because it’s more convenient (ie. – the parents don’t have to do anything).
My point is that parents need to stay involved with what their kids like to do. If it’s video games, find out why and make it into a positive thing rather than complaining that it’s making their kid fat and lazy.
Baron:
I’m still not hearing an explanation for why parents all of a sudden suck, when they’ve been doing an OK job for thousands of years.
The notion that they’re all instant-gratification self-absorbed idiots, leaving their children to the clutches of GTA and anime Suji PeekaBoo doesn’t cut it.
I know plenty of caring, concerned parents who fight a neverending battle against video-game mind rot. They work 10 times harder than my parents EVER did trying to get the kids outside to play football, swim, ice skate, bike ride, whatever. The kids are mesmerized by the video games. And with the availability of stuff like X-Box online, where the kids can sit there and chat with pervs taking a break from the pedo chat rooms, it’s like giving a cat a bath trying to get them outside doing anything that’s good for them.
Some of them win the neverending battle, many do not. And I think 30 years from now we’re going to be a nation of morbidly obese 42-year-olds in those weird bookstores, poring over baseball cards and comic books. That is, when they’re not glued to Halo 38 online, or giving themselves injections of insulin for their diabetes.
In any case, I contest the notion that the current sorry state of America’s youth can be attributed to a sudden crapification of parenting skills and a lack of interest in home cooking.
Everything has a cause, and I’m banking that when all is said and done, video game addiction will be shown to be an important causative factor in having produced today’s crop of fatties.
And Comics turned us into fiends…. really have you seen some of the parents today? I just see crappy parents everywhere they dont monitor what their kids eat,watch and play IT IS their fault their kids are obese if they took time away from the job or whatever the hell they do to actually monitor their childrens habits then it will get better when the current young generation get older theyre gonna be more tech savy and able to monitor there childrens habits and maybe they shed the pounds.
Since games are about $50, wouldn’t you have to wait until someone gets blown for that in the parking lot before you’ll be convinced or would ten $5 blow jobs be enough of a clincher? LOL ;->
Ah, ok. I missed the “by line” that it was Steve who used to work in a head shop, not John.
Wow, thanks. That puts my world view back in order now. Though John working in a head shop would explain his recent predictions.
My jobs were always high-paying union factory jobs. I could never afford to work in a ‘Shop.” Of course these factories are now all gone.
I think you’re all exagerrating the problem anyway. I think you’ve all been listening to the news too much, I doubt that 90% of kids are fat, stupid, lazy diabetics. Thats just silly, if the news said “15% of kids are fat!” no one would care, so like with everything else they blow it out of proportion.
I’ve grown up on games, I’m none of the things that gamers have been labeled… well, maybe a little lazy. And most of the hardcore gamers aren’t. Look at the Cyberatheletes, these guys play games for a living. Practice hours a day on multiple games and all of them are in good shape and very intelligent.
Games are not the problem here, if I were going to blame something I’d point at the education system and the media. If you’re wondering why people are becomming more apathetic and ignorant why don’t you take a look at the systems that are supposed to inform, educate, and empassion.
For every study that shows games make people fat and lazy there is one that shows they decrease reaction times and increase problem solving skills. I have a suggestion for anyone who may have a kid that’s having trouble reading… get them a copy of Final Fantasy 3. They will read like masters before they finish I guarantee it or your money back.
I’ve heard of an offline gamer screwing someone for a powerful Magic: The Gathering game card.
Maybe we should ban all offline gaming — party games, sports, et cetrera.
4% of American children were overweight in 1982; 16% were overweight in 1994, and almost 30% are overweight today.
’nuff said.