Unlike other politicians, his remark didn't consist of "ARRRGHGHGHGAMESARGHVIOLENCERRRRGGGGWGAMESAREEVILLLL!!!!!!!!!!" and for that, I applaud him.
Barack Obama said something unflattering about video games.
- Thread starter Sewblon
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While he does have a grain of truth with his phrase, it's very obvious he says it with no knowledge of the people of which he is reffering to. It's a very annoying thing when people comment on something they know nothing about and what they do know is watered down generalzation.
Come on. He's african american and takes tons of heat from news networks. He should try to investgate anything that seems to take lots of flack and see if it's bull or not.
Come on. He's african american and takes tons of heat from news networks. He should try to investgate anything that seems to take lots of flack and see if it's bull or not.
True, but he's the gorram President. If you think about it, what does he have left to accomplish?Sewblon said:
I really dont see how what he said is all that bad. Its not good publicity for videogames but whatever. ill translate for those who dont understand.
obama: "dont ever to go tvtropes or install stumble upon. trust me on this one guys. its just better if you pretend like they dont exist if you want any chance of accomplishing anything."
obama: "dont ever to go tvtropes or install stumble upon. trust me on this one guys. its just better if you pretend like they dont exist if you want any chance of accomplishing anything."
Oh, and by the way: If the president is complaining that games are detrimental to education? I commend to him the thread on this very site's Off Topic forum, "What's your major?" Over a hundred replies from people working toward advanced degrees all over the world, and I'd even go so far as to wager that self-described "gamers" on the whole are better-educated and generally better people than the population at large (due in part to the fact that gaming attracts nerdy intellectuals).
Seriously,who cares? He's the president of a country that has been going downhill for the past twenty years. I think he has bigger problems to deal with right now. It's not like he's going to be the next Michael Atkinson. Everyone has their own personal opinion and to be honest there's a bit of truth in what he's saying.
Wasn't there another thread about how he loves Portal?
It must be tough to be consistent when you're constantly under scrutiny.
It must be tough to be consistent when you're constantly under scrutiny.
Considering how 'clear' the news reel is when it comes to Obama, they're probably twisting his words, like they always do, to depict something else. All he's saying is that video games are a distraction when compared to things like education and college, he's not saying to get rid of them outright, if you read it through.
What he's saying is true, education is a lot more important than video games, and I believe that's the point he's trying to come across with, not that video games should be removed from America. Not only would that be completely idiotic, it would remove a huge business industry and thus a large portion of America's gross income.
Personally, I think people are waaaaay too sensitive towards Democrats and Obama in particular. There just seems to be this odd stench in the air whenever I mention the name, and I think it comes from being jaded by the Bush administration. If anyone cares to remember, when we were under Bill Clinton's thumb, a Democrat, the US entered an economic gold age; then Bush came along and absolutely trashed it due to his government spending on this idiotic war. Now Obama is trying to fix it again, and the Republican-minded dipwads aren't even giving him a chance to do so. Don't judge Obama until his term is over, alright?
And just for the record, no, I'm not a Democrat. I don't give two shits what "party" someone belongs to, so long as they rule the country well. All I've learned is that Republicans being "conservative" means they don't spend shit on teachers, police officers, firemen, and doctors. Where else do you think all that extra tax money is coming from? Out of the aforementioned peoples' pockets.
What he's saying is true, education is a lot more important than video games, and I believe that's the point he's trying to come across with, not that video games should be removed from America. Not only would that be completely idiotic, it would remove a huge business industry and thus a large portion of America's gross income.
Personally, I think people are waaaaay too sensitive towards Democrats and Obama in particular. There just seems to be this odd stench in the air whenever I mention the name, and I think it comes from being jaded by the Bush administration. If anyone cares to remember, when we were under Bill Clinton's thumb, a Democrat, the US entered an economic gold age; then Bush came along and absolutely trashed it due to his government spending on this idiotic war. Now Obama is trying to fix it again, and the Republican-minded dipwads aren't even giving him a chance to do so. Don't judge Obama until his term is over, alright?
And just for the record, no, I'm not a Democrat. I don't give two shits what "party" someone belongs to, so long as they rule the country well. All I've learned is that Republicans being "conservative" means they don't spend shit on teachers, police officers, firemen, and doctors. Where else do you think all that extra tax money is coming from? Out of the aforementioned peoples' pockets.
Well he's right.
But its not just ipods and xbawx. Its CNN, its Fox news, its all the crap they throw around to distract you from reality.
Its no wonder there are so many cases of ADD these days. Just watching a simple news broadcast, they have a scrollbar down the bottom with little bits of news, the newsreader talking, the time, the weather, there's a poll in the top left corner, another window in the top right with a man being interviewed.
Exactly like he said "information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation"
I just love it when people read these stories about Obama and say "SEE THAT'S WHY WE NEED SOMEONE NEW IN THE WHITE HOUSE!" wtf....
But its not just ipods and xbawx. Its CNN, its Fox news, its all the crap they throw around to distract you from reality.
Its no wonder there are so many cases of ADD these days. Just watching a simple news broadcast, they have a scrollbar down the bottom with little bits of news, the newsreader talking, the time, the weather, there's a poll in the top left corner, another window in the top right with a man being interviewed.
Exactly like he said "information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation"
I just love it when people read these stories about Obama and say "SEE THAT'S WHY WE NEED SOMEONE NEW IN THE WHITE HOUSE!" wtf....
At which point I point again to this forum and its denizens---every one of us has admitted to at some point overindulging in the purified crack that is an addictive game, but on the whole we're well-educated, well-spoken overachievers.Misterian said:
What does Obama say to that? People in America who can't be neatly categorized by conventional "cause and effect" wisdom? Heresy!
Generally speaking the democratic party is looking to get censorship powers, and are willing to do anything in order to achieve it. Video games have been under a multi-pronged attack pretty much since they've had a total control of the goverment.
Do NOT get me wrong, the issue jumps over party lines, but by and large it's been given a LOT of press recently.
When it comes to the video game front, you have some politicians attacking it based on content (too much sex, violence, etc...) or influancing behavior, others attack it on other fronts. Obama for example made a big deal about trying to tie video games directly to health problems along with everything else:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/06/15/obama-names-video-games-health-concern-speech-ama
The bottom line is trying to drum up support for people to allow the goverment to control them. Once they have the abillity to do that, it's easy to snowball it into other things.
You also see a lot of attacks on the media and free speech now as well, typically issues over so called "Hate Speech". Some people seem to actually believe that it's already illegal to engage in Hate Speech (I think a couple of people here mentioned that they thought this was the case in a recent messahge talking about KKK websites).
Now, to be honest I suspect the short term goals might actually be well intentioned on some levels. Some of the things that censors want to be able to go after are pretty disgusting, though ultimatly a lesser evil than what censorship can turn into. Also I feel that especially when it comes to something as ambigious as "Hate Speech" that it will ultimatly be used to effectively silence political opposition, and alternative viewpoints.
I also think that when it comes to video games once people empower the goverment to "protect the children", it will also give them a free reign to attack anything that they don't like since anything can be viewed as protecting children.
Understand I did not vote for Obama, and generally align with the other party (I admit this) however going beyond the issue of "sides" in politics, I have been following censorship, free speech, and connected issues, since before either he OR Bush were in power. While such things were always present, we are seeing a lot more of this kind of thing under the current administration.... and yes it IS contridictory because Obama is the same guy who was drawing fire (to an extent) for getting political ads of himself placed in video games. Whether he liked "portal" or has a Blackberry, or whatever else, the bottom line is that he behaves in both a very contridictory, and insidious fashion, and irregardless of his motivations video games are very much one of the domestic targets of his administration.
Such are my thoughts and observations.
Do NOT get me wrong, the issue jumps over party lines, but by and large it's been given a LOT of press recently.
When it comes to the video game front, you have some politicians attacking it based on content (too much sex, violence, etc...) or influancing behavior, others attack it on other fronts. Obama for example made a big deal about trying to tie video games directly to health problems along with everything else:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/06/15/obama-names-video-games-health-concern-speech-ama
The bottom line is trying to drum up support for people to allow the goverment to control them. Once they have the abillity to do that, it's easy to snowball it into other things.
You also see a lot of attacks on the media and free speech now as well, typically issues over so called "Hate Speech". Some people seem to actually believe that it's already illegal to engage in Hate Speech (I think a couple of people here mentioned that they thought this was the case in a recent messahge talking about KKK websites).
Now, to be honest I suspect the short term goals might actually be well intentioned on some levels. Some of the things that censors want to be able to go after are pretty disgusting, though ultimatly a lesser evil than what censorship can turn into. Also I feel that especially when it comes to something as ambigious as "Hate Speech" that it will ultimatly be used to effectively silence political opposition, and alternative viewpoints.
I also think that when it comes to video games once people empower the goverment to "protect the children", it will also give them a free reign to attack anything that they don't like since anything can be viewed as protecting children.
Understand I did not vote for Obama, and generally align with the other party (I admit this) however going beyond the issue of "sides" in politics, I have been following censorship, free speech, and connected issues, since before either he OR Bush were in power. While such things were always present, we are seeing a lot more of this kind of thing under the current administration.... and yes it IS contridictory because Obama is the same guy who was drawing fire (to an extent) for getting political ads of himself placed in video games. Whether he liked "portal" or has a Blackberry, or whatever else, the bottom line is that he behaves in both a very contridictory, and insidious fashion, and irregardless of his motivations video games are very much one of the domestic targets of his administration.
Such are my thoughts and observations.
Your fantastically violent response is only made all the sweeter by the fact that the article basically states "people have more opportunity for procrastination nowadays". Nothing about them being violent. He's not exactly wrong, I've certainly lost costly hours of my current semester to TvTropes and Mass Effect.ColdStorage said:
I voted against him, so it's not my fault. Besides, he's a politician, so regardless of what party, what beliefs, or anything else there's only one fact: Whenever a politician opens his mouth, he has no clue what he's saying.
All of these can also be said about the republican party two years ago (If anyone remembers, the bailouts began in 2008). This would seem to suggest your best bet is to just not vote in 2012.SimuLord said:
That single term incites a minor rage in me. The reason isn't because I think the plan is bad (I do, but that is beside the point), but that calling it Obamacare is flat out stupid. He had so little to do with the final wording of the bill it's ridiculous.
Most of the people on this website are between the ages of 14-21, many of them do not yet have a college education. Not to mention that there are a large number of gamers out there who do, in fact, lack a higher level of education. Try and remember that when he says things like this he isn't really dealing in absolutes, he is simply pointing out an issue.SimuLord said: