I have read you?re "Rant" and I have made my own of why you are a pathetic excuse of a person and why you need to just SHUT THE HELL UP.
First off, it?s OK if you decide to not buy violent games, or even buy video games at all. But your argument automatically loses somewhere around 300 billion points for saying games are made by Satan, and then you try to save yourself saying that games are made by Voldemort, a character from a series also being criticized for having satanic ties through witchcraft. First impressions and your argument dead in the grave with a face of a 40 year old missing the front half of his brain, trying to understand the concept of time.
Lets bury it shall we?
"Even though his skin is normally mocha-colored, after a day spent in a darkened room with a controller in his hand, he comes home with a sickly pallor."
Really? Because most people SLEEP in almost complete darkness for around 9 hours, and they still somehow retain they're skin color. If what you are saying is true, then you should take your son to see a dermatologist, or a ppediatrician.
"This is a huge dilemma for me, because I always had this fantasy that my house would be the one that all the kids congregated at after school. I would be the ?fun mom,? the one who made popsicles, the one in the TV commercial with all the kids crowded around the kitchen counter, demanding more of those little pizza nuggets.
Unfortunately, since we have neither video games nor a swimming pool, this does not happen."
That because you have such a bad attitude towards electronic gaming. A slew of game franchies are MADE for group fun, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, heck; the Wii was made for group activity.
"And it seems, where we live at least, that middle school boys can?t do anything in packs except play video games. So, without them, they inhabit our house for only nanoseconds before they want to leave."
Well, video games are fun, kids LIKE to have fun, the kids like to play video games, so they re going to play them often. Simple as that.
"My anti-video game attitude was only reinforced recently, when I read a story in the Boston Herald about a mom who was so frustrated by her son?s obsessive video gaming that she finally called 911."
Oh here we go. One idiot kid pulls some stupid crap and suddenly it has to be true for everyone.
"Apparently, her 14-year-old had become so fixated on ?Grand Theft Auto? that he refused to stop playing it. The trouble in her house started after she woke up at 2 a.m. and found her son playing the game on his bedroom computer."
With exceptiontion of this time, if your 14-year-old son is on the computer in the middle of the night with lights off by himself, he is most likely doing "something else."
"This mom unplugged her son?s computer when he refused to get off, which led to a fight, which led to a visit from the cops.It took two Boston cops to convince the kid to turn off his video game and go to bed."
This is the kind of thing you expect to see on COPS in a white trash neighborhood. I'm sure you can guess the parenting skills there.
"On one horrible afternoon that scarred me for life, I even saw a kid walking out of the public library playing a Nintendo DS."
Did it occur to you that May have just returned a book, and used the Wi-Fi while he was there? Or did you just make an assumption based on what YOU saw?
"If Sir Isaac Newton had been playing a DS, I?m sure he never would have noticed the apple falling from the tree, so he never would have formulated the theory of gravity."
If Newton had played the DS, we would have handheld with PERFECT physics engines. Plus, Isaac was the nerdy type, he would play games.
"I was too weird for most of the other kids to play with, so I spent most of my time reading obsessively, which of course only made me more of a dweeb. The difference is, in all that reading, I was actually learning stuff about the world, in a way that kids today never will."
Thats because books were the only way to learn back then. Now we have Internetrnet, Bill Nye (the Science Guy), Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, History Channel, and thy even have educational video games.
"I was also learning to think creatively, spell and build my vocabulary to the point that I was able to get a job as a professional writer, where people pay me to ride on fire engines, go on ride-alongs with cops and insult the makers of video games."
Meanwhile, the REALLY nerdy guys who would grow up to work at Valve, learned programming and physics and made awsome great games. They grew up to work in an
industry that is immune to the recession. So mock all you want, they still make more money than you do.
"My kids do play games, outdoors in the fresh air, where they?re building their muscles and hopefully a lifetime habit of fitness."
Nothing wrong with that. didn'td'nt you say that when you was a kid, didn'td'nt really play outside?, That you read by yourself.
"What are the kids who play ?Grand Theft Auto? learning? How to be carjackers? How to be pursued by police?"
"What better way to turn children away from good magic and into the dark side, than to put them in a darkened room for hours every day with a joystick and a big screen, where they practice killing things for fun?"
Most people play with the light on. And
"He loves the deathly pallor of the video game addict, who has forgotten what daylight looks like. He loves the isolation you feel, because you need nothing but a video screen and a controller to feel content."
Those are World Of Warcraft players. Granthat'shats pretty much an accurate description of WOW playethat'shats not the&ngamingming community. We like to do plenty of other things. Read, play D&D (its not video game) with 4 other guys my age, attend anime conventions, watch anime, go see a movie, take vacations to Tokyo. Other people have other interests as well.
"Soon, he plans to take advantage of this and become the controller, and then good luck trying to find Harry Potter to save you."
Suretakingeing his time with me. I've been a gamer for 13 years and I'm still a happy stable member of society.
"Until then, I will keep my kids away from the dastardly inventions."
"The fact that some of you managed to grow up to be capable citizens means that you were able to overcome that particular obstacle to get there."
No more difficult than otherwise.
"Also, I?m not too convinced by people who were such ardent gamers they became video game creators. That?s like saying, ?Gee, I loved crack so much, I went to Colombia and started my own business and now I?m rich.?"
First off, Colombia is cocaine country. Also, by your logic, you liked bullshitting so much, you made a career of it. At least crack and video games have quality control.
"Video game addiction is becoming more and more recognized as a social problem, mostly for young men under the age of 30 with low self-esteem. There are even addiction clinics all over the world for guys who need help."
Its only a problem if you make it a problem. Plus, minus the emo kids, ALL gamers have GREAT self-esteem. Also, its not just guys.friend'sngirlfriendrend just bought a game players are women. Forty-two percent of online gamers are women. Females age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%). Fifty percent of gamers are regularly involved in creative activities, such as painting, writing, or playing an instrument. In addition, adult gamers exhibit a high level of interest in current events, with 94 percent following news and current events and 78 percent reporting that they vote in most of the elections for which they are eligible.
So where is YOUR research?
"I can?t help recalling this sweet boy who invited my son over for his birthday party. I walked into their home, which was dominated by a giant TV on which video games were playing. The so-called ?party? consisted of boys sitting around playing various games, plus cake."
Again, this is because they all wanted to play the video games, maybe even more if he just got a new game.
"Afterward, the dad, a very nice man and obviously concerned parent, confided in me he didn?t understand why his son was socially backward, and how he wished he could be more gregarious like my son."
It doest surprise me that he is SOOOO the behind the times he doesnt realize just how big the gamming community has grown in the past 20 years.
"I didn?t know this dad, so I didn?t do what I felt like doing, which was screaming into his ear, ?SHUT OFF THE @#@* VIDEO GAMES, POP, MAYBE YOUR SON WILL TALK TO SOMEONE WHO?S ACTUALLY ALIVE AND CAN ANSWER BACK.?"
I think I found another reason why nobody comes over.
"What about this guy who left his girlfriend at the hospital in labor while he went home to play more video games?"
Thats Called "Dump His Ass"
"Video game obsession is a serious illness in this country that many people recognize."
Keyword obsession.
"Video games and other electronics are doing bad things to kids? brains."
No they're not. But you are.
"All you have to do is ask any teacher about his or her students? critical thinking skills these days and you will hear a TORRENT of horror stories about kids who have lost the power to think."
Thats because most kids, (and people in general) are complete idiots. Dont beleive me?
W. was voted for a SECOND term. Idiots
"Where do you think that?s coming from? Right. TV, computers and video games."
It could'nt be the neglegent and/or abusive parents, or lack of parenting skills, or lack of parental guidence, or drinking during pregnancy. Nope, could'nt be any of that.
"Computers at least can be learning tools, if you are using the Internet for research, as I do for my job as a professional writer."
Minus the "Professional" part.
"Video games are educational? Sorry, people, I do not believe for one second you are learning quantum physics while you are shooting down zombies. Or that you got your scholarship to MIT by using the skills you learned shooting guerrillas."
First off, your talking the Half-Life series, a game were you play a MIT graduate who works in theoretical physics and shoots zombies and U.S. Army guerrillas.
Second, Mario is Missing on the SNES teaches history and the Big Brain Acadamy games challages your thiking power, and The Typing of the Dead builds your typing speed.
"Maybe, if Albert Einstein had only been able to play video games when he was a youth, maybe he would have come up with that Unified Theory that all physicists hope to find instead of merely the Theory of Relativity."
If Albert played games, we would have even better physics engines.
"Meanwhile, my kids will still be playing outside with their balls and bats, exercising their muscles and having fun with other kids, since I won?t buy a video game."
Again, this will not stop them from playing them.
"A few windows might get broken now and then, but at least they won?t be glassy-eyed zombies like in Left4Dead"
And whats wrong with Left4Dead?? It is THE BEST coopertive multiplayer game ever. EVER.
And lastly, A word to you from the internet.
But hey, maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. You could move to Australia, where all the video games are either banned, delayed til doomsday, or cersored out the ass.
Who knows? Maybe Michael Atkinson will leave his wive for you and the two of you could live happily ever after, raising closed minded children together. Of course, you'll have to clean up your look first, cuase that avatar looks RETARDED.