Barack Obama said something unflattering about video games.

[Mr.Black]

Another reason why i'm glad I didn't vote for him.

*shrug*

Wait, really? Games are a distraction. If I have assignments that need doing, or exams that are coming up, you can bet I wont be buying any new game and only playing ones I currently have rather seldom.

All Obama is doing is making sense.

People who allow themselves to get lost in their own escapism and gaming rather than taking care of stuff that they actually need to do is not the fault of the gaming device. Obama seems to be, just like every other kooky anti-gamer politician, blaming the device itself rather than how it is used. As for not buying games when you have something major to do, i'd call that common sense.

Just my opinion.

I agree that it's the fault of the person rather than the device, but the device is a very easy gateway to procrastination and escapism. Obama sounds like just about every parent in the world that's worried about their kids grades. I don't think he sounds anti-gamer either, or at least he doesn't come across like it. He admits he knows little about them, and just states that they are a distraction from education.

You can analogise this with drugs. Sure, it's the person fault for letting themselves be peer-pressured into taking drugs (for example), but now they're addicted and their life is spiralling out of control.

I used to play WoW, and last year I got pretty bad grades and even failed a subject. This year I don't even have internet at home and play games seldom, aside from one of my two PS3 games I'm devoting a lot more attention to study. Sure, it's certainly my fault for letting myself get sucked into the WoW universe and neglecting my studies, but if I didn't buy WoW, or if WoW just didn't plain exist, there would be a lot more students paying more attention in class.

Just a thought. It's easy to blame the person for being ruled by their own problems, but you can't deny that games can be a gateway to distraction. Also, I don't have it out for WoW, just using it as an example to express a point because it's so popular.

EDIT: I'm not an Obama fanboy either, I'm not even American.

 

[DocBalance]

He said that an education is more important than video games. He said that video games can distract one from their schoolwork. Both of these are true. Education is more important than video games, and video games have distracted numerous students from their schoolwork.

Just because it is unflattering doesn't make it wrong.

"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy,"

This? This right here? This is why we are mad. This is blowing it out of proportion and taking advantage of the fear-laden climate against Video-games. That is the real pressure on our democracy. Even if studies hadn't proven that 90% of what the media says about video games is BS, why is he talking about this? Don't we have more important things to do, such as addressing the rampant corruption within the education system, the ineffective incentives for change, and the abuses of systems such as tenure? Of course we do. But those don't sell as well, because it offends the people doing the corruption, and sadly, they have the power. This way, he gets all the ignorant sheep to hop on board with him, pitchforks in hand. It's sickening, and it represents everything wrong with politics today.

Wow. I'm starting to think no one read the article.

He is saying that video games, among other things are distractions. Which is entirely, 100% true. He is not saying to burn games in a fire. He is saying that we need to spend less time jerking around on games and more time becoming more intelligent people. With the way some are on Xbox, I can't entirely disagree. Don't get me wrong, some people are very intelligent and also play lots of games, but there are just as many people that are total dumbasses on Xbox Live.

I will restate what I said before though, in that the thing with him saying that he doesn't know how to work Xboxes, iPods, Playstations, etc, as if it's a good thing. Ignorance is not a good thing. Just because Fox News thinks you're elitist because you have actual knowledge doesn't mean you need to make yourself stupid to pander to them.

Anymore of a distraction than drugs? Or alcohol? What about the pressures to cheat to keep up with the system? What about the presence of students who have not a care for their education and just want to drag as many people as possible into their perpetual party? Which is a greater threat to education: The nerd who plays video games the night before an exam and only harms himself, if any harm at all comes, or the frat boy who drags 5-20 of his buddies with him to a bar, gets wasted, and is hungover the next day, if he shows up at all?

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

He says "With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,"

This means that music, games and the internet should NOT be used for entertainment but instead used to further your knowledge and and be...free?

er...that makes NO SENSE

 

[Quaidis]

He said that an education is more important than video games. He said that video games can distract one from their schoolwork. Both of these are true. Education is more important than video games, and video games have distracted numerous students from their schoolwork.

Just because it is unflattering doesn't make it wrong.

This sums up what I was going to say. Well put.


That and I am reminded about how much Obama likes playing Portal. A good thing he does so with fleeting interest instead of obsessing over it and leaving the United States on the back burner - like how students neglect homework for a game of Halo. That would make great news though, "Obama refuses to help thousands under flood; too busy playing Mario Galaxy 2"

 

[Samurai Goomba]

I don't really see how he's wrong.. sure, it's unflattering, but that doesn't mean it's wrong..

It's unflattering to say that america has an obesity epidemic, but it doesn't mean that americans aren't getting fatter every year.

Kids should be playing outside as much as possible.. This is the first generation that the parents will be, on the whole, sedentary louts doing as little as possible (and achieving doing very little indeed)... passing that onto our children is not a good thing.

You can blame a lot on lack of exercise, but that's overlooking the fundamental problem of how extremely unhealthy American food is. Harsher quality requirements for slaughterhouses, new laws forcing food places to make all their nutritional information available to all customers, and a governmental push for smaller serving portions in restaurants can all contribute to reducing weight gain without mindlessly blaming some new piece of electronic media.

 

[Turbo_Destructor]

thats bullshit, their have always been 'distractions' - video games are just a more recent one. We made video games because we wanted to be distracted, before that it was movies (which are of course, still very popular), and before that it was board games and stuff. There's nothing different and dangerous about video games, they are just a more recent form of entertainment and distraction, and let's face it, there are bigger issues regarding education than kids not doing there homework coz they want to play WOW

 

[SimuLord]

I voted for him as lesser of two evils (contrast Sarah Palin being a heartbeat away from the Presidency).

Not gonna make that mistake again. I'll either vote Republican or stay home in 2012.

I'm sorry but I do have to ask since we are going off topic here. What would you do if Sarah Palin gets the 2012 presidential nomination? I seriously ask because as a conservative if she did get the nomination I could not vote for her after seeing how she just absorbs neo-con principles.

Assuming "start shooting" isn't an option, I would stay home. Maybe start checking immigration laws in Europe.

 

[Brad Shepard]

um... who cares? what he says and what he doesent say really shouldent matter unless he starts stupid laws on video games.

 

[banthesun]

What seems to be the issue here? He was saying that games take people away from the things they should be doing, which is absolutely true (he says posting from work). He hardly said games are the work of satan.

 

[The Kraken]

I see what you did there

 

[ShakesZX]

oh, lawd! Not Obama! Say it isn't so! The one and only source of truth about video games, saying unkind things about the medium! We must have retribution!

 

[Oktanas]

Kill him, put his head on a stick as a warning to all other politicians, its the only way for them to understand that gaming doesn't make us violent.

dont be surprised when some FBI agents start folowing you

 

[xXAsherahXx]

Politicians suck, be very definition. It derives from two words. Polo meaning, they weird ass sport that makes no sense, and Ticians which is usually applied to strategy. combine that and you have a weird ass strategist. If you believed what I just imparted on you, you too are an idiot. d:

 

[karpiel]

I like how basically every post in this thread is proving his statements to be correct.

 

[AWDMANOUT]

I used to like Obama. Thought he was a cool dude.

Now...

We have a problem.

If tech is bad for democracy, then the people who made those things must be bad for democracy, too. And if the big companies are bad, then wouldn't that mean a capitalist economy would be bad for democracy? So according to this, communism goes hand in hand with democracy?

Sorry to break it to all those Russ vs. US Cold War peeps, but apparently you're made for each other.

 

[DarthNinja]

I like Obama, but can we go back to hating on TV again?
.
.
...

I mean, games require interaction, TV just requires staring at a screen.
(Games with 8 hours of cut scenes notwithstanding)