Obama: "Turn off the video games and pick up a book."

Mark Hardigan

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I agree with him saying this. I am a hardcore gamer, but I'm also an avid writer and reader. Video Games are, and have been (as with almost everything) inexplicably tied to the written word. Most gamers and especially more aspiring game makers need to read more.
 

Thespian

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666Chaos said:
Thespian said:
666Chaos said:
See above about spouting nonsense because you have not taked the thirty seconds to actually read the article and so have no clue what obama was talking about.
Fine. I'll read it again.

...

Well wouldn't ya know it, it didn't spontaneously change since last I read it. Craziness.
Again, he implied that reading a book is immediately a better way to spend your time than playing a video game, any video game, for any amount of time, which he is unqualified to say.
I think the fact that you are taking this so personally is proof enough that obama was right in what he said. Besides that how is this an attack on video games or saying they are below books.

And every father can encourage his child to turn off the video games and pick up a book; to study hard and stay in school
Also if you cant understand that books are better for you then video games then I truely do feel sorry for you.
Oh geez, someone's a little too invested in this topic.

1 - I'm not taking this personally. Don't see how I could. I love books with all my heart, and they are one of my greatest passions - Alongside video games. I'm clearly not the demographic he's targeting here, so why would I take it personally?

2 - Even if I was taking it personally, how would that prove his point?

3 - He quite clearly stated that it's a father's job to tell his kid to read books in lieu of video games. He put it on par with teaching them the difference between right an wrong. That's insinuating that games are "below" books, as you put it.

4 - I can't "understand" that books are "better" than video games, because it's not true. Books have taught me a lot throughout the years. Now, video games are teaching me a lot too. I wasn't into games as a kid, only books. Now, after roughly sixteen years of only being interested in books, I've developed a taste for games. Thanks to them, I'm learning about myself and experiencing whole new social activities and artistic expressions. So when people tell me I should read more instead of wasting my life in what is just another medium for what books do, I tend to feel snubbed.

5 - What's all this "better for you" business? Where are you coming from with that? The effect of an artistic medium such as literature is completely subjective. It will differ from person to person. Some people might get nothing from a book. You need to realize that.
 

Denariax

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Nov 3, 2010
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-Looks up from his desk.-

Get off of Fox News' todger and read the Declaration of Independence, then we'll talk.

-Goes back to videogames.-
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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Denariax said:
-Looks up from his desk.-

Get off of Fox News' todger and read the Declaration of Independence, then we'll talk.

-Goes back to videogames.-
Are you implying that Obama is a fan of Fox News? I knew gamers tended to be ignorant of politics, but good lord man, that's like saying King George was brainwashed by Paul Revere's broadsides. Fox news is the ultra conservative network, they hate Obama. If you're going to make a claim like that, at least use a news network that doesn't have an anti-obama bias, like MSNBC.
 

Swat_Kat

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You can do both. I've been a gamer for... well ever since tetris came out and I am an avid reader, average 1 book a month.
 

the Dept of Science

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I think the Game Overthinker (aka. MovieBob) said it best here:

http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/03/episode-33-building-better-gamer.html

Anyone that has not seen that video really should check it out.

I think I missed out on way too many books (and even films) as a kid because I gamed too much as a kid. I actually don't play games that much at the moment because I am "catching up" in reading and film watching.
 

Fleeker

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Jan 24, 2011
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Obama don't tell people what to do (even when I agree with you) when you are drinking ale in a pub and parting in a palace while tornadoes destroy lives, you can't keep members of your own senior staff (if they stay with you for 4 years they could get extremely high paying jobs in the private sector but they won't stick it out), when you try and get the Olympics (other people can do that) and fail instead of figuring out how not to waste billions of dollars on bailouts that lead to companies going through bankruptcy court anyway, and when you do business on the golf course (which 90% of the time I have no problem with people doing), when you have caused many people to question whether you care about America (I know 4 or 5 people this applies to).


Be a man, be a leader, earn respect through good relationships with your staff (a bunch walking away tells me a lot), and run your country first then and only then have you earned the right to tell anyone other then your kids and staff what to do or think.

Again I agree many of should read more, but plenty of us gamers read and are more educated and understanding than you think.
 

Penitent

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Oct 25, 2008
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Before I saw this thread yesterday, I had been playing MvC3 for at least five hours straight. The moment I saw it, I went on my bike for a 90 minute ride. During that, I found a fire outside somebody's house, climbed a steep hill in 4 minutes, and reached a part of the city that I hadn't even seen before, all in time to come home to dinner with my beloved nan.

He has a point.
 

Mysten

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Sep 28, 2008
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Way to blow this whole thing out of proportion, guys. Bravo. You keep doing what you're doing.

He's just encouraging parents to take an active role in their children's lives and encourage them to embrace the written word, study hard and not use videogames as a substitute for hands-on parenting. That's good advice. It's not some kind of full-on condemnation of videogames as a medium and a culture as some of you are trying to make out.

Melodrama. You has it.
 

The 11th Plauge

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Nov 9, 2009
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Hmm, if this is to be believed, Obama is saying that reading twilight would be better than playing something like mass effect or, hell, even Mario Galaxy 2. to which I say "I'm commander shepard and vampires that sparkle are not vampires. now please go away, I am trying to nail my asari girlfriend".
 

ozium

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Feb 8, 2011
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Wow. Well, having read a sh-t load of novels during my childhood I can honestly say that games are more entertaing but thats quite obvious isn't it.
 

Senaro

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Jan 5, 2008
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This doesn't seem like bad advice, more like common sense. You don't want to overindulge in anything, and video games isn't excluded from that.
 

wolf92

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sketch_zeppelin said:
Sorry guys, sounds like good advice to me. I love games but reading is a big deal and we as a country don't do nearly enough of it. If the president is asking parents to put a little more effort into getting our kids to read then we must really have a problem
I agree
 

Gametek

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May 20, 2011
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Saucycardog said:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/308151/news/barack-obama-turn-off-the-video-games-and-pick-up-a-book/

I actually agree with him. He's not saying people shouldn't play video games. He's saying kids shouldn't be playing video games all day long.
Will do when they quit that fuckgly shit that they pour in the book of my local library. Twylight? How a random guy survived the cancer and is live was changed by it? How to cook chinese Spaghetti?

Bha. I want a MLP book >=3 [Just kidding... In any case I would love to read a good fantasy...]
 

Tdc2182

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Thespian said:
Yes he did say one damn thing about art. He mentioned books and games, quite clearly both are artforms. And saying that one is more worthy than another is stupid.
And what do you mean "Healthy for me"? Books aren't any more or less healthy for me than video games.
It's not about a daily dose and I surely don't need to go read a book. It's about saying one form of art is superior to another when it's pretty doubtful that this guy has even forayed into gaming as an artform very much.
It's totally unqualified and absurd. Get over it.
How about no? I will not make any attempts to get over it because I am clearly not the one that needs to come to grips with reality here.

He never mentioned anything about art forms. He mentioned to different things that happen to have artistic sentiment, but he never talked about art. You implied that yourself.

Books have a much more educational merit than videogames. Videogames may have some educational impact in certain fields, but in general they are pretty much mindless fun. You don't learn anything from gaming. Plus, if you're like me, you waste a good few hours during a gaming session

I'd also like to remind you that "healthy" doesn't have to just do with your physical being.

What you're saying is absolutely unqualified and absurd. You get over it.
 

funguy2121

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Oct 20, 2009
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Blind Sight said:
funguy2121 said:
Blind Sight said:
I will accept your terms Obama, but only if you read the damn War Powers Act and realize that you can't even declare a 'semi-war' on foreign countries without Congressional approval.
I'm ambivalent on Libya, but still pissed that he didn't even inform us beforehand, let alone consult us. That being said, would you also suggest that Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, George Bush, Clinton and George Bush Mark II read the War Powers Act as well?
The War Powers Act only came into effect in 1973, it was a response to the War Powers Act of 1941 which pretty much let Roosevelt have a massive amount of authority during World War 2. The 1973 act was largely constructed to ensure that Presidents would not be able to intervene in foreign conflicts without Congressional approval (which was largely a response to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the SNAFU created in Vietnam by Kennedy and Johnson when they sent in the marines). Basically, this act was written to ensure that Presidents couldn't do exactly what Obama (other presidents as well, but I'm pretty sure that Bush Sr got approval for the Gulf War, can't recall though) is doing now, forcing the U.S. into another foreign war based on his own decision. The act states that the President can only declare war if America is directly being threatened, so now Presidents just avoid calling it war and instead refer to it as 'intervention'. To be honest it somewhat reminds me of doublethink and doublespeak from 1984, war is peace and all that.

I would definitely say that most of the Presidents after 1973 should have read the act, but I also think that the act needs to be redone to include any attempt at foreign military intervention, even without a declaration of war.
That's basically what I was getting at, though I must admit you're more informed on the specifics than I. No more "police actions," which is a bullshit circumvention of constitutional division of power anyway. But I'd still put this behind personhood for corporations and the existence of the Senate.