Panorama Gaming Special

[Baradiel]

I watched BBC's Panorama tonight. The title was "Addicted to gaming?".

Ooooooh dear.

I was wary of watching this, since it was unlikely to be objective. Yes, the BBC is one of the best broadcasting channels for objective reporting, since it's funded by the licence payers, but it's still part of the broad media, and that usually means bias against videogames in general.

I was pleasantly surprised at the general objectivity of the report, but the ignorance at some slight things irritated me.

So, now for he discussion value:

Escapists, were you happy with the reporting? Did you think it was objective and informative?

I know I was, but I had preconceived notions about games before watching it.

If you missed it, heres the link to it on iPlayer : http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wlmj0/Panorama_Addicted_to_Games/

 

[GrammarLad]

This pissed me off beyond belief.
Badly reported, badly researched (Laura Croft? come on.), I found most of the "gamers" that they spoke to were clearly at one end of a spectrum. Reporting on WoW and CoD is not a broad enough look at our medium, and the editing was just shameless, Spoilers: at one stage they showed people waiting at GAME for the midnight launch of Starcraft II and showed a brief vox pop of a guy saying "I've been waiting ages for this" to most people watching that guy just looks desperate to play, maybe even obssesive, most people won't know how long that game was in development.

So yeah, not impressed.

 

[Cpt Corallis]

As I posted in the other threads on the topic In all I thought that this wasn't too bad, only a few things that rankled with me, such as trying to apply South Korean Culture to the UK. There are clear differences in emphasis between the two countries and i feel this could have been made more clear. Also I had hoped more would be made of the lengths family members should be going to help deal with the problems.
In addition, the online resources that were mentioned at the end were fairly useful, if sparse.

On a lighter note , I was sitting laughing at the warhammer posters on one of the british gamers walls as i kept looking to the left and seeing the same posters.

 

[Stabby Joe]

I found it hardly the most balanced documentary BUT it's far far from the worst to.

I did like that they mentioned that it was up to the parents, the positive aspects of games and it the issue being a small minority, even he host admitted he had no issue with games themselves...

...but I disliked the emphasis on those (who clearly have issues beyond gaming) who had an addiction, the use of eerie music at times and making South Korea's problems to be potentially universal even though our cultures are different.

In total it could have been perfectly balanced but some major aspects drag it down, however it's hardly the same standard as The Daily Mail or Alan Titchmarsh Show.

 

[scw55]

(I only caught the last half as I was predating iPlayer for stuff to watch because I await Cataclysm)

I was more balanced in comparison to other reports I've seen. But I fear the shock facts over shadowed the fact that the gamers with a problem are the ones who are mentally or emotionally challenged. And this is like a very small percentage.

I couldn't belive that kid with tattoos played 20hrs a day of WoW. WoW isn't that absorbing inless it's an expansion release. His parents evidently didn't try the right things to resolve the issue. Of course turning off the internet will make him nerd rage. His parents didn't know about parental control. Maybe the actual reason he didn't want to go to school was that school wasn't for him. Alot of people basically get "fed up" with school when they're 16+ because not everyone's personality suite sitting in a class room being talked at. Perhaps his parents should have encourage him to do a Pratical course. Maybe the reason he liked WoW so much was because it was hands-on and interactive. I found school in my last years very disengaging.

I thought the reporter talking to that guy who tried to quit WoW when he was playing was very rude. You don't have an interview with someone who is reading a book at the same time or watching a film/tv. I wonder if the programme makers asked the guy to play whilst they talked to him so they could get the guy feeling awkwad because the Interviewer was distracting him when playing a Battleground. This ended up making the guy a appear as a socially awkwad and obsessed with the game. Far the from the truth. He probably felt the present was being too invaisive.

I disliked the comment of "why don't you go out and do stuff and get a girl friend?". Do what? Drink? Take drugs? Be bored?
Also what's this pressure of getting some pussy? Isn't that derogative. It implies any female "will do". It's a back hand slap at young people that people think we're like horny rabbits wanting to court anything with boobs. Stupid adult.

They seemed to try to make it balanced but not hard enough. It ended up "feeling" very biased towards "Games are Evil" even though technically they probably had equal points for each side. The negative points were much more stronger.

It's always the parent's fault.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Pretty poor in my opinion. Poorly researched and took some shocking examples to try to pass off as an 'average gamer'. People are going to watch this and think that this is really what gaming creates; a bunch of fat, violent drop outs. Most things, especially the Starcraft 2 section, were out of context and on the whole I felt it only seemed to look at it from one side of the argument. I wasn't infuriated, just disappointed. Still, I suppose everything has to go through this bullshit at some point.

Which one guy says at one point in the program.

 

[Jazoni89]

I disliked the comment of "why don't you go out and do stuff and get a girl friend?". Do what? Drink? Take drugs? Be bored?
Also what's this pressure of getting some pussy? Isn't that derogative. It implies any female "will do". It's a back hand slap at young people that people think we're like horny rabbits wanting to court anything with boobs. Stupid adult.

Alarm bells started ringing when I heard this. The program was all fine and good (a little biased sure but then again what documentary by the BBC isn't) until that point.

Video games are a means of escapism and shouldn't be used as a silly excuse for people to not enjoy life. Its like saying if you like video games you don't like life. which is completely and utterly untrue and quite offensive to the entire gaming demographic.

 

[xchurchx]

i thought it was quite informative
however i wish they looked at more games instead of world of warcraft and starcraft
I mean those games can produce some right wierdos (not everyone tho before i get a reply saying i play those games and im quite sane)
But i did agree on the conclusion its not just the game... its also the gamer who plays it

 

[scw55]

I disliked the comment of "why don't you go out and do stuff and get a girl friend?". Do what? Drink? Take drugs? Be bored?
Also what's this pressure of getting some pussy? Isn't that derogative. It implies any female "will do". It's a back hand slap at young people that people think we're like horny rabbits wanting to court anything with boobs. Stupid adult.

Alarm bells started ringing when I heard this. The program was all fine and good (a little biased sure but then again what documentary by the BBC isn't) until that point.

Video games are a means of escapism and shouldn't be used as a silly excuse for people to not enjoy life. Its like saying if you like video games you don't like life. which is completely and utterly untrue and quite offensive to the entire gaming demographic.

I just didn't like a 40 odd man telling me I should go outside and rape everything that breaths

 

[Private Custard]

When a reporter is doing a half-hour special on gaming and thinks the character is called 'Laura Croft', you know you have a reporter that will take any tidbit of info from any source and sensationalise it without a clue.

Panorama are the TV equivalent of the Daily Mail, all outrage amd horror, whilst remaining blissfully ignorant of most of the facts.

Even the point in the show where they briefly covered age-ratings managed, unless I missed it, to totally avoid mentioning the official BBFC ratings that we have here in the UK.......same as movies.

And how the fuck does a parent fail to notice that not only is her son not going to school, but he's also spending 12 hours a day online??

There's no point us complaining about it though really. People that are against games won't change their minds. People that are for gaming won't chaing their minds. It's almost as pointless as discussing religion.

 

[oplinger]

I thought it was way too focused, like anything on the subject. It was nice to see them acknowledge that it's a small percentage of gamers that get addicted though, rather than saying "EVERYONE GETS ADDICTED! GAMES NEED TO STOP RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD! HELL ON EARTH! HELL ON EARTH"

But it was rather focused on the kids that are addicted, and them being addicted, and how them being addicted has ruined everything. However one fact got rid of the feeling of it being completely biased. ...They showed most of the kids that got better, found replacements for the time spent. ...They got addicted to something else >.> like drinking. Or like that korean kid who got addicted to playing outside.

They seemed to indirectly hint at the fact that it's just a time sink, it's not an addiction, you replace gaming with something else they find fun, and the addiction goes away.

 

[Woodsey]

I read an interview where the guy behind it mentioned that they spent a lot of the time talking to teens who had "diagnosed themselves".

Yeah, not worth my time.

And you just know it's going to come up that games are somehow a substitute for everything else in life, as opposed to, y'know, what you do in your down time.