U.K. Columnist Says "Xbox is Crack For Kids"

[Lampdevil]

Umm, sorry, i just don't understand what you are trying to say...

What he/she means is that, if you read the article? If you click the link, and look afterwards at the comments on the Times website? Pretty much every comment is telling the columnist to get bent. To screw off. To stop being dumb. And so on and so forth.

The point? That maybe the general public DOESN'T necessarily think that games are pure evil.

To put it shorter. Lady writes anti-game article. Hundreds of regular readers (and not yahoos like us on a gaming forum) tell her that she is wrong.

 

[Disgustor]

Whatever is the matter with this woman!? Why, I'm willing to bet she would have denounced comic books as "Satan's porn" were she around during that medium's advent. Such blind conservatism is depressing to encounter, especially when people are being paid to regurgitate it.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

I'm offended by people who put down things like games and T.V. because they call them unwholesome or whatever such nonsense. What would you rather us do, hit a tire down a dirt road with a stick while saying our daily prayers? But seriously that article just plain pisses me off. Videogames aren't evil, you don't buy them for your small child. You should use your parental judgement to introduce your children to videogames when they are mentally mature enough to understand that they aren't real, and mature enough that they won't be addicted. Sure videogames don't often teach about politics and character, but what they do teach (sometimes) is critical thinking, strategy, thinking outside the box, and motor skills. I believe that videogame arguments are usually based on angry feelings and idiotic conjecture rather than solid fact. Don't complain about how something is bad in your life if you can do something about it quite easily.

 

[Hawgh]

Darn kids always get the good stuff.

 

[Arkfeller]

Someone should write an Escapist article detailing why someone just has to say video games are making people illiterate.

 

[swatmajor1]

I would have to say that this lady wasn't part of the majority in her day. So she is making her kids suffer now through a non-video game up-bringing.

But seriously, if video games are evil, why not pinball and poker machines? WHY??? Plus, how about the many educational games out there. Sure, they may not be as well known as your main stream games like Manhunt, but, is she is worried that her kids will become "cocaine addicts," then might as well let them learn their ABC's and 123's in the process.

So, to the point of this. Video games are forming a culture that is much bigger and complex than anything she knows, and she backlashes at it because of her lack of understanding for what is in the gaming culture.

Well that's it.

Signing off,

Swatmajor1

 

[Ace331]

I was going to comment on how misguided and hysterical this "journalist" (I use the term very loosely in this case) is, you know comparing video games wholesale to an addictive drug which has decimated lives and torn apart families, but then I looked at the article a little closer...references to downloading Metallica and watching the Simpsons? Neither has been relevant for 10-15 years! She's just bitter because her "kid" must be 28 years old and still living at home. Tell him to get a job, get out of the house and buy his own damn xbox and you won't have to write these asinine, sensationalist, irresponsible articles that tell parents to hold their children and their activities in contempt rather attempt to foster inter-generational understanding.

 

[Fire Daemon]

She actually made a link between satan and games. I allways thought saying saying Something is the devil was a joke, that no one would ever actually say that. I never thought that someone would be stupid enough to blame anything on the devil in this day and age. Satan Soduko.....

What the hell is that, Suduko is a numbers game. Satan is the lord of evil. She's saying that when Satan wants to kick back and relax he picks up gears of war although judging by the article mario (???) except that satan dosn't know its a videogame instead he thinks he's play soduko.

The article is nothing new however. Stuff like this has been going on a for a while with TV, music and even dancers. But I think unlike music and TV this hate for videogames will remain because "what else is left to be hated".

 

[Dry Ice]

Its cleary obveouse the woman belongs to the god squad, she would probably approve of the ethnic cleansing game thats been available for some time now (btw its a shit game, crashes every fucking 10 seconds)

 

[deftune]

BAaah, the devil jumped from hardrock and into the videogames... Or does he have a boot in booth pools of juicy temptations. In that case the devil... ROCKS!! <3

 

[Esta]

A female Jack Thompson. I don't care, her arguements against games is completely irrelevant and pointless. Grow up, crawl out of your conservative shell, and welcome to earth.

 

[Mr Wednesday]

Just as a note.

This article feels very, hmmm, how can I put this.

"Un-British"

I don't know, the Satan references, the lexis, doesn't read like typical bad British journalism.
The Times has gone downhill.