Video Gaming Hate of the Day

[Wraith]

Today's Video Gaming Hate of the Day is courtesy of Marla Jo Fisher, writing for the OC Register's The Mom Blog (http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/). In a post creatively titled "Video games were invented by the devil (http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/2009/12/27/video-games-were-invented-by-the-devil/42149/)," we get the following gems:


"I truly believe that video games were created by Satan to turn otherwise normal children into his drooling, glassy-eyed stooges. After my son plays them at his friends’ houses, he comes home irritable and testy for the rest of the day."


"On one horrible afternoon that scarred me for life, I even saw a kid walking out of the public library playing a Nintendo DS."


"Here’s my question: When do kids ever think these days? When do they ever have brains free from electronics long enough to ponder the universe? To think of things that might someday lead them to a cure for cancer?

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."



The Mom Blog (OC Register) (http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/2009/12/27/video-games-were-invented-by-the-devil/42149/), via Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5440758/parent-nintendo-ds-would-have-distracted-newton-from-discovering-gravity)

[Gorvi]

Ah, ignorance, always a source of entertainment.

[Mike Kelehan]

Maybe he's irritable and testy because he just spent the day learning what sane parents are like.

[johnperkins21]

When I told my college English professor that I preferred the OC Register to the LA Times because they had better comics, she cringed. This article is exactly why.

[Hawkzombie]

LMAO...Oh good lord.

I know kids who don't play video games that are dumber than those that do. It's like Seduction Of The Innocent, only since Comics don't really matter anymore compared to video games, we've got crap like this.

[rein]

Just think of where society would be if video games had not come along. The crime rate would be at zero and we would all be incredibly smart.

[Lance Uppercut]

Video games have allowed me to further enrich and nurture my relationship with Satan. Hail Satan.

[LongStepMantis]

Why is it that wackos like this always say "Satan built/created/invented X!"?

If Satan was actually responsible for half of the things that he's given credit for in nutjob scenarios like this, he would easily be the single most productive entity in all of human history. Think about it, he would have created: fossils, videogames, television, books, comic books, every vice known to man, witches, all shades of brown people, liquor, recreational drugs, the NFL, the idea that the Earth is not the center of the universe or flat, and edible panties to name a scant few. Fuck our souls, if he could get patents on all that shit he would own us already. ;)

[Urizen]

Having lived in Orange County, I can confirm the OC Register is awesome.

It's worth noting, that, some fairly large players in the industry are based in Orange County. Off the top of my head, the NA office of Atlus and Blizzard's HQ are both in Irvine, CA.

[muddi900]

Having lived in Orange County, I can confirm the OC Register is awesome.

It's worth noting, that, some fairly large players in the industry are based in Orange County. Off the top of my head, the NA office of Atlus and Blizzard's HQ are both in Irvine, CA.

Are you insinuating that its an attractive place for interlopers? Especially of the Satan-worshiping kind?

[jpublic]

Actually, the most funny part of this was my wife's response:

"Lady, I can tell you why that kid's irritated, he has to come home from a great time at his friend's place playing games to live with YOU."

My wife is *awesome*.

[Lance Uppercut]

That was your wife? Awesome.

[DangerousDaze]

"On one horrible afternoon that scarred me for life, I even saw a kid walking out of the public library playing a Nintendo DS."

I once saw someone playing a PSP in the park. Ooooooh, I'm still on the tranquilizers!

[boratika]

I'm pretty sure Newton invented calculus in an attempt to bring about videogames. Guy was jonesing bad for some Tetris.

[Kelegacy]

Just think of where society would be if video games had not come along. The crime rate would be at zero and we would all be incredibly smart.

And World War II would never have happened.

[menage]

Well, sounds like she has a lot of brilliant ideas about the universe and curing cancer. Look in the mirror.

Oh and I must be DARKSIDED!!!!, cause I'm playing Darksiders:D

[Savok]

They're those kinds of women that always start with "well I'm a mother" and then continues with something soul destroying like "I think all those coloured boys are trying to turn our children into gang clangers!" aren't they?

[Ravenlock]

Actually, the most funny part of this was my wife's response:

"Lady, I can tell you why that kid's irritated, he has to come home from a great time at his friend's place playing games to live with YOU."

My wife is *awesome*.

Your wife is awesome.

EDIT: Sorry - *awesome*.

[Kelegacy]

My 6 month old son was watching me play Xmen Origins: Wolverine over the weekend and he hasn't bee affected...he did stab us with a plastic fork the other night and impaled the cat on a wall spike, but really, it was probably by accident.

I was gung-ho about not having my son game before he was born, at least not like I, but I think it's pretty unavoidable at this point. It's definitely going to be difficult keeping my violent games away from his prying eyes. We were thinking of moving the computer/360 into the living room and turn my office into a playroom, but that would mean he'd see me game 90% more.

I'm surprised this woman isn't waxing about the dangers of Facebooks and the need to collect them all from the libraries and stores and burn them.

[H.Bogard]

Doesn't anyone remember the so-called extremist Christian guy who was damning Spore for featuring evolution?

It might not be such a bright idea to give these sites such coverage.

[BigJonno]

My 6 month old son was watching me play Xmen Origins: Wolverine over the weekend and he hasn't bee affected...he did stab us with a plastic fork the other night and impaled the cat on a wall spike, but really, it was probably by accident.

I was gung-ho about not having my son game before he was born, at least not like I, but I think it's pretty unavoidable at this point. It's definitely going to be difficult keeping my violent games away from his prying eyes. We were thinking of moving the computer/360 into the living room and turn my office into a playroom, but that would mean he'd see me game 90% more.

I'm surprised this woman isn't waxing about the dangers of Facebooks and the need to collect them all from the libraries and stores and burn them.

There's this funny period when they're really young when you feel more comfortable with them seeing stuff because they're not really clued in to what's going on. I'm probably more careful with my son now he's seven than when he was, say, three.

[Wilkz07]

What a nut-job. I was considering not reading the article when i saw the picture of the 'frumpy middle aged mom' pic. If that was my mom I'd be over at my friends place as much as possible. yikes.

sounds like her house is more like a prison. No video games, no pool, no kraft snack foods. terrible. how's a kid to live.

Funny how a mom (from the boston article) had to get 2 cops to get the kid to turn off the GTA game... intead of the parent unplugging and taking the machine. If you have to call the cops to do your parenting then you are a bad parent - also because you let your 14year old kid play a M rated game.

[boratika]

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f66/boratika/think-of-the-children.jpg

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

And World War II would never have happened.

Ignorant people like you really piss me off. You can make these jokes all you want but I have actually BEEN to Germany and I went to Hitler's house and I saw Call of Duty in his Xbox.

[Ravenlock]

Ignorant people like you really piss me off. You can make these jokes all you want but I have actually BEEN to Germany and I went to Hitler's house and I saw Call of Duty in his Xbox.

Thank God he wasn't playing Wolfenstein, as that would have taught him how to build RoboHitler.

[Purple Santa]

My 6 month old son was watching me play Xmen Origins: Wolverine over the weekend and he hasn't bee affected...he did stab us with a plastic fork the other night and impaled the cat on a wall spike, but really, it was probably by accident.
That's no accident. Your son figured out how he was created...and his creator. Sort of like Frankensteins reaction when he first woke up. Poor kid. Stab away...stab away ;)

[J Arcane]

They're those kinds of women that always start with "well I'm a mother" and then continues with something soul destroying like "I think all those coloured boys are trying to turn our children into gang clangers!" aren't they?
Lord Christ in Heaven save us from "mothers".

The very idea that just because someone squeezed some ill-considered mutant sausage with stumpy legs and a bad case of pink eye from their wart-addled vagina gives their poisonously ignorant opinions even the slightest bit more weight, is probably the worst idea in all of Western civilization.

[Philonious]

"Here’s my question: When do kids ever think these days? When do they ever have brains free from electronics long enough to ponder the universe? To think of things that might someday lead them to a cure for cancer?

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."

While the Satan stuff is ridiculous, these two aren't necessarily stupid: There are so many distraction out there to keep us 'busy' but have very little value, they're not even that entertaining (FarmVille & WoW). When it comes to kids, parents obviously need to set limits. But does anyone else here ever feel like they're just wasting their time? My big time wasters have been Halo 3 Online, WoW, FarmVille & watching hockey. All of these are amusing but leave me feeling as if I could have been doing something more productive... I also can't help but wonder what else I might accomplish if I ignored the 'distractions' of modern civilization and focused on something else instead.

Of course none of this really matters so I'm going to keep playing.

[Wilkz07]

There's a new group started in the wake of M.A.D.D called M.A.C.L.U.L - mothers against children living unsheltered lives. Basically when your kid is born they aren't allowed to watch tv, leave the house, have any contact with the outside world and are homeschooled by the "way of the mother". hopefully they'll keep those deviant 14yr old GTA players or the 6yr old plastic fork stabbers off the streets.

[Nerdious]

This reads like an article from the Onion. Even the Frumpy Middle-aged Mom pic just screams it. My first instinct is to not take it seriously.

Then I realize this is for a County Register. And I realize her means to a thesis, is that "fun" is a "distraction". From what? What could you possibly be fostering in your house that you can compare your kids to Isaac Newton? Were they read Dr. Seuss as a child? Couldn't that "limit" them as much as any video game? Are they only allowed to read specified MENSA literature?

Look, I think kids should be developing and learning new things as much as anyone. But if their home environment is lacking any positive, release from pressure, they're pretty much guaranteed to be limited by stress. If they can't step away from "expectations" then the parent is being overbearing.

Not to rant, few things push my buttons like people totally dogging on my hobbies.

[Narradisall]

All Hail jpublics wife!

Eh, I mean Satan.

I'm pretty sure the plot of Dante's Inferno has a twist ending where you fight your way down to the 9 circle of hell, to the devil, just to pledge your alliegence and then some swankey epileptic seizure shit blows out the screen sending subliminal messages to kill in the name of the Dark Prince.

[Savok]

While the Satan stuff is ridiculous, these two aren't necessarily stupid: There are so many distraction out there to keep us 'busy' but have very little value, they're not even that entertaining (FarmVille & WoW). When it comes to kids, parents obviously need to set limits. But does anyone else here ever feel like they're just wasting their time? My big time wasters have been Halo 3 Online, WoW, FarmVille & watching hockey. All of these are amusing but leave me feeling as if I could have been doing something more productive... I also can't help but wonder what else I might accomplish if I ignored the 'distractions' of modern civilization and focused on something else instead.

Of course none of this really matters so I'm going to keep playing.
Sims 3 teaches us that filling our fun bar for a positive moodlet makes other tasks more efficient.

[Wraith]

Sims 3 teaches us that filling our fun bar for a positive moodlet makes other tasks more efficient.I don't have a lot of personal life experience, but if I have learned anything from my Sims family: when a child doesn't see his father enough, he starts to jump up and down, and then his mood level will drop until he pees himself.

[Kelegacy]

Yeah, Newton might have been too busy to come up with his theory, but without games we'd probably have more of our kids out there on drugs and other trouble. I'd rather have my son at home, playing a game with friends, family or himself, than gang raping some bitch with other hoodlums.

At least on school nights.

Really though, it's all about moderation. Newton could have achieved the same shit even with an interest in games.

[Wolvie]

Wow this woman matches the stupidity of Mothers Against Peeing Standing Up. (http://www.mapsu.org/) People at this level of ignorance, intolerance, and stupidity are good for one thing and one thing only, our entertainment! Keep being stupid world! I like watching you make fools of yourselves!

[Hawkzombie]

I just have one question, after actually skimming through the article:

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.

What in the fucking hell is a pizza nugget?

Also, what the hell does not having a swimming pool mean? Is water the devil's tool as well? "Every time my son comes home from being in another neighbor child's pool, he's wet and excitable for the rest of the day! His skin takes on a glossy sheen."

[Wraith]

I just have one question, after actually skimming through the article:

What in the fucking hell is a pizza nugget?I guess Pizza Rolls is the preferred term, but it is more or less a nugget.

http://popshow.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/300_135315-1.jpgAlso, what the hell does not having a swimming pool mean? Is water the devil's tool as well? "Every time my son comes home from being in another neighbor child's pool, he's wet and excitable for the rest of the day! His skin takes on a glossy sheen."Her reasoning appears to be that her kids' friends don't want to come to her house because they don't have a.) a pool, b.) video games. Visiting kids are inevitably bored if they don't have one or the other to occupy their time, because kids don't play anymore without them.

[Wolvie]

Her reasoning appears to be that her kids' friends don't want to come to her house because they don't have a.) a pool, b.) video games. Visiting kids are inevitably bored if they don't have one or the other to occupy their time, because kids don't play anymore without them.

Again her logic is flawed. When I was a kid we would go outside and use sticks as guns to play war when we weren't playing games. The only pools I ever saw was in hotels. And ya know what? I was just fine making swords out of wood, and blowing up my action figures with M-80's.

Kids will find a way to make fun if there isn't some form of electronic device or pool handy.

[Esquilax1138]

What her son will turn into...

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/Esquilax1138/WarningGodsJudgement.jpg

[Vigil80]

Nevermind the kids' imaginations or lack thereof. Her kid's friends don't want to come over because she's a crazy old bag.

[Savok]

What her son will turn into...

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/Esquilax1138/WarningGodsJudgement.jpg
"And Mormons" makes that sign.

[Lance Uppercut]

What her son will turn into...
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5823/codylinleypictures256x3.jpg

I fixed it. In my experience, sheltered kids tend to lead crazy fucking lives as adults once they break out.

[ThievesAmongUs]

People's stupidity never fails to amaze me.

[Hawkzombie]

I guess Pizza Rolls is the preferred term, but it is more or less a nugget.

http://popshow.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/300_135315-1.jpgHer reasoning appears to be that her kids' friends don't want to come to her house because they don't have a.) a pool, b.) video games. Visiting kids are inevitably bored if they don't have one or the other to occupy their time, because kids don't play anymore without them.

No..no...I know Pizza Rolls. They are the one proof there is a kind and loving God in existence. A Pizza Nugget can only be the tool of Satan.

[Esquilax1138]

I fixed it. In my experience, sheltered kids tend to lead crazy fucking lives as adults once they break out.

You're probably right, I grew up with this poor kid with super strict adopted parents, like bouncing coins off the bed sheets military police types. Last time I saw him years ago he was passed out on the floor of this seedy house after doing a bunch of heroin and coke, once he got out of that house he went fucking crazy.

Best way to make someone want something is tell them they can't have it.

[Spigot]

There's this funny period when they're really young when you feel more comfortable with them seeing stuff because they're not really clued in to what's going on. I'm probably more careful with my son now he's seven than when he was, say, three.I'm the same way. I don't have a problem listening to some podcasts with... questionable language when I have my 2.5 year old daughter in the car with me but I won't play them with my 5.5 year old son because he asks all kinds of awkward questions. Plus when he started repeating choice words at the babysitter's place, I had to feign innocence and vow to limit his exposure from then on.

That said, my kids both know how to take down a zombie. It's both funny and sort of creepy to watch them turn every game of tag or hide and seek into some form of zombie hunt.

[LongStepMantis]

What her son will turn into...

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/Esquilax1138/WarningGodsJudgement.jpg

This picture is gold. I love how they threw in "and Mormons" real fast at the end, like they were brainstorming things to hate and someone said "Dirty Mormons! Don't forget about them!" so they were added to the list as Capt. Virgin smirked, to himself, about how he had shown those Mormons a thing or two.

[ShivaX]

Best way to make someone want something is tell them they can't have it.

I think its more accurate to say you need to fight your battles. If you try to control every aspect and are extremely strict you reach a point where not making your bed and doing crack seem like equally "bad things" to do. You need to give the kid some leash so they can learn and that way when you DO crack down on them for the really bad things it has more effect. Otherwise it just comes off as the parents being strict (yet again) and it loses its effect.

[evilgoodwin]

She's right, you know. I recently cured cancer in myself with a random assortment of chemicals, and right before I wrote it down, I saw an invite to something called "Farmville." So I thought, what's the worst that could happen?

Next thing I know, Satan is screaming through my brain while he sodomizes my soul, and I wake up in a pile of moose parts, which is odd since I live near no moose. After using parts of my neighbor as the five points on a pentagram to the dark lord, I never finished whatever ritual I started because I started playing Snake on my phone. Then I ate pizza nuggets. And swam.

I'll never remember the cure now, because the devil himself replaced the memory of every ingredient with "Bleach" and "Fire." Mankind will suffer for my folly!

[Karmakin]

Yeah, you can only go to the "No" well so many times. It really does have diminishing returns.

These things really irritate me. Mainly because the perspective is all wrong. She actually wrote a follow up post. Saying that all her critics were straight out wrong, blah blah blah, never would amount to anything, and her kids were busy PLAYING OUTSIDE.

Now there's nothing wrong with playing outside, especially if you live in one of the (few) remaining communities that actually support it. But her argument was about intellectual traits..about how video games wouldn't result in people being smarter.

So how does playing outside do this?

The reality is that all forms of media are good in moderation. Books, film, music, video games, whatever. Everything does expand your horizons. And unless you're sitting your kids down and reading to them out of physics textbooks, quite frankly, it's all "mindrot". There's always something "better" you could be doing.

[evilgoodwin]

How much to fund the study that shows the negative effects of overly-protected kids? Since the harpies that act like this are always throwing around scientific evidence, it's about time to see what their methods cause the kids to become when they leave the nest.

[Wraith]

Time for more Video Gaming Hate.

Game Politics (http://gamepolitics.com/2010/01/26/after-tragedy-dr-plays-violent-game-blame-card) brings us the story of a 9-year-old Texas boy who hung himself in a school bathroom. In CNN's report, they brought on Clinical Psychologist Dr. Brenda Wade for commentary.The doctor cited two factors for why children are acting out in ways “never imagined possible”. The first was that there is now “more instability” in families, because of external stresses and the economy.

The second factor? Violent videogames of course.

Dr. Wade stated:The other factor is that younger and younger children are exposed to very violent videogames with content that I would shudder to have an adult watch on a regular basis.

We just covered, a couple days ago, the story that children are watching as much as 52 hours a week of TV and sitting in front of a screen. A lot of that content is not uplifting and it’s not teaching our children how to handle problems and feelings.These statements came moments after the Doctor cautioned that we “don’t want to blame and cast dispersions” at what role the boy’s family may have played in the tragedy.Of course, I haven't found any reports suggesting that this event was in any way game-related, or that the boy played an excessive amount or excessively violent video games. Or any at all. Just seems like a psychologist getting her 15 minutes in the wake of a tragedy, trotting out the usual violent video games argument.

At least one article suggests that the boy may have been "bullied too much." (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2635557/9yearold_boy_found_hanged_at_school.html)