Not Again! Another Games Rant in the Newspaper!

[Cauterize]

This was in todays Daily Mail! Why cant they leave games alone for once!

[Cmosfm]

Well, he DOES have a Dreamcast controller in his hands....



What can you do? People are always looking for something or someone else to blame for something. There kids are failing school, it's gotta be those DAMN video games.

[thegreatescape]

He's got my number on the sleep thing... Infact its almost 3AM as I write this and I was just playing a quick-fire, adrenailne pumping game of Enemy Territory

[Vroomfunkel]

Man .. why are you even reading that trash-rag anyway?

"Do computer games harm children? Tell us your view at www.dailymail.co.uk"

I'm sure that a few people here could balance the perspective up a little!

Vroomfunkel

[Cauterize]

Well, he DOES have a Dreamcast controller in his hands....

I was gonna mention that too.. usually u see a Playstation Pad.... quite unusual!
Either way im fed up of this blame games issue!

[PentiumMMX]

That's crap!

I played "Rampage: World Tour", and I did not go and destroy a town in real life.

I played "Mortal Kombat", and I did not go beat up somebodyto see if 3 gallons of blood will come out.

I played "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night", and did not go and kill zombies.

I even played "Final Fantasy 7", and did not try to destroy the world by building Mako Reactors.

[Cauterize]

That's crap!

I played "Rampage: World Tour", and I did not go and destroy a town in real life.

I played "Mortal Kombat", and I did not go beat up somebodyto see if 3 gallons of blood will come out.

I played "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night", and did not go and kill zombies.

I even played "Final Fantasy 7", and did not try to destroy the world by building Mako Reactors.

I played Leisure Suit Larry and i didnt go rou....... infact wait a minture....

[IntvGene]

I love these stock photos they get of people playing video games. I've never met anyone who plays a game with the joystick above their shoulder blades. I mean, he can barely see the screen... Holding the joystick above your head, does not make your character go up.

[crazyjackcsa]

Bah, Who reads the Daily Mail anyway, may as well be in the Enquirer. Anyway a while back,a show on the Discovery channel called Daily planet did a segment on how videogames actaully improve a childs capacity to absorb knowledge visuallly from multiple sources at the same time, and this neat little ability to not have to count to 5.I forget what it was called, but if a person sees say two apples, they know it is two apples, they don't have to count. The average person can do that to three. The average gamer can do that to five. I forget what the skill was called.

[MegaDrive20XX]

I love these stock photos they get of people playing video games. I've never met anyone who plays a game with the joystick above their shoulder blades. I mean, he can barely see the screen... Holding the joystick above your head, does not make your character go up.

Hey you're right. That photo is fake. I have never seen a kid do that before and the serious look on his face is so priceless.

Kind of reminds me of how anti-tobacco companies always have that "pin-up" victim to make the audience feel guilty.

And you know they are doing it to attract readers by siding the parents who can't stand video games.

I find it funny this article was posted after the holidays...you'd rarely catch these people during Christmas sales now would you?

[Cauterize]

Bah, You reads the Daily Mail

I know what you mean... Its my parents who get it everyday, i just have a glance at the Football while eating my breakfast... i happened to see this today thou.

[josekortez]

That's nothing. During the past week, there have been a rash of people slitting tires down here, and the woman on the news blamed the success of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 for it, even though I don't see the correlation.

[Lucifersam1]

I teach at the high school level. ALL my students play video games until the wee hours of the morning. However, the ones who under achieve do so, from my experience, not because of video games, but the family environment, outside stresses, and peer expectations. People are always looking for scapegoats (video games are often the target). Why not look a little deeper and discover the truth. Just my two cents.

I have a better relationship with many students because I play games, and can connect with them.

[Xexyz]

I gotta give mad props to that kid. It's 2005 and he is playing a Dreamcast. A young kid that knows what a quality console is, amazing

[Lady Jaye]

well, it could also be a stock photo going back 5 years...

[vultar]

I personally agree that young kids shouldn't have TVs and game systems in their rooms; because, parents really do need to know what their kids are into, and they need to be able to monitor how much time the kids are spending playing games and watching TV so they can make sure the kids are also doing thier homework, playing outside, etc. as well.

That being said, this article is such bull, like all the rest of them that pop up from time to time. I'd love to know where all of these psychotic people are; everyone around here seems pretty dang normal. The game industry has had around 30 years to create a world full of crazy, anti-social, amoral dropouts determined to bring anarchy to the world. I don't know about anyone else, but from my experience it doesn't seem like the world domination plan is working out to well.

Finally, anyone know why a fertility doctor is doing research on child psychology?

[Crush Crawfish]

Hmmm... :notes severe general lack of sleep:

:notes waaaay too much time spent playing video games:

:notes 3.7 GPA:

:dances a happy jig:

[lendelin]

The thing consists of babble. Nothing else. It is assumptions, speculations and political agenda in science clothing.

The truth is: there is NO empirical evidence that volent games lead to violent behavior. This is the result of 15 years of empirical research.

School performance? In the end they reduced the cause to a lack of sleep. The cause then is not videogames. If a child doesn't sleep enough because it reads adventure novels and children's books, I think we would not get the headline 'Reading books leads to bad grades.'

Short term attention span and not be able to focus over a longer period of time? Geez, I wanna see the "study" of that one. So far, there is no empirical evidence of this either. The article gives a hint of a biased sample anyway, referring to 'quick' fire games only. What about other genres like RPgs, puzzlers, platformers, all which require endurance? and I bet no control variables and test groups were used either.

It is babble. If academics have a political agenda they turn into idiots like everyone else. In the US we have Anderson from the University of Iowa who does the same over the top, biased studies, severly flawed, with ridiculous over the top conclusions consisting of mere speculations.

It is babble and nonsense. In twenty years from now people will smile about this stuff.

[Lone_Monster]

Blech. I'm the gamer in my family, and I get great grades.

My brother however, is the "jock", and his grades suck.

[Push Upstairs]

It is babble and nonsense. In twenty years from now people will smile about this stuff.

I just read it and i am already laughing at it.

I don't have any problems focusing on things and i have played games alot longer than the "kids" in the "study" mentioned in that "paper".