Call of Duty is making our kids retarded.... by 6IXSTRINGJACK

Sorry, I have to disagree here...
My kid has never touched any kind of video game before this year, and I don't have any plans to introduce any others in her future.

I don't think they are healthy. I think they encourage sedentary behavior, and really do modify the parts of the brain responsible for instant gratification which can lead to all kinds of other obsessive behaviors.

Her friend at school has drawers full of those games...You know what he doesn't have? Any books in his house, or an attention span for anything that doesn't beep or shoot. You would think they would make one smarter, but it's my experience that they mostly make people more oblivious to reality...

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Saturday, January 11, 2014 1:34 AM

I can't argue the games/vs/books arguement here Wish.

I'm just talking games/vs/games....

We'd probably all be better off if nobody played them. I'm just saying that with the lightning fast reflexes of a 4-5 year old, that kid should be making his older bros cry in envy of his skills. Instead, they're bitching to their mom that the kid still doesn't "get it".

I say, give that kid control of early 80's classics and he'll make his older brother's jaw's drop.

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Saturday, January 11, 2014 8:47 AM

Depends on the 4-5 yr old, I guess.

Do me a favor and be the healthy relative for your niece. People were always wanting to pick my kid up and give her tons of bad food and let her gork out on TV all day, and it always made me feel like I was sacrificing her health so I could have a day off. If you wanna spoil her take her to cool places and pay attention to her and read to her.
There's more than one way to be the fun uncle...

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Saturday, January 11, 2014 1:19 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

The level of CG and plot lines that go into making of such games ( I play Battlefield, not CoD ) , they're working with budgets and labor that rivals the making of a Hollywood movie. It's hard not to play them.( Even more so with the multiplayer mode ) Seriously, they're so vast in detail and landscape, it's like being PART of a movie. One that basically never ends, until they come out with newer versions, and turn off the servers for the old games.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Saturday, January 11, 2014 5:35 PM

Quote:
Her friend at school has drawers full of those games...You know what he doesn't have? Any books in his house, or an attention span for anything that doesn't beep or shoot. You would think they would make one smarter, but it's my experience that they mostly make people more oblivious to reality...

Hmm. I think it's potentially dangerous to allow yourself to be influenced by anything that is published or produced.

Video games, television, movies, and yes, even books. All of them have some level of propaganda that has been approved.

So far, the internet is too much of a frontier for that kind of control, but there are definitely people who seek to control it, and the internet will not be safe for much longer.

Ultimately, people are going to have hobbies, because the bigger things in life don't always come easily and satisfaction sometimes must be obtained elsewhere. Whether a person is affected by their hobbies becomes a question of how self-aware and self-conscious are they, do they know who they are and what they believe, and if they can resist outside messages. All things in moderation, but some children already have a strong self-concept, and as such may be safe playing some video games. And video games can be educational, possibly moreso even than school - I swear in junior high that I learned more about civics and various forms of government by playing the Civilization games than I ever did in social studies.

I do not read. Unless you count the internet - in that way, I sort of absorb information by proxy. I do, however, play video games, when I need to take some time off from some project or another and give myself a break. I don't like first person shooters. I do like RPGs and Action Adventure. And I like puzzles.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 9:38 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Depends on the 4-5 yr old, I guess.

Do me a favor and be the healthy relative for your niece. People were always wanting to pick my kid up and give her tons of bad food and let her gork out on TV all day, and it always made me feel like I was sacrificing her health so I could have a day off. If you wanna spoil her take her to cool places and pay attention to her and read to her.
There's more than one way to be the fun uncle...

Hehe... true Wish. I guess it does depend on the 4-5 yr old. I just remember standing on milk-crates playing old classics like Dig-Dug and Super Pac-Man and having other kids a lot older than me kind of gather around.

I know it's a stupid thing I hold on to all of these years later, but when you've spent most of your life trying to be as invisible as possible in the "real" real world, it's fun to reflect on my own 15 minutes of fame, no matter how young it came. That being said, I guess I was being irrational hearing about an otherwise cunning kid being talked about like he was stupid within earshot by his very young uncle.

Maybe I shouldn't be so confident he would master those old games and blow his brothers and uncles away. I'm thinking I've got to at least try. I just saw one of those battery operated Pac-Man games that are just a joystick you plug into your TV at my mom's house. Probably bought it years ago for my step nephews. I'm going to ask if I can have it and the next time I come by I'm going to teach the little man how to play some old school Pac Man. ;)

About the niece though..... no problem Wish! There's no point in spending time with her if I'm just going to veg out on the sofa and play games or watch TV like I spend WAY more time doing these days than I care to admit.

One of my fondest memories when I was a kid was when either of my parents would read to me before I went to sleep, and soon I was reading the books to them. I still wonder if I just memorized what words they said on which page, or if I actually learned how to read at such a young age. I remember loving the Berienstein Bears, and Hop on Pop, and a story about a cat named "Mimi" (it was one of those full color childrens books in a set that had a gold foil wrapper around the binding). There was another story with a blue and red tugboat with eyes that did some job that everyone else told him was impossible to do.

When she's old enough to understand things, that's when I really want to be a part of her life. I want her to have the advantages I had because I was first born in a family of over 15 cousins. I could count to "127" when I was two... lol. There was this long, baby blue tape-measurer my mom had in her ancient Singer sewing machine. It went a lot higher, but my Dad still laughs about how I was able to count that high and then just stopped and said I couldn't count any higher.

I want her to be able to count to 128 :)

My grandpa would not allow me to wear a wrist-watch that was digital. I'm sure if I ever wanted to I could tell my parents about it, but I didn't want to defy that. I had an old-school time-piece and my Grandpa asked me what time it was a few times a day.

I wasn't a genius at all, I figured out later in life. I just had such an awesome head start on everyone else that I was able to coast for the next 25 years because after the "split" nobody ever really pushed me anymore.

You would seriously be surprised how long you can coast when you already know your ABC's and timesXtables and how to read at a 4th grade level and how to tell time on a classic watch on your first day of pre-school.

My dad took us all to the Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry and the History Museum and the Shed Aquarium bi-monthly for years when it was "his side of the week". When they started charging a few bucks, he just took us on the "free days" ;). I can't even imagine what it costs to go there now. Hope they still have free days, because I'd work my schedule around them for the "nugget".

Maybe I'll re-institute "Brushing for Dollars", or at least suggest to my bro that he does someday if she fights it. It was a program my Dad made when I was probably 7 years old. What a smart idea, looking back on it. After the split my Dad assumed, rightfully so, that my Mom wasn't hounding us about brushing our teeth.

Instead of arguing the point with her, he found much less antagonistic way to approach it....

He actually printed out spreadsheets for us from work, back in like 1986. We had them pinned on our fridge and my dad would pay us a nickel every time we brushed our teeth, up to 3 times a day. We had a lot of quarters to play arcades in the summer. We also had teeth so sparkling white it would blind you.

That girl is going to see the best of me, and we'll both benefit from it.

For years I've joked that I was going to skip the 3 kids and first bad marriage and just marry a 20 year old when I'm 40 like my Dad did. That joke gets a little less funny when you're a lot closer to 40 than 20 and you realize that you don't have 3 boys to cart around everywhere and show off.

Until last month, the best I could hope for in that arena was a well trained dog to walk around. (I still want a dog when I know I can afford to take care of it).

I can't wait to take her to the Omnimax Theater at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was pricy at 8 bucks a pop back in the day. It might be like 20 bucks now. Totally going to be worth it though.

I don't eat any fast food. I might not have the healthiest diet around, but i don't throw it on chemically engineered "food" that looks virtually identical 2 minutes off the grill as it does 2 years off the grill.

Note to self: Going to have to learn how to cook more than spaghetti and tacos when Nugget is old enough to learn to appreciate good food.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 9:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:

The level of CG and plot lines that go into making of such games ( I play Battlefield, not CoD ) , they're working with budgets and labor that rivals the making of a Hollywood movie. It's hard not to play them.( Even more so with the multiplayer mode ) Seriously, they're so vast in detail and landscape, it's like being PART of a movie. One that basically never ends, until they come out with newer versions, and turn off the servers for the old games.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

I'm the last person to judge that man. Seriously. I used to be the first person to buy new tech but now I am so far behind. The most advanced system I have in my house today is a hand-me-down 360 with a burnt out disc drive, and now it's got the fatal RROD. The Q-Tip fix didn't work. I'm going to try to open it up and clean everything and use new thermal paste to get it going again. I'll see if I can get a used working CD drive for it too. Of course, when I spend this time, I'll see what modding options are available.

As far as addictions go, to each their own.

I can NEVER be a part of some never-ending online campaign. I would spend my entire life there outside of work and sleep, and I'd never get anything done.

The most recent game I finished was Aria of Sorrow, a Castelvania game on the GBA. The most recent game I'm playing is Metroid Fusion, on the GBA.

Emulation Rulz...

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Monday, January 13, 2014 9:50 AM

True Byte, but what books do we read? The ones that we currently hear are taboo, or the ones that are no longer taught in school because they are banned?

FPS ain't for me these days, although DOOM made me metaphorically cream my shorts back in the day. My last "hurrah" with that genre would have been Goldeneye for N64. One of the best and most influencial games of all time, and the Grand-Daddy of all multi-player FPS that make a buck today.

Halo was so "after my time"...

My favorite series has always been Final Fantasy, although I've missed a few major entries and hope they get re-done in HD (7 comes to mind.....)

In the mean time, if you can find a copy of "Faxanadu" for the original Nintendo, you might be amazed at the depth of fantasy lie in that 8-bit game if you have a little imagination to spare.

I'm not big on puzzles myself, but I think you would make an excellent "Spades" partner on Yahoo Games. I love that game, because it has very little to do with luck, all of the other variables considered.....

If you know how to play spades and/or if you want to learn how to kill at spades, let me know. :)

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Quote:
Her friend at school has drawers full of those games...You know what he doesn't have? Any books in his house, or an attention span for anything that doesn't beep or shoot. You would think they would make one smarter, but it's my experience that they mostly make people more oblivious to reality...

Hmm. I think it's potentially dangerous to allow yourself to be influenced by anything that is published or produced.

Video games, television, movies, and yes, even books. All of them have some level of propaganda that has been approved.

So far, the internet is too much of a frontier for that kind of control, but there are definitely people who seek to control it, and the internet will not be safe for much longer.

Ultimately, people are going to have hobbies, because the bigger things in life don't always come easily and satisfaction sometimes must be obtained elsewhere. Whether a person is affected by their hobbies becomes a question of how self-aware and self-conscious are they, do they know who they are and what they believe, and if they can resist outside messages. All things in moderation, but some children already have a strong self-concept, and as such may be safe playing some video games. And video games can be educational, possibly moreso even than school - I swear in junior high that I learned more about civics and various forms of government by playing the Civilization games than I ever did in social studies.

I do not read. Unless you count the internet - in that way, I sort of absorb information by proxy. I do, however, play video games, when I need to take some time off from some project or another and give myself a break. I don't like first person shooters. I do like RPGs and Action Adventure. And I like puzzles.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 10:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Depends on the 4-5 yr old, I guess.

Do me a favor and be the healthy relative for your niece. People were always wanting to pick my kid up and give her tons of bad food and let her gork out on TV all day, and it always made me feel like I was sacrificing her health so I could have a day off. If you wanna spoil her take her to cool places and pay attention to her and read to her.
There's more than one way to be the fun uncle...

Oh yeah, also saw this.

Listen. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if my family actually accepted and encouraged my interests as a kid instead of them shaming me for them. And this is back when I actually did read a lot as a kid and they'd actually ground me from reading because they thought I was reading too much and take all my books away, so it's more than just the video games. But the video games would've been a good friggin' start.

I grew up living in the same house as my parents and not even knowing them because they were so insistent that everything I liked was foolish and a waste of time. Eventually all I could do was hide everything I liked or read or drew or wrote from them, and it ended with me turning into a secretive manipulative lying cynical misanthropic shut-in by the age of six.

Have a heart. If your kid likes video games, then PLAY SOME VIDEO GAMES WITH THEM. Even if you don't like video games all that much or you think they're bad for children - that's all the more reason for you to be involved and paying attention to what they're exposed to.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 10:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
True Byte, but what books do we read? The ones that we currently hear are taboo, or the ones that are no longer taught in school because they are banned?

I've been reading someone mocking the bejesus outta the S.Meyer Twilight series on the internet. And considering I normally wouldn't touch those books, because HOLY FUCK NO, I am prepared to argue that reading books by proxy definitely counts. Otherwise I would supposedly have to read it before I could form an opinion on whether they are terrible, and this saves time and sanity.

Quote:
My last "hurrah" with that genre would have been Goldeneye for N64. One of the best and most influencial games of all time, and the Grand-Daddy of all multi-player FPS that make a buck today.

Ah, Goldeneye. What 90s kid has never turned on paintball mode and just used the rocket launchers anyway?

Quote:
Halo was so "after my time"...

Just as with literature, I no longer have much time for video games, so I tend to vicariously do so through other people. I have not played Halo personally, but I have watched all of the three original games played through like a movie.

Quote:
My favorite series has always been Final Fantasy, although I've missed a few major entries and hope they get re-done in HD (7 comes to mind.....)

I like 7. Also played 9 and 10, but by 10 the series was getting way too linear for me.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 11:14 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

As far as addictions go, to each their own.

I can NEVER be a part of some never-ending online campaign. I would spend my entire life there outside of work and sleep, and I'd never get anything done.

I've known folks who met via online computer gaming ( which seems to be vastly different than console gaming )form relationships and end up moving half way across the country to live with each other. It's crazy, but that's how far some take this stuff. I'm guessing the relationships don't last, I lost contact w/ them, but point is, for those wishing to escape, be it drugs, gambling, gaming, religion... I suppose there's always an excuse to be found. Or made.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Monday, January 13, 2014 11:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Oh yeah, also saw this.

Listen. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if my family actually accepted and encouraged my interests as a kid instead of them shaming me for them. And this is back when I actually did read a lot as a kid and they'd actually ground me from reading because they thought I was reading too much and take all my books away, so it's more than just the video games. But the video games would've been a good friggin' start.

I grew up living in the same house as my parents and not even knowing them because they were so insistent that everything I liked was foolish and a waste of time. Eventually all I could do was hide everything I liked or read or drew or wrote from them, and it ended with me turning into a secretive manipulative lying cynical misanthropic shut-in by the age of six.

Have a heart. If your kid likes video games, then PLAY SOME VIDEO GAMES WITH THEM. Even if you don't like video games all that much or you think they're bad for children - that's all the more reason for you to be involved and paying attention to what they're exposed to.

I grew up with 3-4 households. We were never important enough to invest any time in with sports or boyscouts for my younger bro because we had to be flipped around to so many houses growing up....

One day, I ended up being a moderately successful wrestler in HS and never was "picked on" again in school.

Never got as ripped as Rollins....

Never got smart enough as Speak and Spell....

Here's the Middle Rung for the rest of us kid.....

Don't be it... You can be better than that....

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Monday, January 13, 2014 12:45 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
I've known folks who met via online computer gaming ( which seems to be vastly different than console gaming )form relationships and end up moving half way across the country to live with each other. It's crazy, but that's how far some take this stuff. I'm guessing the relationships don't last...

Surprisingly, in my experience, generally they do.
That's how my ex met her beau, and they're happily married with baby, one I intend to spoil oh so totally rotten.

I think that in some cases getting comfortable in each others mental space before the physical can do a relationship a lot of good - my ex is very comfy in my physical presence, but mentally I frighten her a bit.

The really weirdest part, beyond transmogrifying into something like a brother in law and being totally happy for them, is that she has demanded I instruct the child in Villainry 101, no matter what path in life she takes.

-F

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Monday, January 13, 2014 12:59 PM

Quote:
Surprisingly, in my experience, generally they do.

Yeah, that was my impression. Apparently shared pursuits and similarity in temperament leads to compatibility and continued interest over time.

There are an unspeakable number of browncoat couples and marriages out there.

This is partially why it becomes so annoying that guys and girls complain to me about the people they date that they've met in bars. Of course it's going to be an awful meat market experience and the people there are going to be superficially focused on looks or money.

If they want a deeper connection in their relationships then get a damn hobby and put the same amount of effort into self-improvement and personal fulfillment as they'd like to see a theoretical partner have. And stop blaming everyone else for them not bettering themselves and as such not being able to attract anyone.

Jesus this really isn't that hard. There are 7 billion friggin' people on the world, clearly some people must manage to successfully procreate. And don't give me bullshit about how one gender has it worse for dating, because that same number proves that wrong.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 2:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

My dad took us all to the Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry and the History Museum and the Shed Aquarium bi-monthly for years when it was "his side of the week". When they started charging a few bucks, he just took us on the "free days" ;). I can't even imagine what it costs to go there now. Hope they still have free days, because I'd work my schedule around them for the "nugget".

Those are on my list too. Regular passes are decent priced, but I know the ones hubs would want would be about $80 for the three of us. Could be a while before we cross that those off.

Your dad was a good dad. Mine had trouble making anything out of a package and when I stayed with him on weekends he often opened a can of cheese product, set it on the stove and we had a bag of corn chips with it for a meal... He could build or fix anything but was domestically and parentally incompetent. My mother was very competent in everything but just a high-riding bitch 24/7. Looking back... I'd take him any day of the week.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 2:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:

... And this is back when I actually did read a lot as a kid and they'd actually ground me from reading...

... and it ended with me turning into a secretive manipulative lying cynical misanthropic shut-in by the age of six.

Have a heart. If your kid likes video games, then PLAY SOME VIDEO GAMES WITH THEM. Even if you don't like video games all that much or you think they're bad for children - that's all the more reason for you to be involved and paying attention to what they're exposed to.

I think it's important to not let kids get too obsessive about ANYTHING, and I try to not let hubs do that either (since he can't realize it himself) It's just not healthy. Not unless you can make money off it, anyways

They both have a punishment complex where if you try to stop them from what they want you are punishing them. I put forth that maybe your parents weren't trying to harm you but were trying to make you see how out of touch with your own life you were. Knowing how hard it is to get hubs to see that his desire for certain things becomes majorly counter-productive, your parents might have been justified in getting you to put the books down for a few minutes... But only you can judge that.

I DO play with her, but it's an educational game (School of Dragons) You pick out a dragon to train and raise and there are science experiments to do and life science lessons. I don't think I'll ever sit down and help her play Grand Theft Auto... And unfortunately that's all people do here... I've been taking kiddo and her friend to play parks all over every day it gets warm enough and they are deserted, but I can guarantee that half the houses surrounding them have teens glued to a game console. "Reasonable" doesn't exist. EVERY TIME I pick up my kid's friend her father is playing video games. EVERY TIME. You defend video games for you, I tear them down because there is no reason with these things in society anymore...

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Monday, January 13, 2014 4:10 PM

Quote:
I put forth that maybe your parents weren't trying to harm you but were trying to make you see how out of touch with your own life you were.

*snort* Damn good job they did then, seeing as how I only started to emerge from my shell and allow myself to openly enjoy my hobbies and interests a couple years ago. Or how I was cripplingly insecure as a result and STILL hide all of it from my family.

I can be focused. I can even be obsessed. But I've always been good at time management. If I played a video game for a few hours one day, I would eventually get bored and do something else, just like everyone else. I didn't actually need them setting limits on how I should schedule up my free time.

I always did well in school and got my homework done. That always came first for me, even before games. That was my job, and I took it seriously, because I was ambitious when it came to the intellectual pursuits. And when they asked me to do chores, I did them.

Also despite being a horrible little shit, I did have friends. Not very many, because I'm both eccentric and possibly autistic, but I had them. I played outside. Caught snakes and spiders, climbed trees, wallowed in mud.

So go ahead and try to tell me what harm they were protecting me from. You don't think they told me the exact same things, told me that they disapproved of fantasy and escapism and imagination for my own good? But that line falls as flat now as when they used it.

I don't believe in resenting my parents. I always had a bed, and food, and a room that was about 75 degrees. I also had and still have a whole bunch of stuffed animals, which by and large they were the ones that bought them.

But I also know that their parenting wasn't without flaws, as all people can make mistakes, and I also know what was damaged by those mistakes.

And I'm saying, that kind of dismissal is more harmful to kids than you might think.

Quote:
I can guarantee that half the houses surrounding them have teens glued to a game console.

First, not your business what they do. Second, this hardly discredits my argument that maybe parents can be both supportive AND involved in the lives of their kids.

Quote:
EVERY TIME I pick up my kid's friend her father is playing video games. EVERY TIME.

There's a kind of mass hysteria nowadays that exists about video games, where if someone is a parent and plays video games, then oh no, they're an immature adult-child who is irresponsible and neglectful.

If every time you saw this father and he was reading, or watching television, or on the telephone, would you have this same reaction? Or is it just because it's video games?

And then there's the question of does he communicate or acknowledge or respond to other people in the room, is the child in the room with him, do they talk, does the kid watch, do they play together, is the kid old enough that they don't necessarily need constant supervision?

The argument here seems to be "this guy plays video games at a certain time of day every day, THIS IS A PROBLEM" when it might not be.

Quote:
You defend video games for you, I tear them down because there is no reason with these things in society anymore...

Trust me, there was no reason in society long before videogames were the scapegoat of the day. Before, it was movies and television and before then it was evil books or evil music or evil art or evil gambling or evil alcohol that was ruining society. And while there might be a few people who are easily distracted by or easily influenced by or easily addicted to those things, I'm prepared to argue that no, none of those things were ruining society. A person can choose to enjoy non-productive activities and the world isn't going to crash down around us all.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 5:52 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I think it's important to not let kids get too obsessive about ANYTHING...

I'd say this is prolly where my own mother fumbled it, considering my "obession" was vengeance against a malicious society, and sparked by a Kindergarten "incident" which went almost EXACTLY like this.
(with the bullies lauded and praised, for racism of all things, while the one who stood up was hammered down, which only pissed me off MORE)

That incident was kind of defining in the formation of my character, as was an earlier one versus my abusive father with a steak knife - one reason why I am psychotic about the right to self defense.

-Frem

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Monday, January 13, 2014 6:06 PM

WHOZIT

...and MSNBC is making them evil.

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Monday, January 13, 2014 7:08 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Frem

I have a peculiar request that you may or may not be able to fulfill. You see, I went to Catholic school. There was one nun who terrorized the class (she was probably somewhat demented and was retired the next year), many did their jobs as best they could, and one or two loved all children and were adored in return. But apart from participating in the hierarchy by exercising whatever authority/ influence they could muster, I never, ever, heard a nun or the parish priest (who was their 'boss' and therefore part of the school administration) make demeaning remarks about another skin color, or cultural heritage, or country. So I have no idea how those things would be said.

You recount that "... with the bullies lauded and praised, for racism of all things, while the one who stood up was hammered down ..." and I would like to know, if you remember, what specific words were used. How does that get said?

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Monday, January 13, 2014 9:27 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Oh I remember it quite vividly, even now, burned in like a scar, you bet.

"light people and dark people don't mix, it's like water and oil."
"you shouldn't play with THEM, they're different."
"you need to stick with your own people."

The teacher was *really* euphemistic about it, so it took me a while to figure out what the hell she was trying to say - my own family was a bit more blunt.
And what REALLY pissed me off, and is the reason I will not utter the word, nor even use it uncensored even here, was being called a N*****-Lover by the other white students, which is something NO child learns anyfuckinwhere BUT their parents, or peers who learned it from their parents.

And yet they "knew their place." and weren't "starting a mess of trouble."

Me, I thought the whole concept idiotic when I was five, and my opinion of it ain't improved any since.
And of course when I rejected the Pledge of Allegience in 1978, the word "Commie" got added to the list of epithets thrown at me, three guesses where they learned THAT one from....

I'm of the mind that teaching your children that kind of hate is, itself, a form of abuse.

That said, I went to Catholic school too, for all of maybe two weeks, before getting expelled over the local bully losing a couple of teeth, and I wasn't fond of the place anyways cause unlike the one you went to, they were clannish and hostile to non-Catholics (which they never knew I was, cause I'd learned to keep my mouth shut) cause they were all going to hell, yadda freakin yadda.

I tended to react with extreme viciousness when provoked, you see - thanks to my father I knew what real violence and pain was, as opposed to the typical school fight of poking and a few punches thrown and both sides claiming "victory" only to do it again a couple days later over and over, so when sufficiently pushed I resorted to playing much rougher than expected - against punks who'd never felt real pain in their lives, so when blood started to flow or bones got broke, it was OVER by their concept of the thing, but I wouldn't stop even then and continued to go at them until physically pulled off, initially, cause to my little deranged mind it was 'them or me'.

Tis also where my extreme rabidity towards self-defense comes from as well, my first "equalizer" was a steak knife, and every time someone talks disarmament at me the image that comes to mind is of my bleeding, limping father with one fist balled in readiness behind him politely pleading with me to put the knife down* - which always causes me to question the intentions of those who'd prefer to remove my ability to resist them.
Not aiding the matter at all was being repeatedly suspended/expelled for breaking the natural pecking order and standing up to bullies instead of sucking it up and going with the flow, that whole how-dare-you-defend-yourself bullshit is an absolute berserk button with me and always will be.

*-Yeah, he realllly wanted me to put that knife down, and I knew WHY, and what was comin if I did, and while I had no concept of the specific term at the time my exact sentiment was prettymuch "MOLON LABE, MOTHERFUCKER!"
Which is why I am so bitterly hostile to any notion of registration/regulation/disarmament of any kind, especially in light of the undeniable historical fact that a bloody slaughter has *always* followed it.

-Frem

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Wednesday, January 15, 2014 11:34 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:

So go ahead and try to tell me what harm they were protecting me from. You don't think they told me the exact same things, told me that they disapproved of fantasy and escapism and imagination for my own good? But that line falls as flat now as when they used it.

There's a kind of mass hysteria nowadays that exists about video games, where if someone is a parent and plays video games, then oh no, they're an immature adult-child who is irresponsible and neglectful.

I'm prepared to argue that no, none of those things were ruining society. A person can choose to enjoy non-productive activities and the world isn't going to crash down around us all.

I'm guessing you don't have much actual contact with people of dating age these days? Because I gotta tell ya, most of the girls you run into will tell you they've had a guy leech off them and sit around and play video games and do pretty much nothing else. Ever watch any court TV? Pay attention to news much? You know how many kids have been killed because they've interrupted a damn video game? Do you know how many kids have starved literally to death while mommy and daddy sat around and played bloody video games? You REALLY don't think video games and violence glorification are behind MOST of these school shootings??? You wanna lay odds on how many of them play 'em? How about people sitting there so long THEY die? It's a real thing, not just "hysteria". Speaking from personal experience being married to someone who was addicted to the stupid things and whose family encouraged the addiction in the hopes that it would cause problems and he would divorce me, they are a menace. My own mother tried to get me addicted to them so she wouldn't have to be a parent. So, yeah, I've some experience with the damage they cause...They are like a drug. An anti-reality drug. There's an entire generation of useless addicts out there that defend their drug of choice to the death, so I doubt anything I say will change anything.

It IS a waste of life. When you die I hope you look back and say "I lived my fantasy life to the fullest" and I hope that's enough. It sure as hell wouldn't be for me...

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Thursday, January 16, 2014 1:15 AM

Quote:
Because I gotta tell ya, most of the girls you run into will tell you they've had a guy leech off them and sit around and play video games and do pretty much nothing else.

yeaaah, and dinking around on a cell phone with twitter and pinterest all the time is SOO much better.

Yes, I know what the non-gamer girls are doing, and it is AS ANNOYING as the gamer guy stuff.

Quote:
You know how many kids have been killed because they've interrupted a damn video game? Do you know how many kids have starved literally to death while mommy and daddy sat around and played bloody video games?

Less than a percent of all kids who have parents who play video games. Because the news sensationalizes the worst case stories and ignores what constitutes normal.

A quick google search indicates there was ONE single story of a father killing a son for interrupting a video game that made the national headlines in the last year, which happened in Chicago in October.

Another google search indicates that there was ONE single story this year (also in October) of a mother neglecting her children because of video games in Oklahoma to the point where intervention was necessary.

Hardly indicative of an epidemic.

As for people who die playing video games, most of the instances I'm aware of were in Asia, in cyber cafes, and often associated with some manner of video game sweatshop business. There is maybe one case I can think of where a person in a cafe died because they were so immersed in a game they forgot to eat or sleep for three days. And then China passed laws about hours of operation and time that people could spend in those cafes.

Quote:
You REALLY don't think video games and violence glorification are behind MOST of these school shootings?

No, actually. Depression and anxiety are behind most of the shootings. Like when that postal worker lost his job and shot up the Amish school, or in Virginia Tech when a guy with anxiety problems snapped because of his approaching graduation and frightening upcoming entry into the workforce. Or a quiet troubled immigrant slavic kid in Salt Lake City who didn't play video games, but shot up Trolley Square. Or Columbine, where two kids practiced for the murders on video games, but had been bullied to the breaking point. Or Sandyhook, when a kid had a fight with his mom over his psychiatric treatment and experienced a psychotic break and killed a bunch of kindergarteners. Yes, the kid at Sandyhook even played video games. But that wasn't the cause of the shooting.

In some cases, pop-cultural osmosis has influenced particular impressionable shooters - but the media influence is just as likely to be movies, television, or comic books as it is video games. Or did you forget the Batman theater shooter, who played video games but was inspired by a comic book? And chances are if someone gravitates towards one type of violent media because they're susceptible to it, then yes, they may gravitate towards another, like video games.

In short if you want to blame video games then you have to blame ALL violent media.

But blaming violent media still misses the boat because most people exposed to it don't become violent. What prevents shootings, for kids, is parenting and oversight, and for both adults and kids, useful and appropriate psychiatric intervention and help.

Ultimately, the only thing responsible for shootings like these are the people who did them.

Copy cats I grant you are trying to trade on infamy and the glorification aspect, but copy cats wouldn't be an issue if you dealt with the primary shooting suspects such that they never created a successful scenario to emulate.

Quote:
You wanna lay odds on how many of them play 'em?

About the same percentage that plays video games in regular society versus not. Since obviously not all shooters or murder suicides are kids.

If you want to talk specifically about kids, 80 percent of kids play video games nowadays. 80% of kids are not committing murder.

Quote:
It's a real thing, not just "hysteria".

Taking the most sensationalized news stories as a face value 100% accurate in every case representation of a significant percentage of people engaged in a mainstream activity is not at all realistic.

A problem does exist, but not to the extent that you apparently think it does.

Quote:
It IS a waste of life. When you die I hope you look back and say "I lived my fantasy life to the fullest" and I hope that's enough.

I suppose next people will be telling me I'm wasting my life because I'm not getting married and having kids. Even though I'm asexual and lack the necessary chemical impulses for that to even be possible. Which, by the way, they have said that. In fact, specifically, it was phrased as that I'm possessed by the devil and I am spitting in the face of God's plans that I don't get married and have children. I live in Mormon Utah. My extended family is Mormon.

Or maybe I'll get to have another fun conversation about how I'm wasting my life because I'm not going to drop everything to have another conversation about how I can be more politically active. In between the various community volunteer work I do, or the ways that I am politically active.

What is with you people and forcing your preconceptions of normal, valid, and fulfilling on everyone else? I don't answer to ANY of you people. I don't feel shame because you don't think I'm doing what you would want me to be doing. I don't accept the pity you offer when you get pissed off about how you hope I won't have all these regrets when I die but you kinda hope I do because THAT would show me.

I have regrets. I've watched people die when I've tried to save them. I'm a bitter, physically and mentally scarred sack of neurosis. I've systematically distanced myself from friends because I feel that will cause the least amount of harm when I die and that it's the right, and only, thing I can do. And despite all this, I know, for a fact, that the rest of you have things a lot worse than I do, and that billions of other people have it even worse than that. Compared to that, it doesn't even register on the regret o scale that sometimes I come home from work tired and just want to play some cutesy video games.

So in light of that, how many times, on this board, or any other part of my life, do you think I've ever told someone that I think their life is worthless because of their choices.

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Thursday, January 16, 2014 10:46 AM

1. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't even HAVE a cell, and I sure don't spend time on any of the twitbookspace pages, nor do I advocate it.

2. Totally wrong about the number of articles. I'm sure every town in the country could write a horror story about video games, but I doubt you'd listen anyway.

3.You are the one that brings up the marriage and kid thing every time. If it really didn't mean anything you could let it go. You play martyr very well, but it's hollow. Most people are neurotic, but don't use it as a defense mechanism (which by the way, that tends to have the opposite effect)
There is no boat big enough to keep you from drowning in the sea of yourself. The lady in the mirror is just a re-enforced fallacy.

You know how I know? I've been married to a man just like you for almost FIFTEEN YEARS. (by the way he said he wants to meet you so you both can sit around and commiserate about how much you hate yourselves. Apparently it's an Olympic sport with Spectrum-ites...) You aren't gonna get absolution from me, because I know it CAN work because I've done it. And yeah, despite the problems, I would've regretted NOT doing it.

I know you are worthy of being loved. I know that pretending to not exist so you can make believe you aren't "part of a problem" seems like a strength but is empty and unfulfilling. (also, a LOT of people have to be in love to have "impulses", yer not the first)

I'd love for you to meet my husband, if anything else just so you can see you aren't alone. I'd tell you to stop flogging yourself, but I know you can't- it really is in the wiring. I don't care how much you rant at me, I still like you, as do most here. I've heard worse things at home, and I'm still here...

Also, the purpose of my rants about gaming wasn't to get you to NOT, it was to get you to see that it IS being used as a drug and that THAT is the bad thing here. If you didn't let it interfere with having a life, I would say "great", but I'm gonna guess you do. And you will always choose to unless acted upon by an outside force, because you physically lack the wiring to be any other way. I wish better things for you and I'm not gonna apologize for that.

Now, go ahead- rant away. Hurl your worst, Tempest.
I'll still be here tomorrow...

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Thursday, January 16, 2014 11:06 AM