The Insane Asylum

Following on from my Attempting to Understand Jack Thompson article, it seems there ARE people out there that are concerned for children's well being. So what is my problem about this and why am I blogging about it?

During my daily prowl of the Battlefield Heroes forums, Goodman, the community team manager had placed a new rule up about not using the words "beta" or "key" within a topic title in order to get the creative juices flowing and of course stop many members complaining and whining about having no beta key. As I was reading the replies, I found this little gem just sparkling for the whole world to see:

quote Invester

invester – Wed, 2009-03-11 16:10

this is out of order. why would you moderators and wannabe moderators try and alienate the community. just from looking round it seems that theres been a small group of you people, who are trying to create a class devide.
some of your responses to 13 to 15 year olds is nothing short of a disgrace, regardless of there behaviour.

we recently had a suicide here, were a young boy hanged himself over an argument
about a game.

looking around here, there are some people who arent even moderators, and are trying to come accross as moderators, and when things dont go there way. they try and belittle people in what they think is a subtle way. i am shocked and worried that one of these pretend moderators, who clearly have no people skills, are going to send an emotional child over the edge. and cuase tragic consequences. to be honest this forum needs to be closed, it is shocking watching whats going on.

Now, not being funny or anything but yes Battlefield Heroes is a 12+ game and many 12-15 year olds visit the site and forums but this "member" is preaching that the forums need to close just for the above reason. My condolences to the family mentioned above but I'm sorry, "death over videogames" is becoming over rated these days. Kids aren't killing themselves or others over games or because of games, they are doing it because of other things. Yes the arguments might have been about games but arguments are more about the people's feelings and emotions against the others.

Arguments only need a subject to start from, from there they span out to everything else as in, they aren't about the subject that started it. Seriously, think about the arguments you have had or heard, I can think of several right now that started from subject A, faded from subject A, mention subject B and dive right into subject C, they then die at subject D.

Now don't get me wrong, there are people on the forums that are arrogant and may "look down" on the younger ones but that's because with a human's judgement being naturally flawed they associate young members with spammers/whiners. I know I do when I have skimmed the forums whether it be here or any other forum.

Basically what I am saying is, it's not just the games that are rated for adults that are being attacked for the "death by videogame" preachers. It's pretty much the whole game industry and in my personal opinion, it's not videogames that are killing our youth, it's life and more importantly children's TV and children's videogames...not adult orientated games or those aimed for pre-teens and teenagers.

My final thought: Video games when looked at from a distance or even when you dig deep into the matter, yes they are time wasters and yes they take you out of real life and put you into a fantasy world but I would love for anyone to dare say they have ever seen a gamer appear on Jeremy Kyle or Jerry Springer. Not only that but unless I have missed game related news somewhere, I have not heard a peep of gamer girls getting pregnant and not knowing who the father is, getting pregnant and then wanting an abortion and so on.

I am not saying it doesn't happen, I am not saying it doesn't get reported but what I am saying is...everyday kids die out on the street due to being homeless, being bullied, being randomly stabbed for not handing over their money or phone, dying from drug overdose...the list goes on and yes some are reported but is there ever an end to it? The answer is no, kids have a mind of their own and they will do all the things that are bad, against the law and generally whatever else is known as taboo.

When I was young, kids used to get videogames, music and movies by shoplifting, these days they can surf the net and find it all in several seconds flat, why? Again that is a simple answer, not only that but it has two answers. One is because it is free and they don't have to pay, just like shoplifting if they don't get caught and two, also like shoplifting it is against the law.

My overall point is that video games aren't to be blamed but what is to be blamed is the brain within the skull of the kid, well alright that's being a bit harsh and so most of the blame does fall squarely on the parents.

I would say a good solution is to have "educational" features within games such as in GTA, you do something wrong then you go to jail but then that kills the game franchise anyway as then there wouldn't be a game to play...it would be *Player steals a car, cops are onto him, police chase around the city, crashes car and kills a bystander. Cops run him down, throws him in jail*

a week later...

"Player name...you have been found guilty of grand theft auto and murder, your sentence is 25 years"

*Screen goes black with a timer counting down in real time for your sentence to end*

25 years later....you are released. You get a job as a janitor at a school...you are fired 2 days later due to a kid slipping and injuring himself on a wet floor.

¬_¬

This world is pathetic and for some reason I still get up in the morning and go to work, I still abide by the law and the rules and the morals that bound me as a human but for what purpose? To have the only thing that gets me out of this shitty life for 8 hours a day to be crushed and destroyed for some moronic idiots that can't look after a child?

Forget saving the environment and being eco-friendly, I say mess the world up because it's a mess to begin with and starting to clean it up now ain't going to save it.