I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush, but is this an annual thing? Do news station have a ‘moral panic story about video games’ button that requires pushing once a year? This time the ‘ADDICTIVE VIDEO GAMES WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN’ story comes courtesy of 10 News and I literally don’t even have the energy to be angry about it any more.
But if you feel like being enraged by something today. If you’re in the mood for anger, click here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I mean really — I think we can all agree that children’s use of video games should be monitored and limited to an extent, so what is the story here? This reeks of a completely one-sided beat up catering to a clueless audience desperately searching for one more thing to be afraid of. 10 News hasn’t even granted Ron Curry his traditional five second sound byte, doing his level best to fight the good fight about these kind of misconceptions.
This is — simply put — a one-sided beat up. It’s a sucker punch.
You know what? I’ve changed my mind — I think I have just mustered enough energy to be angry about this.
This is filler. Pure puff piece. “Nothing newsworthy going on,” said the producers. “What’s a traditional hot button topic?”
“VIDEO GAMES,” says another. “We can still get some mileage out of that one, surely?”
“Nah, it’s been done. Surely.”
“Well, our audience is pretty old and out of touch, we might be able to sneak this one past them.”
“Yeah, bugger it. Let’s run with it.”
I’m guessing that’s how it went down.
Addicted to Gaming [Ten News]
Comments
157 responses to “Yet Another Reason To Get Angry With Australian News On TV”
I think we should just ban video games. They’re a nuisance and drive the real estate market down.
and push up taxes 🙁
And worship satan!
And they will all become homocidal maniacs!
Video games will become homocidal maniacs?
Video games turned my son gay! Now he worships Satan and chokes kittens!
#thanksobama
They turned my gay son straight! Now he worships kittens and chokes Satan!
He also named his penis Satan!
A grandmother in Adelaide cut her husbands head off… I think she played video games…
…Ahhhhh… You’re talking about masturbation, right?… I’d heard of that. But because I’m addicted to gaming, I’ve got no time for it!…
…guys? The fuck is going on…?
Hey, don’t associate Satan with them darn video games! He just got caught up in the wrong crowd.
Don’t give Graham Burke, the co-CEO of Village Roadshow Australia any ideas – they’ll be trying to ban them as more time spent on video games means less time in the cinema!
hey i was worshiping satan well before i found video games… i mean hes not that bad of a guy
Video games have taught me quite a bit.
For instance, i now have a very basic idea of how grammar works, but i didn’t learn that at school.
It has also taught me to look at things differently in attacking design issues, Making maps for games or thinking of a match’s battle plan. Hence it has made me use a part of my brain that other wise wouldn’t be used.
Thank you video games.
“For instance, i know have a very basic idea of how grammar works”
Ok, I’m gonna be that guy… That sentence did your argument no favours. Having said that, I agree that I’ve also learned alot of useful (mental) skills from video games.
“very basic” I liked that part 🙂
The point i’m making is i NEVER used it or even knew what a comma did 2 years ago.
Why am i being moderated now???
dont worry man, there will always be people on the net who need to criticise spelling and grammar. just remember that the english language is a collection of all other languages, it evolves everyday. What is wrong or right is only due to the majority agreeing. some people me included have a much easier time learning when it is tactile, maybe you are the same. and there is no shame in that because we all learn differently.
I’m amazed at how much i have learnt hands on at work these past 3 or so years, compared to school anyways.
Funny thing is i havn’t used used basic handwriting or gramatical skills apart from the rate tafe certs i’m doing.
well as long as you stick with a good union you probably wont have to but when you start looking for another job those skills will come in handy
Because you make a point of saying you know how grammar works, while with the sentence provided show that you don’t.
It’s the equivalent of telling someone you can skateboard right before you slip off the board and land face-first into wet concrete.
His point stands, in a way.
Here’s a video of Tony Hawk stacking it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVJz6oby0dQ
Nobody’s perfect.
I know basically how a car works but I wouldn’t be able to effectively put one together. So, his point stands.
Dude I can excuse a Typo, but I have to ask did you originally mean now instead of know?
I’m fairly confident that’s more to do with how much attention you paid at school, rather than video games being a better teacher.
Well… modern teaching… Most younger people have a worse education where things like this are concerned but learn more complex math than I learned. You’d think they would get the communication up to standard first. Oh well, everyone knows better.
Nah mate,i wasn’t allowed to do english.
Hold on while I put on my believing look…
….
just a second more…
-and I’m back. Sorry, what was that?
I was too “disruptive” and was sent to sit it out.
And the teacher was a jerk.
But that was all most 4 years ago, so it’s in the past.
a lot is two words.
I learned geography from playing World Empire.
Games are also the primary reason I know the basic rules of soccer, basketball, baseball, chess, backgammon, solitaire, poker and snooker.
Also the names of lots of different types of weapons and armour, and bits and pieces of history and mythology.
Also that killing is a great way to solve problems, and has no lasting consequences.
Not that this is helping, but still funny nonetheless:
http://www.penny-arcade.com.au/comic/2002/01/25
Hahaha. Did you bookmark that to use on people like me?
I wish xD Spent 5 minutes trying to find the damn thing! It’s always stayed in my mind about what games are “teaching” people and would be the perfect satire piece
Got another
http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/i-Lk8bgFz/0/1050×10000/i-Lk8bgFz-1050×10000.jpg
Funnier and more relevant: http://www.penny-arcade.com.au/comic/2014/06/30/quantification
I learnt that Gandhi was an immortal emperor that massacred all the other nations and imposed an oppressive regime with brain control chips thanks to Civilization.
And i also learnt about america from assassin’s creed 3 😉
Yeah, I caught this on TODAY this morning, looks like they wanted a slice of the pie too. Can’t seem to find a link to it though.
Nobody with a brain gets news from Australian media outlets, so it’s basically all satire.
Mostly because I refuse to accept there is no bottom limit to IQ.
It wasn’t all satire. They had some excellent advice for parents in the segment.
1. Help children feel heard.
Nothing more frustrating for a kid when they can’t be heard. In fact, that’s what got me into gaming; trying to deal with parents who would stick their fingers in their ears and loudly yell LA LA LA. And then they had the hide to tell _me_ to grow up.
2. Stay calm, no matter what.
Good advice, regardless of whether you’re facing down your child, or a ravenous bugblatter beast of Traal. Some say there is little difference between the two, so you should treat them equally. A towel can help.
3. Any suggestion should be followed with a positive comment.
Be positive, people! It’s all good. It’s a known fact that only 0.01% of all game playing children turn into homicidal maniacs. Your chances of raising a decent child are actually surprisingly high.
i always wonder why the hosts/reporters dont refuse to report this crap? surely they dont get into journalism to do crap like this or work for ACA and TT and promote racism and lies.
As an ex-journo, I can say three things contribute to this:
1. Lack of security in the entire profession, let alone a workplace. More than once I was given the old “You should be grateful that you work here…” speech, culminating in the “I’ve been a journo for years and I know the audience…” speech, ending in me running a story I didn’t want to run.
2. All the decision makers are older journos except in certain areas (notably fashion, tech, games) and they love themselves a beat-up, especially with a built in audience (oldies screaming “Video Games are evil! We should all go back to listening to the talkies on the wireless!”) AND a counter-audience (“Games aren’t evil and here’s why…” but sadly more like “Fuck you cocksucking newbs you don’t know CoD FORVEER!!!!11one”). I won’t bore you with the theory, but they love it when a story runs and gets attention, then gets attention in the “tail” for days afterwards in comment forums, feedback to the program, social media…why do you think ACA/TT always went after dodgy builders? Not because they’re endemic in Australia, but because everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who might have an uncle that had A DODGY BUILDER DO HIS ROOF OMG I NEED TO SHARE THIS TOTALLY UNIQUE STORY ON THEIR WEBSITE (and look at their ads…)
3. Because the time and peer pressure lead to a distinct lack of original content, so they go through to “update” old stories when nothing new is presenting itself. They use “new research” as a fuckawful excuse to do so. In fact, I’d be surprised if most of the journo’s actually bothered to look up previously filed stories from their newsroom/program.
Well, I think you got it spot on with your 2nd point – gamers are peeved, parents probably up in arms and this will be rehashed for the n-th time.
So agree with #3.
It really has to be every 3 months or so that either ACA or TT run their “which washing powder is the best” segment and it seems like its just the same “results” again with new footage and VO work.
I loved a comment from Derryn Hinch when he was asked once if he’d host a current affairs show again. His responce was, when he hosted current affairs shows, they did stories that were actual current affairs, not which supermarket has the cheapest prices!
I wonder if the talking heads on news programs are even Journalists anymore. Surely it doesn’t take a degree to read a Press statement.
Huh… I thought Ten had axed its news department.
they did, that’s why they’re running this piece.
Wait, your trying to say The Project isn’t an educated news program?
No, The Project just cock teases us by getting us to wonder: “Does Carrier Bickmore’s ‘sex voice’ sound identical to her ‘reading the news’ voice?”, even though we know we’ll never get an answer, just crappy ACA/TT segments; And provides fap material for Ten’s management who like to jerk it to Steve Price and don’t believe there is enough angry, ill-informed commentary on TV.
This is fucking pathetic. I cannot wait for the day when these future scared reporters and their colleagues are put into nursing homes and we can finally get over all of this. The arguments they make are ridiculous. I really don’t believe even a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of gamers have dropped school to play without being financially independent and gaming makes people depressed? I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite. Games are there for entertainment and to make you happy. Why would you continue playing a game that makes you depressed? anyway, nobody takes this seriously anymore so I guess they can ramble on all they want.
Actually there are kids that drop out school to play games by stealing money from their parents. Gaming making people depressed no. The whole reason why a percentage of gamers are depressed is because games are what they choose to cope with the depression. Usually the cause of that are parents and friends. How the hell do you get depressed playing games?
It was on Ten though, so it’s quite likely no one actually watched it.
Haha yeah – I think more people clicked on the video in this story than have watched channel ten in the past month!
I watch the Formula 1 race…. actually, that’s the only TV I’ve watched in years (except for the Olympics and world cup)
This reeks of uneducated and miss informed bullshit.
I hope that psychologist was misquoted for his reputation sake, otherwise I would never use his services. What he just described as “video game addiction” was backwards, it is a symptom of what he described NOT the cause.
What you don’t know about your pants that could harm your family, tonight on not quite really news!!
I need to take my pants off immediately!
the problem is that you wore them to begin with…
PANTS FREE REVOLUTION!
Give it time my friends, these people will age out and then journos who grew up with video games will decide these are silly scare tactic empty stories.
Sadly that’s not the case. You don’t picture the people you went to high school with, or even their kids, as being the targets for this sort of garbage but they are. People grow up and their priorities shift. The people watching these shows today grew up facing the same bull we did.
It’s deeper than just video games. It’s kids, youth, change, entertainment, differences. It all sets off alarms for certain types of people. It’s why people who grew up considering Alice Cooper just another crappy musician with a stage act they weren’t interested in could get so easily swept up with the idea that Marylin Manson was trying to sell their children to pedophile devil worshipers.
It’s actually sort of understandable when you think about the impact of having kids or investing years making something of your life. I try not to be an asshole like this but the reality is that in the decade since I finished high school I’ve been shown that the world is a lot less simple than I thought. It doesn’t excuse falling for this crap, and it certainly doesn’t excuse making this crap, but thinking of it this way at least gives you an idea of why people get suckered into this.
The upshot is that it seems to distract those same people from the more vile scapegoating. Where in the past those fears were capitalised on by racists, homophobes, misogynists, etc now it gets focused on Call of Duty players. Gamers and the entertainment industry in general take one for the team here.
Yeah it all depends on how well this propaganda works….
I found the loading ad quite funny in relation to the piece – KFC doing nothing is something…
2.5 hours a day? Pfft, fucking lightweights.
What I find funny is that the comments about online gaming causing anti-social behaviour and being the only “positive” thing in their lives to be a more accurate decription for the dudebros and toxic players destroying the industry.
Geez. 2.5 hours of some casual farming game.
Clearly that 2.5 hours could be used on something far more constructive, like watching Channel 10.
ahahaaha!
Also, someone playing Minecraft with the trackpad on a MacBook is not the proper way to game, let alone get addicted to it. Having to use a trackpad for a first-person game would make me rage-quit more than anything.
The first thing that played when I clicked the link to the clip was a Nintendo ad … just to highlight how ridiculous this story really is.
I wonder how their sponsors react to stories like this….
– AKA Kotaku?
So they spoke to one child psychologist and a mum. Case closed people.
JOURNALISM.
I pictured the reporter yelling that while making jazz hands right after pitching the story.
It’s incredibly one sided.
Straya news people! They want to treat gaming like it’s a social disease, but don’t acknowledge that, using their logic, it could be a symptom of abusive/ negligent parents. (Not saying that’s always true. My point is they didn’t even consider why the kids play games in the first place, or even the type of games they play.)
Ludicrous every time. Just finding a scapegoat to help themselves sleep at night: ‘My child is anti-social and depressed because GAMES, not because I don’t see them enough or pay attention to them or whatever the case may be.’
Then again, at least it’s not as bad as the news in the States where you can buy a gun over the counter and be seen as a fine young american using your right to be free and bare arms, but if you play games you are a potential homicidal psychopath.
It’s not just Aus, this is what the worlds “news” has become. The theme is always the same: Stop looking at the world and start being afraid of everything inside and out of your safe little bubble.
You bombard people enough with this message and eventually they think they arrived at it themselves and worry over useless things.
It’s the perfect scam, rather than tell people what they want, you make them tell you.
Not even a week after the budget was revealed 7 News commented that Australians were beginning to accept it as the right course for the country. They of course based this on nothing and provided no actual evidence or research. You saturate that message enough across an average persons day and the majority of them will begin parroting it.
I know. It’s a lack of journalistic talent leading to this sensationalist garbage for clicks/ views.
*snip*
MY SON ATE TWO WHOLE VIDEOGAMES WHEN IS THIS GOING TO STOP
I heard of a kid injecting videogames. He then went on to eat a baby #stopthemadness #notevenonce
Stop blaming the users… It’s time to track down these manufacturers and put them out of business!!!!
Inject even one Halo and you could DIE.
Saw this on news.com.au. Was about to get rageful, decided against it, just irresponsible parents looking for a scapegoat to not raise their children correctly.
I’d think if a child gets to the point where he stops going to school, stops socialising with others and becomes suicidal, then there’s probably something a lot more serious going on than “videogame addiction”. It’s actually ridiculously irresponsible to say that playing games to the point of obsession this is the cause of these issues rather than a symptom of them, as it gives parents the completely wrong idea of how to help their children. “My kid is suicidal? Channel 10 said its the videogames. We need to yank him away from the videogames, that will fix everything and in no way worsen his state of mind by taking away what he see’s as his only escape from reality”.
Oh, and the dot points at the end describing how to attempt to deal with your child as if he’s a heroin-addict looks like something right of The Onion.
Yep based of what they’re saying it sounds like video games are their coping mechanism.
Something else is actually causing it.
No one disagrees that letting you’re child (or you’re self for that matter) play video games for 12 hours a day probably isn’t going to do them any favours, but it’s a cop out to say that this is the only contributing factor to their poor mental health. Take a look around you, the world is a F#*! up place and the society that you have built for you’re children is what is causing them the most amount of mental anguish, Human being’s weren’t meant to live this way and our brains simply are not able to handle the environment around us. Until we finally wake up to reality our children will continue to suffer mentally
Because of this report, I no longer feel the need to play video games. Thank you ten. You saved my life.
I think the more important question from the news “story” is:
WHO THE HELL PLAYS MINECRAFT WITH A LAPTOP TRACKPAD? I MEAN COME ON!
Mum probably doesn’t approve of them having a mouse, It could distract them from being adults at 6 years old
dude, you read my mind!
Maybe they could lower the levels of depression by her parents splashing out on a USB mouse!
This is all I could think whilst watching the ‘story’.
I wonder what’s next on the “Reassure the fears of the elderly” bandwagon. Usually it’s the same mindless rhetoric about Hoons, Insurance Companies, Banks, Video Games, Immigrants and Boat People (F*&k I hate that label). It’s no wonder 7/9/10 are struggling for ratings, Their viewer base is ageing and dying and they’ve alienated everyone under 50. And what a shitty mum BTW, ” I don’t want my kids playing with their family & friends because I don’t like the medium they are using to communicate”. I seriously can’t stand the baby boomers views, They must be the most out of touch generation to date
“They become more suicidal”
…
…
……
Yeah, kids try to kill themselves every week, that’s normal. But when playing videogames, they try to kill themselves every day!
~
/kill
What’s ironic is by giving this story more exposure you’re actually increasing the chances they run something similar xD I know I know damned if you do damned if you don’t.
If games are the only good thing in their life, that says more about their home lives than the games… But you know, blame whatever helps you sleep at night.
at leas they didnt try to blame foreigners for this one…
AN INFLUX OF FOREIGN VIDYA GAMES!
“Foreign asylum seeking jobless gamers kinghitting old ladies! Tonight on ACA!”
I love the irony that they talk about how “anti-social” gaming can be, then cut to a parent saying that her daughters like to play online, because they like to play online with their cousins.
On the plus side, all I’ve heard about regarding Channel 10 lately is how much money they are hemorrhaging. So while they might be talking smack about video games, we can always laugh at how much more money the video games industry makes than they do. 😛
You know how when people get really old and incoherent so that others start ignoring them? And how those old people start to say random shit because a) they’re losing their minds and b) they HATE being ignored?
That’s pretty much TV news right now.
And don’t call me Shirley.
That is all I have to contribute.
Not to criticise @markserrels but have you just played into their hands? I keep hearing how Channel 10 is struggling, so is your article just giving them more publicity within an age group they’ve traditionally catered to? I’m sure that link in your article alone received a bunch of hits on their tenplay site.
I, like everyone else here is sick of the absurd and petty “news stories” being run about the “dangers” of video games. So maybe if we can just be the bigger people here and ignore them, they will finally roll over and die.
I guess what I’m trying to say is:
DON’T FEED THE NEWS TROLLS
How is this feeding the trolls if feminism articles are not? Both are socially relevant and enraging. On the other hand I see your point…
I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer here for any debate because both sides are equally bias. It’s why they still make news like this.
Bias people making bias/ subjective and skewed research to prove their bias point. It’s the same in any debate: Politics, religion, war, vegetarianism/ animal rights etc, etc. Two sides with a bias just making the other side even angrier by throwing one sided arguments and stating they are fact.
To quote Sherlock Holmes: “Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
We can try be logical, but I doubt that anyone with an opposing point of view would think we are, because they, see us as bias addicts.
Sadly feminism articles aren’t entirely about feeding trolls (while I do agree it is one of those topics that provokes response) because there is a valid argument that equality still needs to be reached. Unlike other debates the argument regarding video games is entirely invalid and has been since the first time it was suggested, and Channel 10 know it. Running a story about this pisses off a huge group of people all at once and more importantly for them it gets people talking. Contained in this group of pissed off people are a particularly important demographic on the internet: the “dudebros”. Feed them a story like this and they’ll be talking about it all week.
I understand your point about bias but can you honestly think of anything that substantiates such bullshit claims? The only violence I’ve ever been inclined to act out due to video games is when I see a story like this on the news and want to smash a hole in my tv.
(I guess one might argue the news is more dangerous than video games).
I don’t disagree with you at all lol, just adding my thoughts.
Also what you said:
Guess that’s why it’s sensationalist. They run stories like this when they have no real journalistic talent and have to rely on BS to get clicks. Which is what subsequently happened when we all went to go watch it now. It’s the lowest form of ‘news’.
One angry mob and the angry mob rebutting them aren’t going to be enough to save Channel 10.
“They’re all playing together all the time, its so antisocial”
I get what they’re trying to say, but… no, wait. I’ve no clue what they’re trying to say.
Right… Playing Manopoly is social, but multiplayer gaming isn’t. I get it… Just like aspirin is witchcraft.
When will people start to realise that just because they don’t like/ understand something, doesn’t mean it’s evil or wrong. My parents still think gaming is vegetating and brain rotting. But they LOVE to watch me play Tomb Raider or Uncharted. Hypocrites every where or sit on the couch watching TV/ using their tablet for hours.
Same old shit. Look, I’ve been playing video games for 25 years and I turned out alrig- wait. Hold on. The head in my freezer is leaking blood again…BRB
Sounds like you need a new freezer!
There’s always been this stigma to ‘video games’ unfortunately. As an entertainment medium its as big as music and movies these days, and is actually a combination of them plus the interactivity of it. So many ppl still think negatively when they hear the term ‘video games’, so maybe we should call them ‘interactive experiences’..
These TV articles are closely followed by the “Someone save the potheads killing each other while out of their minds” propaganda.
Funny how “likes” on FB for the “Video Game Addiction Treatment Clinic” went up 600% over the weekend… My guess is that the story is based on a press release from them.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Video-Game-Addiction-Treatment-Clinic/236527289757411?sk=likes
games dont cause depression! not being allowed to play games causes depression!
I like how ten news refers to video games as being a “depressant” then they refer to games being an “escape” (anti-depressant) all in the same story.
On a side note, I don’t Mike Munro’s eyes.
Oh my god. I could not have made this shit up. The advertistment before the news story is for a new 3DS game. Well played internet, well fucking played *applause*
Also @markserrels, I’m genuinely amazed you could be bothered getting angry at this. You don’t have time. There’s WoW to be played 😉
Just watched the final 20 seconds. More cotton wool bullshit. Life isn’t easy, this is the kid’s coping mechanism because you’re doing a shit job as a parent. Done.
And the ad the end of the segment was for tomodachi life. I literally can’t even right now.
Crappy journalism ignored, the issue of “how much is too much” is actually an interesting one to have an intelligent debate on.
2.5 hours a day is a lot of time to spend gaming if you’re an adult, but I don’t see that as particularly harmful to a child if they’re doing a healthy mix of other things too.
I used to regularly clock 15 hour weeks playing games as a kid, but looking back on it now I don’t think I sacrificed anything really to jam that into my busy childhood schedule of going to school 9-3:30 and…… uh……….. sport on Saturday.
Most kids have TONS of free time, not to mention that (for me anyway) gaming is a much cheaper hobby when you’re a kid. When you can only afford 5-6 games a year then you play the shit out of those 5-6 games a year.
Honestly I’d be more concerned about someone in their mid-20’s playing games for over 2 hours a day and the potential for it to come at the expense of their work, relationships, finances (Steam sales and disposable income = waste), dwindling metabolic rate ect.
I know I regret the time and money I’ve spent on games since I turned 18 far more than I did when I was a kid and my gaming budget was birthday + Christmas presents each year. I can look under my TV and see at least one very nice European adventure sitting there, I can wish my gut was flatter or my jiu-jitsu belt was a darker shade and wonder whether I really needed TWO level 60 Skyrim characters….
I’d have to say the issue isn’t so much kids playing too many games, but the impact of the habits being built on those kids lives once they get to an age when they need to be more responsible with their time.
I’m so over stuff like this, I may move countries.
Gamers in Australia are just reapetedly shit on by the government and the media.
I don’t know where I’ll go, America i suppose.
I’ll sit in my room and play games all day, and if someone knocks at the door, I’ll shoot at the door with guns until the knocking stops.
Good times
I tend to agree a little with that woman , my kids whilst pretty active spend a lot of time on the ipads. That’s pretty much my fault for supplying the technology and putting the fun things on it.
Its really about setting expectations with the kids and monitoring and moderating usage and using gaming as an incentive rather than a right in my experience.
Problem is they expect everything to be a touch screen though 😉
My usual response of “2.5 hours? fucking casuals”
*edit
I also find it rather telling of their argument coming around so often that I have a rebuttal in my back pocket for exactly this occasion.
*edit again (ill make my whole point eventually)
If you are claiming that vidya is ruining childrens lives, fine, and you have said your piece, but what are you suggesting they do instead? sure exercise etc, running around outside and playing but if at the end of the day you are all sitting around a television watching the latest crap cooked up by channel 10 (see what I did there) then I contend that you are actually being more wasteful of your time due to the proven benefits that gaming has when played…in moderation…and with the correct choice of games…not the latest Call of Duty but something that exercises the grey matter.
http://www.videogameaddictiontreatment.com.au/?gclid=CIzf4MzEsr8CFZQJvAod8GYAZQ
– This is the site for their bullshit services, if you feel like sending Mr Emil Hodzic a “thank you note” or something.
People watch 10 ?????
lel
Anyone wanna count how many hours of fucking news we have during the day… And just on one channel, let alone all of them.
All report the same old bullshit.
We need to stop the boats these games come in on!
I miss Australian T.V.
I’d hate to be a talented, but unattractive, female reporter. It seems like at the job interviews, they look through the line of applicants, pick the prettiest blondes, then casually tell the other applicants to go home.
You know what else causes antisocial behaviour and depression? All the shit they put on the news, day after day after day.
Journo 1: “Hey this mangled 30 year old horse I found in the storage still has some life in it!”
Journo 2: “Are you sure?”
Journo 1:”Yeah! Using this we might get a promotion!”
*Attention Channel 10, raise your beating sticks*
They could have put any other word in place of “Video games” and it would have been the same use shit story. The problem isn’t games it’s addiction in general but games is an easy target.
Coming up next on Channel 10: A news story about Geezers in Freezers.
Some nuance might be nice more than going categorically one way or the other. I think it’s unrealistic to go for a simplistic answer:
Pro Games:
– there are a wide variety of games that have different kinds of stimulation. I don’t think occasionally playing tetris is going to send you over the edge.
– there have been games that encourage teamwork, thought etc forever. Video games are just an expansion- not a special category. they don’t need to have an innate directionality.
Con:
-I’m prepared to admit that gaming wasn’t developed by a panel of psychiatrist to come up with the most mentally healthy activity ever. Some games are acknowledged as being designed to be addictive, while others have been known to aspire to propaganda (there was a white supremacist game a couple years ago for instance)
– you can’t regard something as a powerful medium (potential for art) without being open to the possibility of it having a power to inspire negative responses, or provide emotional payouts that transcend the mixed bag (poor game mechanics, questionable payout etc) of general existence.
I don’t even get angry about this sort of stuff anymore. It’s a waste of emotional energy better spent getting ticked off about things that actually matter. We all know these “news stories” are beyond laughable, to the point of just being pathetic. I pity the people who produce these shows and the daft Australian public in general. Nowadays everyone gets upset and offended by anything. Australians are not the brighest bunch, let’s be honest. Between politicians, journalists and the old fuddy duddys, we’ve all been brain washed into living inside a very small bubble.
In any case, I will not watch this video. It does not deserve to be givennthe time of day. It belongs in the bin. I love games, so does my wife and these media outlets can’t do a thing about it. If any parent is stupid enough to take trash like this seriously it really isn’t any skin off my nose.
Folks, ignore this crap. Let it rot and go play some awesomely addictive games!
Games are only one of the casualties of news and journalism choosing to chase ratings instead of investigating and reporting actual facts. If the public wants the real news they have to do the work journalists no longer do.
Isn’t this what the news is all about? Not just with games but with everything. The media attempts to sway the way you think. Commercial television and radio sucks and the internet is getting worse every day.
As a father who plays games, I know 2 things
1. I live in a modern world where I don’t watch TV to get news
2. My Oldest just found out from his mates that I am a rarity amongst my generation, and now I’m a cool Dad
Thanks Australian TV for being intelligence-challenged, because you make me look good!
PS – Access to Videogames are an awesome motivation for kids – I can get ALL the chores done by simply taking over the console till they finish….
“100’s of parents are seeking help”
Shows facebook page with 21 likes xD
next thing ya know , bikies will be selling videogames to our kids , ” and in news tonight a bikie clubhouse was raided and a number of videogames were found at the scene ” … that will be the next one
oh guys, that reminds me, our monthly get-together seal clubbing day is coming up this weekend… we must club those baby seals as a sacrifice to the video game gods…
ALL HAIL VIDEO GAMES.
And this is why I don’t watch television. Television is for idiots, too stupid to think for themselves.
Television is about selling product. All media is. You sit there and watch garbage, then are prompted to go out and buy garbage. The world is full of stupid people, and thats because most of them watch television.
What, people actually watch 10 News? The new FOX news? Thats hilariously.
Serious SBS news or Al Jazeera.
As if Giz/Kotaku/LifeHacker arent guilty of this. How many gap-filler articles have I seen over the years, many that are just one sentence and an embedded video. All media is guilty of it, and moreso for the sake of hits/views/clicks and revenue generation.
Calm down. Seriously.
don’t worry about it. Less and less people are watching TV. TV feels threatened and has to try and bash the internet and games. Nothing to see here, move along.
Many video games are escapism, the issue is not that they are playing them its that they are playing to an extent that is affecting there school work or other aspects of life.
Rather than blaming the Video games as the root course of all kids issues. Maybe they should be questioning why they are spending so much time playing.
Also 2.5h average playing games, last time I checked it was over 3h watching TV on average.
I lived in Australia for 3 and a half years and never watch news on any channel other than ABC and SBS. I don’t know how people can stand the tone (and adverts) of the commercial stations for more than a minute.
i find it ironic that the facebook part of the clip showed a post of parents supporting their kids to play games…