EDIT:

I have actually decided that I don't care what she or anyone will say, they can bring up their own children, I just hope that if her children turn out to be 'wrong-uns' that she will accept some of the blame.

It's more irritating when parents complain about their children for the way they turn out and also blame every single other thing possible except themselves.

I also think the UK is slowly going down the shitter.

So... the lady would let her kids watch the Simpsons (Something my mom always objected to when I was a kid, for fear that I'd start acting like Bart or something), but no Mario for her kids? What?

At first glance, what it seems that we've got here is a case of "I don't get it, so it's EVIL!" which... is nothing new. Upon reading the article? It's... uh... well, I'm not too clear as to what her point is. Our kids stare at too many screens! But damn I wish my kids would stuff it and stare at more screens, sometimes. But that makes me a bad mom! But then here's some stats! But they can do X and Y and Z with their computers but NO VIDEO GAMES BECAUSE THEY ARE BAAAAD. The end.

I feel a little dizzy.

Lampdevil:
So... the lady would let her kids watch the Simpsons (Something my mom always objected to when I was a kid, for fear that I'd start acting like Bart or something), but no Mario for her kids? What?

At first glance, what it seems that we've got here is a case of "I don't get it, so it's EVIL!" which... is nothing new. Upon reading the article? It's... uh... well, I'm not too clear as to what her point is. Our kids stare at too many screens! But damn I wish my kids would stuff it and stare at more screens, sometimes. But that makes me a bad mom! But then here's some stats! But they can do X and Y and Z with their computers but NO VIDEO GAMES BECAUSE THEY ARE BAAAAD. The end.

I feel a little dizzy.

Yes it's mightily confusing sometimes, the whole band-wagon thing is unneccessary, it's akin to those eco-friendly idiots or even the fox-hunting nut-cases.

I want to actually get my own island somewhere and hold massive games events, concerts, festivals even, all such nonsense that gets frowned upon by many people in many countries, they couldn't really complain then because it's on MY LAND... idiots.

On another note, the Times Online did have a far more entertaining and optimistic column about a mother whose daughter plays a cute little online penguin-based game!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/caitlin_moran/article3215915.ece

Much more entertaining, and much more reasonable, overall.

Still, people like this in the world won't cease to exist, but they should ebventually learn to play the wii or maybe a ps3 game? Seriously, everything that can be said about such persons has already been done, so why is it ridiculous? I think we already know that some guys/gals don't do research completely.

You may be reluctant to play a video game, but that doesn't earn you the right to crack down on them unless the reasons are any good. Besides, you may as well say, 'i have heard of this...', implying you aren't sure about it.

Meh, enough ranting, lampdevil already said enough about it, so case closed for me.

I live in the UK
and boy do i love crack, but i think i've grown into a well rounded person
due to the fact that i was not subjected to the "mind imprisoning" plot line of super mario bros.

Crack cocaine is crack cocaine for the brain.

I tell you what... that crack is really more-ish.

Don't link to pieces like this. It's obvious trolling for ad revenue and you're encouraging them. :-(

I find XBoxes to be entirely different from crack. First of all, you need a much bigger pipe to smoke a console...

-- Steve

Anton P. Nym:
I find XBoxes to be entirely different from crack. First of all, you need a much bigger pipe to smoke a console...

-- Steve

But if you wait for a year, it sets itself on fire for you! They thought of everything!

Dom Camus:
Don't link to pieces like this. It's obvious trolling for ad revenue and you're encouraging them. :-(

No kidding.
Malygris, maybe you should just make a list of all the articles you find written by unreasonable nazis who hate videogames and put them together, maybe make a permanent post like the forum guidelines one or something. There are certainly enough of them to credit it.

I like the fact that almost every single comment after her article (and there are hundreds) expresses outrage of some kind or another at how uninformed she is (and how restricted her kids must be).

Public opposition to a media denouncement of video-games? The times they are -changin'...

Anton P. Nym:
I find XBoxes to be entirely different from crack. First of all, you need a much bigger pipe to smoke a console...

-- Steve

That's not the way to do it. You're supposed to get one of those "Will it blend?" blenders, blend your console and breathe the smoke that comes from it. Then get the ashes and wrap it up into a joint.

Ahh more uninformed drivel from the Times, I can't wait for the day when this rag, and the Daily Mail while we're at it, go under.

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:
I like the fact that almost every single comment after her article (and there are hundreds) expresses outrage of some kind or another at how uninformed she is (and how restricted her kids must be).

Public opposition to a media denouncement of video-games? The times they are -changin'...

Umm, sorry, i just don't understand what you are trying to say...

If i were a parent i'd consider it better that their kids are beating people up in a virtual environment than terrorising the defensless as seems to be the way forward for todays asbo youth. Fair enough, some games are mindless drivel that shouldn't be subjected to anyone as they would gain nothing from it. But surely kids would learn problem solving skills, hand to eye co-oridination. I mean some of the cleverist peeps i know are enthusiastic gamers, and have been since their kid days. I sit here now and think about some of the horrors TV has subjected me to, and then i compare that with the comparitavly unrealistic horrors witnessed in a video game... TV seems worse. Not knocking either, but surely you can't defend one and say the other is beneficial.

No doubt she read an artical somewhere that all teenagers are mass murdering phsyco thanks to manhunt...

Nice to hear that it isn't television that is destroying western civilization anymore.

richasr:

I also think the UK is slowly going down the shitter.

Nothing 'slow' about it. Landsliding into one.

hickwarrior:
Umm, sorry, i just don't understand what you are trying to say...

What he/she means is that, if you read the article? If you click the link, and look afterwards at the comments on the Times website? Pretty much every comment is telling the columnist to get bent. To screw off. To stop being dumb. And so on and so forth.

The point? That maybe the general public DOESN'T necessarily think that games are pure evil.

To put it shorter. Lady writes anti-game article. Hundreds of regular readers (and not yahoos like us on a gaming forum) tell her that she is wrong.

Whatever is the matter with this woman!? Why, I'm willing to bet she would have denounced comic books as "Satan's porn" were she around during that medium's advent. Such blind conservatism is depressing to encounter, especially when people are being paid to regurgitate it.

Lampdevil:

hickwarrior:
Umm, sorry, i just don't understand what you are trying to say...

What he/she means is that, if you read the article? If you click the link, and look afterwards at the comments on the Times website? Pretty much every comment is telling the columnist to get bent. To screw off. To stop being dumb. And so on and so forth.

The point? That maybe the general public DOESN'T necessarily think that games are pure evil.

To put it shorter. Lady writes anti-game article. Hundreds of regular readers (and not yahoos like us on a gaming forum) tell her that she is wrong.

Indeed, that was the jist of it. Apologies if it wan't too clear.

Anyways, the Times really is going down the pan ever since Murdoch bought it.

I'm offended by people who put down things like games and T.V. because they call them unwholesome or whatever such nonsense. What would you rather us do, hit a tire down a dirt road with a stick while saying our daily prayers? But seriously that article just plain pisses me off. Videogames aren't evil, you don't buy them for your small child. You should use your parental judgement to introduce your children to videogames when they are mentally mature enough to understand that they aren't real, and mature enough that they won't be addicted. Sure videogames don't often teach about politics and character, but what they do teach (sometimes) is critical thinking, strategy, thinking outside the box, and motor skills. I believe that videogame arguments are usually based on angry feelings and idiotic conjecture rather than solid fact. Don't complain about how something is bad in your life if you can do something about it quite easily.

Darn kids always get the good stuff.

Someone should write an Escapist article detailing why someone just has to say video games are making people illiterate.

I was going to comment on how misguided and hysterical this "journalist" (I use the term very loosely in this case) is, you know comparing video games wholesale to an addictive drug which has decimated lives and torn apart families, but then I looked at the article a little closer...references to downloading Metallica and watching the Simpsons? Neither has been relevant for 10-15 years! She's just bitter because her "kid" must be 28 years old and still living at home. Tell him to get a job, get out of the house and buy his own damn xbox and you won't have to write these asinine, sensationalist, irresponsible articles that tell parents to hold their children and their activities in contempt rather attempt to foster inter-generational understanding.

She actually made a link between satan and games. I allways thought saying saying Something is the devil was a joke, that no one would ever actually say that. I never thought that someone would be stupid enough to blame anything on the devil in this day and age. Satan Soduko.....

What the hell is that, Suduko is a numbers game. Satan is the lord of evil. She's saying that when Satan wants to kick back and relax he picks up gears of war although judging by the article mario (???) except that satan dosn't know its a videogame instead he thinks he's play soduko.

The article is nothing new however. Stuff like this has been going on a for a while with TV, music and even dancers. But I think unlike music and TV this hate for videogames will remain because "what else is left to be hated".

Its cleary obveouse the woman belongs to the god squad, she would probably approve of the ethnic cleansing game thats been available for some time now (btw its a shit game, crashes every fucking 10 seconds)

BAaah, the devil jumped from hardrock and into the videogames... Or does he have a boot in booth pools of juicy temptations. In that case the devil... ROCKS!! <3

A female Jack Thompson. I don't care, her arguements against games is completely irrelevant and pointless. Grow up, crawl out of your conservative shell, and welcome to earth.

Just as a note.

This article feels very, hmmm, how can I put this.

"Un-British"

I don't know, the Satan references, the lexis, doesn't read like typical bad British journalism.
The Times has gone downhill.