Columnist Calls Videogames "Close To Evil"

A new column in the National Post has leveled a broadside of criticism at videogames of all stripes, saying that while they are not intrinsically evil, "they are close."

Reported by GamePolitics, the article written by Father Raymond J. de Souza calls videogames a "black hole into which time disappears," and urges parents, "for the sake of all that is good and holy," not to buy them in any form for their children. De Souza calls upon his own experience with Tetris during his university years as the basis for the article.

"It would not be fair to blame my second-year troubles - my worst academic performance in 12 years of post-secondary education - on Tetris alone, but it was a contributing factor. My capacity to waste time with Tetris was prodigious; how many hours were lost is unknown," he wrote. Since deleting the game in 1991, "I have never played another videogame. It's too dangerous. Videogames take what is most precious - time and thought. And they are making kids fat."

"Did I mention that far too many videogames celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography?" he concludes. "I don't have to. Tetris had none of that, and it was deadly enough. This Christmas, do the poor kids of all economic levels a favor: Don't buy them videogames."

De Souza, a regular National Post columnist, is also a chaplain and teacher at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. His article, "Lessons Learned," is part of a serious of editorials illustrating the "one truth" various columnists wish they'd understood before setting out in life. The full column can be read here.