The “touched a nerve” vehemence, along with the lame alibis, are really revealing.
My Facebook thread is more or less polite; you should see some of the tweets I have. Check out the huge number of “thumbs down” and negative comments on YouTube.
Love how these superior, enlightened, sophisticated folks — like their counterparts/overlappers in the atheist/weed world — turn into petulant children whose soother is about to be seized.
(And contrast the hysterical pro-gaming comments to the thoughtful “antis” here.)
Playing video games is a waste of time. Period.
It is the electronic equivalent of digging a hole, jerking off into it, covering it up — then digging the same hole, etc. for hours a day, every day, every week, as your life slips away.
If you “need to escape from your shitty life,” then take the hours you waste playing games and improve yourself.
Work longer hours. Get another job. Learn how to make something. Go work out or play a sport. Volunteer.
Take someone out for coffee just for fun, or maybe get them to mentor you, or you mentor them. Pray. Meditate. Play with your pet. Stare out the damn window.
And no: Reading a book, and watching TV and movies is not “the same thing,” unless you are talking about the very lowest common denominator Harlequin romance or Kardashian production.
And even then, I would still wager that, in those two cases, you might either learn one new word (if it’s a historical romance novel) or reinforce your views about how you don’t want to live your life.
Reading in particular does something good to your brain synapses that gaming does not.
Television? The only classical music I heard as a child came from Bugs Bunny cartoons. Monty Python’s “Philosopher’s Song” sent me to the library to see who they were singing about.
Movies? You can absorb a great many insights about duty and destiny from even the fizziest Douglas Sirk melodrama.
Music? I dislike Rush enormously but they deserve at least a 1% share of Ayn Rand’s royalties. (Whether they like it or not.)
Then there’s “gaming is a bigger industry than the movies now, grandpa!” Uh, so is drug dealing — and, if you’re anti-war, the arms industry. You may want to retire that talking point.
Or how about “At least gaming is interactive. Reading and watching TV and movies are passive.”
As if motion and activity in and of itself is a good thing, and not another sign of immaturity.
Passivity — contemplation — is a better thing in many respects, and something wise, mature adults cultivate.
You might have heard that Steve Jobs didn’t let his children use Apple gadgets.
I’ve heard that this attitude extends throughout Silicon Valley:
That the people who make this stuff don’t let their kids play with it.
I wonder if the same thing applies to people in the gaming industry. And if so, maybe that might teach you something. Worth looking into…
Anyhow — to paraphrase Robin Williams:
Gaming is God’s way of telling you you have too much time on your hands.
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