December 13, 2007
A columnist for Canada's conservative National Post writes that games are electronic crack - and doesn't stop there.Father Raymond J. de Souza (left) who also teaches and serves as chaplain at Queen's University, opens by copping to a Tetris addiction during his college days:
I learned the truth about video games the hard way, and so this is the lesson I offer for free: Don't play video games. Don't own them. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don't buy them for your children...
Since [deleting Tetris] I have never played another video game. It's too dangerous. Video games take what is most precious -- time and thought. And they are making kids fat.
Video games are like a black hole into which time disappears...They are the crack cocaine of the electronic world...
Did I mention that far too many video games celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography? I don't have to. Tetris had none of that, and it was deadly enough.
GP: With all due respect, how does one condemn an entire form of media based on one's own problems with time management? Never thought I'd be tagging Tetris under the "controversial games" category, by the way...
Comments
"With all due respect, how does one condemn an entire form of media based on one’s own problems with time management?"
GP hit it on the head. This comes down to a man who feels he has to save us all from his OWN failings.
That's all that needs to said about the worthless turd writing that crap in Canada, really.
Screw it, I can' wait...
So...Games are making kids fat, eh? No they're not... I'm American, k? I know all about the fatness 'round here. Our society is full of lazy people who thinks dining on McDonalds' heart-attack on a bun everyday is a good idea.
A lot of people around here do NOT eat healthy. I notice this around my school. I've seen pleanty of other students snaking on cookies or chips in the morning, and have you seen what the school serves for lunch? God...
Oh and it's not very hard as a parent to get your kid off of the games and outside. Seriously, If i ever become a father with a wife and child and I believe he's playing too much games, all I need to do is flat out tell him that I want him to save his game and GET OFF. Since I'm a gamer, he/she can't lie to me/trick me either, so I'll know whether or not he happens to "accidently" pass a save point or not :P.
...And if he doesn't get his/her arse off, I'm pulling the damn plug.
Comparing games to drugs ticks me off. It's much easier to turn off your game console rather than trying to stop snorting crack cold turkey.
Violence? Well sure, violence is everywhere. Why should it matter? Especially when the majority of violent games are for... ADULTS. Anything "violent" for a younger audience usually has cartoonish violence which dates back to the good 'ol days of Looney Tunes. Ah...how I miss those unnecessary wacks to the face with a hammer...
P.S. If anything, games has made my life worthwhile. It gives me something to look foward to, and something which has "helped me" gain some real-life friends.
Well, you know, if you line up those blocks just right, you could probably make some sort of obscene yet really low-res image. Those L-blocks are kinda phallic too, now that I think of it..
Won't someone think of the children?!1
Btw, the Star is garbage too (typical leftist Michael Moore-style crap) -- it ran the NFS/Street Racing angle a while back. Again, the only real paper is the Globe.
Holy crap! I've never thought of that. Those L-shaped blocks are rather phallic. Tetris needs to be banned immediately. :O
Actually, after this...I wouldn't be surprised if Tetris gets on that special "index" in Germany now...
Bad enough this guy does nothing more than rant on and on without any facts to support his claims and then calls it an editorial, but he has the nuts to insist that video games take an eternity to play, when even a casual gamer will be capable of completing most games within 1-2 weeks. And that's with a 2-hour play minimum. And of course, if anybody can tell me how "passive" a single round of DDR is, or how motionless a single run through a Rock Band song on the drums tends to be, let me know on paper how many calories you lost first. Meanwhile, I'll trust Knights of the Old Republic a lot more than this dude to tell me what is right and wrong in this world.
Haha, but what about those of us who go Dark in KOTOR EVERYTIME? I can't seem to be able to help it :P
Yeah, Church is kinda pointless and boring. It IS a free lunch, however, so I didn't complain when I was made to go as a kid.
I know what you mean. I'm always the dude who uses logic and tries to be as neutral as possible, while my friend is darkside all the time. I'd STILL rather be able to make my own decisions than have some bible-thumper tell me that what I'm doing is bad, when half the stuff he preaches is probably worse.
So how could he play Tetris in 1980, and how would someone even in 1989 go about deleting a Game Boy cartridge?
Either hes lying about his playing of Tetris at college, or God, ironically, hasn't been kind to him.
I enjoy wildly unfounded sweeping generalisations as much as the next man, I'll label mac users in with child molesters and cult leaders because I think there's a serious psychological defect in anyone who willingly uses a 1 button mouse but damn, this one is sort of about ME! That dog won't hunt monsignor!
"In this game, water is HORRIBLE! DON'T TOUCH IT! If it's more than a foot deep it will kill you and your entire family! RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!"
He spent half that article going on how much time is wasted and how it and every other form of media take away from one's imagination, and how they're the 'source' of childhood obesity. I don't even need to go into those things, common sense already supports my point against those things he said.
Beowulf(the movie) anyone All the way through it I was saying "This is trying to be a porn movie for kids". Why is no one attacking this movie for the same reasons as above?
Remember an episode called "The Game" where all the crew get addicted to a game? The game stimulated the brain rewarding them for a relatively simple act of putting a disc in a cone and basically disabled them so aliens could take over the Enterprise. That sounds faintly reminiscent of tetris to me. MAYBE he had the souped up alien version of tetris and he's trying to save us all from their evil scheme! Why the man's a bloody HERO!
Oh wait, it was made by a russian wasn't it. He's trying to save us from COMMUNISM! Damn he's a double hero!
He cant take it that Nintendo's donation plate is always so much bigger. I'm sorry but the Church of Miyamoto is so much more compelling.
Let he who is without sin throw the first Wiimote...
I cant believe this kind of argument has endured so long. Online gaming has created global communities the likes of which have never seen before. It opens doors and erases borders. Games bring us together. I dont see that as a waste of time. Writing and reading propoganda is a waste of time.
"Video entertainment is by nature passive"
I thought this line was quite funny because most anti-game campaigners keep saying that violence in games is different than other media because the person takes an active role in them.
I always thought that the gamers are the skinnier of the lazy people, versus the ones that just sit and watch tv. Cause you can't eat and play at the same time (yet)
Exactly. But you're being shortsighted, missing the big issue: why is a comparison to crack automatically seen as such a negative? Crack, after all, only has a bad reputation because of the failings of a few. I myself use it all the time with only mild recourse to murder and prostitution.
Cripes - he looks old enough to be my dad, and he still considers his Tetris addiction - I have to say it, that is pathetic - some traumatic moment in his life?
Sounds like somebody's running out of ideas to write in his column...
GP hit my other thought on the head on with the "With all due respect, how does one condemn an entire form of media based on one’s own problems with time management?" at the end of the post. Really no better way I can think of to put this. It really is this simple though, if you're wasting your life away playing too much tetris it's your fault and not the game, you fail at basic time management and the game is simply a distraction you're too weak to overcome. If the game wasn't there you'd find something else to latch onto probably even more worthless, like daytime soaps or interpretive dance.
I'm personally offended by his choice of words in one line: "...for the sake of all that is holy and good" so games, and by proxy gamers, are unholy and evil? As for video games being a "black hole into which time dissapers" so is TV hobbies and chruch so he proabably shouldn't be talking. As for fatness its because the "streets are dangerous" or at least thats what parents think so they don't let little Jimmy go out and instead keep him inside and the style of teaching were subjected to effictivly kills all imignation unless you're really strong willed so where else are we going to go to enterain ourselves?
And no - not for flaming's sake. It's about time we sent him replies indicating that his assumptions about our interestes are dead wrong.
Yeah, I emailed this to him using a link I found on the site. Maybe he'll put it in the next post, or actually reply? That would be cool, since I actually goto Queen's University -- I used my queensu.ca email to try to get his attention ;).
Here is my letter.
I've seen video games blamed for a lot of things, but this really takes the cake. Psychologists might quibble over the consequences of violence on youth (there is no clear evidence for a causal relation between media violence and aggression/violence), but this really takes the cake. Now we're blaming procrastination on games too? People waste time, therefore video games are like crack -- this seems to be the gist of your column and it seems to be fairly ridiculous.
We do not get rid of the tendency to waste time by removing the means by which people waste time. Heck, you can waste time doing just about anything, as long as it is not what you're supposed to be doing! I have a friend who makes food instead of studying sometimes, is cooking like crack too? Also, you seem to dismiss the entire medium out of an off-handed assertion that most video games are either frivolous or indecently frivolous. Wasn't that the accusation levelled at Shakespeare way back when?
Sure, most games aren't art -- they aren't meant to be, but there are many titles which provide truly great narratives and satire. This is all not even mentioning that video games have demonstratively improved the mind's ability to multi-task and problem solve, as well as hand-eye coordination to boot. Accusing gaming as frivolous would be to also condemn reading fiction or playing sports as frivolous too. And, if you haven't noticed, reading is a passive indoor activity too -- should we blame obesity on reading too, or only on activities that seem strange and foreign to us?
Your reasoning against video games is out right atrocious. You're a professor -- at Queen's no less. Do better.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/index.html Thats the pape he writes for
http://educ.queensu.ca/index.shtml that's where he teaches. Most academic email addresses I've seen are first initial last name format.
Thanks. Looks like you've said just about everything I wanted to tell the padre. Here's to hoping he gives it a meaningful reply.
Cheers
i explained that it was a hobby and done for fun, thus you didn't need to produce any work. she just didn't understand. her major hobbies are all arts and crafts (and she does stained glass work for a living) so she expects output of a physical nature, but games (as with reading) is mental.
yeah since tetris is so FUCKING violent and miserable
dont condem a industry that makes more money a year than you will ever see in your life you bastard
"Don’t play video games. Don’t own them. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t buy them for your children…"
yeah okay ill just stop playing games and you will just stop condemming games and being a as said by jonc 2006 "remarkable example of a real douchebag."
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *choke* death via laughter
He had fun playing a game, and that's bad?
It's obviously the GAME's fault he can't manage his time sensibly.
Big ups on that letter, I think you said exactly what we were all thinking.
Additionally, what are you doing at Queen's? I was just wondering because a friend of mine went there for her undergrad, my girlfriend is there for grad school, and I'm planning on going there in 2009-10 for my B. Ed.
Thanks.
Though to tell the truth, emailing him was an act of procrastination on my part (and so is this!); oh, the irony!
I'm currently doing a Ba(Hons) in Philosophy -- or pre-law, as I like to call it, if only to feel less useless. That's cool, I know people who are planning to go into the Faculty of Education as well. Small world, eh?
De Souza teaches in the Faculty of Education, btw. So, if you see him, say hello for me, will ya?
Pre-tell, how old was this guy when he went to college? To look at him, I’d say he was 18 in around 1980…
So how could he play Tetris in 1980, and how would someone even in 1989 go about deleting a Game Boy cartridge?
Either hes lying about his playing of Tetris at college, or God, ironically, hasn’t been kind to him.
Tetris was released for about a bazillion different platforms. That includes various computer editions in the 80s. Calling him a liar just shows your own ignorance, and makes it look like you aren't smart enough to counter any of the real holes in his argument.
They've toned it down since Conrad Black sold them, but he pretty much started it as a newspaper to allow him to bitch about liberals...
The fact is that some people find some things so addicting that they can't stop. That isn't the fault of the product, that's a psychological fault of the user. In the case of this Tetris problem its a thinking problem, not a gaming problem. Odds are he'll never be able to game without help.