Playing Nintendo Causes Blisters?

drxenon writes, "In this story on AltaVista Live, the real truth about those hand injuries is made known. Nintendo is offering up to $80 million (US) worth of gloves for buyers of the "Mario Party" Nintendo64 game. Over 90 complaints have been filed concerning blisters, cuts, and other hand injuries!" The article gives info on how to get *your* gloves. If you're a Nintendo user, go for it!

Comments

blisters

[Khopesh]

i get blisters but only from games like Street Fighter 2

In related news...

[Shoeboy]

I'm suing the operators of www.footfetish.com if they fail to provide me with vaseline and kleenex.
-Shoeboy

Re:In related news...

[Baca]

Since obviously ppl can get away with this, you know maybe we should sue Amazon.com, you can sprain your finger on that one-click stuff... More seriously, where's my gloves for typing really long essays and whatnot for school?

Re:In related news...

[Anonymous Coward]

What was I thinking.

Probably something about feet.

Re:In related news...

[spazimodo]

so when Daikatana is released Eidos will provide the following with every copy:

gloves, to deal with crappy tombraider inspired controls.
vaseline and kleenex for that whole killcreek naked thing.
A copy of Unreal Tournament to combat the pernicious boredom caused by playing Daikatana.

-Spazimodo

Fsck the millennium, we want it now.

Hah!

[BJH]

I got my first gaming blisters from Gorf (the Commodore VIC-20 cartridge version) because of the stupid positioning of the fire button on the Commodore joysticks. I never even thought of suing Commodore or anyone else because of that.

Quite frankly, if you're playing a game enough to get blisters, you have way too much free time on your hands. Suing somebody for that is just frivolous.

Re:Hah!

[Alkaiser]

You could just have substituted another joystick...back then, in the simple days...all the joysticks had the same plug...

But I rember Decathalon...you remember Summer Games I & II, what about Winter Games I & II? Not to mention California Games, and the mother of all spinny games...720 (that skateborading game.) I just took one of my old Coleco joysticks, which had a problem that made a button stick...however, the Coleco controller actually sent holding down the button as "auto-fire" so life got much much easier after that "malfunction."

That's great, but...

[Nastard]

...I'm still waiting for ID Games to reimburse me for lost wages after I got fired for playing Quake 3 Arena too much.

What?

[pb]

Playing the Atari 7800 (Food Fight!) for hours at a time made my hands hurt. Solution? Stop playing every once in a while.

Playing Zelda on the Nintendo for hours at a time made my eyes hurt. But after a while, I beat it, and I didn't have to play it as much.

Maybe the controllers aren't designed for really prolonged usage, but our bodies aren't either. Some people just don't know when to quit.

Read a book, guys. Go outside. But don't sue the people who make your games just because you're lazy!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Re:What?

[jblackman]

A fair enough sentiment, but the complaints in question aren't entirely without merit.

I've played my share of Mario Party, and one of the mini-games requires the player to rapidly rotate the joystick. This is best accomplished with the palm of the hand. During the course of a game (20-50 turns, as I seem to recall) quite a few mini-games will be played -- probably upwards of 100. Even playing just one game, if a joystick-rotating mini-game comes up, you're getting close to blister territory right there. It's not an instance of millions of Americans spending 18 hours a day in front of this game.

If I were Nintendo, I'd be more concerned with complaints about wear-and-tear on the controller itself. Mario Party basically requires you to abuse the hell out of your controller, either rotating the joystick, or furiously pressing buttons, or whatever. A few months of Mario Party, and you've got a noticibly degraded controller.

Whew. I just wrote more on that than I ever promised myself I would on that particular subject, but these complaints aren't groundless. Ya know, I could probably use one of those gloves myself. I might take 'em up on their offer.

-jay

Reading Slashdot gives me blisters

[Anonymous Coward]

Point here
Click there
Reply in the little box

After years of Slashdot usage, I've notices that I've developed not only blisters and hand cramps, but also a bad case of schizophrenic paranoia.

I'm suing RobLimo for wrist guards, gloves, and electroshock (some of which I'll share with him). I 0wn you, Robin. I've been stalking you since your Pathfinder days, and I don't expect to stop.

More info

[Mike Schiraldi]

A lot more information on this can be found at http://www.oag.state.ny.us/p ress/2000/mar/mar08a_00.html, the state Attorney General's page on the matter.

uh oh

[jetfire]

Looks like a new form of Nintendonitous.

Info from hotline

[Mike Schiraldi]

I called the glove hotline, and it said these were just off-the-shelf sporting-goods-store gloves, no nintendo logo or anything.

Also, they seem to only want to send one glove. (They ask you to specify whether you want left or right) Maybe they'll send up to four gloves, but only one in each size / orientation.

You need to send them one of the following:

• A receipt for the game
  
• A credit card statement showing a purchase of the game
  
• A cancelled check for the game
  
• The UPC code, cut out of the side of the box
  
• The first page of the instruction booklet
  
• A photo of the cartridge
  
• A photo of your TV, with the game onscreen.

Also, they need an outline of the player's hand, traced on white paper, so they know what size.

Since it's just an ordinary glove, and they're being pretty generous, please don't screw them over.

Tobacco Companies.. Same Responsibility?

[mikeylebeau]

So if Nintendo has to supply gloves to those whose hands are damaged through excessive Mario Partying, should the tobacco companies be paying for the health care of those dying from lung cancer through smoking, etc?

Re:Tobacco Companies.. Same Responsibility?

[Indomitus]

Yes, the tobacco companies should be paying but I don't think Nintendo should be paying for this for one reason:

I've played Mario Party, and it's not addictive. :)

Re:Tobacco Companies.. Same Responsibility?

[Indomitus]

Starting smoking is a choice, once they start most people can't quit. That's the difference. The tobacco companies promote (very effectively) a product that is physically addictive. Nintendo products hook you when you're young but they don't make it nigh-impossible to stop when you've played for too long. As soon as the tobacco industry makes all of it's products non-addicting I'll be right there with you saying it's a choice and they aren't at fault if you die, until then, they are absolutely responsible.

Re:Tobacco Companies.. Same Responsibility?

[Indomitus]

Actually, until recently the tobacco companies wouldn't even admit that the product was addicting, resulting in millions of people using a product they were assured would not addict them. I'm not so sure that they are forced by law to talk about addiction actually. The industry has had "warning" labels in place for years talking about the risks but never once mentioning addiction. These labels in fact have only served to insulate the industry from lawsuits because just as you say "consumers know it." Cigarettes are physically addicting, meaning that is physically difficult to quit, not everybody just can. Some people quit in a weekend, some people have to smoke through their traceotomy (sp?) tubes in their necks because they are so addicted.
Saying no is pretty easy now that we know what's what but not everybody has always had the same information we have. Millions of packs of cigarettes were given out during both World Wars to soldiers and the government told them it was okay to smoke even though the industry had knowledge that was not the case. The industry has also targetted young people with high caliber ad campaigns designed to hook those kids who are most likely to succumb to peer pressure and who have not yet been fully aware of the risks of smoking. It would be great if everything were real black-and-white like you see it and the government never had to get involved but in reality, there are situations that are more complicated than that.

Accountable for stupidity

[Xenex]

The problem with the Mario Party games is the fact that in some of the mini-games the N64's analogue control stick needs to be quickly rotated. Some gamers go about this by using their palm on the top of the stick, instead of their thumb as ALL of Nintendo's documentation suggests.

I have played the game a bit, and I personnally use my thumb most of the time, however when I do use my palm, my IQ kicks in and i SIMPLY DON'T PRESS HARD! My younger cousins (ie: under 12) have problems with this, and sometimes get blisters. I have taught them to use their thumbs, or press softly... problem gone!

Companies should not be held accountable for product misuse. This is like blaiming soda bulbs for children's deaths (they are for drinks, not for rockets.) This sounds like a Geeks in Space awhile back:

Something like this (off the top of my head):

CowboyNeal: Once I was injured by a Microsoft Natural Keyboard
CmdrTaco (I think): Dude, that doesn't count when your mom wraps it round your neck...

They then talk about the time he got his hair caught in an IntelliMouse :)

But, would this be M$'s? fault? Of course not! Why blaim Nintendo for stupidity, or a lack of parental supervision?

Stupidity should not be allowed to rule the day.

hahaha

[Frac]

I guess it's Nintendo's fault that people are playing so much video games that they have blisters. that's like Gun makers offering free bulletproof vests for those who keep getting hurt from shooting themselves...

new york's finest

[unc_onnected]

if you read the article it points out that the glove giveaway is because the ny state attorney general investigated it.

boy, doesn't that make you feel so much safer?

now that you wont get injured by playing nintendo 24-7, youll never have to go outside and risk being perforated by triggerhappy plainclothes police officers with automatic pistols.

if you really want a laugh, dial the 800 number

1-800-521-0900

and listen to the safety warning. i fell out of my chair laughing. sample:

some individuals may experience skin irritation, including blisters and/or damage to the control stick if they rotate the control stick with the palm of your hand. nintendo recommends that you rotate the control stick with your thumb or holding it between your thumb and forefinger. if neither of these methods work for you, and you would still prefer to use your palm to rotate the control stick, nintendo will send you a glove upon receipt of acceptable proof of ownership...

you need to send proof of purchase + an outline of your hand, "so that nintendo can determine the size of the glove to send and whether it should be for the right or left hand". proof of purchase can even be a picture of the game or a picture of a tv screen running the game. shipping in 4-6 weeks.

this kind of stuff boggles the mind.

unc_

*sigh* back in the day!

[CAIMLAS]

I'm by no means an old timer when it comes to computers or console gaming (first computer was in 96, first console was in 92 - Pentium 66 and NES, repsectively. About 2nd and 7th grades.) but I remember playing for hours and hours on the NES, which obviously resulted in blisters.

I remember playing Super Mario Brothers 3 and Zelda (mostly zelda - what a game! It's still a lot of fun to play the original) as a tike right up until my bedtime. Having played all day, and not wanted to have to restart from scratch, I would unplug the adapter from the back of the TV, and put a video cassette box in front of the power light so that my parents would be unaware that it was still on (they didn't like it - thought it was a fire hazzard or something). I would then get up early in the morning merely to finish my game. Sadly, many times I'd come back to find that it had crashed/frozen. Very upsetting at the time.

Back to the topic of blisters and such! :) The original NES controllers were hardly agronomic, and gave me terrible soreness after many hours of play. (we could also complain about the ~60hz refresh of the TV... after 8 or so hours, that can give you one splitting headache at relateively close range...) :) (the gameboy was even worse, for that matter...) Still, something must be said for these device's durability. I myself never owned a gameboy, but serveral of my friends have, and their gameboys took/take tremendous beatings. If any newer devices that are similar in build (say, the palm) were to get dropped, stepped on, thrown, run over, submerged in water, etc, they most certainly would be destroyed. But I've seen the gameboy go through all that and survive, and rarely have cosmetic disorder, even. (I think this is because Nintendo of America seems to have a projected audience of 5-10 year olds in mind when they make their products... just a guess.)

still, every blister I got playing those games was well worth it. It made the game a lasting memory in my mind, made it a special event. No pain, no gain. I think that giving game players gloves to use free of charge will partially ruin the game experience for many of the players, minimalizing the preserverence that goes into beating a game.

More than likely, the main people playing mario party will be little kids - Mario gets fairly irritating for me, and would even if they made a sexy game with a quake 3 style engine using the guy. Considering that Mario is a kid thing, to a great extent, many of those gloves might go completely disused. (I know I wouldn't have used a glove... you lose tactility by adding an extra layer. Even I realized that at a young age - but maybe not with that verbiage.) :)

-------
CAIMLAS

This actually happened to me.

[jcorgan]

I had forgotten all about it, actually, until I read the story.

About two months ago I was playing Mario Party with my nine year old son, and he was teaching me the mini-games. I don't remember which one it was, but basically, you had to rotate the joystick faster than the other player to win. Of course, the only way to do this quickly is to place the controller in the center of your hand and rotate it that way.

Sure enough, I was rewarded for my efforts (I finally beat my kid at something on the Nintendo :-) with a large, painful blister that took a week to heal, and I can still see a faint outline where the new skin grew back.

Well, I could sue, or better yet, just use a little common sense next time.

For those who don't party

[lapdog]

Many people seem to be implying with their posts that Nintendo shouldn't be responsible for people hurting themselves from playing too much. This isn't exactly the case. For those who don't play Mario Party, here's how it works:

The game is kind-of-like a board game. The object is to get as many stars as possible. The person with the most stars at the end is the "Super Star". Stars cost money, and at the end of every turn, the players play a [semi]random mini-game in competition for coins. The hand devastation comes from some minigames where the way you win is by rotating the analog stick as fast as you can. (Games like tug-of-war and pattle battle). Nintendo put grips into the tops of their analog sticks so that it would be easier to make fine controls in games like Mario World, which is really just shortsided on their part, thinking that all that stick would be good for is meneuvering in a 3D enviornment.

Anyway, after playing even one of these minigames where the object is to rotate the stick, your hand is raw. In most minigames, this is not the objective, but they are frequent enough that by the end of the whole game, you are in some serious pain (even though you had a great time).

This is probably one of the most fun nintendo games there is. Its designed for 4 players at a time, everyone can see the whole screen all the time (no split screen [ala any first person shooter or any racing game] where you get some small fraction of an already small screen), and no one can become a "master" and just make the game uninteresting for everyone else. Rent it and call some friends over. Then get some free Nintendo brand gloves too =].

This free glove thing is just a little late. They recently released Mario Party 2 (more of the same thing with some nice new stuff and more games), where all of the stick-rotating minigames have been removed.
Upside: At least Nintendo listens to their customers and tries hard to put good stuff in the box, unlike some broken, rushed-to-market, DVD, Internet, Stereo, do-everything-else-in-the-known-universe-for-under -$500, fit-video-games-somewhere-in-there machines.

Dave

Re:For those who don't party

[m3000]

Finally, some one who actually has played this game and can really comment on this article. I kept waiting for someone like you, instead of everyone else who was like "Huh? On the palm? That doesn't make sense". Way too many factless assumptions made in this article's responses.

Anyways, I'm very active on a certain (cough nintendorks.com cough) Nintendo board, and that was one of the big complaints about MP1. I myself have not played it too much, just rented it for a few days, but a lot of the people there repeatedly gripped about having to totally screw up their controller doing all that rotating, and then the blisters that all that turning creates. Those kind of mini-games were definitly not liked. It is kind of suprising Nintendo waited this long to do this though, with MP2 already out like you said.

Re:For those who don't party

[ronfar]

What is up with the Nintendo joystick?

My brother has an N64 and it has some games for it that I know to be fun, like Super Smash Brothers, Doom, Goldeneye and others. However, I've never been able to get past that awkward monstrocity of a joystick! I mean, the joypads on the two previous systems (NES, SNES) were good as were the ones created by their competitor (Sega, Sony). As far as I know, it is the only "three-legged" joystick on the market. It also seems to be counterintuitive for fighting games (although N64 seems to have been gipped out of fighting games, I'm betting partly because of the fact that the presidents of Nintendo Japan and Namco Japan don't like each other (see Game Over by David Scheff))

I'm hoping that when they come out with the Dolphin they put some serious ergonomic research into the joystick, because more than anything else its what has kept me from enjoying N64 games.

To be fair, I've had games for other systems that were hard on my hands (I can't think of any off hand, maybe some of the Bonk games mini-games). However, I'm guessing that that wierd joystick exacerbates the problem.

Shigeru Miyamoto says....

[Shaheen]

"Muwahahahaha... My games are so addictive they cause injuries to the players! I have finally reached my goal after all these years!"

Dumb move Nintendo

[garver]

Can we say "Class Action Law Suit"?

Legally, this may translate to an admittance of guilt on Nintendo's part. Then, they will be open for attack from users who have had more serious problems (carpal tunnel syndrome, addiction, insomnia, etc.) with any of their products. Even if these lawsuits all fail, the legal fees could get racked up quickly.

Game Design Haiku

[drivers]

object of the game
rotate joystick rapidly
makes quake look like chess

This is so stupid!

[dbryson]

Perhaps I should complain to Playboy or Penthouse because I'm jacking off too much without using lubricant (which I think they should provide).

Jesus Christ, I probably have carpal tunnel
syndrome from playing Asteroids. Should I
sue Atari?

Or should I just assume that I
am stupid and played a little too long? Maybe
I should have rested between games? No way!
I should get free gloves from Nintendo!

Shit, I just sprained my ankle playing softball. Should I sue the company the made the bat or the company that made the glove. Maybe I should sue the city too for having a softball league at all! After all, they should make sure I am in good enough shape to play softball.

Someone should protect me from my own stupidity!

This makes me weep for the days of old

[yuriwho]

Personally I think most of the new games suck and I cant imagine why people get injuries playing boring games like the fighting games. If you are into reflex skill games, in my book nothing beats Stargate the arcade gave from the early 80's (advanced version of defender)

It had 8 controls: left hand: ball headed stick for up-down with a thumb button for direction reverse; right hand: thrust, fire, inviso, smart bomb; either hand hyperspace.

I used to get left thumb and right index finger skin problems (calloses sp? and blisters) but where else could you get and hour of adrenaline rush at extreme levels of complexity for a quarter.

I miss those blisters

Me TOO!!

[Ice_Hole]

It's a game where you play tug of war against your opponent, the faster you rotate the joystick the harder you pull.. Till eventually you pull the other guy over the edge.

I ddin't get a blister the controller actually became part of my hand. But then I think it was partly my fault. I was a little, well, Excited? I was turnin away at the controller, got up, and started yellin, and screamin, go crazy getting myself pumped up, and intimidating my friends. Next thing I knew it was over, and I looked down and the controller was soaked in blood, and I had to pull the center joystik out of my hand, yes it had actually gone INTO my hand! I still have the scar from where this happened to me! And the worst part, I DIDN'T WIN! It was a damn tie :-( Guess I need to try harder next time :-P

Anyway's, I think it would be cool if nintendo sent me a special nintendo gaming glove because I managed to get one of their controllers stuck in my hand.

Serious point - RSI can actually kill you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Its all very well making a joke about it, but I wonder how many Slashdot readers are aware that RSI (Repetative Strain Injury) is responsible for several deaths in the US every year.

In one case, a C++ developer from Chicago died when his 9mm handgun was accidentally discharged, into his chest, due to his RSI induced muscle spasm.

The autopsy report stated that death was caused indirectly by RSI, his survivors are suing the company where he worked, stating that there was no workplace RSI policy, and are also suing the suppliers of the text editor he was forced to use - something called "XEmacs" which (they allege) was so convoluted in its operation, that even simple text editing tasks could involve multiple keystrokes, and weird combinations of keys.

I think the message is clear. Emacs can kill you. Just use the one true editor, vi.

thank you.

Sounds familiar...

[Denny]

There was a ZX Spectrum game called Daley Thompson's Decathlon, and most of the games involved you pressing Z and X alternately as fast as possible... the best solution I ever saw to this was a group of friends who figured out that on the original 'rubber-thumb' spectrum keyboards, you could wet your finger and simply slide it back and forth across the appropriate area to get really high scores!

the main problem with this was you destroyed the lettering on the Z and X keys very quickly, but then they were the left and right for almost every game, so everyone knew where they were anyway :)

Regards,
Denny

# Using Linux in the UK? Check out Linux UK

Isn't this what...

[Thrakkerzog]

X-Files was about two weeks ago??


-- Thrakkerzog

Back in the good ol' days...

[Megane]

Video gaming blisters predate Nintendo by many years. Yep, you young whippersnappers, there were video games before Nintendo! Y'all ever heard of Atari??? In fact, one Atari 2600 game manufacturer, Imagic, had a "Numb Thumb Club"! We had numb thumbs and we were proud of it! Carpal tunnel syndrome? Wussies!

Yep, back in the old days we didn't have rapid fire, and we had to learn how to press that button really fast! And we didn't have these wussy "party" games where you could sit back in your comfy couch holding your controller, we had games like Track and Field where you had to stand up and slap your hands back and forth as fast as you could! In fact, some of the kids figured out they could hold a pencil in just the right way where they could slap those buttons really fast, so those evil arcade people, they put bumps around the buttons where you couldn't do that any more!

Brief History of Game Controllers and Injuries

[bjb]

This is obviously a total marketing ploy, but hey. Why didn't they pay me off sooner? Let's look at some "fantastic" game controllers of the past 25 years..

• Odyssey2: Large sticks that looked and felt analog but were actually digital. One fire button (oh, I mean 'action' button). Threw my wrist out slinging that stick back and forth with K.C. Munchkin.
• Atari 2600: Classic controllers, but caused nice blisters on my left hand (holding the base). Had a tendency to cause you to strengthen your stick hand since they had so much give past their digital switch.
• Intellivision: Shoot the person who came up with this controller. If you didn't get some kind of stress injury trying to press those tiny damn fire buttons on the sides of the controllers while trying to press the number pad (through an overlay) while trying to fiddle with that disc "joystick" that rotated for no electrical reason.. still, had the best football and baseball games to date.
• Colecovision: Shoot this person, too. Only really got blisters on my right hand since it cupped the "joystick mushroom" or whatever the heck you want to call that thing. They got it right when they created the Super Action Controllers which felt like holding a Sabre sword. If the games weren't so damn good (at the time), then I think there would have been ritual destructions of these controllers.
• Vectrex: Someone was trying to get it right here, but the size was all screwed up. Wouldn't mind stuffing Macintosh guts in this thing, though.
• Coleco Gemini (2600 clone): Had to mention this, because this was a ridiculous controller; half joystick, half paddle. Not too many injuries with this, but the controller felt cheap enough that it probably should have been paid by some of us.
• Atari 5200: Another casualty like with the Intellivision; who put those fire buttons there? I think I busted a few fingers with those.
• Nintendo Entertainment System: The bread winner; THESE people actually thought this was a decent controller? HA! The first time I actually considered permanent physical damage was after playing with these controllers. Sure, they were familiar to people who used to play with the old Nintendo LCD handheld games, but who ever said those were good controllers in the first place? Nintendo should have been paying us back then. I figure they're about 15 years late on this one..
• Sega Master System: Someone was smoking Nintendo's crack, but figured they could make it even more annoying by putting a screw thread in the middle of the 'joy-whatever' so that you could screw in a little stick "to make it a real joystick". HA! Injuries by the dozens here, I'm sure.
• TurboGrafix 16: No comment.
• Sega Genesis: The crack is getting better.
• Super Nintendo: The dawning of the age of the complex controller. Injuries are not just happening as a result of stupidly designed controllers, but now you've got 45 buttons to memorize.
• Sony Playstation: Another multi-button wonder. Fingers hurting yet?
• Nintendo 64: What the hell is that joystick doing there? See article for this thread.

Ok, a bit of a rant, but the point comes down to that I think after using all of these systems, Atari, Magnavox, Coleco, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Bally, etc. all owe me a buttload of money for the hand problems I have today. I did have a lot of fun with them over the years, but please.. who the heck designs controllers? Whatever..

--

Doctor

[Samus]

From an old but relevant joke.

Patient: Doctor it hurts when I do this (waves arm arount).

Doctor: Well don't do that!

Kids today require suits of armor

[RedX]

How long until every kid is walking around with their required bike helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, Nintendo/jerk-off glove, safety goggles, mouth protector, ear plugs, athletic supporter, etc.? Just yesterday I saw some device being sold in the local sporting goods store that is supposed to protect a child's heart if they are hit in the chest with a baseball. WHAT?? That's why you're wearing a damn glove on your hand! I played baseball from ages 5-22 and never ever heard of anyone dying from this. I have heard of a few freak accidents around the country where this has happened, but it is hardly common enough to warrant selling a shield for it. Back in my youth(says the grumpy old man), I was hit in the mouth, chest, nuts, and just about every other body part with a baseball and saw plenty of other children hit the same, and sure it hurts like hell, but nobody ever died or was seriously injured. If anything, it teaches you to catch the ball, hit the ball, or get the hell out of the way. This "children are weak and must be protected" attitude has really gotten out of hand and is going to result in a generation of people who are very mentally weak. Now we've got a company selling special gloves because excessive video game playing might result in a few blisters. That's so funny I won't even bother commenting. And we wonder why children flip out and shoot up their schools when something or someone hurts their feelings.

*hehehe*

[Chris Johnson]

I grew up on the Atari 2600 too!

But, ya know- back in those days the _joysticks_ broke. Surely you remember that ;)

These days the controls are so battle-hardened and made smaller so they are tougher to destroy, that gamers are beating themselves against them like rams trying to knock heads with a concrete wall ;)

Thick skulled gamers are going to be thick skulled gamers, so the best thing to do would be to make the gloves etc. _cool_. "You can play Mario _without_ protection? Wuss. I'd have a hole in my hand if it wasn't for the special game clothing" ;)

You've got it backwards.

[Chris Johnson]

How many times did you grind a hole in your hand (not a blister, a damn hole!) playing a video game? Ever considered that what with the deification of sports stars and the continuing boost in societal pressure to 'win or die', that maybe kids are throwing fastballs _faster_ than they did in your day? Things just don't stay the same, and you're looking (without understanding) at a culture and society where kids are _expected_ to destroy themselves to win at all costs. It's resulted in a generation in which many children turn themselves into 'winning machines', use drugs like crack, pump themselves up on steroids all in order to be FASTER-STRONGER-BETTER-MORE! because they're not given any alternative.

A lot of this is pushed _by_ these companies themselves- do you think Nintendo is going to counter the waves of kids tearing their flesh in efforts to win a Nintendo game, by responding 'It's just a game, settle down'? That's not going to happen- and their voice is a hell of a lot louder than yours is. Be grateful they're even offering protective gear. At least that is some compensation for what they are encouraging kids to do.