Slashdot Mirror
Video Games Make People Fat and Mean
dblh3l1x writes "Reuters is reporting that a Swedish group finds 'Video games can make children fat and, in the case of violent games popular among teenage and younger boys, aggressive and even criminal.' These articles make me want to hurt someone. If I didn't get out of breath so easily, I'd go hurt someone right now, so instead I'm just going to go play the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo again."
It's all in good fun. My old nick was:
DidYourWife
The idea is, pissed off people have shitty aim.
Other good choices:
ChildMolester
WifeBeater
AOLuser
And naw, I'm not a tub of lard. I just enjoy a good FPS game after a long day at work for two reasons:
#1 If I win, I feel good.
#2 If I lose, I get humbled. Everyone should lose once in a while. It's good for ya.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
In other words, video games really ARE the perfect training ground for the future pilots of the military's UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) aircraft! Who cares how much the weigh as long as they're good with a joystick and enjoy fragging people! (Perhaps "Ender's Game" was more prophetic than we would like to think.)
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
"...which concluded that scientific findings of the effects, if any, of violent video games were scant."
"But it has been proved beyond dispute that people who watch a lot of violence on television develop aggressive behavior," said Frank Lindblad
For some reason Swedish television companies (the violent swedish experts in the article) loves to make documentaries and take things out of proportion, and then make another program where celebrities (but not usually experts who, if present, don't get to say much) debate the program.
It is as if Rush Limbaugh made a documentary and then used his own documentary as proof in another program.
Some how I don't think this study is very well done (from the article). No where did they say who was specifically targeted, any reference to a controled situation, how many people where observed, how they where observed and the period of time. "Experts". Riiight. I think the generilization of this report is quite harmfull. Im a gamer. Im not fat or have abnormal violent tendicies. But having the label "Video Games Make Kids Fat, Violent" is quite misleading. My question to the "Experts" would be "Was the an actual expeperiment followed by a report? Or is this your opioin based on no actual research?" Come on guys. Get off our backs.
"But it has been proved beyond dispute that people who watch a lot of violence on television develop aggressive behavior," said Frank Lindblad, a child psychiatrist at Sweden's Karolinska Institute university hospital.
So is he or is he not part of the group? He could've just been an guest speaker or a commentor on the topic.
Gustav Niel-Berggren, a 16-year-old student who said he tended to spend many hours a day several days a week playing an interactive online action game called Counter-Strike, which focuses on killing opponent soldiers
Soldiers!?!?!?!? I haven't played counter-strike in a while but last time I checked they were fighting terrorists. It seems that every other slashdot story accuses someone of being a terrorist and one finally comes along that is about real terrorists (well virtual real terrorists at least) and they are "soldiers". Why call them soldiers instead of terrorists? Could it possible be something to do with fighting terrorism perhaps being a good thing and video games couldn't possibly be good? Maybe "Video games are good" isn't as good of a headline.
In Soviet Russia Slashdot cliches use you
What? Sitting on your ass all day can make someone fat? Who would have guessed? They might as well say "watching too much TV makes you fat" or even better, "reading books all day makes you fat". You need exercise to stay trim and healthy.
As far as violent...I agree and disagree. I'm a pretty mellow person and I've been known to toss the controller across the room when the game didn't make me too happy. Then again, I did the same thing to a model when I was trying to get the joystick in the cockpit.
Anti-gamers will try to pin any and all social problems on games. You can fit any bad behavior into it. I'd rather be outside playing football and getting mad at someone on the opposite team any day. But these people really need to stop blaming EVERYTHING on games. Go outside. Play. But don't say the only reason kids may get fat or angry is because of a game.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Why aren't there any reports stating that football/soccer/[insert sport here] gives players violent tendencies? Comparitively how many time have you seen a news bit on how a sports player was arrested for killing/raping/etc... and how many times a gamer did the same? Infact, how many times have you heard a news bit that anyone has committed a violent act? Are we to believe that life itself makes you violent?
I think the way it works is like this. Video games tend to attract kids who don't like to do very much in the way of physical activity. Thus, the more the play, the fatter they will get from sitting on their ass all day playing videogames. Now, what happens after that isn't that they become mean. I personally think it's more like these gamers find something that they are good at. As they get better they develop a sense of elitism. Then, due to poor self-image or low self-esteem they feel the need to belittle others to inflate their own fragile ego. So it's not really that they are mean, they just turn into elitist assholes.
Video games can actually go both ways with the fat thing. When you play a lot of video games, you sometimes forget to eat, skipping days worth of meals, coming out of your room every so often only to pick up a can of mountain dew from the fridge (less often if you have a mini fridge). So instead of getting fat, you get thinner. It's not an eating disorder; it's just that the gamer would rather play video games than eat.
This message was brought to you by the death of 30 brain cells.
Where someone -- either TV4 or they're simply tools -- is trying to create the news that 'video games make children violent'. It's been going on for two days now and will culminate tomorrow with some sort of 'documentary', which I'm going to _assume_ was produced by that former US Army guy who always seems to pop up when there's talk about video games and violence.
We have a word over here for this "moralpanik" ("Moral panic"). To pimp this documentary the TV4 news 'previewed' it for some [woman] politician or another known for her prowess at shouting "BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN". Oh, well.
Want to bet that this 'documentary' won't say a thing about violent games being an _outlet_ so you don't have to go hit someone IRL?
Somewhat ironically, todays news also included "Football fans get together to fight", which is just that. Apparently two opposing teams set a time and a place and number (they want even teams), then the fight it out. No weapons allowed.
Oddly enough, I haven't heard of any new studies being started to see if being a sportsfan leads to violence. Maybe we should restrict sports to people of age?
All in all it stinks. They're manufacturing "news", and bad "news" at that. I'm going to watch this 'documentary' and if it's too one sided I'll report it to "Granskningsnamnden for radio & TV" which is an institution whose job it is to study news and the like to make sure it's fair and impartial and not too loop sided. A "conviction " by GNR will require the channel to make a public retration of sorts, so there's not a lot of tooth there, but it's something.
Belief is the currency of delusion.