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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."
I don't know about mean, but I'm sure that if I excercised instead of played UT2k3, I'd probably be in a lot better shape. :)
Bleakness... Desolation... Plastic Forks...
Actually video games attract people who are fat and mean.
Fit mean people beat other up in the real world.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Want to get back at that school bully who has been taking your lunch money? Play more Quake! Then you can be big and mean and whoop his ass!
What are you waiting for, four eyes? Get busy gaming so you can take your vengence!
Hey Limbaugh! Put down that damn joystick!
Thats rather mean spirited, I bet your fat.
Funny, I thought that calories made people fat.
So, if I stop eating but play lots of video games I will gain weight?
I really hope that horribly bad statement was the reporter paraphasing (badly) the studies, rather than the conclusion the researchers came up with.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I, for one, welcome our surly obese juvenile overlords with their excellent hand-eye coordination. I will only look on with admiration as they mature into an entire generation of Baron Harkonnen's.
And if they need someone to direct them to sources of slaves to toil in their lardmines, they know where to look.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
According to http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/ 20040301/hl_nm/leisure_games_dc_6
Video Games Make Kids Fat, Violent, Swedish Experts Say
Personally I like the headline better if it is Video Games Make Kids Fat, Violent Swedish Experts Say
I leave it to the reader to decide how the sentence should be read but my personal vision is something like, "WTF YOU CALL THIS LUTEFISK!!??! GET IT RIGHT OR I'M GONNA BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!"
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.
And violence makes you mean? Final Fantasy Tactics is a game about a civil war which consists primarily of battling with swords, guns, knives, spears, axes, magic, and mathematics. That's obviously a game centered around violence (especially math; that stuff HURTS). However, the good guys strive for peace; mediating between the two forces and looking out for the little guy. If FFT really makes kids mean then you can colour me confused.
I prefer "Video Games Make Kids Fat, Violent, Swedish; Experts Say"
I like the idea of kids running around going "Bork Bork Bork" on their way to Babbage's or McDonalds.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
"...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.
"'They are in poor physical shape, they eat unhealthily, grow fat and suffer insomnia,' she said. "
Yeah, they have to wait until they are 24 and working 12+ hours a day in a desk job. Then it is perfectly OK for this behaviour! It will have the added benefit of them NOT enjoying the activity also.
But they will still:
* Feel like killing people every 5 min
* Get no sun or physical activity
* Eat pizza and soft drinks
* Have no life
Unfortunately they will be able to blow off steam because your can't frag your opponent (read: boss) using an excel spreadsheet. (only older versions have the 3d doom game)
and with all the amount of stuff, and all the people, you can find anecdotal evidence to support most any theory. It's a good thing these people are, you know, experts, or I'd be inclined to distrust their opinions.
The article itself states that the documentary "was followed by a panel debate, which concluded that scientific findings of the effects, if any, of violent video games were scant."
So it's just some "experts" seeding panic for personal fame and fortune.
While we're all here, I would like to use this opportunity to link to a little snippet from ebay on my own site, which proves beyond any doubt that games are, indeed, corrupting today's youth.
"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.
Ok....
Plays computer games? Check.
Fat? According to the insurance industry... check.
Mean? Not according to what I've been told.
That's me.
Plays computer games? Check.
Fat? No check.
Mean? No check.
That's my best friend.
Plays computer games? No check.
Fat? No check.
Mean? Check.
That's [pick one: Timothy McVeigh, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Ashcroft, Andrea Yates, Ted Bundy, all of the above].
It's rather obvious that the "researchers" and the author are taking correlation for causation at the least; more likely, they've dredged up the findings they want and have published them as scientifically accurate.
Meanwhile, the studies which have said that video games can actually be beneficial are buried.
~UP
Eat the Path.
Yeah I sure get pissed off after playing tetris. I look in the mirror and think "holy shit! look at how much weight i gained since I started playing today" then I go raging around the neighborhood throwing bricks, trying to pile them into nice stacks.
Then again, I did the same thing to a model when I was trying to get the joystick in the cockpit.
And how is that the model's fault? She probably just felt sorry for you.
Games like Dance Dance Revolution make you Lean and Mean!.
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.