The Joystick Is The Root of All Evil 292
Waab writes "David Yoo, of the Parsons School of Design has taken some time out of his busy schedule to put together one of the funniest sites I've seen all year, Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence. With articles like "EverQuest: A Threat to Society?" and "America's Army: A New Low" (articles currently offline "due to editing"), MAVAV gives worried parents one more senseless cause to rally round. Even Tycho and Gabe love it."
Feel the force of Parody (Score:5, Insightful)
The most successfull of those trolls, however, and the ones that do the most damage to Liz's crusade of self-victimization and responsibility avoidance are those that parody the 'real' posters who frequent the site.
Not only do those parody posts make everyone laugh at the people who don't seem to have the ability to take responsibility for their own actions, they make the site less credible as a whole.
I wasn't sure... (Score:2, Insightful)
I must have missed something... (Score:2, Insightful)
I was expecting well-written and hilarious articles like this one [theonion.com] but instead it was rather dry. I have a hard time believing this isn't really a site decrying videogame violence as opposed to a parody.
Great, Just great. (Score:3, Insightful)
I just hope it's a joke site... (Score:2, Insightful)
jk....
The think about that site is I saw something complaining about how a lot of pre teens were playing video games. What they neglect to inform us is that an increasing amount of middle aged people are rediscovering video games. EVERYBODY is getting into videogames, from every age group, ethnicity, whatever. Just goes to show how groups like that LOVE to manipulate data...
Oh, did you hear that 80% of all net users have visited news related sites such as slashdot? You too should visit slashdot!
Nuff said.
Fascinating... (Score:4, Insightful)
There has been a lot of talk about this topic and it's not just games but cartoons like The Coyote and the Roadrunner... or Wrestling on TV or shows like "Jackass."
It's probably quite real. After visiting their site, I shot off an email:
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Subject: Interesting...
know. MAVAV attempts to mirror this but it falls short not only because
it's not a word but because it doesn't roll off the tongue. Have you
considered "MAVVA"? Sounds like JAVA and spelled similar to "Savvy."
As a father concerned about things that affect the mental health of my sons,
I take organizations like yours seriously.
I have observed the effect on my sons that various games have had on them
since they were even younger than 5 years old. These games are a very large
cultural part of my sons' very identities as they are with so many others.
I was a "gamer" for the longest time until I simply stopped having time for
them. I suspect the same will happen to my sons when they grow up.
(They're 10 and 11 now.)
I think the game with the most memorable effect on them is Mortal Kombat.
It portrayed amazing violence and gore while using animated photographs of
real actors as characters in the game. Soon, the boys were playing "Mortal
Kombat" not as a game on the TV, but between themselves and I was amused at
the way they did it but mostly I appreciated the gentleness and care they
displayed for each other as they clearly recognized that the moves being
executed could really hurt and they didn't actually want to hurt each
other... of course they pretended but knew the actual difference between
play and reality.
This difference has been known by children playing at adult violence not
merely for decades, but for centuries and millenia. When I was a boy, I was
"The Lone Ranger" and I even had toy guns strapped to my waist. Before
that, little boys have been playing with wooden swords emulating their
favorite Shakespearian actor... it's an inherent part of childhood.
The inclination to violence is a part of humanity. Addressing only
videogames would be to make your target so small as to make it trivial. The
reality is that MOST kids (though certainly not all) know when, where and
why they should "pull their punches." I hold that kids who have issues with
reality needn't have video games as a scape goat any more than Wrestling on
TV or Heavy Metal music.
My point here is that the actual problem should be addressed, not a
contributor to the symptom. You cannot change reality for growing children,
but you can teach children to understand reality. That is the best role of
a parent -- teaching children what's good and what's bad. Change the
children and let your children change the world. You can't change the world
for the children.
And one more thing -- likely considered irrelevant but still... Spanking is
good. I haven't had to spank my sons in more than three years. I think
they are too old for it now but applied properly, I think it's a tool that
teaches a young mind respect for authority and a sense of his place in the
scheme of things. It doesn't mean I taught them violence. What I taught
them was consequence to actions which is exactly why they pull their kicks
and punches and why they don't carry guns and knives to school. They're
kind and gentle boys just as I consider myself to be a kind and gentle man.
If your kids are "out of control" blame yourself for not playing an active
role in their lives, not the toys they play with. In fact, I play with my
sons! I participate in their lives and I'm ever-present to supply guidance
and I'm always challenging their minds. (At around the significant age range
of 5, they told me they love me because I'm always "tricking them." which
means I play all kinds of games with them... not only actual games, but
mentally stimulating games as well which challenges and strengthens their
logical abilitities as well as physical.)
I'm all for being a better parent and "protecting" the children, but this is
not something they need to be protected from. It's rather like immunity from disease -- you can take the plastic bubble approach by filtering the air they breathe or you can vaccinate them and let thei own immune system fight off disease. Vaccinate a child's mind with wisdom and good examples, not by trying to encase the world in a platic bubble.
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Like so many fanatics, I doubt I will influence their thoughts on any of this. The problem with contemporary parenting is that "the world is to blame" and not the parents. These poor dumb bastards have no idea what a powerful influence a parent has over a child...
Parasites, all of them (Score:3, Insightful)
This reminds me of a scenario at my HS, around 2 years before I graduated. A local busybody bitch from the school board went after one of the English teachers for posting a "read a banned book" sign on the door. She said he was teaching kids to "not respect authority." One little problem, the authorities aren't in favor of book banning hence **we don't have book banning in VA** But she created chaos anyway because she's a "woman of principle." Needless to say that whenever this soccermom, busybody bitch gets bored she finds a new crusade or way to screw up the system. Which is especially sick since VA already has a very efficient local and state government system.
Look at Tipper Gore. She completely misconstrued the meaning of a Twisted Sister song. She turned a song that was written about one of them going through surgery into one about sado-masachistic sex. Says a lot about that kind of person. These people are zealots and they cannot be reasoned with. Their thought process has not one iota of logic.
How about you whores do something useful like, "Mothers Against Government Surveillance" or "Mothers Against Property Rights Violations." Oh no. That would require a committment to actually bettering the lot of everyone as opposed to allowing you people to feel like you've imposed morality on the hedonistic, unwashed masses. All the while you're pitching 100mph throws through your glass house's wall. And "ladies," don't even bring religion into this. Christ taught us to be mindful of our own behavior before we concern ourselves with that of others.
As for video game violence, video games, like art, imitate life in many ways. We live in a violent world. We live in a world where you can get shot by a thug in school because he's suffering from "$RACE Rage" or shot by a government agent in your home in a bogus drug raid. A world where religious zealots believe it is God's will that a nuclear bomb be detonated in one of the unbelievers' major cities. Welcome to reality people. The evening news, not video games, is what desensitizes us to violence.
Good parodies... (Score:5, Insightful)
I knew someone, let's just call him Joe Geek. He'd wake up at 3am every day, play EverCrack until he leaves his home for work at 8:52am (of course Joe is supposed to be at work at 9am). Then Joe would stumble in to work and do little for a few hours while checking the boards... then a few hours of hard core work while dosing on caffiene and nicotine to keep awake until he left early at 4:25. The moment he got back to his house he would play until he passed out around 1am. Then his 3am alarm would go off and he'd start it all over again. After a few months of this he looked like a crystal meth freak and had to be torn away from the game.
Addiction and abuse are real no matter what the thing that is being abused is. Personally I think this is a good parody.
Parents should be concerned (Score:3, Insightful)
Games are rated, like movies. "Everyone" games are G-rated. "Teen" games are the equivalent of PG-13, and "Mature" games are for 17+. There's also an "Adult" category that is obviously not for kids. Parents should stop buying their kids Mature games like GTA3 and Mafia. These games were not meant for little kids. If you wouldn't take your kid to The Godfather, why would you give them a game where they can role play it?
Some really awesome entertainment intended for people over 17 gets a bad rap because parents aren't doing a good job at keeping these mature games away from kids. Spending your day peering through a sniper rifle or gunning down crowds is not good for anyone. It is a free country and if you're old enough, you can decide how much of this is ok. If you are a minor, the decision rests with your parents who hopefully will find something more constructive for you to do.
-m
Re:Good parodies... (Score:3, Insightful)
TOO good? (Score:1, Insightful)
A person who doesn't agree with the message will read through and think "man, can anybody fall for this" regardless of if it's a hoax or not!
A person who does agree with the message will read through, and find themselves sharing (non-existant) outrage with the author.
I think it does succeed as a pure hoax, but it doesn't really make people *think* about their beliefs. To do that, there would have to be a point when people realized they were suckered, which makes them feel stupid and thats when they question their beliefs.
I never sensed a point where it went "over the top" enough to make it feel like a hoax. I mean, all this anti-video game crap is over the top to begin with.
Think about this: what if I made a "hoax" web page advertising a real product like Cheerios or something. And I made it 100% believable, and I didn't get sued by General Mills at first. What's the difference between that and a "real" Cheerios ad? It would have the *exact* same effect on people unless you were in on the joke. People might start buying cheerios more because of it.
Oh well, it's a damn good job though! I also like that Two Towers hoax site somebody else posted.
Re:Wow that is good... (Score:3, Insightful)
Worth is measured by raw potential only during childhood. Afterwards, it is accomplishment that matters. There is no difference between saying "I could have succeeded" and "I failed."
The main difference between smart losers and dumb losers is that the smart ones have more depression.
not funny at all. (Score:2, Insightful)
to make it funny it needs more humour - that's why the Onion and Spinal Tap are/were very funny; they play the jokes like the real thing but just about anyone who looks at them knows it's a joke, yet they still exhibit enough of the roots of their humour and play it just straight enough (but not entirely straight) that people are occasionally fooled into believing they are real.
Now that's funny. MAVAV isn't funny at all. I didn't see one joke on there.