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IgTerminals · 08 Dec 2010, 14:13 PM

Okay. Has anyone else watched Panarama this week? Just saw it 'cos its about games addiction.
It is, on the whole, utter crap. Some choice lines were (and these are not 100% verbatim 'cos I didn't write them down) "Instead of going out for a drink, or to a nightclub, they come here, to PC Bang [in Korea] to play online games...", and "...you should just put down the controller, take a deap breath, ring a friend and go out and get smashed!"
Um... since when did going out and getting drunk become more socially acceptable than playing a game?
There are also some interesting little bits that are glossed over. Many people who are interviewed say that they are generally bored, but the program doesn't really address this. The reporter even goes as far as to say to one self confessed WOW addict that "...There are millions of things you could be doing..." but doesn't specify, then says "...you could go and get a girlfriend..." Yeah, like the entirety of cultural history fully supports that that is exactly how it's done. You decide to get a girlfriend or boyfriend, go out, get one, and that's that. It seem to remember it being somewhat harder than that, but maybe that's just me.
One Korean mother has accompanied her boy to a rehab camp for games addicts. Her boy has apparently become fixated on games and withdrawn. She then, a little later, comes out with the remarkable statement that she used to hit her son a lot, and now sees that she shouldn't have done that and should have talked to him instead.
Um. Well, maybe you forced your son to withdraw into an available fantasy world because of your daily treatment of him? Maybe the games weren't actually the problem here.
Ah... I've ranted long enough. I'd suggest you watch it, but personally the time spent watching the programme and posting this critique has robbed my of valuable time I could have been playing Continuum Shift.
Gamer - AWAY!

Lanky2009 · 28 Dec 2010, 18:57 PM

Saw it also, got fairly pissed off and turned it over. The whole media seem to think that games are worse than films and everything else.

It's ridiculous, you can drive at 17 but can't play COD until you are 18. (Not that anyone abides by that though :L) Can you not join the army at 16?

IgTerminals · 29 Dec 2010, 12:37 PM

Lanky2009 Wrote:It's ridiculous, you can drive at 17 but can't play COD until you are 18. (Not that anyone abides by that though :L) Can you not join the army at 16?

You can join army at 16. I also believe that you can get married, with parent permission, at 16. You can also legally have a child.
You can get married, bring a whole new life into the world, and be trained how to kill people, but you can't legally go to the pub to celebrate these things, play a simulation of killing virtual people, or watch people having sex on film.

Jonmau5 · 29 Dec 2010, 20:53 PM

I got so annoyed at it's bias I nearly smashed my tv....

Beardo · 31 Dec 2010, 09:19 AM

I'll probably upset some people by saying this but I'd agree that the age ranges are stupid but think that the age for driving/joining the army etc should rise to 18 too. I can see your point of course, but think it's better to raise all those things to 18 than lower them to 16. At 16 you feel like an adult but looking back you quite clearly aren't, and do we really need to be sending 16 year olds to war etc?

dave 4373 · 31 Dec 2010, 12:03 PM

Beardo Wrote:and do we really need to be sending 16 year olds to war etc?

Whilst you can join the Army at 16 active service doesn't start until your 18th birthday. Nobody who joins the Army at 16 can go to an operational theatre for the exact reason's that you mentioned Beardo, That while a 16 year may think they are adults and know everything they are still effectively children.

IgTerminals · 31 Dec 2010, 17:22 PM

dave 4373 Wrote:
Beardo Wrote:and do we really need to be sending 16 year olds to war etc?

Whilst you can join the Army at 16 active service doesn't start until your 18th birthday. Nobody who joins the Army at 16 can go to an operational theatre for the exact reason's that you mentioned Beardo, That while a 16 year may think they are adults and know everything they are still effectively children.

Whilst active service doesn't start until 18, my point was that you can still be trained to use weaponary designed soley to end another human beings life at 16, but can't actually play a gaming simulation of the act for two years.
And yes, I agree Beardo. Getting married, joing the army, and HAVING CHILDREN, FFS, should all be raised to 18. Or 21. Or 40.