Note that this was originally published on Facebook, but as I am getting rid of my account, I decided to put it up here.
So I’m flipping through the channels tonight (dead time between battlestar and flashpoint sucks) and I see a flash of the playstation logo. I figure what the hell, I’m bored, let’s see what’s new in video games. So I switch back. Turns out, its a Fifth Estate episode, and they are talking about how video games are a soulless evil empire.
They don’t come right out and say it. Oh no, they just accuse video game companies of not caring about what happens to kids that play their games. Reporter Gillian Findlay is calling out the game companies, saying that they have to take responsibility for what they are producing.
I can agree with that. I agree with the ratings system on games. I agree that kids shouldn’t be playing grand theft auto, or call of duty, or anything that is that violent. I agree that kids need to have their gaming time restricted. I don’t agree that it is the responsibility of the game companies to enforce that. (Well, the ratings system yes.)
What prompted this story was the tale of Brandon Crisp. I didn’t hear about this when it happened, because I don’t watch the news. (I think news agencies are a bunch of fear mongerers and they have lost perspective of what they should be reporting) For those of you that don’t know, he was a kid that got heavily into a video game, his parents took it away, he ran away because of that, and died.
Now, I express my sympathy to the family for their loss. It’s a terrible thing when a child dies. And I sincerely hope that others learn from this, though I know they won’t.
You see, from what I saw on the False Estate, the parents went out, bought the kid an xbox, and let him go hogwild with it. Come Thanksgiving weekend when the parents want to spend some family time together, dad goes up and rips the console out of the wall to get the kid to stop playing. His words. They found out later that he was playing in a ladder competition worth a hundred grand.
Now this is going to sound bad, and incredibly callous, but this isn’t the fault of the video game companies. This isn’t the fault of the corporate sponsors of the competition. This rests squarely on the shoulders of bad parenting. You let your child play a video game all the time, (the kid skipped school to play), and when you finally decide that you want them to join in with the family, you go about it in the most abrasive way possible, yes, the kid is going to be pissed off and confused. Now, if that’s what actually happened, I can sort of understand the kid running away. I don’t think he was thinking rationally either, but he’s a kid. Kid’s do stupid things. If this wasn’t what happened, I apologize, but I can see it happening again with some other family in exactly this way.
What I think this stems from is peoples unwillingness to take responsibility for their actions. Get a speeding ticket? Fight it. Spill hot coffee on your self? Sue. (Edit: I actually read into this case, it was certainly NOT a frivolous lawsuit.) Try to kill yourself and the rescuer causes scarring because they overdosed you with a drug to save your life? Sue. Fall into a pit because you weren’t paying attention to where you were waking? Sue. Fat? You have a disease. Drunk? Your an alcoholic. Put down the fucking fork, and pay attention to what your doing.
I have gotten four speeding tickets in my life. You know how long it took me to pay them? A half hour. Every body else was too busy trying to fight the ticket that they got for speeding (you do know that’s illegal right?), and this happens so much that when I got to the payment window, the first thing they said was the lines over there to fight the ticket. Then they look at me funny when I say I just want to pay it. I did it, I got caught, I’m paying the price.
Society needs to stop catering to the stupid. I’m not saying mentally disabled, or people without the ability to do rocket science, but the people that think that they are entitled to a piece of whatever pie that is being served to that table over there. You know, “It couldn’t possibly be my fault, I’m far too smart for it to be MY fault!”. When I worked at Panago, I had a guy phone me up once to complain that our menu was too confusing, and that he had a double doctorate, and if he couldn’t understand it, then it was a poor design. So he was an educated idiot. Probably needed to phone technical support to hook up the colour coded wires to the back of his computer. The only thing catering to the stupid does is breed more stupidity.
What does all that have to do with Brandon? From the time-line on the False Estates website, this kid was playing games all day every day during the summer. His parent’s should have stopped it then. There should never have been a day where the parents didn’t say “Ok, time to turn it off.” If that doesn’t work, take it away for a day. Still doesn’t work, take it away for a week. Kid steals it from wherever you hid it? Take it with you to work. Do something to teach them that there are consequences for their actions. Give out punishments. Children need structure, rules. When the rules are broken, there needs to be a punishment. Don’t go overboard, but do something other than wring your hands saying someone please, I don’t know what to do. Did my parent’s ever have to tell me to turn off the nintendo? You bet. Was I pissed about it at the time? You bet. Do I resent my parents for doing it? Absolutely not.
You are not your child’s friend. You are their parent. Fucking act like it.
/rant.
Meh.
