“Parents who use videogames as a babysitter shouldn’t have sex to begin with.”
The game industry has long awaited a major face like Perrin Kaplan to say something like that. For an ex-vice president of Nintendo, a line like that is a pretty huge thing. I’ve been saying that parents are to blame for kids playing violent games for years. I would expect nothing less than a standing ovation at a conference where this is even muttered under someone’s breath.
Things are a lot different than when I was growing up. Obviously you’ll hear every generation say that, but when it comes to video games there just isn’t any excuse. Cars will change, music will evolve, movies will get less intelligent and entertaining as Hollywood continues fund super smash hits like Disaster Movie, and video games…well…they’ll continue to get more real. People freak out at the sight of games like GTA or Gears of War, saying they’re too violent for our society, blah blah blah. The truth is, they’re right. When our society consists of uneducated and ignorant parents who use these crazy $400 contraptions to keep their kids out of their hair while they watch reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond and laugh it up with their fabulous friends about their fabulous lives, you can expect kids to grow up corrupted. Anyone who can’t see that by now should be shot point blank in the pupil with a Dethklok t-shirt cannon. Man that’d be brutal!
When I was growing up, my mom always restricted my game playing to the pre-bedtime hours of the night; or weekends. Even then I was only allowed to play after my homework was finished, chores were done, and food was in my belly. Kids these days come home after school to an empty house and a library of Mature-rated games; that’s just not cool. Even the most violent games of my younger days don’t compare to the titles pumped out every week today. Mortal Kombat II was the bloodiest game I’d seen at the time, but most other titles catered to my age group.
TOASTY!
I think the point I’m trying to make is that if you’re going to let your kids play video games, start them off small. Don’t throw a 360 controller and Gears of War 2 in their hands as soon as they pop out of the womb, man! Get out the old NES and start them with the basics and roots of video games. Yes, that thing still works. Stop coming up with excuses. Treat video games like you would anything else. You wouldn’t stick a first time bike rider on a Hayabusa would you? No! You idiot! Give them MegaMan 2, not Ninja Gaiden II! Dammit!
Source: Wired