Jason

And I'm guessing that you're not old enough to have any married friends. All I hear from my married friends is endless complaints of having to watch "chick flicks" instead of DVDs they want to watch and asking permission(!) before going somewhere without her. Hell, my one friend's wife made him go to work with her last night.

I've seen plenty of other "loving" wives trash their husband's interests. When I worked at the hobby shop, we had a "do not call" list for certain people who ordered stuff, because their wives would bitch about them spending money.

young

in order to counter your anecdotal evidence, i offer this thread.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=261522

Captain Harlock

I have a brother who had that happen to him. He "wanted" to sell his guitar this one time and he asked me to find him a good deal. Only this wasn't an oridinary guitar. It was a 1970 left-handed Gibson goldtop Les Paul Deluxe!! From day one I suspected the wife was behind it. Today all his stuff (baseball cards and 007 memorabelia) is confined to one 5ft x 8ft room while the house is cluttered with little porcelin kittys.

Usually the speech goes "You probably should sell ( insert the item in question). You don't even use it anymore and we really could use the money". We all know what would happen is any of us said "Maybe we should sell some of your jewelry".

MasterofDVD

I wouldn't go around saying that Jason is as messed up as that moron writer but he does seem to have some warped views on marriage.

If wives did such things to their partners collections I wouln't have a living room that looked like this:
http://masterofdvd.150m.com/theatre.html
and that is an old pic without the GC and XBOX and also missing a ton of toys that I've bought since then. My wife might be a rare case but she deals very well with the way I've chosen to decorate.

But back on topic:
This journalist, and I shudder to have to use that term, is obviously someone who lacked this hobby as a child or young adult and just doesn't see the fun in it. And his just a freakin idiot. I really can't say what his problem is but if it is his wife then I feel for him.

I honestly think that video games have calmed me down. I used to have a wicked temper and hated to have to show it. Taking out my aggression with a video game can help me from taking my anger out against someone else.

The gaming=violence theory is not going to be resolved in the near future. It's a way to dump all of the problems of the world onto a select group of people. I guess as long as I enjoy gaming I'll do my best to ignore those around me who are so narrowminded that they think this way.

young

just to clarify, i didn't say Jason is dumb; just his post.

joltaddict

Looks more like you have stupid friends.

spainlinx0

The problems with those marriages is they didn't marry someone with similar interests. It may be tough to find a girl who is a movie nut and likes videogames, but I will settle for nothing less.

menaz

My dream woman: can fix/upgrade a PC herself, is a gamer, loves action movies and is into martial arts, oh yeah, did I mention I want her to look good too?

Jason

Of course my friends are stupid, they got married

I know there are a lot of marriages that work, but I have seen a good bit of the other, too.

TeeSeeJay

Watch Donnie Darko for some inspiration on what to say when a moron comes to speak at your school.

finbogg

That would depend on what kind of woman you marry. My wife is totally cool with my gaming. She doesn't play them, nor is she interested in trying them, but she definitely doesn't keep me from playing. Probably because she knows that I enjoy it.

Groucho

You will die alone.

Fanboy

You had better get gay QUICK.

Edited to add: D'oh! Trounced by Groucho!

Fanboy

So as not to completely fill the thread with hijacked material, I will say that I can - if not understand - sympathize with the author.

From his viewpoint violent videogames are bad. If his son decides to give up violent vids, whether for his wife or children or finding Jesus or developing a crack habit or whatever, he is supportive.

Now obviously many of us here disagree with such simple cause and effect thinking as "violent video games cause violence", and it's well within your intellectual province to knock his godawful writing, however I do not think his opinion can be called into question because, right or wrong, that is all he is writing about - opinion.

I wonder how up in arms people would be if the title was "A father sees the light on OAR"?

joltaddict

What if the title was "A father sees the light on NAMBLA"? Some things are right. Some opinions are wrong. Just because somebody says its their opinion it doesnt sheild them from critizism.

Wazootyman

Well, he came to our school today. I was able to talk to him about the article, and he said that it wasn't intended as an attack on violent video games, he was seeing it as a coming of age story in which his son was growing up to be just like him. He seemed to be able to back up his points well, although when he mentioned David Grossman (former Army Lt., advances the theory that since the army trains with realistic looking targets, and video games feature realistic looking targets, they're detrimental) I wanted to rip that apart, but didn't really feel like it (I'm not the best speaker, and didn't feel like making a fool of myself)

Fanboy

Maybe I don't understand, but are you equating his stance in not supporting video game violence with sexually abusing children?

Opinion pieces are just that, opinion pieces. Whether you agree with his opinion or not, it cannot be "wrong" as there is no objective fact to judge.

I'm not saying that society cannot hold up or condemn an opinion, but that still cannot make them wrong as there is no objective "thing" there to be right or wrong.

Take this exchange as an example, while we both start out from the same mindspace ("Video game violence does not translate directly into real-world violence") we still manage to disagree on our views regarding this author.

I feel that you are wrong to condemn him, you feel that I am wrong to support him. Yet neither one of us is "right" (as in correct), as our discussion is entirely subjective. We can, however, have our opinions held up by the community at large (the VGT Forum) and in that way be called "right". However, this is largely illusory, and not a true, factual correctness, but merely the correctness of consensus.

finbogg

An there lies the other problem with people's perceptions of video games, that they're for kids.

I guess one day we'll all grow up and stop playing video games and be just like our dad's. Writing nonsensical, long-winded articles in the local paper.

finbogg

I have a friend whose girlfriend play video games more than he does. Needless to say, the wedding is this summer.

Don't give up hope, there must be others out there. Or just be like me and get a wife in med school, then they're too busy to worry about how much time you spend playing vids.

joltaddict

Well then as in my example the opinions held by the members of NAMBLA arent wrong? This whole "Opinions cant be wrong" crap is stupid. Of course they can. If an opinion is formed from ignorance Im not going out on a limb to say its wrong.

focker

This is true. My wife doesn't mind at all if I play while she studies. What sucks is that I'm in med school too, so I don't have much gaming time. I'm figuring I can just skip the next generation of systems while I catch up on all the games I have for this generation that I haven't gotten around to playing yet.

focker

I agree. I don't know why people try to argue that opinions can never be wrong. It makes no sense. Either video games cause violence or they don't. If they don't, this guy's opinion is wrong. It's pretty simple.

squidget

sounds like you've been stalking me...

on topic,
This article is written horribly. I had a real issue trying to read it all the way thru, if I didn't know previously what it was about, I would have been totally lost.

I don't get the whole he is growing up (coming of age whatever) to be like his dad by giving up videogames. So does that mean since I still play video games(I'm 23), and I will continue to play videogames, that I am not mature?
It's a entertainment outlet. I watch tv, I watch movies, I play video games. All three are forms of entertainment, all 3 children partake in, however, 1 has the stigma of being only for children, why is that?

Captain Harlock

We've become so cravenly PC ( politically correct) as a society that nobody wants to disagree with anybody else.

Okay let me get off me soapbox now....

menaz

I wasnt, but now I will


When you say someones opinion on a subject is right or wrong, youre giving your opinion on theirs. While the majority of us believe that guy is wrong, I am sure there is just as many people somewhere else claiming otherwise, and of course, they think THEY are right. I get the impression that some people think an opinion can be wrong, of course, just as long as it is not theirs. Then again, that is just my opinion on this