{"id":473,"date":"2008-02-21T14:27:57","date_gmt":"2008-02-21T20:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/2008-02-21\/473\/"},"modified":"2008-02-21T14:27:57","modified_gmt":"2008-02-21T20:27:57","slug":"473","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/21\/473\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Disses Video Games?"},"content":{"rendered":"

GamePolitics, a part of the Entertainment Consumer Association, writes about something Democratic candidate Barak Obama has been saying<\/a> on the campaign trail:<\/p>\n

I know how hard it will be to alleviate poverty that has built up over centuries, how hard it will be to fix schools, because changing our schools will require not just money, but a change in attitudes.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to have to parent better, and turn off the television set, and put the video games away, and instill a sense of excellence in our children, and that\u2019s going to take some time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

GamePolitics.com’s founder, Dennis McCauley, seems convinced that what Obama means here is “video games are a metaphor for under-achievement”. I beg to differ. Why?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s in the first paragraph. Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago’s South Side. This is one of the very worst and poverty stricken places in America. Places like that have unique problems and one of them is inattentive parenting and over-reliance on TV and video games to pacify kids. It keeps them out of trouble but also makes them unproductive. It’s not a black or poor thing, I think the same thing happens in suburbs. Parents let their kids have a TV and Xbox 360 in their room. Grades suffer as a result.<\/p>\n

When Obama references “bad parenting” or turning off TV and putting away video games, he isn’t attacking the hobby. He’s reinforcing the notion that it is a hobby. Before I did this as a job, video games were something I did when I wasn’t working or socializing. I became a video game pundit because I wanted to play games more – but I still consider what I do to be work and it’s all part of a career plan. Most gamers, especially teens and young adults, turn to video games and get sucked in. It’s not the game’s fault, but people do lack self-control and I don’t think gamers need to get offensive when Barak, or anyone, acknowledges the notion that there might be more productive things you can do with your time than playing video games.<\/p>\n

I actually agree with that.<\/p>\n

Good parenting means informed parenting, but it also means setting limits. We set limits because we don’t want our kids to underachieve. Video games are a supplement to a child’s life. That’s what entertainment is.<\/p>\n

I submit Obama only used the term “video game” because he’s current. I bet his daughters play some kind of games, and I bet Obama approves of their limited use in his children’s lives. Just as I do in mine.<\/p>\n

So I’m going to call this story sensationalism and continue giving Barack Obama my GamerParent Endorsement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GamePolitics, a part of the Entertainment Consumer Association, writes about something Democratic candidate Barak Obama has been saying on the campaign trail: I know how hard it will be to alleviate poverty that has built up over centuries, how hard it will be to fix schools, because changing our schools will require not just money, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}