as you may/may not know. i have now been banned from all forms of video games partially down to my exam results which were bad but salvagable, and my parent's illogical hatred of the so-called "demon-spawn". so id firstly like to rant about how video gaming is being misinterpreted or not interpreted at all.
right, we all know we play video games with our hands (even the Wii) and react to images that pop up on a screen. obviously there's the debate about whats on the screen messing with the minds of underage impressionable thickies. but im talking about the argument that it "messes with your mind". now firstly i found a few surveys from high up boffins saying that firstly people who sit at home playing video games all day (take note) are less healthy mentally than a person who goes out and exercises. well of course they bloody would, they're not sitting on their arses ALL DAY. now im a casual gamer so i would only play a few hours a day, maybe all day some days like weekends. and my parents argue that this affects my mind and therefore is a bad thing. i argue that watching TV (as that is all your doing when you play games) while pressing buttons is more engaging than sitting down and actually watching stuff thats squirted through the ariel as it is a media that i can enjoy. then they obviously just shout mindless blabber as they cant think of a decent counter as there is none and cannot comprehend that watching TV and playing video games are one in the same. dont worry, they're not some jack thompson devotees that join him in cloak and dagger style meetings and plot world domination...yet but ive met parents that think in just the same way. a little less in some ways but roughly the same. if you are one of these people, next time one of your parents pops in and says "that'll rot your brain" explain to them that it is no different from them watching eastenders or corrie and watch thier mind's cogs sieze up in trying to comprehend what you just said.
the second thing i would like to point out it how well i seem to be coping without games. im not even allowed on the DS for a bit of brain training. but i am now 4 days into my 16 week sentence and can honestly say that if someone offered to play co-op, i could say no. not that i couldnt before hand but i like to try and think that what my parents are trying to put me on is a form of re-hab for life without videogames which will inevitably come by the end of september whether i go to uni or not. and i can say that right now, hand on heart, life has only become less full. because i do other things anyway (like go airsoft and get tanked) all that is happening is that at the end of school days, there is nothing to do except wait for top gear at 5, check my mail and do a few things on the web at 6, revise till 8 and do something upto 9. so far im reading "the world according to clarkson" which i got at christmas but only read briefly before being shoved up on the shelf to play COD4. i will also get round to reading the other three or four books that i got at christmas as well. i have also found a new found interest which i have called "movies.net diving". what it is, is going onto watchmovies.net, selecting a random letter of the alphabet or a random genre and trawling through until something appleasing catches my eye, then i watch it. up till yesterday i had never watched "dr.strangelove" but it is now up there in my top 50 list. along with star wars, predator and aliens(of which i had never watched up till friday). trawling hte internet is actually becoming kinda fun. so remember kids, if your parents ever say "that'll rot your brain", say to them "its the only thing stopping me from stabbing you out of pure boredom"