No More Video Games! Wait, What?

Many parents yell at their kids and say that they are not active. They tell kids to put away their video games because they are not productive and are just a waste of time.  The mass media also agrees, they say that video games cause violence in younger children and expose them to things that they should not seeing at their age.

The debate is that video games cause violence in younger children. Video games are similar to movies, they are not real and are just for entertainment. Also, video games have ratings on them, they tell you what age group should be playing what game. Parents should be responsible for letting their children play a game that has a mature rating, just like they should be responsible for letting their child watch a rated-R movie. I think that video games are a scapegoat to bad parenting. As a parent, they should know what their children are playing and watching. Even though its inevitable to block everything that they see, they should still be able to monitor what they watch or play. I don’t get why no one puts any kind of blame on television and movies and always are quick to blame video games.

There are far more positives than negatives when it comes to video games. Video games keep kids away from violence that they could be in. Kids are safer inside of their house shooting imaginary aliens rather than out on the streets causing chaos. Video games help keep kids and their minds active, instead of them going out smoking and drinking like many kids are doing in our generation now. There are even video games that are educational, there are games that help kids learn even more than they do in school. Let’s face it, what kid actually pays attention in class, I know I never did. I can honestly say I learned more jumping from platform to platform in Mario and trying to collecting rings in Sonic than learning useless equations in math.

All he ever wanted to do was eat some ghosts. I wouldn’t consider that a crime, the dude was hungry.

Most parents want kids to sit at home and read books. Sorry, but no twelve-year-old wants to jump into an exciting book. They want to pick up a controller and try to catch every Pokemon they can. If you can get your kid to read book after book, then I give you all the credit in the world. Sure, reading can be good, but so can video games. You can learn the same amount in reading a book as you can playing a video game.

Take away video games and see what happens. Kids would go crazy, there would be more kids in trouble than ever. Video games are more than education, they are fun as well! Video games can help you learn without even knowing that you are learning. Playing puzzle games such as Tetris can help you lean the concept of recognizing and putting things where they belong and following an order, tell me how this is different from what you learn in math class, it is not. I say not only should kids play video games, but they should be encouraged to.

Power to the Payers

It’s release day! The day that you have been waiting for. The game that will change your life forever comes out today. I know that feeling, the same feeling you get as a kid when you see all of the presents under the Christmas tree. Today is your day and nothing can go wrong. The only thing that you want to do is get your game and go play!

You finally arrive at your local Game Stop, walk to the register and ask for your game. All of the signs are on the door promoting the new release, posters and all. The cashier says to you, “Hey what can I do for you?” and you respond, “Obviously I want the new game that just came out! Here is my $60, now give me the game!” The cashier responds back, “Did you reserve it?” and you reply “Heck yeah, of course I paid my $5 to reserve it, give me the game!” The cashier goes to get the game from the back, before he hands it to you he says, “Do you want to pre-order this new game coming out next month? or how about sign up for our reward system that you can get points and discounts? It will save you money on this purchase and future purchases. I really recommend it.” At this point you are furious, but the cashier still has your game in his hands and wont hand it over. You just want to go home and play! Giving in, you agree to sign up for the $15 reward program and pay $5 for a future reserve of a game that you will probably never buy. You then take your game, run out of the store and run home. Time to play right?

Finally you start-up the game and sign online. You get prompted that there is a new downloadable content  pack with all of the new maps and new characters that you just have to get. This is another $20 that you just have to spend in order to get the full experience, so you just purchase the extra content. Finally, its time to play! About $100 spent on a trip to the game store.

Now I know how Sonic and Tails feel to lose all of their rings!

Between the price of the game and all of the add-ons, it is becoming a ripoff for the gamer. It is coming to a point where it is just about the money and not about the consumer. When a new game is released now, you can automatically count on their being a sequel and even a prequel. The video game company tries and to every possible penny out of a game that is released. There are rumors surfacing that there will no longer be used games for the release of the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4. That all but insures that game companies only care about money.

When you walk into a store like a Game Stop, they pressure you into buying every possible add-on for a game. This includes a strategy guide, a custom controller for them game, custom faceplate and so on. It is insane how people pressure you whenever you walk inside of a Game Stop. Just guess who plays most of their video games? If you said young teens and kids you would be correct! It is so easy to show a kid a new shiny extra to a game so they could run to their parents and beg them for them to buy it. Going to a game store is just like trying to buy a new car. They will keep on pressuring you to buy something until you finally say no and leave.

What ever happened to the good days of gaming? Going to the store and getting a game, knowing that it will be a complete game from start to finish is a thing of the past. There are no extra characters, or maps that you need, everything is right there in the brand new game that you have just purchased. I wish I could say one day it will get better, but as new systems and games are released this problem is going to continue. Realize how much money your going to spend on a game the next time you buy one. Your probably only buying about sixty percent of the game with the other forty percent to come at a later time by spending extra money. Its just getting to a point now where its not fair for the consumer, but as Game Stop likes to say Power to the Player.