Barrack Obama has referred to the record-breaking sales of Grand Theft Auto IV, and - shock - hasn't bashed it. Well not really, anyway.
According to a transcript sent in to GamePolitics, Obama mentioned the game in a speech in Indiana. He said: "I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, this video game, which is gonna break all records and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it.
"Now, this isn't intended for kids, although I promise you there are kids who are playing it."
So far so good. At least he understands the concept of the M rating. Then he goes on to say:
"But these video games are raising our kids. Across the board, middle-class, upper-class, working-class kids, they're spending a huge amount of their time not on their studies, but on entertainment.
"And so part of our job is going to have to be to inspire the entire country to say, 'How are we giving our kids a thirst for knowledge?' And turning off the TV set, and getting them to be engaged and interested, like their future really does matter on how well they do in school."
Which is a fair point, we guess. One person on the CVG team knows they would have got at least a grade higher in his A Levels if he wasn't up all night Planescape: Torment.
But at least that game had an ending - we can't imagine what would have happened had World of Warcraft existed when we were at school.
It'd be interesting to see what Hillary has to say about GTA4 given her views on video-games.
Outside of the issue of violent video-games, I do agree that society has a problem where too many younger kids aren't getting a proper childhood. Many have their own TVs and game consoles and kids no longer play because people are scared. Playground games are banned because of health and safety rules and fears of litigation.
Cripes - the thought of WoW being around when I was at school *shudder* I'd never have passed anything. Myth was distracting enough. And The Bards Tale.
SWOS killed off my GCSE's and Final Fantasy 7 buggered up my A-levels, at least that is my story and i'm sticking to it.......
On a serious note though, we should be doing more to promote healthy activities instead of blaming games for fat kids. I have been playing games since I was 4 but I also took part in sports, air cadets etc through my childhood. Games and outdoor activities and education can live side by side, it just means parents need to stop being lazy and start taking their kids to do stuff.
Hell Yeah!!! Who needs a country full of kids who can think and solve problems, when you can have them memorising and regurgitating useless facts and dates!!!
At University, endless games of Super Mario Kart between me and my housemates threatened to seriously derail our final exams ("Just one more go, and then I've got to do some work...."
We had to post the lead that connected the SNES to our TV to my housemate's mum, with instructions that, no matter how much we cried and no matter how much we begged, she should only send it back to us the day after our last exam finished.
If computer games didnt exist something else would hold kids' attention for the same amount of time.
Better getting up sleepy for school cuz you were up late finishing that taxi mission than getting up sleepy for school cuz you were up late doing crack.
I buggered up my GCSEs byb reading to many books completely unrealated to my work.(Damn Tolkien and Prattchet). Does this count? Reading is apparantly a good thing, and games bad, but if they are moaning for entertaniment taking up to much time , then they should curb books too.
Fair play to Obama he didn't criticise GTA nd he is rite in wot he is saying. I've got my first GCSE in 2 weeks nd i'm not allowed GTA till i've finished them i'm gutted but my mum is rite
Fair play to Obama he didn't criticise GTA nd he is rite in wot he is saying. I've got my first GCSE in 2 weeks nd i'm not allowed GTA till i've finished them i'm gutted but my mum is rite
I was just about to post a long rant about you being underage and was also going to point out that you'd fail your English Language exam,but then it occurred to me that you're being ironic.....I hope!
I'm playing GTA but still have time to revise for exams. I'm also subscribed to WoW. I think people who do think that videogames, or any other form of entertainment is damaging education should be taught how to keep a work-play balance you must encourage equal ammounts of both. That or they could replace Maths and English with FPS and RPG. A's all round!
I think he's partially right in what he's saying. Games, when they're good, give us a sense of having achieved something, experienced something we otherwise wouldn't have. If we can travel almost anywhere in time and space and experience amazing things just by sitting at home, why bother trying to achieve anything else? Especially since for a lot of people, games are an essential means of escape from whatever awful crap is going on in their real life.
Oh, and much respect for mentioning Planescape: Torment. It still holds a treasured place in my All-Time Top 5 Games.
Fair play to Obama he didn't criticise GTA nd he is rite in wot he is saying. I've got my first GCSE in 2 weeks nd i'm not allowed GTA till i've finished them i'm gutted but my mum is rite
I was just about to post a long rant about you being underage and was also going to point out that you'd fail your English Language exam,but then it occurred to me that you're being ironic.....I hope!
I really don't believe he is... It's a sorry state of affairs when someone who is on the cusp of leaving school can't even spell basic English words like 'right' and 'what' *shakes head in despair* I weep for the future.
Oh, and one more thing - if you aren't old enough to LEGALLY buy drink or cigs, you shouldn't get access to GTA IV either.
I am absolutely playing Plansescape: Torment this weekend, what a superb game that I nearly forgot about. Thank you CVG for including it as a throw-away comment!
Incidentally I reckon Championship/football manager has probably claimed more grades than any other. That did strange things to some of my mates at Uni...
No Irony or anything, I'm actually doing my GCSE's In a few weeks. I'm not going to do well, Getting withdrawal symptoms from recently quitting, errm, some things not for discussion here, and I'll probably get GTA IV Shortly.
Why would the majority of people in the western, (well at least the UK and US), even want to have anything to do with the real world? I'm not even going to mention third and second world countries who probably have it 10x worse than anyone who has managed to make a post here.
In a world where the rich are gods and everyone else is a slave to either them or the tax man, is it really that surprising people just want to bury their heads into a good game and try to forget all the crap that's going on?
Quite a few retarded posts, hopefully meant in jest?!
I'm 24 and have been playing games since duck hunt/super mario bros on the NES and doesn't seem to do me any harm. I played football until I was 16/17, skateboarded and various other things at the same time as being a gamer. Now by gamer I don't mean an idiot that gets up and plays until bedtime everyday or the saddos that build up their achievements to ridiculous figures because I guess they have little dicks and are compensating, no social life or just plain sad. (Go out, get drunk, live a little - weirdos)
As for WOW not helping if it was out in our childhoods surely it's down to your parents how much you play? Or would you have all bought the game yourself, the PC and broadband to go with it?
I'm sorry for picking on the parents but the simple fact is that they have to take responsibility for what their kids do and thats that.
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