Sending Mixed Messages

The game developer DICE has released a war game that allows players to take on the role of the Taliban and kill American troops.

Disturbing isn’t it? What will our young people learn from this?

My generation has very little tolerance for allowing kids to play games that dehumanize them any more than they already are from watching violence on TV. I know, I sound like my grandmother already; but why don’t these computer smart-ass wizards create something that contributes to a child’s sense of loyalty, creativity, self-respect and well being?

Just the other day, I walked past my grandson’s bedroom as his mother was confiscating the Xbox. Its fate was a sledge hammer. Apparently, the game got intense and his loud cussing was drowning out her evening ritual of listening to Jack Canfield, Deepak Chopra, and Loretta LaRoche in the living room to lighten up and relax. So, she marched upstairs where the loud unholy echoing vibes were coming from, pulled a Lizzy Borden, and gave it 40 whacks. At the same time, she began Googling an exorcist in the hopes of saving her son because he was having convulsive fits with an Xbox monkey on his back.

This is what happens to our children after they outgrow Barney, Blues Clues, and playing Fish.

I guess the game developers don’t have kids. They should be forced to understand the havoc these games cause outside the lab and test facility. A robot playing the game is one thing, a young adult does not respond the same way. Where the robot might politely say “game-over-my-avatar-lost,” the human child says “What the ^&*!?” and throws a wild temper tantrum. I could also elaborate on a few television programs that add those words to their vocabularies, but that would take me forever.

As most of us know, this offensive behavior does not contribute to the health and well being of other family members, especially seniors, even if you do take the batteries out of their hearing aids. The white noise can literally turn their nervous systems into jello.

Two nights ago, while Junior was playing Manhunt on his Nintendo and sending out demon vibes that bellowed down the staircase, Aunt Ida, who is 86 years old, thought it was the end of the world, said an Act of Contrition, and loudly proclaimed her innocence before she passed out. The fact that Uncle Harry was watching Bill O'Reilly on the TV in the next room at the same time, might have contributed to it as well, I’m not sure.

Poetic justice would be for a game developer to actually give birth to Rosemary’s baby and deal with the little monster while working from home.

Here is a cleaned up demo: