He says that as if television, which remains more pervasive, didn't also eat vast quantities of society's time. And as if ANY hobby's purpose weren't to pleasurably expend spare time.

"With all due respect, how does one condemn an entire form of media based on one’s own problems with time management?"

GP hit it on the head. This comes down to a man who feels he has to save us all from his OWN failings.

That sounds about right... to both of the above responses. :P

*Waits for everyone here to rip this guy a new one*


Screw it, I can' wait...


So...Games are making kids fat, eh? No they're not... I'm American, k? I know all about the fatness 'round here. Our society is full of lazy people who thinks dining on McDonalds' heart-attack on a bun everyday is a good idea.

A lot of people around here do NOT eat healthy. I notice this around my school. I've seen pleanty of other students snaking on cookies or chips in the morning, and have you seen what the school serves for lunch? God...

Oh and it's not very hard as a parent to get your kid off of the games and outside. Seriously, If i ever become a father with a wife and child and I believe he's playing too much games, all I need to do is flat out tell him that I want him to save his game and GET OFF. Since I'm a gamer, he/she can't lie to me/trick me either, so I'll know whether or not he happens to "accidently" pass a save point or not :P.

...And if he doesn't get his/her arse off, I'm pulling the damn plug.

Comparing games to drugs ticks me off. It's much easier to turn off your game console rather than trying to stop snorting crack cold turkey.

Violence? Well sure, violence is everywhere. Why should it matter? Especially when the majority of violent games are for... ADULTS. Anything "violent" for a younger audience usually has cartoonish violence which dates back to the good 'ol days of Looney Tunes. Ah...how I miss those unnecessary wacks to the face with a hammer...

P.S. If anything, games has made my life worthwhile. It gives me something to look foward to, and something which has "helped me" gain some real-life friends.

Sorry, CanWest, the parent company of the National Post is kinda of the analogue for Fox News up here. Their TV news broadcast (Global News) is just awful -- crowd pleasing sensationalism at it's finest. I'll admit that while the Post isn't all sensationalist 'New Right' drivel, it is pretty damn biased (there's only one paper to read here, and that's the Globe).

Btw, the Star is garbage too (typical leftist Michael Moore-style crap) -- it ran the NFS/Street Racing angle a while back. Again, the only real paper is the Globe.

Personally, I think popping in Lost Planet for a few hours is less a waste of time than kneeling in front of a priest listening to sermons nobody seems to take to heart, standing in line for a chance to eat nasty-tasting cracker-breads and "wine", and being told how I should think and that I should have the same moral compass as the people in the same room, even when that moral compass says I should be stoning non-believers and gay people to death.
Bad enough this guy does nothing more than rant on and on without any facts to support his claims and then calls it an editorial, but he has the nuts to insist that video games take an eternity to play, when even a casual gamer will be capable of completing most games within 1-2 weeks. And that's with a 2-hour play minimum. And of course, if anybody can tell me how "passive" a single round of DDR is, or how motionless a single run through a Rock Band song on the drums tends to be, let me know on paper how many calories you lost first. Meanwhile, I'll trust Knights of the Old Republic a lot more than this dude to tell me what is right and wrong in this world.

@ Kajex

Haha, but what about those of us who go Dark in KOTOR EVERYTIME? I can't seem to be able to help it :P

Yeah, Church is kinda pointless and boring. It IS a free lunch, however, so I didn't complain when I was made to go as a kid.

Pre-tell, how old was this guy when he went to college? To look at him, I'd say he was 18 in around 1980...
So how could he play Tetris in 1980, and how would someone even in 1989 go about deleting a Game Boy cartridge?

Either hes lying about his playing of Tetris at college, or God, ironically, hasn't been kind to him.

I'll bet this all stems from reading someone in the 90s referring to everquest as 'evercrack'. That or sexual abuse from a bunch of guys dressed as mario & donkey kong...

I enjoy wildly unfounded sweeping generalisations as much as the next man, I'll label mac users in with child molesters and cult leaders because I think there's a serious psychological defect in anyone who willingly uses a 1 button mouse but damn, this one is sort of about ME! That dog won't hunt monsignor!

Hey, let's make sure we ban other stuff where all you do is sit on your ass getting fat while listening to nonsense, like reading books, watching TV, and going to church!

"Did I mention that far too many video games celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography?"

Beowulf(the movie) anyone All the way through it I was saying "This is trying to be a porn movie for kids". Why is no one attacking this movie for the same reasons as above?

I think he found a kid playing game boy during his sermon...

He cant take it that Nintendo's donation plate is always so much bigger. I'm sorry but the Church of Miyamoto is so much more compelling.

Let he who is without sin throw the first Wiimote...

I cant believe this kind of argument has endured so long. Online gaming has created global communities the likes of which have never seen before. It opens doors and erases borders. Games bring us together. I dont see that as a waste of time. Writing and reading propoganda is a waste of time.

Haha.

I always thought that the gamers are the skinnier of the lazy people, versus the ones that just sit and watch tv. Cause you can't eat and play at the same time (yet)

that ladies and gentlemen is a remarkable example of a real douchebag.

Seems to me that Souza's writing reflects more on his poor time management skills back in college than it does the evils of video gaming.

Cripes - he looks old enough to be my dad, and he still considers his Tetris addiction - I have to say it, that is pathetic - some traumatic moment in his life?

Sounds like somebody's running out of ideas to write in his column...

You sir are a pineapple!

After reading this person's "article" I know what his problem was: he never played video games! Like anything if something is forbidden from you for a long period of time when you finally get your hands on it, you don't know how to react and you either become frightened or addictated, or both in this case. If he had played games in a controlled enviroment with someone to tell him to get off his brain would have the ablility to say "stop now.." this is a failure to adapt not a problem inhertiantly put into games. Yes games are addictive but again if you're introduced early you will know to stop.
I'm personally offended by his choice of words in one line: "...for the sake of all that is holy and good" so games, and by proxy gamers, are unholy and evil? As for video games being a "black hole into which time dissapers" so is TV hobbies and chruch so he proabably shouldn't be talking. As for fatness its because the "streets are dangerous" or at least thats what parents think so they don't let little Jimmy go out and instead keep him inside and the style of teaching were subjected to effictivly kills all imignation unless you're really strong willed so where else are we going to go to enterain ourselves?

Is there any way we can contact Fr. Souza regarding his writing?

And no - not for flaming's sake. It's about time we sent him replies indicating that his assumptions about our interestes are dead wrong.

I don't remember anybody losing weight while reading the Bible.

@ Twin-Skies:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/index.html Thats the pape he writes for
http://educ.queensu.ca/index.shtml that's where he teaches. Most academic email addresses I've seen are first initial last name format.

@jonwanker

Thanks. Looks like you've said just about everything I wanted to tell the padre. Here's to hoping he gives it a meaningful reply.

Cheers

my wife and i had this argument once. we were playing games and at the end of the day she complained that she had nothing to show for it.

i explained that it was a hobby and done for fun, thus you didn't need to produce any work. she just didn't understand. her major hobbies are all arts and crafts (and she does stained glass work for a living) so she expects output of a physical nature, but games (as with reading) is mental.

So...

He had fun playing a game, and that's bad?

It's obviously the GAME's fault he can't manage his time sensibly.

@ Twin-Skies; Samson Effect, Gordon Freeman Edition

Thanks.

Though to tell the truth, emailing him was an act of procrastination on my part (and so is this!); oh, the irony!

I'm currently doing a Ba(Hons) in Philosophy -- or pre-law, as I like to call it, if only to feel less useless. That's cool, I know people who are planning to go into the Faculty of Education as well. Small world, eh?

De Souza teaches in the Faculty of Education, btw. So, if you see him, say hello for me, will ya?

I've never liked the Post. Their first run when they were started up as an "alternative to the liberal media" was to try to claim the premier of Manitoba was "denying his Ukrainian heritage in order to fit in with whites".... as a cover story...

They've toned it down since Conrad Black sold them, but he pretty much started it as a newspaper to allow him to bitch about liberals...

[...] Link // Cache-busting and pageid values var random = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); if (!pageNum) var pageNum = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); document.write(''); document.write(''); [...]

"I learned the truth about video games the hard way, and so this is the lesson I offer for free: Don’t play video games. Don’t own them. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t buy them for your children…"

I don't believe that games come under the evils of the world so appealing on the grounds of "all that is good and holy" is pretty repugnant.


"Since [deleting Tetris] I have never played another video game. It’s too dangerous. Video games take what is most precious — time and thought. And they are making kids fat."

So what you are telling us is that you have no concept of computer games outside of playing one of the most famous ones that uses the most rudimentary graphics and playing styles. I attended church as a child so does that qualify me enough to dictate to people what religion they should follow? By your logic it does.

Quite often Time is used up in a mutitude of ways from watchign television to playing sports. If you can demonstrate how a hobby that improves hand eye coordination and thought processes which can now have a story or plotline akin to a basic novel is less worthy than reading a book, I will listen.

As for making kids fat, no. Eating too much and/or not doing enough exercise is making kids fat, and I don't see the church helping with that.

Heres a story about how much the church cares about children's health - when I was 7 I used to go to church on sunday morning and then on the evening goto a church run football/sports hour. I decided to stop going to sunday school as I wasn't enjoying it - wasn't even so much the message, but how it was being told. Singing lame songs and listening to someone preach for 30 minutes was dull. What happened next? I was told if I didn't goto church then they wouldn't let me play football. Result? I stopped playing football.


"Video games are like a black hole into which time disappears…They are the crack cocaine of the electronic world…"

I see your video games and raise you Television. As soon as you want to lead the way and remove the evangelical tv stations and songs of praise from the airwaves, I will listen.


"Did I mention that far too many video games celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography? I don’t have to. Tetris had none of that, and it was deadly enough."

If you consider Tetris to be deadly I suggest you never goto a building site. Once again I ask you how you come to this conclusion when you have just openly admitted to never playing another video game.

If this is your idea of the Church being relevent to people in the 21st Century then I suggest you give up now. Poorly researched soundbites and misinformation really is not helping your cause and all you will succeed in doing is turning more children away from your religion.

@jonwanker

Small world indeed, and I will say hi to him for you if I get in. ;) I was just wondering what you were doing in case you knew either my girlfriend (started her Masters in Biochem this year) or my friend (she just finished a psych degree.)

Like I said a few times before, the douche has a problem with time being spent with videogames. He's also a priest, so he wants people listening to his bulls... I mean "sermons". People have less time to go to church because videogames are so much MORE fun (and a better moral compass, I'd take to use KOTOR as mine long before I consider church, like others said) and people prefer to play than to listen to an old priest, who's clearly completely oblivious to reality. Sermons suck, imagine how a sermon from this guy would suck even harder.

Anyway, back to topic, people who play videogames have less time to go to church, because playing is fun and going to listen to 2.000 years worth of hypocritical rants isn't. I wonder if there is a correlation between that and "video games are evil"...

Remember everyone, because I can't handle alcohol, you're not allowed to drink it.

...A priest claims that, "video games take what is most precious — time and thought."

Hmmm... When it comes to a time loss, you'd think video games fail in comparison to talking to yourself about a theistic God several times a day and devoting your entire life to the study of self-contradictory Bronze Age superstition.

No further comments needed, lols.

@Pandralisk..

LOL Whilst I'm not neccesarily agreeing, I'll fully support that one mans 'waste of time' is another mans' 'life-choice', I don't tell Preachers not to Preach, I don't tell Ninjas not to Ninje, so why should other people tell me what to do?

Let me begin with saying that, as an evangelical Christian myself, I think this man is seriously mistaken.

I do agree that gaming can be addictive to certain personality types. If it us to the individual, or their parents if the person in question is a minor, to make sure that they don't start falling into addictive behaviour patterns. Its a part of learning to be accountable for your own actions. For a lot of people part of that process will inevitablly involve prayer, and going to people such as trusted friends, a pastor, maybe even a therapist. Doing all that should help in dealing with the many issues that lead some people down the darkened path that is addiction.

This guy has no clue what the hell he's even talking about. The things he says makes him look like the Canadian version of Jack Thompson.

Memo to the Father:
Everything can be addictive. Also, tell me how reading the Bible not make you obese. What physical activity do you get out of reading the Bible or any other book?

Pandralsik, thank you for at least keeping your very expected rebuttal short and sweet.

The fact that this guy claims Tetris is evil just ends the argument right there...

...looney...

'nuff said.

Deadly tetris?

Am i the only one who is completely bewildered about what the heck he is raving about?

I see the Dog Collar, and I know everything about this article.

Forgot to mention this, sorry for double-post

@Chuma

All good points.

And @ GoodRobotsUs

I believe you're looking for “I don’t tell Ninjas not to Ninja”
Still very funny post though.

@ Pandralsik

Some how you always find away to talk about religion lucky for you it is actually important this time.

@ix

just don't forget that theory is theory until proven.

The problem with crack, you see, is that it's very moreish.

"And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t buy them for your children… Since [deleting Tetris] I have never played another video game. It’s too dangerous. Tetris had none of that [violence], and it was deadly enough."

Did Armando Iannucci write this? Chris Morris perhaps? You're not seriously telling me it was a real person.

That's funny.. I used to play games all the time a few years ago. Now I simply don't. I don't recall having a withdrawl, just a change of interests.

Although now I play a few games, only out of boredom.

He screwed up and is now blaming video games instead of admitting he failed at better managing his time >_> .

I barely even play video games now a days, however I did have a problem before with managing my game time, but that's not a problem anymore ;) .

Colonel Finn Says: "Is it just me or are the current 38-55 year old generation, getting more frightened by gaming than they ought to be? It never used to be this bad."

It's been this way with every generation. It's really no worse now. The MSM needs witches and straw men every so often that are easy targets for creating fear in the minds of viewers (and keeping them watching through the commercial breaks).


@~the1jeffy -- I wouldn't lay this at the feet of religion. This is a guy with an addictive personality (he could have had the same problem with soap operas, televised sports, ping pong, foosball, or crossword puzzles during college) who is taking his anecdotal problem and trying to make it into advice for others.

@william

Sources please, or are you afraid we'll see through them?

@william panderlust

Sources please. Oh, sorry Thompson, I forgot, those don't benefit you.

Also, how did you get around a ban this time?

considering that games are played to decrease stress by the majority of gamers, i'm going to call bullshit on the stress-induced fattening.

Thank you Father, for giving me a recap of how time is related to opportunity cost. That's all you did, nothing more sans a bit of sensationalism. Can't avoid a pun here, but you are really preaching to the choir.

His statements all boil down to lousy time management and self-control. He doesn't even try to hide it, because with comments like "black hole which time disappears", anyone reading from a birds eye view can tell, it's just an issue of time and prioritizing.

If I started reading from the middle of his column, I would've thought he was talking about building character. Just when you thought the conclusion was going to point to time management, BAM! you get a twist in the column and it turned out to be video games.

If he couldn't stop playing Tetris when more important things are on the line, it's due to his weak character.

Video games take time and thought away at the office as well. Loads of websites specifically made to provide games with Flash are popular with bored students and office workers. I'd wonder what his reactions would be if he switched places with a white collar worker.

And LOL at the "Tetris is deadly enough" statement. Maybe he was playing that version of Tetris where bomb blocks make lines explode.

And this is why I only read the Globe and Mail. Never really cared for the National Post, they're too eager to switch political alignment even though the company that owns them is essentially conservative.

You know, I've love to tell this guy that he shouldn't blame the video game for his inability to keep up with what time it was while he was playing it, but then I remember that on more than one occasion, I played X-com on my PC only to see several hours evaporate while trying to save the human species by making sure I properly equiped my squad "just right".

Darn you X-com! Darn you for being so darn enjoyable!

Seriously though, I wasted a LOT of time on X-com and had more than a few hours disappear because of it, but I don't think I'm going to condemn video games just because I had some fun. Thats just silly.

Please, we shouldn't give this ass clown the time of day. I manage my time well, and have a fulfilling life. I don't need his "professional opinion" on the matter.

william panderlust = Jack Thompson? Definitely seems his style.

what to say, what to say....

(shakes head...)

At last, someone has finally said that Tetris is evil.

I can die happy, or catatonic (I don't know which).

as someone who believes in god and goes to Church every Sunday (and its not by force either I like going to Church) and is also a gamer since childhood I have only one thing to say to this guy "you are an idiot."

Oh, come on, tetris is marihuana at best...
now World of Warcraft, that is crack....

but seriously, if the guy can't do both, have a life and play viseogames, that is his problem, leave those of us who can do both alone.

tetris? whats next to come under fire? scrabble?



well at least in scrabble you are rewarded for using words like anus and balls...

what were we talking about?

Wait, TETRIS?

Video Games make kids fat. Ever hear of Dance Dance Revolution?

The Jack Thompson of Canada? Sorry Canadians

Let's substitute a few words here and there and see if it changes anything:

"Don’t watch pro-sports. Don’t buy tickets for events. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don’t let your children watch them on tv…

Since [stopping watching basketball on tv] I have never watched another game. It’s too dangerous. TV sports take what is most precious — time and thought. And they are making kids fat.

Sports programs on tv are like a black hole into which time disappears…They are the crack cocaine of the entertainment world…

Did I mention that far too many sports shows celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography? I don’t have to. Cricket had none of that, and it was deadly enough."

The man is an idiot. My time spent playing TF2 or WoW online with friends is no more wasted than the time of a bunch of friends going to a house to watch the Superbowl, or a family playing board games together. My time spent playing a single player game is no more wasted than the time of someone sitting down to read a novel for an hour, or a person doing a jigsaw, or a person watching the latest episode of their favourite show.

Just because he got addicted to an activity does not mean that it will happen to everyone.

I must admit to being a bit resentful of games apparently making me obese. Here I was thinking it was genetic predisposition served alongside large, meaty chunks of poor diet covered liberally in the rich thick gravy of 15 years of depression that sapped all my will to even move and at times bordered on the suicidal but it turns out that it was Ultima IV-IX all along!

Damn you Ultima Series! You may have given me the most accurate and sensible moral compass I ever encountered and helped me though some of the worst times in my life but you also gave me a physique resembling Jabba The Hutt!

Realistically though I've lost shitloads of weight in the last few years (from around 260kg down to 150 in 2-3 years) and my gaming has been as steady as ever and even when it waned some, it waned in favour of even more sedantry activities such as programming.


Hey there's a negative game story that I don't remember hearing, games have cheats in them right? Doesn't it therefore follow that all gamers are cheaters and will cheat at exams, taxes, relationships etc? We should start a wiki of some kind and group-write the single most histrionic anti-gaming article ever written and send it to somewhere like fox news to see if they bother to check the source or just use it because they're lazy.

Oh what rubbish, the next thing you'll be saying is that children who eat too many lollies and get sick are at fault where it's really the lolly companies in league with the game companies, porn industry and drug barons wanting to turn our children into some kind of superaddict!

Ok, here's an interesting question:
Everything that has caffiene in it?

Also, is that all you're "addicted" to?

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

The fact that he can't keep track of time means that every kid should be deprived of video games? Guys, if our opponents are this logic-deficient, can we even hope to win?

Soooooo, I'm a crack addict now? Wait, what!?

Watch out kids, the video games will steal your soul! Just wait, that's next. Why can't the crazy religious people silence themselves and stop making the rest of us look bad?

This is lulzy. Such nonsense makes this Anonymous amused (distracted from work).

@ nightwing2000

I'll answer that.

If I recall the main food/drinks with caffiene are Coke (or most soft drinks), energy drinks, and coffee. While I personally don't drink coffee (can't stand hot stuff or the taste) or energy drinks (have no real need never mind the taste); one could argue I drink far too much Coke (at least two cans nearly every day). Worse, I once drank a 1.5 L bottle in the space of about 15-20 minutes and felt NO rush what so ever. (Then again it was the busiest day of the year at work)

@ Aliasalpha

This has potential. Please continue...

Well they mostly stopped going on about comics, D&D & heavy metal after a while. Well there's still a bit of noise about the metal (I can never hear it because of all the kick arse shredding of the late great dimebag darrell) but that will fade with time. The uproar over games will fade as well and if it's remembered at all, it'll be remembered with the same nostalgic silliness as we now remember the hysterical cries that D&D would turn all children into satanists...

@nightwng200

yes, pretty much everything that has caffiene in it, mostly energy drinks though.

That man is one of the many reason why Quebec is trying to independance itself off from Canada...

Now who violated his Wiki entry? That's not going to help anyone.

[...] Fuente : Game Politics No hay etiquetas... [...]

@Internet Hate Machine:
Hehe thanks, apparently I'm an incurable smartarse. Hey, games have smartarses in them, therefore games are bad!

its funny, but i wonder if he has ever read the bible? The books of old testement is by far one the most violent and sexual books there are. nad the funny thing is that it is highly censored.

[...] Oh this is just quality: A columnist for Canada

More ignorant fear mongering by an out of touch religious fanatic.

MonkeyPeaches,
While we might say it's the caffiene, are there other things that you do that give you the feeling of a massive energy boost that doesn't involve caffiene? Since you like the Energy drinks so highly, I'm wondering if it's the rush feeling itself that is the addiction. The caffiene feeds it, but it's the feeling that you crave. If you did without the Energy drinks, would you seek out other ways to get that feeling or do you already do that?

Hey, it may be the caffiene that you crave. I'm just running an unscientific exam here. :)

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

All the anti-religious folk calm down. Yep he's a priest, and entitled to his opinion..but he doesnt speak for Christianity as a whole.
Over at www.SQPn.com there is a podcasting priest who loves video games and sci-fi movies etc.

There's a whole range of people from all walks of life who like and dislike video games.

[...] Fuente | GamePolitics Compártelo [...]

:s/games/books/

Yes it was clear which comes such a statement of the Catholic church, only Popetown and then this. Firstly Tetris is not to be compared to others videogames. And I must say if people simply do not have any more control about himself, I am able to do also nothing, but to condemn everything gamer of the world immediately, is not ok. However, I mean I am also a gamer, but not addicted because I also do not have really time for it, because of mine school. You should think about more important things for example Poverty.

:: OTs a quick "Good Luck!" to Jeffy's wife. ::

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

wow how many peices have we ripped this guy into

I don't play as many videogames anymore. Now I'm suffering in my academics, I'm less happy, and I don't feel as productive (given that gaming had killed some of my productivity, I'm feeling way less productive now). Explain that one, Mr. Smartguy!

Sorry, Mr.Souza...but...I can't find the right words to express how...insanely stupid your opinion is. Tetris is not "the crack of electronic world". Neither are almost all other games. MMORPGs are addictive, yes, they made many lives miserable...but not every game is addictive. Games are for fun, and as every Christian should know, violence and the urge to reproduce are two of the basic "functions" of mankind. (See, you nailed Jesus to the cross...and you stoned many, many people for not believing these things, you believe in.) But don't get me wrong...I'm not an animal person who randomly beats people. I try to never be violent but when I need to defend myself, I will raise my fists and fight.

Also, video game producers never want the players to do those violent things which are displayed in video games.

Secondly, if you say, video games make people fat...then forks make people fat, too. And then guns kill people, not the human being which pulls the trigger. Or the car/steering wheel make road accidents happen.

Decisions and actions will cause something to happen, not a lifeless object.

Video games are NOT bad! Human beings are bad!

~Suppenkasper

I think Father de Souza should read this

http://www.eegra.com/pages/show/title/06_12_2007_Feature__Morality_Play_...

Here's my response to him in it's entirety. I hope it doesn't get lost in all the other thousands of emails he's likely to receive:


Father:

Hopefully you won't disregard this entire letter as based on my following, opening statement, but I must say that I'm entirely surprised that any of my religious cohorts are frothing at the mouth in the name of any electronic entertainment, much less titles that have beneficial value.

Perhaps well beyond your casual experience with Tetris, I will readily discuss that I've been playing the game casually for nearly two decades, and within the last couple of years have been in tournaments and have even been classified as a top ten player in a couple of different iterations of the game. I'm also a contributor to a site called http://www.tetrisconcept.com/ where, if you take a quick look around in the Wiki, you'll realize that there's more to the game than obsessive-compulsive problem solving ala "filling the gaps with geometric shapes". It operates off the properties of puzzle pieces used for a specific purpose, part of strategies, conservation and applicable risk. Unlike the randomness that we experience in life, or physical sports or business, there is a confinement to games like Tetris. There are rules like gravity, rules to how the physics and rotations work, rules to scoring. There is nothing political about it, like business. There is nothing arbitrary about it, like in physical sports where a referee can throw his weight around, and it is not unfair like the perception of life from a Godless existence. Tetris is very much constructed, in a geometric sense, like the Great Beyond where we'll share and spend eternity. Perfection, symmetry, and accomplishing a goal that will last an eternity.

As an aside to the recognizable benefits, here in America, high school students are made to take the ASVAB test, which is a large, all-subjects encompassing test that our military branches use to gauge a student's usefulness to the service, and what their strengths would be. One of these sections is "coding". The ability to take and absorb bursts of information, disseminate it and apply it. I scored 99 percentile. Curious by my score, the administrator returned with the tests a week later and inquired if I had semi-regularly played video games, namely games such as Tetris, Columns or Bejeweled. Apparently it's a trend that they frequently see in testing. Obviously, they solicited me for service for a long time, and this was in a pre-9/11 world.

I strongly, full-heartedly mean no offense, but I think the aspect of your article that focuses on your Tetris heyday and your view of it being a dangerous diversion, actually stems from a trouble or problem you have with addiction. That's normal, people can become addicted to cigarettes, drinking, pornography, eating or in the most bizarre cases I've seen, Scripture, but it mostly all stems from moderation of your activity. Paul wrote, "Everyone that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things" (I Cor. 9:25) and "Let your moderation be known unto all men". Anything in excess, even reading God's Word in lieu of tending His sheep can be as sinful as the most debaucherous behaviour. I think your article, while it would've gotten less hits on a website, would've better served the people who would've read it if it actually attacked the core of the matter; gluttony and the lack of moderation as a society.

You go on further as an aside and say that videogames are making kids fat; I couldn't argue farther from the case. The Nintendo Wii, which has now sold 10 million units worldwide, is an extremely active machine, strongly encouraging movement and repetitive action that goes beyond that of an aerobics class, and I've never seen people walk out of Jazzercize with the smile I see beaming from their face after a round of Tennis or Boxing on the Wii. Even before the Wii, which came out a year ago, it can be counted in the tens of millions of how many Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution and even Donkey Konga titles that were sold which emphasize strongly on rhythm, movement and exercise, including titles such as Dance Praise which are rhythm games that promote all the above and go so far as to include past Christian classics and contemporary praise into it's musical ensemble, I'll go so far as to say that when people play this game and "make a joyful noise" they are indeed giving praise to God and are absorbing the effects of the Holy Spirit. Much more encouraging than the living dead I encounter weekly in the pews.

You also mention "Did I mention that far too many video games celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography?", which makes me wonder what is your feelings on with David slaughtering his enemies and bringing Saul back their foreskins (1 Samuel 18:25-27)? What about the absolute entirety of Song of Solomon, which may be part allegory, may be a play-by-play of sexual activity, but is irregardless absolutely packed with sexual situations?

How is Samson, a man chosen by God, fallen from grace and redeemed through sacrifice and along the way slays THOUSANDS (check out Judges 15:15-16) any different than Master Chief from Halo, Nathan Hale from Resistance: Fall of Man or Gordon Freeman from Half-Life? Other than Samson was real, and killed real people? Yet this is glorified and Samson is painted as one of the ultimate Manly-Men servants of God, yet those whose stories told in a medium so that the immersion allows for greater appreciation of Samson's story, epics inspired almost directly from Biblical heroes of old, are written off by you as time-wasters, when they can be used to enrich a well-rounded Biblical understanding and ultimately a love for God.

Let's not kid ourselves. The very foundation and cornerstone of our faiths, God's Word, is wrought with violence, sex and destruction. Some of it is glorified, some of it is not. Ultimately it all has a place in the journey that Man will take to return to the fold. We gain absolutely nothing from over-protecting our children; akin to never letting a mule leave the barn, when the reality is that they need to be out in the world, and blinders to be applied. The goal is that with the training, blinders aren't needed and they are able to transverse this world because we are indeed in it, and not of it. But we should not remove ourselves from society because of our fears. There are many great Christians in the gaming industry and they make headway, or add touches to things that keep us all in the bigger picture, and keep the industry from degenerating into the cess pool that is Hollywood.

I know you've probably received at least a hundred letters in scale and scope of this one, and hopefully you'll actually read them and take something from them, rather than bind them and bind their anointing and hold it above your head and articulate into another column about how you have been "attacked" and how these letters will merely strengthen your resolve. I think it would do you some great good to step out of the abbey, find a youth center or some such that has video games among their arsenal, and just observe.

Like human beings, video games are meant to be a social phenomenon. They are meant to be a generator of fellowship, and I have met great men and women through gaming. Through the tone of your article, I gather that your observations are limited to perhaps watching individuals or siblings playing alone, by themselves. I have seen mass gatherings of Christians, in the hundreds, to play games such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, and there's not an observer among them, even the most staunch critic of the inclusion of video games in ministry, that can say that no one is the better for it.

The Love of God is timeless, but the methods of getting people there to be in the midst of it are not. I don't know how much damage control other progressive carriers of the torch of faith will have to do in order to defend you from the onslaught who cannot understand your position due to the points I've laid above, but it's obvious from the comments I've read at GamePolitics and Joystiq alone that you've done some irreparable damage to the faith that will take years to work through.

Anyway, thanks if you read this letter, and I would hope that in the future you'd consider the things Jesus has said rather than unfounded claims that you want others to hear.

w00f w00f indeed,
"Phydeaux" - fido - faith, I do
Jonathon Warden
Universal Life Reverend, Liberal Quaker

I....just never mind! *walks away*

He's right you know.... Psycho Cho had Tetris on a scientific calculator which he sold on eBay, and look how things turned out in Virginia.

I heard Jack the Ripper played video games too.

What Phydeaux said was true also, the Bible is full of graphic violence. You don't see this guy complaining about that, do you?

Wow, lots of anti-religious sentiment here. Understandable, I suppose, but I'm not gonna take that into opinion for now.

Yeah, if this guy got so addicted to Tetris that he had to physically REMOVE himself from it, he doesn't show much mental strength or willpower.

About the games making you fat: Well, I could say that cubicle work makes you fat. Ban cubicles! Oh, and ban school too while you're at it: not like kids are doing any physical activity in there! It's a pretty irrelevant and rather minor issue to take care of if *cough* YOU AREN'T AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT!

Anyways, it's almost depressing hearing about these people rejecting games. They're depriving themselves of a perfectly good thing, and a great, enjoyable experience. But whatever, sucks for him.

[...] Link [...]