Violence Is Out, Second Life Is In
As more information comes to light about Dr. Phil's upcoming video game episode, the less I care about it. Not only does it look like the show will focus on MMORPGs, but it seems that they're only going to be probing Second Life, which is arguably the dullest MMO out there. Dr. Phil's website has issued the following announcement for potential guests:
Are you worried your teen is so consumed with the online game, Second Life, that they aren't paying attention to their own life? Have they bragged about earning money and getting a job in the game but haven't moved from the computer screen in days? Are you worried what they're doing in the game and if it's safe? Does your teen argue with you that it's all innocent? Tell us your story.
Probably the funniest thing about this whole situation is that Dr. Phil's producers have managed to defuse what could've been a social and political powderkeg regarding gamers and violence by replacing it with a topic which practically nobody cares about. Oh, and incidentally, if you're a parent with an MMO-addicted teenager, couldn't you... I don't know... take away their computer privileges or something?
[via GamePolitics]
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 16 August 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: addiction, dr. phil, mmorpg, second life, snore, video game
What? And hurt their feelings?
Parent's can't be held responsible for managing their children's free-time, entertainment activities or behavior.
That path leads to madness! (or Sparta. One or the other.)
If your going to let your kid use the computer or have their own, you damn well better have some locking device like the iBoss at the router. Then you could just kill his network connection or put Second Life's servers on a black list.
But that would take initiative and actual parenting.
Ideally you should always know more about computers than your kid. Lucky for me that was not the case :P
Yeah, I'd have been pretty screwed (er.... insufficiently screwed) if my parents had ever figured out how to stop me from going on gay bulletin boards with my 300 baud modem at age 15, posing as a 20-year-old. All they ever figured out how to do was take away my Commodore 64 power supply, and I just bought another one for 2 bucks at a surplus store and used it while they were out.
Yep, good times. It really does make Myspace and Second Life seem kinda lame, he said without a glimmer of irony.