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Mon Nov 16
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| posts about #responsibility more → |
Detoxing the Electronic Village |
Prince Of Persia Culturally Irresponsible |
Times Tirade Claims Xbox is Crack for Kids |
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Kotaku 
02/03/09
The contract idea is interesting. My parents made me sign a contract with them in order to drive and so when I broke a rule, I knew what the punishment was even before my mom said it. I think that boundaries are key, but I like the idea of letting the kid negotiate for what they think is fair and have a say. And, maybe the contract could be renegotiated after grades come out. A physical, signed contract seems a bit over-the-top, but a least a conversation where a the rules are clearly established sounds like a good idea. I also think it's better to focus on positive rewards like earning more game time by being good, rather than having it be taken away.
02/03/09
02/03/09
And video games hasn't screwed up my life (yet) and I've always played them.
Good thing I don't have some weird mental problem, right? Or I'd be in a mall somewhere shooting the fountain and throwing grenades through store windows...
:o
02/03/09
Not screwed up at all!
...backs away slowly...
02/03/09
i think it's best to make sure the kids have a foundation in the real world at an early age. too much immersive fiction and role-play too soon probably isn't good for a young mind.
02/03/09
13 years old? That's pretty rough.
I had myself a Playstation at 6. I had played a ton of Spyro the Dragon at Pepe's playhouse (childcare section of kroger) that I just had to have it.
02/03/09
02/03/09
02/03/09
bad actitude or violence etc...
02/03/09
DING DING DING! We have a winner!
Parents create the personalities of their children. Saxboy says, some kids are just bad and perfectly good parents get bad kids- that's wrong (sorry). The definition of a good parent is highly debatable. Those 'good' parents generally are the ones who don't set limits or guidelines or end up massively spoiling the child. I believe (and trust me, my opinion is no more valid than yours) that children are blank slates and the parents help mold them. They are VERy fragile blank slates though and one wrong move can ruin the whole thing
02/03/09
02/03/09
02/03/09
Respectfully, I don't believe children are simply "blank slates". Each person is his own person-- even if he's a child-- and cannot blame others for the things he does of his own volition. It's the parent's responsibility to guide him in the way he should go, and certainly they greatly affect his perspective on life, but to remove the responsibility of the child to do what is right is to remove all causality from human existence.
02/03/09
02/03/09
!
*MGS Sting music*
02/03/09
Ryan just said:
"Saxboy says, some kids are just bad and perfectly good parents get bad kids- that's wrong (sorry)."
Too me, that seems to say "Your opinion is not valid." Just because he wrote a disclaimer afterwards doesn't change the meaning of it.
02/03/09
02/03/09
At 3 years old, my second child reads--at about a first- to second-grade level. My oldest child skipped kindergarten because she was reading at a fourth-grade level. Why? Because they watched LeapFrog videos and played for hours on StarFall.com.
Now they love to play World of Goo, Spore, and Zoo Tycoon 2. We have wonderful conversations about structural stability, the nature of evolution and space travel, animals (including dinosaurs)... and all of these games contain text portions for my children to read.
If you are an attentive parent and filter the media appropriately, video games are a wonderfully interactive and educational alternative to hours of TV watching (which is what most kids end up doing when their parents kick them off the video games). My children have toys and play outside and do all the things normal children do, but they do a little bit less of it--and they're significantly smarter for that.
12/27/08
You know, real news and journalism?
Unfortunately a story like this gets more reads.
12/27/08
12/27/08
12/26/08
Unfortunately though, Sands of Time failed to sell many copies on its initial release and it seems Ubisoft put this down to the characters being people from what would be modern day Iran - from a marketing perspective at least, not ideal for a primarily American audience. Whether this a reasonable theory or not (as an Australian, I can't really speculate), it's what they ran with, which resulted in the utterly unlikable Prince in Warrior Within and the blue eyed, pale skinned yank in the new game. It's a sad state of affairs, but with tens of millions of dollars on the line, it's understandable (though extremely frustrating) that Ubisoft would go for a character more archetypally apealling to its primary audience.
12/27/08
12/26/08
Seriously, they dropped the ball on this iteration. He's a fucking jock douchebag.
12/26/08
12/26/08
The only reason this argument even exists is because "Persia" is in the title. All this "pop culture shaping opinion" nonsense is ridiculous. If it's obviously fake, people should NOT pander to the idiots who think reality in any way mirrors it. If this game was called "Prince of Lut Galein(sp?)" no one would have a problem.
It's like people getting upset about 300 for cultural insensitivities for god's sake. If everything that contained the mere mention of a real culture had to accurately depict it, storytellers would then have an impossible task. Where's the line? Who decieds what's real about one culture or another anyway? Whose to say there AREN'T arabs who acted like the Prince in PoP? So it's better to generalize an entire culture and make sure ONE character in a FANTASY game is "representatative" of them? Bullshit.
A quick look in our own backyard will prove to eeryone that there is no "epitome" of one culture or another. These days, what's "american"? Who decids what values come from which cultures, and who says they're right? I knew a black guy who acted like the whiteest skater/punk rocker on the planet. So who want's to tell him he's being bad and it would be more acceptable if he were to act blacker, so that people didn't get the wrong idea about how blacks are supposed to be? People are different, and that's more real than any pidgeon-holed idealism for ethnic demeanors and attitdues.
12/26/08
They could call it Prince of Malaysia for all I care, seeing as even the first "last gen" game, Sands of Time had the look of a stereotypical Disney's Aladdin look to it, and for all I know that's not even the right region of the world.
I really do understand his position, and I'm sure it's the same position of the entire nation of France has against the entire animation sector of American entertainment with the daily depiction of the French being nothing but frog-leg eating, beret wearing cowards.
People might have their perception of a culture shaped by the media they view, but when taking offense because a single game isn't an accurate depiction of a Persian man, then it opens the floodgates for all video game characters to be attacked for being poor representations. I'm sure all princesses aren't damsels in distress, all plumbers aren't Italian, and that Japan is more then just samurai and ninjas.
12/26/08
This is their projected fantasy.
They wanna fuck the vaguely exotic slightly
tanned chick with the tight pussy.
They wanna be this buff dude wrapped in robes
making smart ass remarks who secretly
has a heart but hides it.
If you want to see the intention,
look at the authors.
12/27/08