Comments on: 76 Words

By: Bob Wallace

Bob Wallace — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:07:21 +0000

One of the first things I noticed about the emails I received is that some of them zeroed in on one word of an article, apparently completely ignoring the rest of what I wrote. Generally they thought my definition of that one word was wrong (which it never was) and they wanted to go back and forth about it. Gary North is right; they’re tarbabies.

By: Brian Beverly

Brian Beverly — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:49:54 +0000

Agreed! I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madden, starving,
hysterical
naked
from Halo!
Video games are fun, but many are just addicts.

Am I being a nit here? I get lost in the new rehashed jargon. There have always been critics. You need to take their bullshit and feces throwing ape shit comments and use them to fuel your creative fire.

“Not once have I ever been driven apeshit with a need to respond to the writer with a venemous, defensive, or whiny email condeming their post, even while claiming to generally like their work.”

I don’t care about the books and articles you’ve published, nothing personal because I can’t care if I haven’t read them. Blogging about how much you hate people commenting and then letting me comment is a contradiction. Instead you should right about nits in a really obscure journal that only you and your friends read. That way you can cite each other and apply for research grants to investigate the “nit epidemic”. Better yet go on TV and make nits a talking point.

The internet gives everyone a chance to voice their opinion this is a democracy not an oligarchy. By what right do men exercise power over each other?

By: Karen De Coster

Karen De Coster — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:14:25 +0000

Jay, of course there are many intelligent gamers around that don’t fall into the general category. But criticism of behaviors doesn’t necessarily condone every person who engages it. If I was forced to have my child – or husband! – do one or the other, gaming is far less detrimental than TV, of course, whose purpose is, like the public schools, to indoctrinate and captivate. I know intelligent-libertarian gamers whose lives aren’t taken over by gaming; they don’t get upset at my views … we just laugh.

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:08:30 +0000

Karen, I am a gamer amongst being so many other things, and I don’t mind that you do not care for gaming. I’d rather focus on the things I do agree with you on than to worry about and be offended by the things we do not. I do not feel compelled to change your mind about any topic because what would be the point? I feel it’s generally better to accept people for who they are (within reason, I suppose). So yeah, watch out for the gaming fanboys, as we like to call ‘em.

On the other hand, I cannot stand watching TV. That to me is a complete waste of time. And yet, for me, gaming is not. I’m 38, by the way; generally well-adjusted and married to a beautiful woman who also loves games — indeed we met on a gaming forum over our love of a particular game. How bizarre is that?

To Michael the Artist: There are indeed games which allow players to be creative. You might consider looking up LittleBigPlanet. Some of things people have created in this game are astounding, and a number of players are indeed artists. One of my friends who plays LittleBigPlanet is a graphic artist and comic illustrator — this game is well suited to her creativity. I won’t call it art, which is always subjective at best, but it is lovely to see what people are capable of creating.

By: Karen De Coster

Karen De Coster — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:21:58 +0000

Michael — I know it was 2001. Typo.

By: Michael the Artist

Michael the Artist — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:39:22 +0000

What is creative about playing video games? Designing them, maybe, but if you’re restrained to using the game as the designers designed in then it ain’t art by any definition I would agree to.

Gary wrote the tar baby piece in ’01, not ’91. In the more recent piece, he points out that these trolls are absent in the paid-subscription forums; I guess if they had money to pay for admission, they’d be working and wouldn’t have all that time available to them to troll!

By: cousin lucky

cousin lucky — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:05:21 +0000

Dear Ms De Coster,
I know that you are very busy but the prices of ” gaming computers ” should astound you. I am much to old for ” toys ” and ” gadgets ” and do not even have a cell phone. ( I carry a pager if anyone very close to me desperately needs to contact me ) I knew when I read your article about the police that the game nuts were going to jump sky high and I guess I was right!!

I too enjoy Gary North and I wish that Charley Reese was still writing columns. I do not always agree with you but your writing gives anyone with an open mind a lot to think about!!