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Monday, March 23. 2009
Gamey Logic
In what might be an entry from the “Clueless” file, this tidbit of news from the Yahoo News: Andy Anderson of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force has decided neither children or adults should play the Nintendo Wii game, Animal Crossing: City Folk, because, as he puts it, it offers an easy access to children for pedophiles.Anderson doesn’t say what he bases that assertion on, other than people can hook up their Wii machines to the Internets and play their friends, so his claim is really without foundation. As anyone who is 21st Century knows, random users cannot contact other users without first getting the special user codes and then the users still cannot contact others through the game console. You still need a telephone, e-mail, instant messaging, MySpace, FaceBook or Twitter for that.
Someone probably told Anderson people can play their friends over the Internets and Anderson quickly put two and two together and came up with 194. But that’s not the funniest part of the story.
No, Mr., Anderson believes no adult should be playing this game and if they are, they’re doing it “for the wrong reasons.” Well, there might be some truth to that. Getting engrossed in something designed for kids, well, I’ve never really understood that, but many parents do!Ever ask a parent with young children what movies they like? Betcha every one of them will name off the latest Disney and Pixar features for the past two years. That’s all they go see in the theaters and the only films they buy or rent. It’s effin’ crazy! Years ago I dated a woman with children, one of which was about 4-5 years old. I don’t remember exactly, this was during the Clinton years and the woman and I were … experiencing the moment.
Anyway, many of our “dates” were spent at her place watching Disney movies with her child. The only movies she had were for kids. We never watched anything that resembled an adult theme, with the possible exception of The Wizard of Oz which, if you read the book, is all about tax rebellion.
Now I’m not complaining, the woman and I had plenty of alone time, some of it even quality time alone, but I realized a monumental truth about parents: if it has to do with children, they love it.
Go to McDonalds on any given weekend night and the place is packed with families. Why? Because Mickey Dee’s has all those little movie marketing toys you can get for under a buck if you buy a Kids Meal and they have the enclosed playground with the really cool things kids can climb through, swing on and jump over. Believe me, the place is loud with the shrieks of kids having a good time at McDonalds.
No, I’m not complaining. On Friday nights my friends and I have the $1.29 Filet O’Fish sammiches at the Rancho Skinnypenis (Peñasquitos) store and I expect to hear and see the little tykes running through the place — in bare feet — as they go take a bite or two from their kids meal in between adventures in the playground. Of course, my friends and I aren’t really paying much attention to the kids, we’re more interested in some of the Moms! We go for the Filet O’Fish, but stay for the Moms!
For parents, Moms and Dads, it’s all about what they children are into. Sure, Mom and Dad may play golf or go bowling now and then, but when it comes to entertainment, it’s always the latest Pixar movie or a trip to Legoland. Parents love their kids, as they should.
It’s a little awkward though when a group gets together to see a movie and the parents in the group want to see Race to Witch Mountain or Wall•E or whatever is in the theater at the time. Monsters vs. Aliens will be in the theaters soon. One of the animated characters is a blob and he seems to have all the best dialogue.
Last year I lived with a guy — no children under the age of 16 — who watched all these kids movies on TV as they came out on HBO and Showtime. He just went all gaga for Ratatouille. Jeez. He preferred those films to movies with adult themes. The big dichotomy; he never missed a night of professional wrestling on TV. That’s three nights a week, not counting the numerous Pay-Per-Views.
When he was deep into his Disney or wrestling, I hunkered down with the Internets or plugged in my iPod and left him to his joy. He just hated it when I put on MSNBC or CNN. Different strokes they say.
Remember how popular the Muppets TV show was? Without question a program for kids, but adults were so into it I often wondered if there was something wrong with me because I didn’t much care for it.
So, it isn’t a stretch at all to assume parents, all wrapped up in what their kids like, will be wrapped up in the games their small children love, like Animal Crossing on Wii. And, I would bet, they play those games even after the kids are snuggled safely in their beds.There haven’t been any reports of pedophiles using that game to make contact with children, just the “conclusion” of a Missouri police official that has no clue what he’s talking about when it comes to video games. It’s just more fear mongering. But, Andy Anderson has a platform and he’s going to use it, stupidly it appears and there will be TV stations, like KMIZ that will give the stupidity legitimacy by airing a piece about Anderson’s concerns with Animal Crossing.
Parents should be monitoring what their children do, what games they play and movies they see, but they should be armed with facts, not the ignorance of an ill-informed police official. But this is America: ignorance is bliss.
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