What is going to happen to the country when the video game generation gets old enough to take over the country?
Kids don’t even go outside to play anymore… They stay in and play COD4. I don’t consider myself old, I will be 28 next month. But when I was a kid if I wasn’t outside climbing a tree, playing in the dirt, playing with bugs and snakes, Learning what plants I can eat and which ones give me the poops, finding water holes to swim in, starting camp fires, exploring the woods, then my parents would shove me out the door and tell me not to come back till the street lights came on.
And the thing is, I still do all of those things a more. I tried to get my niece and nephew to go out and do some of those things and all they wanted to do was stay inside and play video games. And if they just happen to get hurt when they do go outside, then they cry like babies.
When I was a kid, I fell out of a tree when I was climbing. I limped home crying, my mom looked me over made sure nothing was seriously wrong then she told me to “quit crying because crying doesn’t help you climb a tree the right way, now go back and climb up to the top”. And I did. and I have a bunch of stories like that, and my niece and nephew will only ever have stores like, “when I was a kid I beat the new mario in 3 hours and 7 minutes”.
You validated my point, how old do you have to be to run for president?
Xbox and Playstation has created a totally different video game generation. I have kids that are comparing real life to Call of Duty modern warfare that live by me. When I go out back and shoot my M4 they come around and want to hold it, touch it, and pretend they are in a damn video game. MW2 has created a new language for kids and they don’t know the difference between fact and fiction.
I have been in real combat with real guns, bullets and death. When I was in Iraq there were young kids that would write letters to me and ask me about my “slight of hand pro” in combat. It’s ridiculous.
It’s a comment from a member of the video game generation about a video game: Halo. They are commenting about a person in the game but refer to him as Halo, so neither Halo nor Iraq are considered a person, thus the analogous mutation of the snowclone.
I was making a joke and in doing so making a comment similar to what a member of the video game generation might make about you if they literally saw your job as being analogous to Halo. I wasn’t trying to make fun of you or your post and apologize if it seemed that way.
And you’re much too young for this “kids today” stuff.
In the halcyon past, of course, kids were never curious about guns and never pretended to play games with them. That’s why we never had wars in the past.
Only joking. As a member of the video-game generation myself (30 years old, settled down and still gaming) I’m more worried about the Facebook/Text message generation.
The kids today don’t have no respect, they’re just a-textin’ and a-Facebookin all day on their portable Apple Macintoshes. They don’t even know they’re born!
The next generation will surpass all previous generations in achievement, and the generation after will likewise surpass them. This has been the way of the world for thousands of years.
Of course I can pull the “kids today” thing. When I was old enough, I was put to work. Hauling hay, oats, feed, shoveling horse crap, running tractors, roofing houses and barns. In the winter we hunted for food not horns, horns were only a bonus. I cut trees and split with a maul for firewood in the fall. When I stand up and stretch my back it’s from a hard days work, not from sitting in a chair playing games all day.
Just because you are older than me doesn’t give you the right to judge my age. My childhood ended when I was able to carry a 50lb sack of oats. (about 12 or 13). I was moved out of my house into my own 4 months after I turned 18. I am getting ready to buy a second home and add 20 acres to my property, I have been to war and back and getting ready to go to the other theater of war next year. IMO I have done more in my couple years of life than most people double my age.
Sorry if that seemed “catty” but it irritates me when I get categorized as a child when I had such a short childhood.
All the book worms I knew growing up are mostly all doing well for themselves. They have a great knowledge of the past and present and will hopefully pass that knowledge onto the next generation so that we don’t forget our roots.
Honestly, I’m less alarmed by the fact that “kids today” play videogames than I am by the fact that they know so little about videogames. I’ve got cousins in elementary/middle school who play versions of the old Mario Brothers games ported to the GBA, and have no idea at all that these were originally games for the home console. In fact, I get a blank stare when I talk about the “original” 8-bit NES. These kids don’t even know what Tetris is - I swear, my uncle had to explain it to them.
I find this disheartening, because as with anything else, you get a lot more out of videogames if you know something about them. I’m 26, and I grew up just as videogames did - I can recognize when a videogame is referencing something older, or improving upon an old trope in an innovative way, and so on, because I’ve got context for this stuff. My cousins, and kids like them who’re growing up with a mature videogame industry, don’t have that context.
If I ever (Ford forbid) have children, I’m damned well going to insist they get a solid grounding in the classics before they get to play any of that shiny modern stuff. “No, son - no Call of Duty 27 until you beat Sonic the Hedghog.”
Good for you, and obviously you feel those experiences shaped your life and gave you more character. But I think you should realize that this isn’t the life most people grow up with, and that’s not a recent change. Kids are playing more video games and so are plenty of adults, but the kind of rural life you’re talking about has been on the decline for a lot longer.
I don’t remember telling you how old I am. And I didn’t call you a child either. But I stand by my statement that you’re too young for this type of argument.
We don’t have presidents over here, but IIRC over here you have to be 16 to run in the General Elections and you could theoretically become prime minister.
[Emphasis added by me]
Bollocks. It was bollocks when people claimed that about games when I was 10 and it still is. The fact that kids don’t get military-grade training from a war game or don’t know how to handle real weapons when they’ve never handled a real weapon does not meant they’re unable to tell the difference between games and reality.
Quoting this because Punisher 11B didn’t respond to it yet. Didn’t you pretend to play shooting games when you were a kid? Did it matter if you were pretending you were in a video game about a war instead of pretending you were a cop or a soldier?
Good video, but by no means to I think I was a perfect kid. I got into a lot of mischief too. But to this day, I still call my elders that I grew up under, Mr. and Mrs. Half of them I don’t even know their first names. And now kids will come up to me that I don’t know, and drop my first name like were best friends.
I guess when it comes right down to it, I don’t like change. I like living up in my mountain away from the cities. I am one of the ones fighting the cell phone companies saying that I don’t want cell towers up here. Heck no, that only brings more people.
Only joking. As a member of the video-game generation myself (30 years old, settled down and still gaming) I’m more worried about the Facebook/Text message generation.
“No, son - no Call of Duty 27 until you beat Sonic the Hedghog.”
And I didn’t call you a child either. But I stand by my statement that you’re too young for this type of argument.