Originally posted on PVP by Scott Kurtz
Everything in moderation
December 31, 2002
I'm getting a lot of email concerning a group called
mavav: Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence. You can visit the mavav website at
mavav.org. The site claims to be the product of a concerned parental group who want to protect children against video game addiction and violence.
The validity of this site is currently up for debate. I know that Jerry over at
penny-arcade has posted that the whole thing smells of a hoax and I tend to agree. I did some research and called the number of the person who mavav.org is registered to. The voice on the answering machine sounded more like Jeff Spicoli than a concerned parent.
I don't care either way because, frankly, mavav is right about videogames. I got news for you people: videogames are horrible for kids.
Now, don't act so shocked. Deep down, you already knew that. You've
always known it. Especially if you're my age and you were around to see the birth of video games. You see kids, back in the day we didn't have video games. Not on the computer, on console systems or in arcades. Not that many of you remember arcades (we used to have to drive our bikes to the mall and drop quarters into machines to play the really
cool games). There was a time, not that long ago, when there were no electronic games. At all. We went without.
And when they came along, we were hooked. Addicted. From the start and our parents saw it right away. They saw it and they knew it was bad and they wanted to keep us from playing too much. And we knew it was bad too but it was so fun and
nothing was going to keep us from it. So we kicked and we screamed and we raised holy hell until it was easier for them to just leave us to our new blinking and beeping god.
Video games are obsessive. They are violent. They cause children to become violent. They are time sinks. They suck every waking moment away from your kids. When you're kids aren't playing video games they are thinking about how great it's going to be when they get to play video games again. Video games will retard your child's social growth. Video games will stunt their social skills. If you don't make them do other things, video games will turn your children into mindless, unimaginative, illiterate boobs who have no real thing to call their own save the dominance they can reign over other children who are also playing video games.
These are the facts and they are undisputed. It's not just specific to videogames, it's anything. If a person spends 95% of their daily life doing any one single thing, the rest of their life is going to suffer. Sports, drugs, even academics. Keep in mind the issue isn't video games, the issue is human nature.
My grandfather had a saying which was passed down to my father and then to my brother and I. "Everything in moderation." It is the cornerstone of a good and healthy life. It is the foundation of a balanced existance. Learn it, love it, live it. Teach it to your children and force them to live by it. "Everything in moderation."
Taking another look at the mavav.org website, we see some important advice from the unconfirmed parental group that reads as follows:
We highly recommend your child's bedroom be absent of all forms of electronic entertainment devices. This includes a home computer, and/or videogame console systems. It is best for all electronic entertainment devices be placed in a common area where a clock is present and adult supervision is available. If this is not at all possible, we recommend having your child's door remain open and be checked in on every hour. Parents should be extra cautious around the time of bedtime until morning.
Encourage your child to be more active. Arrange for your child to go over to a friends house for the afternoon, setup a gathering party at your home, or even sign up your child for an after school sport or activity.
I can't think of a single better piece of advice for a parent, regarding video games, than that paragraph. If mavav isn't real, it should be. That kind of advice I can get behind.
I love playing games. I love Warcraft 3, and Unreal Tournament and running around as Mario. I was there when they came into existance and I plan to be just like my father and keep playing them when I'm in my 50's. And it's probably stupid for me to post this and risk pissing off all the people who make games and read this site. Maybe I'm risking upsetting future advertisers and clients. Maybe not. I think that most game companies would agree that their entertainment is something that should be consumed in moderation. I think that most of them would feel better about parents enforcing moderation rather than pointing fingers.
Just because you love video games, doesn't mean that you should be ignorant to the realities of what they represent and the condition underwhich most households find themselves because they don't enforce moderation.
Kids are playing these things WAY too much, too often and not doing enough otherwise. I know because most of my problems today are a result of it. I'm sedintary, I'm overweight, I'm very quick to find a distraction that will keep me from my work, and I still place to high an importance on entertainment.
These problems existed before video games and they will exist after they fall out of fashion. It's always about moderation, that's the key. This isn't a new concept, it's been around forever. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. Look at the most popular movie in the nation right now, The Two Towers, and you'll find the theme in a story that was written years ago. Look at Gollum and then look at your kids when you tell them to stop playing the X-box. "You can't take away my preeeccciiouuuusss..."
So the next time a group like mavav comes around, real or not, don't be so quick to rally the townspeople and pass out pitchforks.
They might be right.
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