I am insulted by that website in every way, who do they think they are to catagorize gamers like that?

Let me catagorize them then:
They are idiots who have no life but to blame their own personal problems on a group of people who have done NOTHING to them (this happens way too much in life), and also have the stupidity to attempt statistics (lets see their education if gamers do so poorly at school), on top of that obviousely their husbands left them for some reason (hah bet they found out the game was more enjoyable than their wife).

hey MAVAV I hope someone hacks your website and makes complete asses out of you.

Fact: Videogames aren't just for "fun" anymore, the videogame industry made a net income of $6.3 billion in 2002, surpassing even the movie industry. Developers profit and continue to take advantage of today's youth with cute, loveable, addictive, and recognizable franchise characters. A practice and strategy similar to those used by the tobacco industry.

- What do the sentences that follow the leading one have to do with it? Usually, those 'characters' emerge in games that are immensely popular for one reason...They are good and exciting to play!



Fact: Videogames have been proven to prevent the development of the proper social skills and interaction needed for a long happy and enjoyable life. Young gamers are prone to being burdened with depression and sadness all throughout their life.

-This is the common stereotype of young gamers. While, this should NOT BE CALLED A FACT, there is some truth to it... However, some 'young gamers', i'm sure, do not spend 10 hours a day playing games and do have friends that they will go and see from time to time, or invite over....but there are some exceptions, sadly.

The next sentence really gets to me...Young gamers WILL MORE THAN LIKELY NOT be prone to being burdened with depression and sadness throughtout their life... Depression is a common thing in this world and sometimes the triggers for it are not even known. To state that videogames will cause young gamers to be prone to depression and social deficiencies is totally and utterly stupidity.



Fact: Health studies have found that even those casual gamers suffer from low self-esteem and self-pride compared to their athletic and more socially accepted peers in their same age group. Young gamers were found to be more likely to become lifetime gaming addicts and becoming social outcasts.

-I am sick and tired of this 'social outcast' bulls**t that they continue to throw at everyone. I'm sure all of these 'young gamers' have friends that they can talk with and hang out with.

Be sure to notice they placed this strategically in, "even those casual gamers suffer from low self-esteem and self-pride compared to their ATHELETIC and more sociallly ACCEPTED peers in their same age group." Key words are in caps. Now, playing video games does not mean you're fat, underweight or in any way unhealthy. I do a lot of exercise...probably more than 97% of people in my region and give myself adequate rest and I do not see myself as socially unaccepted as I DO HAVE many friends which I like to hang out with from time to time. Having been a videogamer for more than 6 years...I have seen no social deficiency in my life, no poorness of any kind. In fact, I enjoy my life more than most others.




Fact: Hardcore gaming not only leads to videogame addiction and abrupt lifestyle changes, but to crime and felony as well. Hardcore gamers never buy computer videogames. Instead, downloading illegally copied videogames or

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/01/07/h...ternet.hoaxes/
http://a.parsons.edu/~dyoo/2002-3/interactivity/mavav/
Was also on penny arcade, slashdot, pvponline.. everywhere basically...

I laughed when I found out it was a hoax. Was good to argue the points though and challenge the stereotypical nonsense that videogamers commonly deal with.