Looks like all the Nazi's of great Britain our out in force this week.

“I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time."

Just like books then? Shall we burn them all?
Just like Friends - actually, I'll give her that one. Friends is evil and a waste of time.
Just like any other entertainment product that relies on 'suspension of disbelief'?

I can understand someone not liking video games. I don't particularly like football but that doesn't mean I would compare them to heroin and teenage pregnancy... one is a drug and from the sounds of things, Giles is a little too old to be a teenager...

I could even accept his opinion that he hates them, it's his right not to play them. But to then compare them to two things that are essentially illegal issues (well, at least if the teenagers are under 16 anyway).

Anyway, I congratulate him for stating the absolutely-f**king-obvious and saying that games have little to do with all the various crimes it has been blamed for encouraging by the media over the past few days.

Unfortunately, as one commenter put it the other day, this moral panic isn't going to go away until people like these, with opinion based on misconceptions and lies die off and only those who have experienced, or know people who have experienced the realities of video games are left.

My bad, I said her in the second paragraph, when it should have been him.

“I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time."

So why have a go simply at video games for sucking people into fake worlds. The soaps like Eastenders and Coronation Strett have been doing this far longer than video games!

Great to see that video games are now lumped in the same category as heroin. We really are getting a fair go aren't we.

He hates the way video games suck people into fake worlds......do I even need to comment on how dumb that sounds when we all know movies & books do the same thing ? Its called escapism and its fun.

This guy really makes no sense. Thing is he is fully within his right to hate video games - my wife hates them also (well she is coming round slowly after 5 years) - but your opinion does not mean it is evil. If he hates them so much, then he has probably avoided them most of his life, and is therefore not in a position to but forward an informed opinion on video games. Instead it is just his hateful opinion, once again in fear of something that he has no idea about, but is currently the "in" thing to attack.

I honestly expected better from The Times.

“I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time"

Do not books do the same thing? Draw you into fake (fiction) worlds that take time to read. By looking at things from a certain point of view you could say that since reading at an early age we are being drawn in for decades at a time.

It is a sad fact that the Byron Report stats (google the break down of the review) show that only a small amount of people had been interviewed and also the questions were so 'yes or no'. it seems to me that the research was a dumb down review that allows people like this moron and the super star media god Anne Diamond to come out of the wood work with little understanding of the subject to argue a point for something based of their 'wild' ideas of right or wrong regarding a media that they have no idea what they are getting themselves into and allowing a one way media (paper) to shield any arguments back to these points.

With the sorts of people that write for Games media and people who blog as well as comment on sites like this, there needs to be a case put together to argue the point back.

The way things are going we will soon be seeing The Sun and Mirror people giving out free pitch forks to communities to go hunt down the evil people that create games.

To be honest this is a witch hunt that follows the pattern of deeds of the past to continue without real thought.

GW is just a hack that The Times use as a fill-in commentator on the odd occasion.

Their job is to 'provoke' reaction - no matter what that is - so to be honest the best thing to do is ignore it.

Like all newspaper pieces - it's tomorrows fish and chip paper/budgie dropping collector.

Whittell's remarks about video games are clearly extreme and unrealistic. He assumes that all children play video games in their spare time and that's all they do and nothing else. As a parent, this is certainly not true, their playing of video games accounts for a small percentage of what they do in their spare time, for my children anyway. In this day and age, it's absurd to come out with blunt statements as they're "a colossal waste of time" putting video games alongside heroin addicts and teenage pregnancy. Putting video game violence to one side, there are clearly positive benefits from playing certain video games. The hand/eye co-ordination skills that are attained/developed are akin to what trainee pilots in the RAF requiring fast reaction times are put through as part of their training. Games like Brain Training on the DS are educational. I could go on. Whitell's idiotic blinkered viewpoint is nothing more than a collosal waste of newspaper editorial. The Times should seriously consider printing any more of this man's inane drivel. What a load of rubbish.

This is ridiculous. I can't even comment on this..

As comments above state.. fake worlds? look around you my friend.. at the books, films, tv etc

And He talks about video games being a waste of time..

I tell you what.. that rant he just did was a complete waste of time.

Well put Brett, at the end of the day people are always going to pass the buck onto to something than rather deal with the issues at hand because it diverts everyons attention from the real problems at hand and its been going on for hundreds of years for instance you had certain religions banned throughout history or made to be evil and in the early 1900's there was the prohibition on alcohol and that was deemed illegal all because governments and people can deal with one simple truth and that is, people are responsible for there own actions and if your braught up to know right from wrong you aren't going to go and get a chainsaw run into a school field and start hacking and slashing because you saw it in gears of war. i know there are many other factors involved (bullying, life style, etc) but for god sake there's as much violence on the news as anything but you don't see everyone ranting about that do you.

all i have to say is grow the **** up

It was actually an awesome and hilarious rant from Giles on the Times. Made I larf, despite the fact that I disagree fundamentally with his premise...

I mis-read "fellow national newspaper" as "fellow Rational newspaper". Oh the irony...

Why even give credence to this garbage?

What do the press want to do, push a successful industry to another country? If the UK film industry had as much success as the UK games industry all these papers would be banging on about the "British are coming". I only mention the film industry as it's probably the closest to the games industry, and in many cases have a cross over.

Does anyone apart from the posters above really care what a national newspaper columnist -- these are *supposed* to be opinion pieces, not statements of fact -- thinks about video games? They're not exactly experts in the field are they? These pieces will have absolutely zero effect on the business.
Byron lets the industry off pretty much scot-free and you lot still find something to complain about. You're as bad as they are.

I have been thinking about this over the week. We need a PR guy that goes on the tv box and keeps saying this is all lies!

I see the banks have a woman the MP's have one The Fag ppl all have a person to speak up for them as a whole.

So everytime a story breaks send in The Stopper The Fixer The Wolf!

He/She can say we make more cash then film and music. All we are doing is having some clean fun. Take your tie off and live a little that stress can kill!

This will then fix the boring storys.

Would have to be very fit looking and very smart!

So please list WHO you think should be the
'VOICE OF VIDEO GAMES'

?????????????????

Thanks

PS cant wait for COD4 add ons... ;)

Phil Harrison?

or

Peter Molyneux?

Maybe, maybe not. But as a journalist I know that they should have had a counter-piece extolling the virtues of games to balance it out.

Otherwise it is might be just an opinion of the writer, but its an agenda of the newspaper...

Totally agree, the games industry needs a spokesperson that can stand and say that this is all a bunch of tosh...

Though it is funny to see all these papers STILL up in arms over the whole subject after The Byron Report, now fully backed by Government, has pretty much stated that games are alright. I guess it's sour grapes seeing they were probably hoping the report would demonise the games industry and give them something else nasty to write about.

On a related subject: It's the media that really glamorise real-life teenage pregnancies, war, drug use and street crime - THEY are the ones that show scenes of this every day in the papers and all day on the news channels, howcome they don't get censored or blamed for societies ills???

'This is not because of anything wrong or bad about video games or heroin or teenage parents.'

This may have been taken out of context, but seeing as he wants to talk about a subject he admits he knows nothing about then so will I.
I agree that video games are not inherantly wrong or bad, teenage pregnancy, again not neccesarily bad in certain circumstances, but heroin.... what planet is this guy from. Shoud we listen to a man that holds this opinion?

re: "Totally agree, the games industry needs a spokesperson that can stand and say that this is all a bunch of tosh..."

errr, did I miss a meeting? Isn't that ELSPA's job?

We need Roger Bennett back!

The Fourth Estate? Integral to our democratic society? A free and fearless press? Publish and be damned? Don't make me laugh! Johnny citizen isn't stupid. If they want to maintain their position in society they need to give us stories we can have some faith in.

Who are these inadequate people? Have they no better, higher, more noble cause to espouse? It appears some sort of unholy alliance seems to have formed between the editors desperate for sales and circulation at a time when their old business model is declining rapidly, who are prepared to peddle any line by any commentator, and who don't care whether there is any basis in fact or truth in what they say.

These days God knows why we bother with the so called national press? They'd never get away with it if we voted with our wallets.

hmmmm......

is there actually anyone in the games business that is NORMAL, fit/healthy looking, rational, cool headed, good in a crisis, exudes calm, I think right now we need the 65th United States secretary of state, not some liver pickled ill looking badly dressed gamer :-)

I'll do it! I'll be the spokeperson :D
All kidding aside, what about Mark Reign or Cliffy B?

Going back to Giles's original article for a moment...does he feel that at least part of the reason that parents feel happier when their kids are inside playing computer games than out on the streets is because the media has scared us all into fearing for our lives if we step outside, through their never ending stream of horror stories about life in post Thatcher britain......;)

When I could pick up a controller and play a level of Sonic I loved video games. Now I have to dedicate a whole bloody day to them and shout at my wife to bury our noisy children under the patio so I can kill all those suckers on Rainbow Six Vegas 2 it doesn't hold the same appeal.

I don't have the time, I don't like what it turns me into and I don't like what it robs me off in terms of quality time.

And this is why casual gaming is booming and Nintendo are cleaning up because you can pick it up and not lose your life to it and what's more I don't feel like my brain is turning to mulch playing Ninties offering.

I don't think the games industry needs to worry about the migration of gamers who feel guilty about dedicating their time to gaming as they gain a little more value to their lives as they achieve careers and wake up with a wife and two kids because right now certain sectors of the games industry are being incredibly industrious by making sure that their more formative audience's brains never get past the ability to work out how much smack they have to sell to their school buddies to pay for their next fix of GTA.