Some kids are so misguided
Kids have always been rather misguided in the fights they choose, no more green vegetables, less homework, “But I want to stay out longer” but at least two of them have taken this too a new level. These two young kids don’t like bullying, which is a very good cause, that’s not why I think these kids are misguided. Bullying is a problem, now more then ever because parents baby their kids and they have this odd habit of breaking down every time someone says something mean about them. Now I agree violence is a bad thing, that kind of bullying is bad and should be stopped, but if someone says something mean about them all you really have to do is look at them like they are crazy and tell them to piss off. I’m a skinny little bastard and one of the geekiest looking people you’ve ever seen, so I didn’t exactly have it easy in school, but really there are plenty of things you can do to fix these issues without having to resort to a letter to your MP. Anyway back to my point.
These kids have decided that the game Bully is really bad and shouldn’t be sold in Canada, again all well and good, an informed decision is everyones right, the only problem here is that this is not an informed decision. These kids have never even played the game. One of them read a few reviews and the other one claims to have played the game online, which is probably the worst lie I’ve ever heard, Bully is a game for the PS2, meaning no matter how hard he tries, chances are he’s not going to be playing it on his PC. And even if he could get it to run on his PC the game does not have an online component. So this is not an informed decision, it’s really not even an uninformed decision, these kids are almost trying to stay ignorant of the game, it’s like Canada has started breading little Jack Thompsons, that makes me sad.
You see from what I understand, and remember I have also not played Bully, not because I’m against the game on principle but because it’s not my kind of game, I’m more of an RPG guy — back on track. From what I understand Bully in no way glorifies the violence in it, it apparently even has a a good message for the kids in it at the end. There are plenty of games that are much more violent then this game – hell there are probably TV shows with worse violence then this game – 24 comes to mind. Picking on a specific game because of it’s name and an incomplete understanding of what it’s about is the same in principle as bullying, you are bothering someone or something based on no understanding of what it’s about. I’m not saying it’s just as bad, just the same idea.
I’m not really blaming these kids, I remember being younger, people tend to be idealistic at that age, I don’t really know why, it probably has something to do with limited life experience. Kids at that age who have been exposed to nothing but very fundamentalist Christian ideals tend to be so opinionated that they are are impossible to talk to. These kinds of causes can be good, but in the hands of kids they tend to go very wrong. You see believing in something (god, or what ever) is a good cause, believing in it to the point that you think anyone who does not agree with will go to hell and is less of a person then you are, well thats horrendously misguided. These kids don’t like Bullying, good cause, not liking a game because it’s called Bully and you heard some bad things about it well that’s awfully misguided.
I don’t want to bar them from having a cause or even take this cause away from them. I just think these kids should probably at least take a look at them game before they judge it, and I mean really play the game and not just watch some video’s on YouTube. Besides what country do they think they live in? It’s highly unlikely something along these lines will be banned in Canada. If they really want to help people and stop bullying they should try something that will actually work, this game will do nothing to increase violence, and banning it won’t stop anything. If these kids want to help they should start locally, get their friends together and work to stop bullying locally. Bullies like people who are alone or seem weak, if they are united as a group bullying is hard. When that starts to work for them other schools will notice and the same thing will start there. This is a slow process but it’s also the only one that will work. Bullying is stopped by people not having an opportunity to start bullying and thus never learning how. There are no, and never will be any quick solution to any real problem, and anyone who tells you there is, is either lying to themselves or looking to help only themselves.
Tomasz Kolodziejczyk on November 3rd, 2006 | Filed under Games | Comments Off on Some kids are so misguided