Almost solely because he doesn't talk about them, Barack Obama was rated the most gaming friendly Democrat candidate for president by Yahoo recently, so we were interested to read that he had dipped his toes into the hot coffee (as it were) and brought up the complicated topic of Grand Theft Auto IV at a campaign stop. You can watch the video above to see how he fared.
In our opinion, it went pretty well. He put the onus on parents to monitor that sort of thing, didn't complain about violence and didn't try to sound hip by pretending he knew more about it than he did. In fact, he said the word "goo gobs" out loud, which is like, the complete opposite of trying to sound cool.
Can we create a 10-car pileup and detonate it with an RPG?
YES! WE! CAN!
Can we race 5 helicopters across the city and land on Statue of Happiness?
YES! WE! CAN!
We are the ones this city has been waiting for. We know... that we are the ones... the ONLY ones... who end up at the hospital after blowing up a semi truck in a gas station. Yes we can.
The baby boom generation- my parents, and perhaps yours- were raised on television, and bad television at that. Just something to point out whenever people mention kids and gaming,
Obama is on the money here. I get quickly pissed off when games are demonised and thought of to be intended for children. Not only does Obama acknowledge the fact that it's an adult industry, he recognises that it's part of a wider entertainment culture, and that as a whole needs to be addressed.
Kids do feel demoralised - education just doesn't seem worth the effort for many. Especially here in the UK, achievements are undermined year upon year by having people bleat on about things getting easier. Telling teenagers their achievements are worthless is doing no good! No wonder kids would rather stay at home and play video games, simply because the ends don't seem to justify the means anymore.
I know what you mean. You used to be able to go to the local arcade and see your name under the high scores for the games as an achievement. Now, on XBLA achievements don't mean shit. You don't know how mad I get when my pops tell me my XBLA achievements don't mean shit.
/end randomness
That being said, I am a student in a U.S. public high school. Ours is fairly wealthy, and I do try very hard in school. I get all A's and play videogames a lot too. The only time I feel demoralized is when my parents won't buy me more videogames despite getting all A's in the honors classes:P Yea, I guess I'm sorta rare, a smart kid who tries in school, then plays videogames when it don't matter.
I read you're comment and though WTF! but then I realised. Well played, worthy adversary.
I'm very much the same - without ego I can say that I've achieved the best grades in my yeargroup. But I've seen so many people drop out just because they're not motivated. It's a shame because I know a lot of my friends are more than capable, but they don't get any motivational support or credit when they do achieve.
The number of people in my year in Sixth Form has fallen from around 150 to 75. And that's WITH incentives like the Educational Maintenance Allowance.
Handling the "videogames" is complicated on these times,and being able to do it right can definetly call my atention,and go pro to get my vote.
Obama recognized videogames,but he didnt say anything alarmist or negative about them for the sake of doing them. If he deals with these in a good way,reaching parents instead of media,thats a big plus. He might have just earned my vote there....well,over earned i guess since he was already the man .
His position on parenting and video games is commendable. What's sad is that this clip demonstrates that, underneath that position, he still has that basic attitude that causes all the video game alarmism in our society- that video games, television, and other forms of new video cannot be educational, cannot be art.
If you can't decide between McCain and Obama--we all on Joystiq agree Hill'y isn't close to being an option--just vote for Ralph Nader. He publicly posts his stance on issues on his website, and by god man he invented the seat belt!
Paktu said 'Any form of suggestive media has the potential to "teach".'
It doesn't have to be suggestive. Everything is a chance to learn, and even the best of intentioned 'lessons' can be 'learned' in a way that the teacher never intended. The teachings of Mohammad, Jesus Christ, and Moses have all been pretty widely mis-interpreted. The history teacher who talks about the US Civil War can have one kid walking out positive that Whites are superior to Blacks, while another kid walks out positive that Whites owe his people for that, while a third kid walks out amazed that people who were once viewed as slaves are now in some of the highest positions of power, and only morons think that race should keep a person from being President.
I was an election poll worker in Ohio. Our precinct judge handled all the provisional votes so I sometimes had to look through the signature book to find if the persons' names were in our precinct. Then had them sign (what a crock since their own record signature is right there) then in the voting audit book and then the 11oclock4oclock sheets (used for grassroots on who hasn't voted.) Our machines require an activation PEB flashcard and then several touches to start. And at the end require 3 confirmations.
In our precinct we had 121 vote Democrat and 25 Republican and 0 Independent, since there's no registered independent party in our precinct nor any regular issues. 5 switched from Republican to Democrat. We had 25 provisional paper votes which required a whole lot of extra paperwork per vote taking 4 times longer than on a machine. All 25 provisions were Democrat. They stubbornly refused to drive 2 blocks around a park to go to the Board of Elections of our county to completely straighten out their situation and vote but instead burdened us. Most of the names required to be provisional were due to not receiving current addresses of the voters. The board of elections sends letters to people to verify they live there and vote in the precinct that affects where they live. Obama was voted for 4:1 against Clinton. Technically we counted votes for candidates who had dropped out before the deadline for the election ballots.
Reminders for all voters come Fall:
Call your board of elections and find out where your precinct is. It's possible your poll location might be changed. Knowing their number and calling them greatly help poll judges since you will be able to go where you can vote and those people who will be voting there can do so. One of the biggest reasons a small portion of voters were put on MUST VOTE PROVISIONAL lists is that they did not contact their board of elections where they lived. Getting the correct address and precinct from the board greatly helps the election process.
Remember to bring a form of government ID. Driver's license, State ID, Social Security Card, utility bill, court order, or other government ID. This has been brought to the US Supreme Court and has been upheld on the basis that voting is a civic duty and those most likely to be civic would also be civic enough to have a form of government ID. Majority opinion that this could "discourage" poor voters is minimal. It takes one day and $7-15 for a State ID.
No campaigner is allowed to sway your vote and in our state not allowed into the polling location. We election workers are not allowed to show anyone the results of any votes. We are not allowed to ask your party affiliation during general elections. Only in primary elections were we required to ask party affiliation for the purpose of balloting. In Ohio you were able to change your party affiliation right there and then vote in your new affiliation and allowed later to change it to whichever. If you were registered as one party, Democrat/Republican, and then requested another party's ballot, Republican/Democrat, you had to sign a statement of challenge and that was that. You could not be denied your vote because you switched parties. You could not be denied your vote because we don't like your choice. You cannot be arrested for fraudulent voting unless you turn yourself in and confess. Voting in more than one precinct and/or multiple times is a different law. The Ohio Attorney General decided Ohio couldn't pursue any possible cases on "fraudulent" votes. He's being asked to resign after a scandal which has nothing to do with the primary election.
well did obama forget the some of the current issue in our economy now? come on most of the american suffer from this the oil prices is more bigger and now it affect all from food and also the housing market crisis? well he solve this problem by video games? Nothing will bring down prices today except a tipping point in perception. Getting off and doing something to housing market crisis. And now our U.S presidential candidates Obama and McCain are talking about it, the issues surrounding recent discussions on the housing market crisis has significant impact for all Americans. Presidential Candidates on housing Market
