by Victor ‘r0gue’ Vieira
I don’t know if I should laugh or cry here.
Broadway Lodge has long been a rehabilitation centre for treatment of drugs, alcohol and gambling additions and now has a gaming rehabilitation scheme developed in the US called the Minnesota Method Twelve-Step Abstinence programme. (I hate it already)
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the centre’s chief executive Brian Dudley said: ”Obviously this is the very early stages of researching how many youngsters are affected. But I would stick my neck out and say between five and 10% of parents or partners would say they know of someone addicted to an online game. You can’t simply say to a 23-year-old male ‘you should never use the internet again’. It’s just not practical. So we go through all the issues surrounding gaming use and ensure there are triggers through which an addict recognises their usage has become a problem.”
After reading all about the negatives of gaming, I get really worked up. Not only because I don’t want any negative connotations associated with my hobby, but because it really infuriates me that some parents cant control their kids or adults cant control themselves, so blame who or whatever you can. Not only does gaming keep me from getting into trouble, but also as a parent I certainly don’t want my baby daughter playing Gears anytime soon, but I cannot wait for the day that I can pop Ice Age in the console and guide her through the game. Now if there is rehabilitation centres for it going up, how is it going to look for me playing games with my daughter, I mean eventually my wife might even start seeing it in a negative light. I have no issues with getting a jump-start on my daughter’s hand-eye co-ordination and I’m not exactly going to play rugby with her as she is growing up, so this would be a perfect thing to do together. For crying out loud if you can’t control your child from playing games for twenty hours a day, then why should the rest suffer? All things in moderation I say.
What we need is a rehabilitation centre for pathetically weak parenting. And again I say this as a parent!