Xbox Creator Offers Support For Teenage Fan 'Insulted In The Press'

This NY Times article is ridiculous. I’m glad it’s being called out for the trash that it is. Kotaku also did a piece on this yesterday. I grew up in the 80s and 90s where parents (not mine) were afraid of video games corrupting their kids. I thought we knew better now. Especially in this unprecedented time of lockdown, what is the kid supposed to do, bounce a ball against the wall?

What some people may not realise is that by not keeping your mind occupied with other things during quarantine, you'll start to lose your sanity and potentially end up hurting yourself. I've read so many stories of people committing suicide because of e.g. loneliness during quarantine and it is therefore important to find things that can help you through these tough times. Video games is one such avenue and I know this from personal experience even before the pandemic. As a kid, my parents raised me very isolated and prevented me from hanging out with other kids my age and so I became a very introvert and lonely person. The only thing that kept me going was video games. The stories, the characters, the emotional attachment you form to them, all these things provided the escapism that I needed from the life I was living. Even during university I started to have suicidal thoughts due to the constant studying and not having an actual life at all. And what saved me that time was also video games.

So while people may see 40 hours of playing video games as a waste of time, those 40 hours could be the difference between life and death for kids who are mentally suffering.

I gamed lots in my pre-teens and teens. Stepped away from it for years.

Current climate has brought me back in. I couldn’t be happier. Having this type of escapism, an opportunity to connect with friends at a time when we must stay socially distant and also the sense of achievement by beating a hard level or winning a game against friends has been fantastic to have when there really isn’t much else to do.

I’m lucky enough to still have work when others can’t due to lockdowns. Gaming has in no way impacted my productivity.

Sad to see stories calling out kids like that.

Why does anyone still read any of the news that comes from the mainstream anymore and their ‘credible journalists’. If the last few years have taught us anything it’s that you can’t trust them with anything.

I've gotten bored of games as I've got older but I still game. Currently play Skyrim just to enjoy the modded scenery at 60 frames on my Series S. Gaming never damaged me.

I'm tired of this bs. The craziest thing, including my father, thinks this way but he hasn't played crap since atari days. He didn't even knew nintendo was still alive with the switch. Some parents just have to sit down, try some games rated M and then talk.

@Kefka2589 I'm glad to hear that gaming has had such a positive influence on your life and I hope that you're feeling better today mate. I wholeheartedly agree that as long as you can discipline yourself and do the stuff you need to do, then it's fine to spend how many hours you want on gaming, especially in these trying times. Kids don't have as much to do as adults though, which is something I feel like parents don't take into consideration. Kids should just be kids, I don't really like the notion of children having to grow up too fast and miss out on their childhood.

So why did this harmless family disagreement need to be a story in the papers. The parents get their 5 minutes of fame and the kid gets publically humiliated for a non-issue? Awful. It should be none of our business

So pathetic, and so tired of ridiculous articles like these. Are we really not past this nonsense already? I'm not even going to waste any time refuting this stupid article lol.

I'm lucky to get 4 hours a week of screen time, let alone 40.

While I disagree with printing him in a newspaper and admittedly these are unprecedented times, let's not forget 40 hours is the equivalent of a full-time job. As already said above, addiction can take many forms, and while this can all be attributed to the pandemic, it could also mean something else entirely.

Let’s be real here, guys. 40 hours is a lot of time. Play out how that might work. School 8-2, then game/online 2-6 and 10-12 on weekdays and 5 hrs each weekend day. If I were the parents in this case, I’d be concerned too. Getting in the Times feels like a bad move - but that kind of time doesn’t happen without parents looking the other way and I don’t think you can blame the kid for this.

The best quote here: “ “What are you going to do when you’re married and stressed? Tell your wife that you need to play Xbox?” she said to her son during the interview.”

Yes. And that can be healthy too.

I’m guessing the kid’s relationship with his parents isn’t the best. I mean, as a parent I would never shame my children publicly like that.

I’m sure my son would game 40 hours a week EASILY if I left him to it, but I don’t.

That’s not because I simply ban him from games, but I entertain him outside of games and teach him about getting the balance right (heck, I game too).

He is learning piano, does tennis lessons (when not in lockdown). We do daily exercise together (throwing a ball, cycling or going for a walk). We have every meal together, which includes socialising time together, and we regular have board game time and movie nights as a family.

We are not the most active family but we all commit to spending time together as well as giving each other time for our hobbies and it works well.

But I feel the parents are responsible for this. They have to invest time into him (or even money) if they want him to peruse other hobbies alongside gaming.

Of all the countless screentime I have to squeeze in to every moment of every day that does detract from things that need to be done by having to spend it on the screen for other things that need to be done/researched/price matched/figured out......video gaming doesn't even count as screentime to me any more...the time in front of that screen is time away from the other screens.....

@Luigi_Skywalker When's the last time you saw an NYT article that wasn't ridiculous? I take it less seriously than The Onion these days. At least The Onion highlights real topics while obviously pretending too hard to be unbiased. NYT tells you what the correct opinion is in the first paragraph, on the rare occasions it's not in the headline.

It used to be a great paper, then became an okay paper, then got sold off to some foreign national billionaire that uses it as his plaything for a mix of ideological propaganda and just lighting matches to powder kegs whenever one is located. It's like the print version of Just Cause.