Ignoring your roots
New Jersey is a town often lampooned in the media for being home to filth, petrochemical refinery, and a seemingly endless display of dullards. While this may or may not be true, although I'm inclined to believe it having lived within smelling distance for a time, what New Jersey is unquestionably home to is over reactionary parents, a newspaper of questionable scruples, and, if memory serves, Robot Hell.
While I take no umbrage with the latter, the former are a current source of consternation in the form of seemingly reasonable (yes in spite of living in New Jersey) adults pitching a fit over the new Wii zapper. Apparently for them Nintendo's new peripheral is just the thing to finally turn their otherwise innocent children into roving gangs of monsters, bent on destruction. Thankfully the blame can't wholly be placed on the shoulders of parents with enough time in their day to respond to newspaper polls, we must also look to the media in this case, for it is with them that this conflagration begins. The aforementioned poll from New Jersey newspaper The Star-Ledger (emphasis theirs) reads as follows:
Wii announced over the summer that it's coming out the a gun-like remote, so kids can play shooter games, with, well, a shooter.What do you think about making a wand in the shape of a weapon so play is more realistic? ...Is it harmful? ...Will you buy one for your kids?
This is an obvious attempt at leading the reader to the conclusion that the Wii zapper is a tool with some measure of nefariousness, and it would appear that a portion of the denizens of New Jersey were all too happy to be led. What these people all seem to have forgotten is the rich history gun like peripherals in video games. That's right everyone, not only has the video game industry been training children to become a mindless army of nigh impossible precision, but they've been doing it since 1984. My favorite brainless killing trainer being Time Crisis 3, on which I spent many hours honing my skills as a cold blooded killer.
The reactionary are all simply too late to the party or so mind bogglingly weak willed that they simply parroted back the question asked of them in the form of a mindless, if at least coherent, response. Thankfully not all of the responses were stultifyingly insipid with one of the commenters replying as such:
I really hope that those people out there who believe that a gun-shaped remote will turn every kid that touches one into a homicidal maniac, don't ruin the fun for us Wii-playing adults who can handle the reality. I grew up with toy guns and also shot a rifle in the sixth grade and never killed anyone....If you don't think it's a good idea, then please, feel free to exercise your right to protest by not purchasing the product
Unfortunately I see a lot more of this in the future for Nintendo, they've raised the ire of their new target market (the casual gamer) and in the words of one of the greatest philosophers of our time, "That's a paddlin'".
