Last night we received a tip from Neil Christie sharing with us what he called "more bullsh*t in the UK press." Indeed, it was a column by an elderly man called Giles Whittell, whose out-of-touch and frightened scrawling shan't be directly linked to. This is because I'd rather benefit from his mad warblings while offering him no traffic in return. I will link to this great CBlog about it, though.

Here's a sample of his senile rambling:

I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them.

This hate piece was published online by The Times, an outlet that has already lied about the Byron Report, so it's hardly shocking to see them wheel out this strange old man to tell us how much he hates them there new-fangled videogames. You might note that I am being very calm, not my usual outraged, exasperated, distressed self. This is because mad old men amuse me, and I could never be angry at one simply for sharing his confused, curmudgeonly nonsense with real people who have more than ten years of life left in them.

In his article, the eccentric, obsolete gentleman espouses how excellent he is for denying his children videogames, and making them go camping instead. This is because games, in his decaying mind, are a "waste of time." A bigger waste of time, apparently, than sitting in a tent in a rainstorm, occasionally going outside to take a sh*t in the woods. That might be a crazy pensioner's idea of a worthwhile pursuit, but I'd rather take the PlayStation, personally. Oh yeah, he also compared games to teen pregnancy and heroin abuse ... because that's what people in nursing homes kind of do.

When I read this stupid article last night I actually posted my own reply on the Web site directly. However, it seems that Destructoid is too much for The Times to handle and they didn't publish what I had to say about the article. So I'll publish it instead. Once again the indie blogs have to do the mainstream press' job for it.

"What a ridiculous and naive assessment, but then, this is the "news" outlet that made stuff up about the Byron report so I shouldn't be surprised.  
 
I wonder what your hobbies include. Tennis, perhaps? Television? Driving to Church? I bet I could find things you do for enjoyment and deride them as a "complete waste of time," but I'm not in the business of trashing an entire industry to hop on the "me too" bandwagon of hating things for hatred's sake

I'm glad you are made to feel hateful for being a judgmental hypocrite who values one set of hobbies over another. Have fun making your kids go camping, I'm sure they'd prefer videogames and will grow to resent you for it.

Videogames are today's entertainment of choice. They cannot be stopped, no matter how many threatened dinosaurs try and stop them. Games will win. Learn to live with it or you'll be a bitter old man. I mean, more so than you are now."

I can only assume they didn't print this because I am so young and virile, while Giles is so old and worthless.