If you live in Knoxville, and find yourself in need of psychiatric help, I would recommend you keep flipping through the Yellow Pages past Dr. John Robertson, an anti-video-game zealot so deeply committed that even he can no longer tell the difference between games and real life. In fact, the CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST (emphasis for a good reason) believes that not only should children not be allowed to play GTA 4, but also that ADULTS shouldn’t either.

Now, clearly, Robertson knows more about CHILD AND ADOLESCENT psychology than I do, but presumably, him referring to ADULT psychology is out of his bailiwick. This would be like taking your Mercedes to a Ford dealership for repair; after all, they’re both cars.

Anyway, Robertson had one pithy little quote that just pushes my buttons:

There’s a line between we think about something and then we plan to do it and we act upon that. And that line gets more and more blurred, is what’s happening.

Just going to church on Sundays isn’t going to necessarily negate hours and hours of raping, pillaging, and murdering. [In playing Superman, Batman, and G.I. Joe] there was morality. There was a sense of justice. There was a sense of right and wrong in that. [GTA IV has] totally flipped that.

You know, he’d be right about the whole “church on Sundays” thing except for one critical item:

You don’t actually rape, pillage or murder in a video game. None of those people exist. When you turn off the game system’s power switch, those people do not continue to exist. This is why these are called VIDEO GAMES, as opposed to, you know, REAL LIFE.

And you’d think that a CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST would know the difference between fantasy and real life. Huh.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Categories: Video games //