people can say that women are so successful as comparison to men all they want, the important thing to notice is that now a husband and wife both work and have the same amount of success as men once had on their own, employers can pay workers less now because there are 2 people supporting a family. The nuclear family has become like alice in wonderland running faster and faster only to be making the same amount of progress.

We define ourselves by our ACTIONS & convictions, and after considering this article, if there is one thing I would give to Bennett, it's that there is something wrong with an adult man spending over 5 hours a day on video games, especially when it results in the lack of responsibility in other, more essential areas in life (one's duty to family, one's duty to pursue knowledge for it's own sake, one's religion if he has one, etc). Also, yea, sadly, the facts are that more men are abandoning their responsibilities, like family and a job, and if one is happy with this fact, then they can piss off, but if one isn't, then maybe he shouldn't actively engage with certain so-called unproductive activities as much. I say this because I used to be addicted to video games (esp. Halo 1, I used to play in tourneys), and I saw how it was effecting my social life, my attention span, and my attitude in general. To call out only gamers in this regard, though, Bennett, is preposterous and ignorant. Call out the fathers of these men who exhibit a "lack of maturity". Video games are not to blame for this. Although they can produce some negative effects, it's the previous generation who has brought us up, that generation that has infested mine with ideas of "do whatever you want because you're super-special." YOU'RE generation is to blame more, you prick. Call yourself out at failure.

Is it against site policy to copy paste parts so i can take out the g1 mention at the end, and then send the result to my english to rub his nose in it?

"video games, television and music offer dubious lessons to boys who have been abandoned by their fathers." Strikes a particular chord with me; my Dad moved out when I was five years old leaving my mum to raise myself and my brother, and work a part time job to try and make ends meet. I learnt my positive life lessons through her, and I learnt what not to do through my Dad. He isn't all bad though, my Dad got me in to video games, not as a substitution for his love, but shockingly, as something that is fun! Throw in to that the addition of books, self learning, and this thing called school (I'm sure you've heard of that), and you kind of get the idea this dude is just a relic from the past who has no idea about the present.

I play a lot of video games, watch a lot of movies, and listen to more music than the previous two options combined... And I dropped out of college. Was that my parents fault? No, it was mine. Ten years later I'm putting myself back through college, have a job in a hospital to see me through, and have just joined the writing staff for an up and coming indie game website. Go me!

This guy is just an archaic asshole who quite frankly seems to be afraid of the idea of 'strong women', I'm willing to be he's racist too...

Wow, getting philosophical on the Takeaway today aren't we Sean?

Are women more successful? They're still paid lower but they make up a fraction of a majority of the workforce. This latter fact I think is because they finally are getting their due in the workforce after untold centuries of subservience to men as the primary breadwinner (i.e. they can hope to be more than a housewife now). Does this mean that women simply think that they have something to prove? Possibly, although I think that's more of an issue that the baby boomers (our parents) dealt with more than us so that there CAN be more equality among the sexes. Does this mean that men are more complacent and that consumable media is to blame? Not exactly. Consider that the Digital Revolution with the availability of and accessibility of so much information via the Internet and other media through a digital medium has shaped our, and future, generations regardless of gender. We are seeing a social shift but I don't believe that the two are necessarily linked, it is preposterous to think that men playing video games or listening to their iPods is responsible for declining grades and lack of ambition (if this is indeed what this man is proclaiming).

Do we define ourselves by our jobs, gender roles or religious convictions? It simply depends on the person. Do you define yourself as successful by having a job that you're happy at or one that pays you well? Are you satisfied with being a stay-at-home dad or splitting the home care evenly with your spouse? Does a more equal or change in the status quo regarding child-rearing and housework mean that men are losing their place in the world? How does your religion define who you are and how you act, especially compared to everyone else?

Frankly this whole affair is laughable and I'm not sure why we should be concerned about what a politician (aka a professional troll) says about the state of society. Was that too much of an answer?

I think 'getting with the times' is the bigger issue, a topic that this Bennett asshole clearly missed a few lessons on.

I agree; why is the idea of women being more sucessful than men a negative thing? surely it all means more money for everyone involved if more people are working. Also this is just another case of scapegoating...shouldn't they be looking towards why these kids are being abandoned rather than looking at what "lessons" they are learning from video games?

I think the only truly troubling statistic in that whole editorial is "Men are more distant from a family or their children then they have ever been. The out-of-wedlock birthrate is more than 40% in America. In 1960, only 11% of children in the U.S. lived apart from their fathers." THAT is just sad...but the rest of this is simply ridiculous. For starters, people should be defined by what they DO, not what they look like. Along the same lines, "success" is a highly subjective term; what one person perceives as "success" may seem awfully strange to another individual. One person may call working at a fast-food joint a "success" because they've struggled to make ends meet for years and now they've finally found a steady job, but another person may scoff at that and declare that first person to be a slacker. Mr. Bennett, I suggest you pick up a copy of Death of a Salesman if you want to learn about this.

On a totally unrelated note, is there no longer any way to write in italics or bold-face anymore on Screwattack? There's no more rich text WYSIWYG editor, and HTML doesn't seem to take anymore.

all im getting from this guy is if i want to continue being the dirt bag gamer that im supposedly am, all i need to do is score a chick and im set... well alright

call me oldschool or outdated but i still place a huge amount of value in these things. i feel that achievements and convictions are vastly important in gaining a sense of fulfillment.