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this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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OK, while that was pretty funny, it's also a bit weird to see articles like this from the onion that kind of minimize legitimate problems. Loot boxes in games, for example, are basically gambling for children who don't know any better. Monetization of games is a big deal that needs to be taken more seriously.
While I don't think that's what the onion was going for, here -- they're making fun of people who senselessly decry video games -- the truth is that the gaming industry does have some severe and legitimate problems.
I don't think it's trying to touch on monetisation at all, let alone minimise it. It's just mocking the gameplay loop in Mario and Sonic that involve you run around picking up coins (or rings in Sonic's case) for no apparent reason.
Yeah, I agree, and I think I tried to touch on that, but then it's 20-some years too late to be relevant. Then again, maybe "video games are corrupting the youth" is a timeless trope? It just seems to me more like taking shots at something that was relevant when I was a kid, perhaps for the nostalgia factor, but not something that matters much today.
The gambling monetization is an entirely new problem, but the "{something} is corrupting the youth" is both a trope and an utter joke. It used to be that television is corrupting the youth, and before that, radio. Any new media technology ends up with people decrying over their pearl-clutching, "but think of the children" reasons.
I suspect it was more riffing on GTA games and how pearl clutching adults think they cause gamers to be violent or something. Even though that's been debunked for ages.