After reading Patrick’s rant below me, I got pissed for a lot of reasons. My biggest reason, however, is my dad.

My boyfriend is an AVID gamer. Between him, The Guy On The Couch (friend of ours who’s crashing there) and Candice (who comes over often to hang out) we have a veritable Triad of Terror when it comes to gamers. I’m the only one left out on that score, because as I’ve said - I’m not NEARLY hardcore enough to be a real gamer.

My dad has always bothered my boyfriend and The Guy On The Couch (I don’t think he has the guts to mess with Candice) about their “Gaming Addiction.” He says, and I quote “That stuff rots your brain.”

W.T.F? Okay, I could see how someone might think that “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” might rot your brian, and even one of my favorite fool-around games, “Katamari Demacy.” I could see that. But Fable, Knights of the Old Republic II, Final Fantasy VII, and so many others have such a well-written plot line and such good character development that my mind boggles when he says something like that. My dad IS the original geek - the guy who played D&D growing up and had a pocket protector. He’s built more computer systems than I care to mention and did computer work for NASA in the 70’s. And he’s played FF7 and loved it. And still says crap like that. He also liked SSX-3 which is as non-storyline oriented as they get and has been known to stay up until 5 a.m. playing it (much to my mothers’ annoyance).

But let’s leave the hypocrisy of my Father Figure out of it for a second, because he brings to point something that bothers me about society - they think video games “rot your brain,” and are a total waste of time. And admittedly, some of them could be a waste of time (do NOT get me started on Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks). But the point I’m trying to make is that I can’t figure out why my dad and the rest of society seems to think there’s something evil about playing an RPG, but reading a book is fine, even if it’s a trashy romance novel from the cheap book section of Albertson’s. I love to read, more than I like to play games, actually, but to say that one is better than the other when some games out there have a storyline rivalling what I read in my books is hypocritical at best, and downright mean at worst.

My boyfriend doesn’t like to read. He actually has a learning disability that makes it really hard for him to even sound out words sometimes. But he gets the full value of a storyline without the pain in the ass of having to read it when he plays a good RPG and I think that that’s what matters - he’s getting enjoyment out of that storyline, just like I do with a book, and he’s gone one step further and is, to some extent, in the middle of it.

Bringing a story to someone who can’t or won’t read it, in any form is, I think, a worthy pasttime. And game makers spend a LOT more time doing what they do than authors do doing their thang, so I don’t know where the literary buffs get off acting all superior. Yes, for every Final Fantasy Seven there are ten Rumble Roses XX which have no plot or point, but come on! I still don’t get where reading = better than gaming. And anyone who tries to convince me otherwise is going to fail miserably.

****I apologize for the length and lack of commas - I get angry about things like this, and I work for a newspaper so I automatically write in AP style. -Tasha