Pac-Man Is No More Than an Electronic Pusher

[+Random Terrain]

Here's something from March 15, 1982 that you might like to read after so many years have gone by:

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/71844944/pac-man-is-no-more-than-an-electronic/

 

 

Update (2021y_02m_26d_0202t)

 

Here's a semi-related newspaper article that isn't as negative:

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72095009/pac-man-pros-and-cons-apr-3-1982/

 

 

Update (2021y_02m_26d_0306t)

 

Here is a bad review of the Pac-Man Fever album:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72096025/song-history-bad-review-of-pac-man/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72096126/song-history-bad-review-of-pac-man/

 

[+GoldLeader]

Yup!

 

Video Games are Evil!  Electronic Addictions, nothing more!   You should all give them up immediately!   (For some reason as I type this, I imagine the voice of that buzzkill Dr. Zachary Smith from Lost In Space)...

[+GoldLeader]

The only thing this proves is something we've basically known all along.  It is no fun to watch other people play video games...

[+frankodragon]

The author of the article must of been working for a record company.  Like that SNL spoof,  Alan: A Video Junkie.

[Atari_Bill]

This guy went in with his mind already made up.  Nothing he saw was going to deter him from finding every fault he could and pushing his narrative. Pretty much the same as most media today.  

[CapitanClassic]

7 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

The only thing this proves is something we've basically known all along.  It is no fun to watch other people play video games...

You need to tell the people at Twitch and YouTube longplays.

[+GoldLeader]

52 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

You need to tell the people at Twitch and YouTube longplays.

I know right?  haha..

 

Little harder to explain, but here goes.

 

I don't like being in a room;  Living room, or even arcade where I would watch someone else play, see someone else sitting on a couch ignoring you.   Not fun,...unless you're playing 2 player...  Take the guy in the article.    He's just being blocked out by someone, (Now, personally I think it's his personality....I could barely stand him 5 seconds in, but that's because he's a pompous, obnoxious, (yet well spoken) Know it all.)  But His situation?? That is No Fun.  He had no thoughts on getting in on the action either;  He was just there to complain, be negative, have a bloated sense of self importance, and talk shit.  Anyway,  a long play or just gameplay video on YouTube is different.  You're seeing the game being played.  You don't have to look at the person ignoring you,  You can instead focus on the game and skim the vid to see if YOU would like to play the game,  Like it might be YOUR later decision to buy the game or track down the ROM, so it's like shopping! Completely different.  Not the same experience as being in a room with someone who would rather you get lost...

[+frankodragon]

That or my guess would be his wife hates video games but threatened her husband to write the article or else she's going to divorce him and take everything he owns, down to the socks he wears.  

[+GoldLeader]

I do think its his opinion,...Just something he gets no fun out of.   But,  I also agree he basically went in with his mind made up.

[+Random Terrain]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

I do think its his opinion,...Just something he gets no fun out of.   But,  I also agree he basically went in with his mind made up.

 

If this is the same guy, he was 35 in 1982, so his idea of fun might have been a game of penuchle or canasta while sipping tea with his pinky in the air:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rosemond

[CapitanClassic]

4 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I know right?  haha..

 

Little harder to explain, but here goes.

 

I don't like being in a room;  Living room, or even arcade where I would watch someone else play, see someone else sitting on a couch ignoring you.   Not fun,...unless you're playing 2 player...  Take the guy in the article.    He's just being blocked out by someone, (Now, personally I think it's his personality....I could barely stand him 5 seconds in, but that's because he's a pompous, obnoxious, (yet well spoken) Know it all.)  But His situation?? That is No Fun.  He had no thoughts on getting in on the action either;  He was just there to complain, be negative, have a bloated sense of self importance, and talk shit.  Anyway,  a long play or just gameplay video on YouTube is different.  You're seeing the game being played.  You don't have to look at the person ignoring you,  You can instead focus on the game and skim the vid to see if YOU would like to play the game,  Like it might be YOUR later decision to buy the game or track down the ROM, so it's like shopping! Completely different.  Not the same experience as being in a room with someone who would rather you get lost...

My comment was just a joke, but now that I actually read the article, it confirms my belief that most news articles are written by morons who have no knowledge of the subjects they write about.

 

“It’s impossible for video games to improve hand-eye coordination “ — Moron

 

WTF? “Video games do not encourage or enable creativity.” — Moron

 

Ok, they didn’t have Minecraft or Super Mario Maker bitd, but even the twitch games of the arcade era encouraged finding ways to exploit the game. People figured out the PAC-man patterns, there were games like the Pinball Construction Set for atari800. Sure the video games have an enclosed rules system that you must play within, but part of the creativity is trying to figure out how to exploit the game within the rules given.

 

I first didn’t understand the drive to watch people play games on Twitch, I would much rather spend the little free time I have playing a game myself (or even better play with someone else). But, some twitch shows have grown on me. I like watching Blind Playthroughs and seeing if they hit the same pitfalls I did back in the day. I like watching some games just to see the cool story that I never would actually sit down to watch myself. (I also watch at 2x)

Clearly, the author didn’t understand that to play at the highest levels, you need to look like a zombie and put out all the outside distractions to focus on the game. He was a fish out of water, not understanding what he was seeing.

 

[+GoldLeader]

19 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

My comment was just a joke, ...

 

I realized that...And yet an actual answer popped into my head so I though it bore mentioning. 

 

The rest of your above comment was spot on,  especially calling him a fish out of water.  His appeal must be to an older crowd.  He manages to make himself look stupid at how little he understands...

[+x=usr(1536)]

Yes, my childhood full of video games, loud music, and horror movies clearly contributed to my life of holding down a job, making payments on time, and keeping the yard tidy.  Horrible, awful influences, all of them.

Edited February 24, 2021 by x=usr(1536)

[Unbeliever]

Ah, the dimly lit, smoke-filled arcades of my youth. Terrible places, all of them........

 

Which I frequented quite a bit to play AND watch others play my favorite arcades games. Then moving to my home, the Atari 2600 became a staple but NOT a centerpiece in my life. I still had things I had to do in the outside world of video games, but the Atari was always there, waiting, for me to take a minute or two to play a game. I have a house, yard, animals, a full-time job, and responsibilities. You know what? I manage all of that and still find time to have "fun".

[AtariSphinx]

Great find!  Would like to see what the author would say in this day and age of people standing in a park late at night clustered together starring at their screen playing Pokémon Go ? 

[youxia]

If Pacman is a pusher, he's the sort who gets high on his own supply

[Mr SQL]

On 2/23/2021 at 2:51 PM, GoldLeader said:

... but that's because he's a pompous, obnoxious, (yet well spoken) Know it all.)  But His situation?? That is No Fun.  He had no thoughts on getting in on the action either;  He was just there to complain, be negative, have a bloated sense of self importance, and talk shit...

Scientific peer review  

 

[+Random Terrain]

Added two more newspaper articles to the first post.

[bigfriendly]

On 2/23/2021 at 6:34 AM, GoldLeader said:

The only thing this proves is something we've basically known all along.  It is no fun to watch other people play video games...

Except when Dragons Lair came out:)

[CapitanClassic]

3 hours ago, bigfriendly said:

Except when Dragons Lair came out:)

Yeah, I dont think I saw those arcade machines with additional monitors above the normal ones until that game (or maybe Street Fighter II)

 

Why do critics sound so negative all the time.? Who doenst like 867-5309? 

Edited February 26, 2021 by CapitanClassic

[+GoldLeader]

On 2/26/2021 at 4:54 AM, bigfriendly said:

Except when Dragons Lair came out:)

 

Touche!

 

Dragon's Lair was that rare game that looked really cool, but was no fun at all to play...

                

[+GoldLeader]

It's cool to look back in time and see what people thought back then,  but I was hoping one of the additional articles was a letter to the editor telling them what a douche John Rosemond was.

[Swami]

On 2/25/2021 at 11:03 AM, youxia said:

If Pacman is a pusher, he's the sort who gets high on his own supply

Yeah, I always saw Pac-man as the addict raiding the monsters' stash or the monsters are a delusion the drugs keep at bay.

 

Although, you could make it a more heroic story, like the monsters have taken humans to another planet as slaves and the pellets are blood oxygenation pellets. Pac-man has broke into their storage facility and is stealing the stashes so the humans can rise up against their oppressors. He finds food sometimes, too.

[Swami]

Here's one of them:

 

[MrMaddog]

Mainstream Media hates anything that distracts people from watching television....News at 11!