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World of Warcraft to blame for college dropouts says FCC

Quest for education not a priority
Friday, 12 December 2008, 17:27

WANT TO KNOW why your teenager is dropping out of college? According to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it apparently has nothing to do with the cruddy state of the job market, discouraging prospects for graduates and exorbitant university fees. Instead, World of WarCraft is to blame.

Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft has something of a rep for being addictive, with nerdy fans spending hours in rain, hail and snow just to buy a copy of the Lich King that they could very well have just ordered online. Even South Park managed to fill two whole episodes with the subject, when Guitar Hero only achieved one.

But according to FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, the game is not just a fun distraction, but represents a dire threat to the education of an entire generation, and only she can undertake a quest singlehandedly to stop it.

In a bizarre statement on Telecom Policy and Regulation, Taylor Tate notes "With the explosion of educational resources available online, one might think parents would be 100 per cent pleased with the Internet's role in their children's lives." Shurely not? This is news to us, anyway.

But she then goes on to say that surveys show just the opposite, and quotes one from 2006 in which 59 per cent of parents think the Internet has been a totally positive influence in their children's lives, down from 67 per cent in 2004. Note, both percentages are very far away from 100 per cent, Ms Taylor Tate.

After that shocking banality of a revelation, Taylor Tate goes on to say "You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the US is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide."

Sadly, Tate doesn't cite a source, so we have no idea whatsoever where she pulled these numbers from, but as we've already established, stats and maths don't seem to be the FCC comissioners' strongpoints. µ

L'Inq
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Comments
I offer her this advice:

Up your butt with a coconut.

posted by : Motoman, 12 December 2008 Complain about this comment
She is silly.

I would practically guarantee she took her opinion on the subject from something in her personal life and made up an argument to back it.

posted by : willard_lecroy, 12 December 2008 Complain about this comment
DUHH!!!!!

Come on people wake up from reality. People are fond of being illusioned so much. That is what those games are for. Those kids just live a life of fully fantastical and they do not even feel reality anymore. But, this is not to blame the games itself...
If you are to blame the game, then should you not go on blaming every single individual trying to lure somebody to be so much tied up to him or her body ( yes you thought right. . . luring someone to be sexually attracted to such a person. Well well well. . .it's the same diff people! Get the analogy? or are you too asswiped to get it? Guess so! The games are there to be played and enjoyed for a reason and those kids were given BRAINS men. Imagine, God gave all of us 2 functional brains. One would be enough for one to think right and use it to rationalize with things. It is just these kids make the decision to rather waste time and play, play, play. Even if those games were not there men, those kids would most likely find something else more interesting to do apart from the boring studies. Trust me, that is the nature of where we live in today. People become more and more retrogressive as technology progresses; especially the young generations. And the solution is not to end the games but to educate these kids. How you do educate the kids? You educate the parents for the parents themselves should be examples too.

Come on! Wake up! Humans are not animals who just go by instincts. And playing games is not an instinct either. So make use of your brains wisely while you have them coz they shrink when you don't have any common sense. Figuratively, you think less, when your brain shrinks!!!!!

posted by : D.C, 12 December 2008 Complain about this comment
Two Episodes on South Park?

I thought there was only 1 episdode about WOW on South Park? It is titled "Make Love not Warcraft". Is there another?

posted by : Tronski, 12 December 2008 Complain about this comment
Sure this is a drug

Wow is like allowing your kids play with complete dum@#$&s on dirty night streets
This game is addictive to the extreme. Ask your kids

Q: "What is a good computer for you?
A: "One which plays WOW at least 60fps"
Q: "Look, do you like this laptop?"
A: "Yes, if it plays WOW"
Q: "You wanted this $60 toy for Christmas..."
A: "No, waste of money, this is like 4 months of WOW"
Q: "When did you went to sleep"
A: "3AM playing WOW"
Q: "How many of your WOW friends are F-students?"
A: "Almost everyone. And a third definitely are total retards"
Q: "How old this your friend?"
A: "I think he told he is 30 years old"
Q: "Aren't these kids sound like they are on drugs?"
A: "Honestly, on Friday evenings almost everyone is on drugs"
Q: "I do not hear from you about your UC Berkeley student anymore"
A: "I think he was fired, now he plays WOW only Sunday for 3 hours"
Q: "Your grades went completely down last two months. I closed your WOW accounts long ago. Now as we agreed you are totally grounded with other computer games and internet"
A: "Sorry dad, I lied to you. My friend gave me his WOW account passwords and when Blizzard catched that, I lied to them that he is my brother from another state"

posted by : Slava, 12 December 2008 Complain about this comment
I Can Believe!!

When I was in first year college Morrowind came out, and I failed 2 courses because of it out of 5 :) And WOW is played by WAY more people and even more addicting as there is no real end. That being said it won't be one of the biggest reasons and I'll say those will be money (even more so in this "crisis") and the job market.

posted by : Daryl, 13 December 2008 Complain about this comment
typical liberal response

It's always someone else or something else that is wrong. They never look at themselves as the problem. I bet if you asked this guy guy how to fix his delusional problem he would say, "We need more money and more government regulation." College is way overstated and most universities are nothing but liberal indoctrination camps that fill the young sponges with visions of marxism.

posted by : Regulas, 13 December 2008 Complain about this comment
Excuse me?

So when did the FCC's job start to include internet, and colleges? Perhaps someone in the appropriations commission of congress should have a chat with the FCC and tell them to write 'fun-repports' on their own time and publish them on their private sites.

posted by : W.-, 13 December 2008 Complain about this comment
How many government workers are given a totally positive rating?

Government would love approval rating as high as the internet!

FCC - are they the people who say how much radiation is ok on my computer, and why that legal crap is printed on so much paper? How many trees and CO2 are they responsible for? heh heh.

Games are really really enjoyable, some will be addictive. She has a point, up to a point.

Is she going to open up a gaming rehab?

The Inq, the new site looks better but i don't like it. It's slower and a bit awkward, it's like you were google and no you are yahoo.

You are more advanced, but less easy.
You are slower, and less preferable. It's a bit of a chore typing this, when in the past i really liked it.

posted by : hey now, 14 December 2008 Complain about this comment
@ Motoman

Is that coconut an offhand item or a trinket?

posted by : crow_bar, 15 December 2008 Complain about this comment
Shurely I Thought...

They were Athletes...
Certainly NOT Geeks...

Now they say "Geeks are sexy". So there's no getting an education for getting an education...
But then, I was privileged to view an episode of Skins...

"Oh, baby, baby, it's a WoW world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile"__ I blame zeppelins' Dazed and Confused. Or Ozzy. Or just plain old zeppelins.
Have you heard about the \nice command?

posted by : FCCnfurter, 16 December 2008 Complain about this comment
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