Play games and die!

[efq]

PlayStation 3 maker Sony is considering legal action over a government advert which implies kids will get ill from playing video games.

A new Department of Health advert shows a child holding what appears to be a PlayStation 3 Sixaxis pad and bears the unequivocal warning “RISK AN EARLY DEATH. JUST DO NOTHING”. Shocked? You surely should be…

Further cementing the apparent link between videogames and a premature demise - i.e. yours! - the ad is backed by the heavyweight likes of The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research and Diabetes UK. So there must be something in it, right?
Well, British society, if we’re to believe the scaremongering tabloid reports, stands on the verge of an obesity epidemic, with all the associated health risks bound therein. However, the last time we looked videogames were not to blame. At the very least not exclusively.
After all, the advert might have been more appropriate if it showed a family parked slack-jawed in front of the telly, as many millions are every night of the week - and have been doing long before games ever came to prominence. But that’s just not as emotive or sensational, is it?
Nope. Games, in spite of the great strides the industry has made to get its consumers, singing, dancing, exercising and flexing their grey matter, are an easy target, plain and simple. And now it appears playing them could lead to some properly life-threatening diseases!

The UK games industry has rallied to its own defence, with trade magazine MCV lodging an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, and Sony stating that they are considering legal action, but it remains to be seen whether it’ll change any deeper-held prejudices. Put another way, we doubt it’s the last time we’ll see games scapegoated like this.

Click here to see the ad on the government website.

That’s our tuppence worth, although you could say that we’re prejudiced too. But what’s your opinion - are games a key part of a very real problem or, with titles like Wii Fit and Brain Training enjoying massive success, a crucial component of a possible solution?

http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/blog/article/1970/

What a silly thing by them charities, why do they pick the worst and most fakest thing ever?

[kk.]

lol completely stupid if you ask me. Its discriminating against ps3 which i would say is against the advert rules afaik. if they want to make the advert public they should have made up a controller lol

[efq]

Yeah, if i were Sony, I would put a case against false accusations which may affect their products.

[kk.]

actually, surely this is false advertising too. They have no real hard evidence which proves otherwise. Games consoles havnt been around too long tbh and so the evidence if any would show unconclusive. they would need to be doing research for about 200 years for it to be proven lol

[Jord]

You cant die from playing games unless your on it most of the day and all you eat is junk food and you dont work out, Then it might be a health hazard

[efq]

You cant die from playing games unless your on it most of the day and all you eat is junk food and you dont work out, Then it might be a health hazard

But showing an advert of a kid playing a PS3 for a few seconds states nothing at all therefore British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research, Diabetes UK and Change4Life are in the wrong.

They just want gaming out...except gaming won't stop but it will only get better and better