Hello, my name is Ryan Smith. I am a 13-year from Wisconsin and a Nintendo Gamecube owner. I would like to submit this poem I wrote about video games in response to some disturbing anti-video-game articles. I feel that video games (especially R-P-G/Strategy games) are underlooked, misjudged, and lack respect as an educational tool.

An Ode to Video Games

by Ryan Smith

They say that video games are a waste of time.
They act as if they are a crime.
They sat that they will rot your brain,
That three hours a day is insane.

I say that nonsense isn't true.
How can they be bad for you?
The strategy they overlook.
The values which they mistook.

They say there is no variety—
Racing, Platform, Society.
Have they played them? Usually not.
Yet they're fast to judge the lot.

They think all games are blood and gore,
That killing civilians racks up the score.
Sure for some games that might be true,
But the majority of video games are good for you.

Ryan is older now, and sent this update on Thanksgiving in November, 2005:

Thanks for the notification, here is a short summary of my gaming life. I am still playing video games, and sadly still arguing with my parents over every last minute I play them. I am now in high school, and getting straight A's which still will not get me off the hook. I enjoy RPGs and strategy games though much of my gaming time is spent playing Guild Wars a cooperative MMORPG on the internet (Elements wrath is my name for any fellow player.) Though changes in the stereotypic view of a gamer are definitely occurring, there is still a ways left to go before video games along with computer games get the respect they deserve.