Metro and rickets

The Metro report at least deserves a pat on the back for originality. MCV was delighted to understand that today’s army of unpredictable, sociopathic, murdering gamers are thwarted by the humble stairway thanks to the debilitating condition their love of games has allegedly inflicted on them.

And we were simply amused when Metro’s allegation come unstuck when presented with its very own kryptonite – facts.

In seriousness (well, as serious as you can take such preposterous headlines, anyway) this is just another case of someone getting it wrong. The ignorance and very outlandishness behind a ‘Gaming leads to surge in rickets’ headline says everything.

We’re all used to this happening by now; no one said ubiquity came quickly or easily.

And perhaps the industry could be flattered by it. Games are now in the same league as any other well-established cultural pursuit that can be described as lethal by a rent-a-quote pundit.

In the quest for an easy headline, desperate journalists will cut corners. But when it comes to the bigger picture, games don’t get it that bad overall.

Let’s not forget that usually newspapers give games a good ride. From The Independent to The Sun, the industry’s at times a little spoilt for choice when it comes to mainstream coverage. Games get more analytical pieces, reviews and anecdotal ‘and finally…’ stories than ever before.

Often those pieces are still written with a sense of wonder about games – most writers aren’t bored of us yet. So one newspaper doesn’t get it. That’s their problem, not ours.