If you get hit by a car, get shot or fall into lava in real life, that’s it - game over. You don’t get to start over again just own the street

Picture this setting. You’re a paperboy riding down the street. You’re not really paying attention to the cross traffic. All of a sudden a dog runs out and you swerve to miss it.

Now you are in on-coming traffic and get hit by a white Buick LeSabre. Suddenly you find yourself back at the beginning of the street, your bag still full of papers.

Totally unbelievable, right? Well, that’s not what video games would like you to think.

One of the worst things video games ever taught children was that you could keep on getting second chances until you were actually perfect. I am talking of course about multiple lives, the save feature and the rest button.

These accursed functions made people think that life would give them as many chances as possible to get things right. Real life has no rest button. If you get hit by a car, get shot or fall into lava in real life, that’s it - game over. You don’t get to start over again just own the street. You will be nothing but a skeleton.

How dare video games give kids the idea that you can just try over and over again! Like Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” This “try until you get it right” ideology was just the kind of thing that would ruin America.

Imagine if all paperboys thought that they would get a second chance to throw today’s paper on a doorstep. There would be a complete disregard for priding oneself on one’s work. Imagine if we all thought that as long as the job got done is what mattered, there is always tomorrow to get it right.

That stupid save button destroys the meaning of life. If we really could save a copy of ourselves to be activated once the we die, the I would like one to be marked right before I spent a day waiting in line to see “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.” Then, I would ask someone to kill me now, so I could go back and just catch it later in the week. That film wasn’t worth the outdoor overnight stay or skipping my English test.

If life worked like video games, this planet wouldn’t work. If one keeps trying until everything is perfect, then everyone would be happy. Haven’t we all learned that not everyone can be happy? People would still get to watch “American Idol” while I watch Simon, Paula and Ryan get roast on a spit.

It just wouldn’t work and video games teach us that it is possible. Why must video games fill the heads of America’s youth with delusions, and speak nothing but about how grand the world could be if everything went right?

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