WRITE two well-developed paragraphs to discuss your opinion about war games, online gaming, video game addiction, paintball, nerf, airsoft, even violent hits in football, etc.
- First, read the following article:
- Vocabulary you may need to know:
- wholesome fun - fun that promotes high moral standards, clean family fun
- gelatin pellets filled with red dye - paint balls
- franchised - having approval granted to sell or distribute a company’s goods
- annihiliation - destroy completely
- Write your paragraph. I want to see two well-developed paragraphs, not lists. A well-developed paragraph should have a topic sentence, an explaination and some examples. To help you, I have attached a picture of a paragraph frame. I don't want you to write your paragraph in frames, but I do want you to consider how this paragraph is put together. A well-developed paragraph should have at least 4-6 sentences.
Games People Probably Shouldn't Play
According to the company that started the trend, some 18,000 people in hundreds of different weekend groups in the US and Canada pay $30 - $50, or more per person to take part in an outdoor "game" that you might consider carefully ---very carefully---before anyone in your family joins in. Called by such names as "Skirmish," "The War Game," and "Survival" (It was originated by National Survival Games of New London, N.H.), the game has two teams of players completing in a woodland setting to capture each others flag. But to reach the flag, players, "kill" their rivals -- by shooting them with realistic pistols that fire gelatin pellets filled with red dye.
The game is supposedly safe -- players wear goggles - but reports of eye damage have rival companies arguing over whose guns are less likely to cause injury. It's also said to be wholesome fun, according to some 400-500 franchised dealers who rent guns to use on playing fields across the country (and in West Germany, Britain and Japan, says Toronto-based Adventure Game of American).
But Georgia Lanoil, a psychologist on the board of the Journal of Preventive Psychiatry, disputes claims that playing provides a harmless release for pent-up aggressions. A conclusion drawn from studies on anger, she says, is that hostile behavior often is a rehearsal for future action. "It's one step beyond viewing violent films, and isn't like football, where you try to get past your opponent to the goal. Here the goal is annihilation."
Adds Dr. Robert London, director of short-term psychotherapy at New York University Medical Center-Bellevue: "Why anyone would get high on people-hunting and simulated murder is something they should discuss with their therapist."
