Dave Long On TV

[Dave Long]

Crazy, I know. WPVI Channel 6 Action News from Philadelphia was in Reading today to interview me regarding violent games, GamerDad.com, parenting kids as it relates to games and all that good stuff. Those in the Philly area can catch it on Action News tonight at 11PM.

I'm hoping to take it off my TiVo and put it somewhere on the web afterward. I'm sure I'll look like a total dork, but there you have it. The interview went well too.

I'm not sure if this breaks the code of pimping on Qt3 since I'm really not pimping anything other than... um... me being on TV... but if it does, sorry about that. Thought folks might be interested.

I think you guys will be pretty happy with my responses, depending what they show. I made a point of saying how GTA is a great game despite the content, blah blah. Also recommended Civilization IV as a great game for teens. After it airs, I'll let you all know what was cut. ;)

--Dave

[Squirrel Killer]

Careful, you might get a beret photoshopped onto your head.

[Dave Long]

haha! I'm sure Sparky will come up with something more suitably Pennsylvanian... She's from the area originally, so she's probably been saving stuff up for a long time.

--Dave

[extarbags]

Super exciting, Dave! I'm going to watch it for sure.

[malphigian]

Judging by the usual sensationalism that local news goes for, they are probably going to slice up your well thought out responses into something like: "Video games [...] make [...] children [...] into killers". Let's hope not though :)

[extarbags]

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines. But I think it's more likely they'll play his comments uncut, but introduce him as "local insane Satan worshipper Dave Long" and give him devil eyes in Premiere.

[Dave Long]

lol!

When they called, those kinds of thing were the first to cross my mind. However, the producer guy was really cool and seemed to be about my age, maybe slightly older. He also asked pretty evenhanded questions and I gave evenhanded responses.

I think the overall feature was looking for Christmas ideas with a parental focus, but I think the end result will be a little more than that. I don't think they knew what they were getting into when they decided to talk to me. :)

--Dave

[croman]

*looks forward to a mirror*

I doubt Tom would care to much, seems just like a cool thing to hype. Gratz on the appearance!

[Brian Rucker]

I did something like that many years ago when I was in college. Somehow my name lingered on a list for a group called CARPGA, basically roleplayers trying to push back against anti-roleplaying hysteria in the 80's.

Well, there was a murder and the defense was the usual anti-roleplaying stuff so I got a call from the local game store to talk to a local reporter about the case. I did look a bit dorky but had the presence of mind to actually put on a shirt and powertie and limit my comments to the notion of parental supervision and various studies proving no link between violence and roleplaying. The fun part was that my opposite number, shot seperately, was Pat Pulling herself of all people. I may have looked a bit uncomfortable but she was nutsy. Her entire argument was holding up the cover of a DM's manual and saying, "See it's evil!"

Anyhow, no copies of that adventure survived that I know of (though I'm kind of curious to see it again). Look forward to seeing how you do when the link goes up.

[Anders Hallin]

Well, he has a hidden ace if he gets nervous. "Nintendo! Just go with Nintendo!"

[extarbags]

The piece just got done airing.

I don't know, Dave, I think you came off as one of "those" people.

Kid: Adults shouldn't be worried... they're just games.

Reporter: But the people at gamerdad.com disagree...

I also wasn't fond of the way they intercut your comments about the games on the "avoid" list as they ran them down. Almost made it seem like you were trashing the games in question, that last comment about how you "admit that they might be fun for adults" notwithstanding.

But I could be wrong. What did you think?

[Dave Long]

Well, it was definitely skewed a little more toward the "danger" of videogames, yeah. She at least did say that those games were good for adults too. The rundown of things that are good for kids was decent too.

I dunno, I guess I didn't expect much more than that, but what was there was more evenhanded than most stories of the type. They're making "news" though and news is that there are scary games out there.

Did I look like a total dork? ;)

--Dave

Also... there's like twenty minutes of footage. We talked for awhile, me and Rob Royal, the exec producer. The end result was a ... what... two minute piece? Given they've got to put Nydia in there, I'm surprised at just how much air time I got. They got my name right at least.

Among the things that were cut... me saying how Civilization is a great game for kids because it teaches them history without them even knowing it. Bunch of stuff about Nintendogs and how it appeals to everyone, especially young boys and girls (and no messy real animal cleanup!), more discussion on Grand Theft Auto and the satire that it contains. Wow...a whole lot of stuff. They also shot footage of me walking around playing my Nintendo DS. None of that was in there.

Still, once again, it's not too bad. Considering how much it could've completely skewed toward the negative, I think it was worthwhile. How many people in the industry get to even tell any reporter how games are good? Also, if it helps people find GamerDad and gets them better informed, that's awesome too. I'd rather they make their own decisions based on the Kid Factors we write over there. We lay it out there in better detail than the ESRB and they can decide if their kids can handle it.

Ahem... also, I knew when I said that "Basically... fighting demons from hell." thing he was going to use it. The twinkle in his eye was like a small star going nova.

Wow.. I should've waited to post...

Also, that bit about "The people at GamerDad.com don't agree" was totally her thing, not mine. I never said anything of the sort. They also never asked what we think about games/reality either though. :)

Ok... I'll try to get this up so the rest of you can see it. Anyone know an easy way to get from the TiVo to a format that I can post on the web?

LOL... I just realized they also didn't run any of the stuff I said about parenting and just paying attention to what your kids are doing. *sigh* They need a longer news program. :)

[Sparky]

haha! I'm sure Sparky will come up with something more suitably Pennsylvanian... She's from the area originally, so she's probably been saving stuff up for a long time.
Oh yeah...I have some pierogies, the Boscov's logo, a bottle of Yuengling and a pile of anthracite all set up in a Photoshop Action.

[balut]

Mmm...Yuengling.

[Dave Long]

Yeah, I love me some Lager.

--Dave

[stusser]

I grew up in PA, right outside of harrisburg. The weirdest thing is that they make all food sweet. Sweet french fries, sweet beef, sweet pork, desserts like shoo fly pie are essentially blocks of sugar, horrible horrible food.

Women in particular in rural pennsylvania have the most monumentally huge asses you've ever seen. Like amazingly out of proportion, the women have asses that are like two bowling balls with a pingpong ball balanced on top for their heads. Their asses are so large they literally swallow seats. Not like 3 legged stools, we're talking La-Z-boys here. It's interesting, actually. The more metropolitan the area, the smaller the ass. Around those hick pig farmers, holy shit, you can't walk by a woman from newville on the sidewalk without obscenely brushing up against the side of their amazingly wide bulbous ass. You probably think I'm exaggerating but I'm not, it's like they're mutants or something.

I haven't been back to my parents' house since 1998, and I only live 4 hours away... in manhattan.

[Dave Long]

Where at outside Harrisburg? I grew up in Myerstown.

I agree there are a lot of large asses around here. On the whole probably some of the larger butts you'll find, however I think you're exagerrating... just a little bit. :)

--Dave

[Bull]

I grew up in Steelton. Where the heck is Myerstown, Long? Where are you from stusser? I probably know... your older brother or something. You sound like you're about twenty something?

[Dave Long]

East of Harrisburg between Lebanon and Reading. It's a small town along route 422. It's about 45 min. from Harrisburg. I live in Reading now, though.

--Dave

[Bull]

and a pile of anthracite

Did you ever eat that coal candy from up Sckukill county way? My dad's family was from up there and I remember these boxes of black candy, that was hard as a rock, and came with a miniature coal pick that I coveted when I was young. The candy was crap--100% sugar and hard enough to break teeth. My aunt wouldn't let me have the coal pick because she said I'd put my eye out.

Good times.

[stusser]

Carlisle, PA. I'm 29.

[Dave Long]

Carlisle! Been there many times... mostly passing through on my way somewhere else, but I've been there. The car show's a big deal there every year.

The bucket of coal was cool. Got one of those at Christmas one year. I work with a bunch of guys from Schuylkill County. It's like another planet where they come from. Ahhhh... the coal regions... :)

--Dave

[Bull]

East of Harrisburg between Lebanon and Reading. It's a small town along route 422. It's about 45 min. from Harrisburg. I live in Reading now, though.

--Dave

I had an uncle in Palmyra, which is out that way. We never went that far up 422 when we were kids. Is that near like Anville Cleona (sp?)?

[Bull]

Carlisle, PA. I'm 29.

I got folks in Chambersburg. I know Carlisle. It's got the war college and a nice little circut to cruise.

Steelton is on the border of Harrisburg. The turnpike runs through Steelton. It's about ten miles from TMI.

[Dave Long]

Yeah. Lebanon is the city you find right after Annville-Cleona. The next town from there is Myerstown. There are about four more small towns on 422 between Myerstown and Reading.

Palmyra girls Field Hockey are like #1 in the state right now. I know this because my wife referees. Palmyra's another town I've been through many times and we played them in high school sports too. I know Harrisburg pretty well because we'd go there a lot when my brother lived in Enola. I've also been to see the Bears (and the park and all that) at Hershey countless times.

Also, I go to Williams Grove a lot for sprint cars. I also go down to Hanover to Lincoln Speedway a few times a year. I've been through Steelton a couple times, too. Now that you mention Chambersburg, I'm familiar with that area a little since I've got two relatives on my wife's side that graduated from Shippensburg.

--Dave

[Sparky]

My family's from Schuylkill County. Yup, I have eaten the coal candy. I also once got a lump of real anthracite, mined by my very own grandpa, in my stocking for Christmas.

My cousin is a sophisticated highfalutin' city boy -- he lives in Reading. :)

[Xemu]

Cool!

Definitely post a link if you get the footage online, I'd love to see it!

My TV career began and ended as a child TV star... (no joke, though perhaps a more than a little exaggeration -- I did a few local commercials and was a regular on a local kids TV program).

[Rob Beschizza]

If you kept it together and simply answered questions evenly and calmly, you did better than most.

It's very dangerous to agree to appear in anything that looks like it might be a moral panic piece. I'd recommend against doing it, unless you are an experienced interviewee, assume you are to be presented as the spokesmonster, and have all your jokes ready!

A big clue is if producers go to some efforts to allay fears you have not even expressed ("Don't worry, the story is going to be about n"). A good tip: if they make subtly suggestions about what you'll be saying ("Don't worry, all you'll have to do is n") you're going to be asked why you hate America.

The aim is to catch you on the wrong foot and make you visibly have to think your answers through when you are on camera, sputter or complain.

This is why so few people appear on O'Reilly and the like. They know they will be misled about the segment's content and thrust, so it's impossible to prepare good bites.

[SpoofyChop]

They need a longer news program. :)

Which nobody would pay attention to because we're all busy playing WoW or GTA :)

Anyway you did good Dave!

[Dean]

Hey Dave,

I'm originally from Easton, PA. Every August we'd make the trip to Vanity Fair Outlets in Reading to buy cheap school clothes. And we'd always beg to go to the pagoda we could see on the hill, but mom would never take us. Is the pagoda still there? Was it just a cheap chinese restaurant or is there actually a buddhist enclave in Reading?

Last spring the local news interviewed me about advertising in games. They boiled down my comments to "The market will sort it out, people won't buy them." Which isn't what I said, but that's the quote they pulled. They also interviewed some of my students-- the one woman in my class was getting quoted left and right because she knew about games, was female, and was cute.

And asses are bigger in rural PA. And people have that slighty pasty look that comes from deep frying all their food (present company excepted, I'm sure). I'm very happy to live in New England, thank you.

[Dave Long]

The Pagoda isn't a restaurant, nor is it a buddhist enclave. The history of it is right here...

http://www.pagodaskyline.org/pagoda/

...as an aside, I proposed to my wife at that building. :)

--Dave

[Joel]

The Pagoda isn't a restaurant, nor is it a buddhist enclave. The history of it is right here...

http://www.pagodaskyline.org/pagoda/

...as an aside, I proposed to my wife at that building. :)

--Dave

Whoa, that might be worth a trip to PA to see (the pagoda, not your wife). My GF and I are currently amassing enough things to see in PA to warrant a day trip down from Brooklyn. Last time we went to this little bed-and-breakfast town and had an altogether pleasant stay, although I think we exposed the town bookseller as a stoner to another local shopkeep.

[Dave Long]

RISE!

Bub was nice enough to post the video of me on TV from last November.

http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3036

I got another call on Monday from Channel 6 in Philly about some sexual predator using a Nintendo DS to contact a kid. That didn't result in an on camera interview, but I did fill their reporter in on the 30-100 foot limitation of PictoChat (which was what was used to contact the person) and explained that whole thing to her and how there almost had to be some kind of contact beforehand leading to the Pictochat in a more public place or something. I also had a call last week from the Philadelphia Inquirer about gaming with parents thanks to Bub and the GamerDad connection. I'm going to slip Qt3 and GAF in there somehow next time someone calls.

"You want to find all the reprobates and the dregs of the Internet? Try www.ga-forum.com... also... see www.quartertothree.com... and search on Whitta."

:)

[Shadari]

Also recommended Civilization IV as a great game for teens.
That's a ghetto game, man. Why would you recommend the ghetto for the poor little kids? :)

[Dave Long]

Ha! Bub supplied the list that she uses at the end there. Luckily, he told me about it before I talked to the producer guy in the interview so we could keep our wires straight.

I think that's the first time anyone here has seen what I look like other than Cathcart and a few others. I'll be going to E3 this year so now you know what moron to look for if you hate Nintendo and need someone to shout at.

[fuzzyslug]

RISE!

Bub was nice enough to post the video of me on TV from last November.

http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3036



I actually saw this over at GamerDad earlier. You guys should be proud that it is probably the most balanced piece on gaming that I've ever seen on the news. That might not being saying much but still.

Oh and Dave, I still don't know what you look like. The video was like 50px x 50 px. I wouldn't have known it was you if I hadn't recognized your voice from Xbox Live. :)

[Dave Long]

There are two higher quality versions. I'll see if I can post it on that YouTube or something like that. I have to send them home from my work PC first.

[Rob Beschizza]

I got another call on Monday from Channel 6 in Philly about some sexual predator using a Nintendo DS to contact a kid. That didn't result in an on camera interview, but I did fill their reporter in on the 30-100 foot limitation of PictoChat (which was what was used to contact the person) and explained that whole thing to her and how there almost had to be some kind of contact beforehand leading to the Pictochat in a more public place or something.
:)

Did we have a thread about this? I heard the story as published goes to some lengths to make it appear pedophiles can use pictochat to track down kids on the internet (i.e. the reporter made stuff up, and you're the man who can prove it)

[Dave Long]

Nobody made a thread about it I don't think. If they did, I missed it.

Anyway, I wrote about it in my column here...
http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3047

The Channel 6 Action News story is here (with video)
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=special_coverage&id=3905371

...and it's on /. today.

[Equisilus]

Irresponsible reporting is good in one way: if people start catching on that what they hear isn't always the whole truth, perhaps they'll do their own research instead of having it shoved into their brains by the hypemysters. There're benefits to being a skeptic.

You did your part, Dave, and you can't control how your responses are spun after they are out there. Nice that you wrote a separate article to explain the details behind it. Now, if only those parents go looking....

[dannimal]

People picking up on the affiliate's ball-dropping:

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=9690&cb=0.5050274

[Hump]

fire that twat.

[Dave Long]

Irresponsible reporting is good in one way: if people start catching on that what they hear isn't always the whole truth, perhaps they'll do their own research instead of having it shoved into their brains by the hypemysters. There're benefits to being a skeptic.

You did your part, Dave, and you can't control how your responses are spun after they are out there. Nice that you wrote a separate article to explain the details behind it. Now, if only those parents go looking....

Yeah, I'm disappointed in the results, but satisfied that I at least got the call. I hope she continues to consult with me on stories even if the final cut doesn't contain what I say. If nothing else, I know that the facts were there if she wanted to use them.

Like I said in the column, I do wish I had been even more convincing. I was a little blindsided by the call, but it's all a learning thing. I didn't really expect to be interviewed by television in the first place.

[XPav]

Dave, good work.

God, I hate local TV.
The stupid intros.
The stupid "lets watch the guy walk" shot.
The "BUT IT HELD A HIDDEN SECRET!" reveal.

[Rob Beschizza]

I hope she continues to consult with me on stories even if the final cut doesn't contain what I say. If nothing else, I know that the facts were there if she wanted to use them.

The people who do stories for TV and Radio affiliates often have no journalistic training or experience at all. They're playing scoop, and you're not a source of information: you're merely useful or not.

It's entirely possible the story was written before they even called, and you were merely a quote vending machine, with the person on the other end seeing if anything you said would slot in anywhere.

You shouldn't assume this of any reporter, station, or newspaper: many are professionals and are investigating, not illustrating. But when you tell a reporter 2+2=4, and the reporter ignores you and writes 2+2=5, that really should be the end of your working relationship with that reporter.

[Chris Woods]

There really ought to be more backlash about shit like this, though. Reporters, even stupid ones, are very influential to the "common man", and for them to essentially lie seems, like, wrong or something.

We should backlash. I've always wanted to backlash against something. Like, maybe we can sing Puff The Magic Dragon somewhere. That's a fun backlash.

Seriously, though, how do you fight this sort of thing? Just call John Stewart?

Chris Woods

[Chris Nahr]

Get rich, buy your own TV station, then spread your own lies.

[TriggerHappy]

Seriously, though, how do you fight this sort of thing? Just call John Stewart?

No one I know who watches Jon Stewart would fall for this crap in the first place.