“If you’ve never played a game, or you think you hate them – but my description sounds vaguely appealing, give it a spin. Just watch someone else play it for a while if you like. I guarantee you’ll be surprised.”

- Charlie Brooker, The Guardian, Monday 23 May 2011

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) — Imagine you’re playing a video game with your child when you realize the game is taunting one of the characters who’s adopted.

Not a big deal, right? But local father said it was a big deal to him and his family.

Okay, now. Have you beaten the game? If you have, only if you have, think like Chell. If she was adopted, and all those robots are telling me she’s less for that… She’s right damn proving them wrong. So, the game is not saying jokes about adopted people are funny. What makes us laugh is that we personificate ourselves into the attitude of Chell, which is, they are right about me, but they missed my point, and then we get to think and laugh: “Oh, they are so mean… do they really believe these jokes are stopping me? Because yeah, I am beating the game”. And we all, adopted or not, less told special for a reason or a multiple of them, would love to get Chell’s tenacity when facing far easier problems we wrap ourselves up with. And therefore, I believe an adopted child, such as any child, can learn from that that no jokes are funny if you simply know better and don’t get offended.

Which, obviously, isn’t the case of this parent. I’m sorry for his child. Not for being adopted, but for being adopted by a moron. Because yes, only a moron would care for having a videogame lighting up a question that was obviously — imagine you looking Chinese while your father is American — long time shut off into a little girl’s mind, a small reminder of how her family always looked “weird” to other kids, and how she can’t have been brought to the family “like all the other kids”. She’s a child but she’s not stupid. She’ll always know, subconsciously, that there was an untold truth almost turning into a lie all her life until they thought she was “ready”, and that’s not cake we’re talking about. Chell would be a character who obviously hates people telling her when she’s good or not for something — she goes mute all the game, but who knows if proving them wrong is not exactly her point? It is clear that in any firstperson game that has a storyline like Portal, the protagonist is the average unwanted human being who wants something to live for and is not let down by people tauting them for belonging to minorities.

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And I’m so tired of people badmouth-ing videogames. I thought that because of Portal’s style NOBODY would EVER make a POLEMIC about it. Games can only be a threat for people who can’t deal with their psychologic and/or social problem(s) which are, by the way, mostly caused by the whole modernity it self, first estabilished by things you guys love like Journalism, TV, and so. I’m not saying THESE are all bad either, just stop antagonizing videogames for my sake.

Nevertheless, I’m currently studying journalism, but I’m really disappointed about it, overall. I’m now learning we’re supposed to deliver news even if there isn’t any, and I get why most of the news are mere overreaction or frugal, ordinary events of a species. I’m considering dropping it since everyday I get this is not for me, particulary because I hate writing, reading and watching the news. And I love art and technology, that is why I love games. 

And the final reporter’s joke on Sony… I’m not trying to say they’re right, but you say they are passing the resposability to someone else? WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT WORLD-REPRESENTATIVE COMPANIONS? LOOK AT THE MONSTER SONY IS, IT ALMOST DISTRIBUTES EVERY SINGLE ENTERTAINMENT THING I BUY, IT IS OBVIOUS THEY WOULD TELL YOU TO CONTACT VALVE. AND, HONESTLY, YOU DIDN’T KNOW VALVE?

Can’t forget to mention that since I was 9 years old I cared about orphans. I wanted to convice my mom to adopt a child instead of having another one. Both didn’t happen, and I’m sure convinced that I don’t want to get pregnant in my life, but I’ll have 6-8 children myself and them all won’t have to be babies when I get them. Now do the math.

Thanks for anyone who bothered reading this. Sorry if there’s any textual mistake. I’m not a native speaker. I am brazilian and proud of it.