Doing the Right Thing For Our Veterans

November 25, 2009 on 8:00 am | In Military, Veterans, Video Games  Email This Post

I bet there were long lines to get the newest issuance of a video game series called “Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 2.”  Ordinarily, I would ignore this “news,” because I think spending more than 30 minutes a day playing any video game is a monumental waste of time, and the fast lane to psycho-social problems.

That said, I hope everyone buys one of these games as soon as possible.  If you care, the reviews for this latest title in the series are glowing, and in particular praise the “realism.”

But from “realism,” we get to reality.  Activision Blizzard, the company behind the game, is using the proceeds from the sale of Modern Warfare 2 to fund organizations that provide veterans with job training and placement. 

There are more than a half million unemployed veterans living in the United States.  For soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines making the transition back into civilian life, funding job training and placement are important and earned considerations.

Call of Duty Endowment (or CODE), Activision Blizzard’s non-profit benefit corporation’s first grant is $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, to help build a new vocational services center in Boston.  CODE’s directors say they hope to raise millions more for such projects.

I look at this as a video game company doing the right thing by servicing those glorified on their highly profitable videos:  we glorify fighting men and women; we honor them when they fall; now, one video company exploiting those realities to make a huge profit is honoring them in their need.

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Video Gamer

November 10, 2009 on 12:00 am | In Addiction, Marriage, Relationships, Video Games, YouTube  Email This Post

What do you do when the video game in your household becomes more attractive to your spouse than anything else?  And he gets angry if anyone distracts him?  That’s the question I tackle in today’s video blog:

Or watch other videos at youtube.com/DrLaura.

Read transcript here.

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