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The Joystick Is The Root of All Evil
Waab writes "David Yoo, of the Parsons School of Design has taken some time out of his busy schedule to put together one of the funniest sites I've seen all year, Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence. With articles like "EverQuest: A Threat to Society?" and "America's Army: A New Low" (articles currently offline "due to editing"), MAVAV gives worried parents one more senseless cause to rally round. Even Tycho and Gabe love it."
Actually, only the Atari 5200 Joystick is the root of all evil.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
He was pretty stunned that anyone could call by the tone in his voice.
He stuttered. He kinda laughed.
"I was told not to, uhm, tell anyone about that information."
Oh, so you don't know who the founder is, or what their contact info is?
"No, I only set it up for them."
You don't have an email address with which I can get in contact with them?
"No, I dont have any inform... I can't give it out."
Will they be disclosing any of that information on their web site?
"I don't know. I think so."
So again, I guess I fell for it a bit, but I had a good laugh, too. Some of the article titles were hilarious.
A winner is you!
I thought only my ex-girlfriend thought that.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
Who are these enemies of free speech? The Kids Against Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence website has now been taken offline, due to MAVAV's freedom-quashing use of the DMCA. I have come to the sad conclusion that all this hatred, injustice and bigotry will only stop when we frag these MAVAV mothers. Where's my BFG9000?
For every site that parodies stupidity like this, the actions that the real intolerants take will be seen and treated with less seriousness. Compare this site to the OLGAnon web boards started by Elizabeth Wooley, mother of a suicided gamer. She blames Everquest for her son's death. Everyone else blames his obvious mental problems. Accordingly, she has a great deal of trouble with people from other EQ message boards who come to hers to try to flame and spam her into non-existance.
The most successfull of those trolls, however, and the ones that do the most damage to Liz's crusade of self-victimization and responsibility avoidance are those that parody the 'real' posters who frequent the site.
Not only do those parody posts make everyone laugh at the people who don't seem to have the ability to take responsibility for their own actions, they make the site less credible as a whole.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Clues that it is a parody:
...though a whois query turns up:
Articles like:
"Videogame Networks or Online Training Camps?"
"Videogame and Tobacco Companies: Frightening Similarities. Secret Industry Report Revealed"
One thing that seemed to point to the contrary was:
"MAVAV (pronounced may-vav) is a new organization run by a group of worried parents..."
Organization:
MAVAV
David Yoo
172 E. 7th
New York, NY 10009
US
Phone: 646-245-8414
Email: contact@mavav.org
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
You can find his project page here where he has graphs from his hit counter among other things.
David calls me the inspiration for his final project, as we both visit the same IRC channel. The inspiration came from my petition (cached because petitiononline.com has seemingly removed my petition) to rename the LOTR movie "The Two Towers" to something else. Of course, it was a joke. However, I'm still receiving responses to this day thanks to a site another friend of mine set up and which I wrote the FAQ for.
Congratulations, David, on another successful internet hoax!
"I was looking at 2 dead joysticks on my shelf the other day, and noticed how they looked oddly similar to male sex organs. Now if a feminist made this connection, and had a thing against male sex organs, then the computer gaming industry could be in real trouble ;-)"
So how do you explain 'Game Pads' to feminists?
Yuck I grossed myself out.
... someone thinks this may be a joke site but I don't think so.
...from a marketing stand-point, MADD is good because it's a word we already
...if they only knew the power of the Parental Force....
There has been a lot of talk about this topic and it's not just games but cartoons like The Coyote and the Roadrunner... or Wrestling on TV or shows like "Jackass."
It's probably quite real. After visiting their site, I shot off an email:
-----
Subject: Interesting...
know. MAVAV attempts to mirror this but it falls short not only because
it's not a word but because it doesn't roll off the tongue. Have you
considered "MAVVA"? Sounds like JAVA and spelled similar to "Savvy."
As a father concerned about things that affect the mental health of my sons,
I take organizations like yours seriously.
I have observed the effect on my sons that various games have had on them
since they were even younger than 5 years old. These games are a very large
cultural part of my sons' very identities as they are with so many others.
I was a "gamer" for the longest time until I simply stopped having time for
them. I suspect the same will happen to my sons when they grow up.
(They're 10 and 11 now.)
I think the game with the most memorable effect on them is Mortal Kombat.
It portrayed amazing violence and gore while using animated photographs of
real actors as characters in the game. Soon, the boys were playing "Mortal
Kombat" not as a game on the TV, but between themselves and I was amused at
the way they did it but mostly I appreciated the gentleness and care they
displayed for each other as they clearly recognized that the moves being
executed could really hurt and they didn't actually want to hurt each
other... of course they pretended but knew the actual difference between
play and reality.
This difference has been known by children playing at adult violence not
merely for decades, but for centuries and millenia. When I was a boy, I was
"The Lone Ranger" and I even had toy guns strapped to my waist. Before
that, little boys have been playing with wooden swords emulating their
favorite Shakespearian actor... it's an inherent part of childhood.
The inclination to violence is a part of humanity. Addressing only
videogames would be to make your target so small as to make it trivial. The
reality is that MOST kids (though certainly not all) know when, where and
why they should "pull their punches." I hold that kids who have issues with
reality needn't have video games as a scape goat any more than Wrestling on
TV or Heavy Metal music.
My point here is that the actual problem should be addressed, not a
contributor to the symptom. You cannot change reality for growing children,
but you can teach children to understand reality. That is the best role of
a parent -- teaching children what's good and what's bad. Change the
children and let your children change the world. You can't change the world
for the children.
And one more thing -- likely considered irrelevant but still... Spanking is
good. I haven't had to spank my sons in more than three years. I think
they are too old for it now but applied properly, I think it's a tool that
teaches a young mind respect for authority and a sense of his place in the
scheme of things. It doesn't mean I taught them violence. What I taught
them was consequence to actions which is exactly why they pull their kicks
and punches and why they don't carry guns and knives to school. They're
kind and gentle boys just as I consider myself to be a kind and gentle man.
If your kids are "out of control" blame yourself for not playing an active
role in their lives, not the toys they play with. In fact, I play with my
sons! I participate in their lives and I'm ever-present to supply guidance
and I'm always challenging their minds. (At around the significant age range
of 5, they told me they love me because I'm always "tricking them." which
means I play all kinds of games with them... not only actual games, but
mentally stimulating games as well which challenges and strengthens their
logical abilitities as well as physical.)
I'm all for being a better parent and "protecting" the children, but this is
not something they need to be protected from. It's rather like immunity from disease -- you can take the plastic bubble approach by filtering the air they breathe or you can vaccinate them and let thei own immune system fight off disease. Vaccinate a child's mind with wisdom and good examples, not by trying to encase the world in a platic bubble.
------
Like so many fanatics, I doubt I will influence their thoughts on any of this. The problem with contemporary parenting is that "the world is to blame" and not the parents. These poor dumb bastards have no idea what a powerful influence a parent has over a child...
December 16, 2002 Final Assignment
Assignment:
Your final project is going to be making a fully functional hoax. The work must:
- exist in the public realm
- be advertised, exposed or introduced to strangers
- be fully documented, strategies include images, movies, sound recording, and interviews
- employ the element of craft (they will be judged on both ambition & effort)
- be fully functional. For example, if the project is a website, you must register the domain name. There should be no connection to this class or to Parsons.
Think hard about why people make hoaxes. I want you not to just have "fun" tricking people, but think about a message or idea you want to convey. What are the strategies for bringing people in? What is your overall message?
Your aim should be to create work which is subtle and effective.
In addition to creating the work, you will be asked to write 3 or more pages documenting your strategy in creating the work. Keep this in mind as you work.
A further clue that this can't be serious...
A guy named "David" runs a group whose name starts "Mothers Against..."
All good parodies bring to light something that is "wrong" while suggesting corrective action. Usually that corrective action is absurd and this is why it is a parody. The parody that comes to mind (from a literature standpoint) is Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal", and while his is a little more grizly the real meaning of the paper comes out crystal clear. I suspect that a lot of people on slashdot may be shocked and sort of disgusted at this parody - but there is a very real problem with video game abuse (not the video games or the industry) these days.
I knew someone, let's just call him Joe Geek. He'd wake up at 3am every day, play EverCrack until he leaves his home for work at 8:52am (of course Joe is supposed to be at work at 9am). Then Joe would stumble in to work and do little for a few hours while checking the boards... then a few hours of hard core work while dosing on caffiene and nicotine to keep awake until he left early at 4:25. The moment he got back to his house he would play until he passed out around 1am. Then his 3am alarm would go off and he'd start it all over again. After a few months of this he looked like a crystal meth freak and had to be torn away from the game.
Addiction and abuse are real no matter what the thing that is being abused is. Personally I think this is a good parody.
Wow - I wish I had signed up for the "Fool the Shit out of People 101" class instead of these useless computer science courses.
Whats next? Grifting 203 and the ever popular "Three card Monte" elective? All requirements for the BS in BS, of course.
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There is a difference, albeit a pretty subtle one. The family friendly crusaders talk about the harm done by violence but without exception attempt to control sex instead.
This was certainly the case with Mary Whitehouse who was the 'keep sex and violence off TV' harpie in the UK. The porn site whitehouse.com is actually named after her, not the building on Penn Ave.
The anti-sex crusaders talk about violence because that is something most parents are worried about, they don't want their brat beating up the other kids. Violence on TV is a reasonable thing to be concerned about when you are dealing with 12 year olds.
Once talk turns to censorship however violence is completely forgotten, the real issue is controlling all access to sexual material, especially material that suggests its ok to be gay or sleep arround or generally have fun in ways not authorized by the social mores.
That is why people will put more effort into controling images of violence on TV than stopping violence. If it was really about violence those people would be upset at the idea of bombing civilians in Iraq etc. But its not about violence, never was, its about sex and their inability to handle their own sexual hangups (like being caught in flagrente delicto with Gary Hart!)
Of course the problem with hoaxes like these is that they can end up being used as political ammunition. It does not matter to the censorship brigade, they have no qualms about using material they know to be bogus. The infamous CMU 'cyberporn' study was used to prove that the Internet was full of porn in Congress long after it had been proved to be faked.
The US started the Vietnam war as a result of a hoax, the infamous 'Battle of Tonkin Bay' that never was. LBJ used that as causus belli even though he knew at the time it was fake.
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Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/