GTA Violence, the Media, and the Gamers

jvm writes "The Video Game Ombudsman and Curmudgeon Gamer currently have posts with opposing views on the recent and oft-criticized NY Post article about the violence in the Grand Theft Auto series of games. The Ombudsman discourages gamers from getting upset over the 'false and irresponsible' writing in the NY Post, equating it with a 'National Enquirer story saying that video games cause AIDS'. In response, this Curmudgeon says that's plain wrong, that gamers should 'stop dodging the issue' of game violence and 'start talking realistically about degrees of harm, freedoms, and responsibility'. So what's a gamer to do? Ignore the obviously clueless mainstream press or start the soul searching? Oh, and Penny Arcade has its own angle on the perils of dealing with the mainstream press, in response to how the noble Child's Play was represented."

Comments

Re:I always laugh at you Americans...

[velo_mike]

You have such a gun culture (well in some parts at least), and then wonder why shootings occur

Except that when guns were more common we didn't have these types of actions, it's not the device but something in the people.

When my dad grew up (b 1944), every hardware store and mass merchant sold guns and ammunition freely. Kids grew up with guns all around, got their own rifles at a young age, hunted after school, shot rats at the dump, you get the idea - they were everywhere. How many mass shootings occurred then?

When I grew up, they were more restricted - the 68 GCA had passed barring under 18 sales and limiting firearms dealers. My friends still hunted after school sometimes and several trucks in the high school parking lot would have a rifle in the back window. Shooting comps were not an activity where I lived but they existed. Again, how many shootings were there in that timeframe?

OK, flash forward to todays school kids. We have zero tolerence on "weapons" in schools - kids have been suspended for bringing butter knives. Rifle Team - long gone. Thanks to the brady bunch and PETA hunting isn't allowed to be mentioned. Even think about firearms in school and you'll probably be expelled. Hell, kids are disciplined for pointing their fingers at each other and yelling "bang".

By your standards, since we've taken huge steps to eliminate the "gun culture" today the streets of 1944 should have run red with blood while today kids should be playing marbles or some other non violent game.

Re:I always laugh at you Americans...

[PhotoGuy]

Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" is a must see, to help understand the reasons for a lot of the violence and gun problems in the US.

Especially telling was the large amount of time he spent contrasting Canada with the US. We're exposed to the same games, same movies, and the same media, but shootings are murders are all but a fraction of that in the US (even comparing similiar sized towns, adjusting for population, and such).

The Child's Play campaign was cheated

[TrentC]

But they must be stupid if they thought their charity drive was ever going to change public perception of gamers or game violence.

Well, if what Tycho said in his January 2nd post is accurate, the final media report about Child's Play was blatantly and irresponsibly incorrect, to the point of being intentionally deceptive:

When this footage was aired, I learned something new: [emphasis mine] that the toys had been donated by a local catholic school, and were valued at nearly a thousand dollars. Understand this. A single bin of GBA SPs was worth four thousand dollars, and we had four such bins. That's above and beyond the seventy GameCubes the other twenty carts of toys, which at our best estimates come to around $175,000. Then there was a check for twenty-seven thousand. Here's where the depression sets in.

What we - this is a grand We, which includes you - what we did was completely amazing. It was worth doing purely on account of its own virtues. But the other part, what we might call the "Secondary Objective," was to promote the idea that we are not fucking murderers. This is an effort to combat media portrayals. Here's the trick, the dark revelation, the Empire Strikes Back which produces our moment of darkness: we need to rely on that selfsame inept machinery to broadcast our new message as well. They're simply not capable of it.

It's one thing to expect that people are going to change their view of gamers overnight (which I don't think Tycho and Gabe actually believed would happen) as a result of one amazing act of charity; it's another thing to have their hard work effectively dismissed by attributing it to someone else and vastly understating its value.

Jay (=

Re:The Child's Play campaign was cheated

[Linux Ate My Dog!]

Actually, it reads like Penny Arcade just didn't play the media game very well.

If Children's Hospital Seattle is anything like Children's Hospital Boston, where I worked, it has a PR department able to have put this drive as a heartwarming story on the night newscasts of three networks on the same day, just by having a well-filled Rolodex of exactly who to call. The media don't appaear where nothing is expected, for things like this they need to be told in a very targetted way. I would suggest that Child's Play next time work a little closer with the available media-handlers at their target, as much as they have a distaste for the media.

There are PR handlers looking at this like a totally wasted opportunity on all sides, both for getting Children's Hospital Seattle and Child's Play in the news.

Re:Not for kids... get a grip

[wing03]

It's like complaining that the levels of sex in porn movies are harming our children. The populous needs to understand that there are more adult gamers than kids. I don't think there is anything wrong with providing games with more 'adult' content, since we make up a huge part of the market.

I or any kid can walk into a Best Buy, Electronics Boutique or Radio Shack and buy GTA3.

Adult video stores have windows that are painted over and signs on the door that block minors from entering.

Even the lowly convenience store places its skin mags up on the highest rack away from hands and eyes of youngsters.

Then you've got gaming mags and TV commercials that advertise such games on Saturday mornings.

The game may not have been designed for kids, but it's being marketed and given full access to them.