Feeding Frenzy Over Violent Game

25 to Life isn't even out yet, and already it is under fire by everyone from NY Senator Charles Schumer to CNN host Nancy Grace. Commentary on the illogical feeding frenzy is available at Gamasutra, Press the Buttons, and Game Girl Advance. From the Press the Buttons article: "As you read this transcript, pay attention to how Grace and her guests frame their sentences. Although this plays out like an off-the-cuff debate, each and every spoken word is primed to invoke outrage. There are plenty of loaded words and phrases in there: 'murder simulators', 'rewire the brain', an attack on Bill Gates for personally allowing this game to exist (as if he himself is out there coding it), and so forth. The program also showed photos of real police officers who were killed in the line of duty at the same time the game's preview trailer was on screen."

Comments

Re:Fearmongering

[SuiteSisterMary]

Let me preface this with: Although individual peace officers may very well stray and go bad, I have nothing but respect for the vast majority of the men and women who form the Thin Blue Line each and every day.

One day, the head of the FBI, the head of the CIA, and the head of the LAPD are having a drink in a cop bar, and an argument starts over which force is most effective.

They decide to have a wager. They'll take one square kilometer of forest, with one rabbit. They'll take turns finding the rabbit; the fastest one wins.

The CIA goes first. They set up some SIGINT, recruit some agents amoungst the forest animals, set up some dead drops, and within a few days, they have pinpointed the rabbit's usual schedule, where he hangs out, what routes he takes, and so on. A quick snatch-and-go, and they have their prey.

They release the second rabbit. The FBI immediately surrounds the forest with paramilitary types, calls for the rabbit to come out peacefully, and then sends in the APC. Within a few hours, the forest has been burned down, and the FBI are claiming that the rabbit had a stash of assault weapons. They never do find the rabbit's body, though.

Moving the game to a new section of forest, they release a new rabbit, and the LAPD sends in a single squad. An hour later, they come back out. In their custody is a large bear, obviously severely beaten and worked over, yelling 'OK, OK, I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!'