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

More Jack Thompson from the transcript:

[mwvdlee]

The military, Nancy, uses these murder simulators, killing simulators...

GRACE: Oh!

THOMPSON: ... to break down the inhibition of new recruits to kill.

False. The military IS using computers to train their recruits, but it's purpose is not to break inhibitions but to train combat tactics, you know; so you can win with minimal casualties on both sides.

there`s a University of Indiana study that came out three days ago that showed that kids process these games in the part of the brain that leads to copycatting.

False. The study showed brains respond similarly to videogame violence as real violence. (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18625 053.200). A nice note is that the research involved a violent game wherein the players would kill terrorists and rescue hostages, so according to mr. Thompsons' logic, these kids should be copying the behaviour of killing terrorists and rescueing hostages.

The rest of the interview is pretty funny with Nancy proving herself to be a bad listener and in general arrogant and unable to solidly back up her own opinions. When mrs. Opri is on a roll, Nancy's only options seems to cut her off, and so she does.

There's also this little quote:

THOMPSON: Children don`t have a 1st Amendment...

Is this actually true?

Re:More Jack Thompson from the transcript:

[amliebsch]

However, knowing how I was in High School, if I would have been told I had free speech, I probably would have taken advantage of it on occasion, and hid behind that fact

You can't "hide behind" free speech. The right to free speech is not a right not to suffer consequences for your speech. It is simply a right against the government from having your speech forcibly surpressed. In point of fact, public school students do in fact have free speech rights in school (see Tinker v. Des Moine), subject to reasonable "time, place, and manner" restrictions just like everybody else.

Re:More Jack Thompson from the transcript:

[Grab]

You can't have rights that infringe on other people's life, liberty and happiness without responsibilities. Children have different legal status bcos they're not old enough to make those kind of calls.

Check any playground at break/recess. Primary school ("elementary school" in the US? up to age 11 anyway) will almost certainly have multiple fights break out per day. High school (11-18) will have less, but still a significant number (a week won't go by without a fight). Now if this was the adult world, all those kids would be on assault charges, but we recognise that kids can't deal with keeping their physical instincts under control. So kids don't get judged by the same rules as adults. But equally, they can't expect to have the same rights as adults, for exactly the same reason.

Grab.

Thank you, CNN!

[Xaroth]

You've just made my decision of whether to purchase this game a lot easier!

You see, when an alleged bastion of free speech - such as a news outlet - starts attacking others for exercising their free speech, it makes it simple for me to pick which side I should be on. Partly because I enjoy defending free speech, and partly because I really enjoy pissing off people who get riled up about something without paying attention to context or reason.