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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."
or join the marines. True story. Friend of mine just graduated from the marines with high marksmenship. The CO of the base came to talk to him after the graduation. he made plesant talk for a bit. then pulled my friend aside to talk to him privately. my friend came back looking spooked. after a while he told me what was said.
"you know what the best thing about the marines is? You get to kill people and it's legal."
and these congressmen are worried about murder simulators. hasn't anybody noticed games like this have been around for ages?
"I assure you, the cops in the game are not real. They are rendered animations displayed on the television. Kind of like a cartoon. No real cops are harmed."
You're talking about Nancy Grace and CNN. Their world is one big simulation. They don't know the difference between abstractions and real life anymore. No way they could with all that poor acting they call sincerity and after they played their nth computer simulation of a an F-1A bombing a radar installation or of Hurricane Charlene or some grizzly bear attack or whatever.
They seem to all honestly believe they're all very sincere people. And that Pantene Pro-V really does have advanced molecular microcells that bond your hair making it look 25 years younger. And buying that Ab-Buster will actually give you a sixpack like that person on the commercial has, as compared to just burning more calories than you intake to lower your body fat %. And that buying Manulife insurance will actually stop you from dying(the commercials actually suggest this -- the car won't even hit you if you get good life insurance!). If they can't tell the difference between something as integral to proper human functioning as sincerity and insincerity, then why should they be expected to know the difference between reality and simulation? The insincere can define their reality.
I'm only slightly exaggerating with such a suggestion.
Violent games and movies allow us a kind of buffer-zone to live out our repressed thoughts and feelings and desires.
I honestly believe that without such products available, there would be far more incients of extreme violence occuring in the world today. Yes, there are those few who don't know reality from fantasy and commit horrible acts against their fellow humans, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Furthermore, I blame neglegent parents, other family, educational officials, friends and other individuals who frequently interact with these people for not noticing strange behaviour sooner and addressing it. There are always warning signs. Always. Don't agree with me? Tough. Read a book. Take a course in psychology. Most experts will tell you there are plenty of warning signs the present themselves early on. Know some young kid who hurts animals? You'd be well advised to red flag such a person because you'll be seeing them in the newspaper someday.
Pornography plays an important role as a buffer, too. I'm certain there'd be many more rapists and other sexual deviants out there if it weren't for adult entertainment. However, the government seems to have found a way to make it difficult for many of these individuals to get their fix.
As far as members of the media are concerned (and I'm ESPECIALLY talking about those that report for CourtTV) let's keep your opinions to yourselves. The news is not your personal bullshit outlet to voice your feelings on the goings-on of the world. You are there to report the facts. That's why it's called the news. In fact, let me offer the dictionary definition:
"new information about specific and timely events"
Also, you might be interested in this:
newsworthiness: the quality of being sufficiently interesting to be reported in news bulletins"
Opinions are simply NOT newsworthy unless set in a forum that supports such discussions. As I mentioned earlier...this is no more prominent on any other network as it is on CourtTV. Nancy Grace should receive an award for the number of times she finds a way to tack her personal feelings into the cases they report on. I honestly don't care if you think John Q. Defendant is guilty and should burn for his (alleged) crimes. Guess what? He was found innocent by a jury of his peers. Shut the fuck up and move on. What's that? One of your guests has a different opinion than you do? Oh, that's horrible! Now's the time to attack him and then cut to a commerical before he can offer a rebuttal. Bitch.
And now I'm going to move on to family. Parents...guess what? THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT HERE TO RAISE YOUR CHILD FOR YOU. The government is busy with far greater projects...stop wasting their time, take some god-damned responsibility, and BE A PARENT. Definition:
"Parenting comprises all the tasks involved in raising a child to an independent adult. Parenting begins even before the child is born or adopted and may last until the death of the parent or child. Parenting is a part of the relationship within a family."
Did you read that part about parenting comprising ALL THE TASKS involved in raising a child? I saw it too. Since a child is ill-equipped to make the same distinctions as adults when it comes to violence, sex, and other questionable parts of life, it is YOUR responsibility and no other's to
Yes, that's just what gets me wondering. As you've noticed, a certain segment of the game industry seems to live _only_ to one-up last year's ultra-violent game. Games are made and advertised with the _only_ claim being "we're even more gruesome."
It's not even that new an issue. Soldier Of Fortune, for whatever other merits it may (or may not) have had, was AFAIK only marketted as basically "hey, look, we have more blood and gore textures than before."
Which, on one hand, doesn't scare me or anything, since like any FPS gamer I've been largely desensitized by now. Meh, another game with lots of gore. Nothing new here.
But on the other hand it gets me sorta wondering where it will stop. As I've said in the above paragraph, "like any FPS gamer I've been largely desensitized by now." That's the whole issue: you've seen it once, you got used to it, next year they have to claim even more blood and gore to make the news.
We're already years past the point where kills are surrealistic. You have people being split into "gibs" by sniper rifles. (No, even emptying an AK-47 clip into someone wouldn't gib them IRL.) You have more blood sprayed around than a human physically has. Etc.
Well, what next? Up to what point _can_ this farce continue? To the point where they paint the whole map red with the blood of the first kill? Or?
"The gaming industry deliberately invokes this kind of "negative" publicity to move product. [...] I guarantee that sales will be higher for the game as a result of CNN's free publicity."
Actually, I'll be even more cynical and say that it's probably a deliberate PR coup.
PR companies are a wonderful thing. They can generate a lot of hype all over the news, by masking it all as a news instead of as an ad. We've become desensitized when it comes to ads. "News" on the other hand, give you far more bang, for far less buck. (Think of how much it would have cost to get this much screen time for ads instead.)
So what I'd be willing to bet is that the whole scandal and frenzy was deliberately started. I wouldn't be surprised if some helpful PR company gave the media and everyone not only a tip of the game, but also conveniently the photos of dead cops and everything. Just to be sure it does explode with a big flash and a loud bang.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
... but if you really want your feedback to go somewhere that it might do some good, consider the CNN Feedback page. I can guarantee you that CNN higherups aren't paying attention to Slashdot, but there's at least a sliver of a chance the opinions might get heard if the Feedback page gets bombarded with comments about this.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Because most teenagers don't know that "Freedom of Speech" does not imply that you can say absolutely anything you want.
Yes, I'm grouping them, possibly unfairly to those who would think before they speak. 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. Same with most people in my grade.
Karnal
Yep. This is the woman that had an hour-long special on psychic detectives, for Christ's sake!
Nancy Grace has single-handedly destroyed whatever remaining shred of diginity and credibility CNN had left. They are now no better than Fox News.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.