Slashdot Mirror
Is the Game Media Being Oblivious?
MaryAlan writes "The National Summit on Video Games, Youth, and Public Policy was this weekend, and almost no one from the game media showed up. In fact, the game industry seems to pretty much be ignoring the whole event. There's an article up on GamesFirst, which attended the summit, that criticizes the mainstream game press pretty hard for not attending. Apparently only one game journalist showed up. From the article: 'The video game media owes it to our readers to come to events like this and listen, come here and think, and come here and base our editorials on the reality of what's being said instead of an interpretation of the talking points that are published afterwords. Too many of the people discussing these issues in forums do so based on the works of the game media, and too few in the gaming media are spending the time to make it justified.'"
Game, press?
That would be akin to wishing for serious coverage by Maxim magazine or Teen Beat. What the tap-dancing fetal Jesus did they expect? There hasn't been any serious game-related journalism since Next-Generation went tits up.
No, there are no real reporters in the game media. Those working in the game media are either in the pockets of the game publishers, or themselves without personal interest or experience in covering events where they would apply reportorial tradecraft (i.e., interviewing people they do not know). It's laziness, inexperience, and graft.
I used to run an independant newspaper, and every week I was deluged with a variety of hate mail, from readers claiming my stories were biased, to readers telling me I wasn't representing their views, to people complaining because I didn't feel the need to censor the occasional "shit" out of an article.
I always responded with the same form reply: "If you feel that your views are under-represented, I'll be happy to print an article in which you can explain them in detail. We support reader supplied stories, yadda yadda yadda."
You know how many people actually bothered to write in, even given an open forum and a paper circulation of ~30,000 ad-supported papers, left in prominent places all over town? Maybe one in a hundred.
People love to complain. You see it here every day, people expressing their outrage all over the place. But do they actually bother to try and take the message to people who don't already agree with them? Seldom.
So I'm hardly surprised that the Game media doesn't bother to actually cover events like this. They mainly work from press releases and secondary sources...Very sloppy stuff.
Maybe this is a sign that the gamer community is starting to get proactive, rather than reactive...The best time to stop a crappy game bill from passing in Congress, is before it actually passes.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
It really doesn't matter if the gaming companies attend or not because they are not going to be listened to anyways ...
This is very similar to what happens whenever an Oil company shows up to an environmental meeting, which believe it or not happens quite often; oil companies hire dozens of environmental scientists to ensure that they're doing as little environmental damage as is possible. (On a side note, most environmental damage is done because of govenmental decisions; oil is shipped from Alaska rather than piped through Canada because the US govenment's regulations, and shipping is prone to accidents). No matter what evidence they demonstrate to show that there is no connection between CO2 and global warming nothing they show will ever be listend to.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the Gaming Industry could show up to an event like this and have God as a witness and no one there will listen to them when they say videogames do not cause children to perform violent acts.
You will be looted because you have something to loot. Kudos for them on ignoring those who contribute nothing and yet seek to control the product of their minds.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Given how incomprehensible some gamers can be, I'm guessing the invitation went something like.. 'GAMAZ 4 LIFFE HV p0wnD a Con4rEnCe HA11 4 R M77t... ' and went downhill from there.
The mainstream game media press is only a marketing machine, not an advocacy group like the author of the title expects. The mainstream game media does not see any money to be made by attending those events, but in reality all they care about are dollar signs. Of course, this will change, especially if a nutcase takes over in Congress and Presidency and starts passing restrictive video-game censorship laws forcing the industry to start listening rather than strictly selling based on what hollywood sells the most.
Previewing comments are for sissies!
Why should journalists attend? It's the game publishers who pay the bills...
... they end up suing the state attorney general when said state passes an obviously unconstitutional ban on game content. The game publishers won't make any progress, and the bible-thumpers behind these bans -- because, let's get serious, what else will a conference titled "Video Games, Youth, and Public Policy be about besides cooking up new legislation? -- will continue with their ill-considered efforts to make the world into some kind of sick, dull Disneyland, free of anything of which they disapprove. They form the American, Christian answer to the nutcases running the show in Iran, or Afghanistan, and deserve as much respect.
Dog is my co-pilot.
The National Summit on Video Games, Youth, and Public Policy was this weekend...
I am sorry, but anyone from game media should not be attending any conference called "The National Summit on Video Games, Youth, and Public Policy". Why? Because it will only give more credit to the conference.
The fact of the matter is there should not be an public policy relating to games and youth at all. They're games for Christ sake. don't you think the government has more important things to set policy on? Like oh say, warrantless searches at airports?
Games and game content can not and should not be regulated any more than art or films.
Did the conference planners send out multiple invitations to the gaming press well in advance of the event? Or did they just announce it on their own website and expect everyone to find out about it on their own?
This guy's the limit!
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the Gaming Industry could show up to an event like this and have God as a witness and no one there will listen to them when they say videogames do not cause children to perform violent acts.
That pretty much sums the whole thing up in one line.
Actually, you could show up in any Congressional subcommittee with God in tow, and unless God happened to be made out of money, I doubt you'd influence any pending piece of legislation.
If the "games lobby" wants to make its voice heard in government, and keep itself from being run over as the Fox News scarecrow-du-jour, then they should take a very good look at what the National Rifle Association does, in terms of communicating with and mobilizing its support base, getting donations, and funneling those donations to where they'll have maximum political impact. I can't think of any organization that is as frankly successful and powerful as they are, and has continuously maintained such a high profile, and has done it while staying within the bounds of the law. (Some corporate lobbies might come close, but I think their cash burn rates are much higher for the effect they achieve.)
You can have logical arguments so beautiful they'd make Plato sit down and weep, enough scientific evidence to unequivocally prove a dozen theories of everything, but the government will still ignore you if you are not either a large force among voters, or have lots of filthy lucre to burn. Preferably, have both.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Well, since we are down to the "screw this and screw that". I'll join in. Screw your community. I am an individual and I don't care what your community says I should do with my life as long as I am not hurting anyone. And if you show up at my door and DEMAND me to be your keeper, expect to get shot. If you don't like violent games, don't let your kids buy it. Same goes for porn.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Maybe there was no media coverage because no one cares.
Let's get this straight. The game media in America are all about marketing. Never will they touch a topic that insults or questions the validity of the video game industry. Rarely will they cover indie games and never will the cover the free / open-source games that are sometimes just as good if not better than current games.
.. so .. rarely. This is the type of regular outrage and autocracy you oughtta expect from a society like yours. Where money is king, and REAL humans are slaves. You've been pushing for it since day one, and this is your result; Utter fucking stupidity like fanboys, video games, Family Guy, SUVs, television, fake lawns, killing all of the environment, record obsesity rates, stupid fucking diet trends, MySpace and all that shit that you're pushing for that's bringing your American legacy down like at astronomical levels. You're shocked at this? The smallest of issues in entire little shithole of a nation? I'm not.
Of course, it's all about containing that 'buy! buy! buy!' urge in Video Gamers to keep the industry growing. Naturally, it's going to collapse in on itself, as everything eventually does that grows at rates like this. The American business attitude is get rich - as fast as possible - then try to get away as fast as possible without any negative repercussions on themselves. This is also the same media that purports the absurd idea that games over 5 years old are "classic".
Mhmm. If you buy anything from these guys, you're a fucking idiot. Who in the United States isn't? Video games are a part of the problem of widespread poor literary skills and apathy. From calling eachother n-words online to wasting away hundreds of dollars grinding on World Of Warcraft, it sucks and is destroying your society all around you. You keep investing more and more power and money into fewer and fewer, then you're s hocked at outrages like this after you've destroyed all sense of community and indy media?
Hah! You're left with a suburban, technlogical wasteland, and you're angry? You're angry at how so few people care? You shouldn't be angry, you should be outrages - not at the powers that be - but at yourselves for destroying everything from the environment to your childrens', buying into the corporate lies and thinking independently and broadcasting your opinions independently so
Of course you're oblivious, you're worse, you're apathetic. And you're training a whole new generation of citizens to be little apathetic chicken shits to sit there and fight over whose video games are better like the children they are.
Does the game industry have any research to support the assertion that games have no effect?
Is there any research that proves games do have a negative effect? Apart from asking people's mothers, I mean.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Soldiers trained to kill by the military were more willing to kill in a combat situation when they practiced on dummies! WOW! It must be the lifelike dummies that make them want to kill in the first place, not the "break down and rebuild" technique the military prides itself on to make otherwise peace-loving people soldiers.
What's more likely? Kids play video games and thus want to kill their friends and acquaintances in real life...OR...kid has very few friends, is picked on a lot in school, is abused or ignored by his parents, has the self esteem of a pea and plays video games BECAUSE of all the above reasons and then goes to school and kills 15 people (shitty frag count, btw).
I really don't understand what is so hard to understand about mentally unstable people becoming killers. Change a kid's environment, put funding into programs that make a kid enjoy waking up in the morning, put a TON more money into education, get better teachers who do something besides make the kids feel stupid (have had more than a few of those all throughout my school years), and take domestic abuse reports a little more seriously and maybe- just MAYBE you'll find that kids don't resort to violence.
When I was in High School I had come very close to doing what these kids seem to be making a habit out of. Luckily, my friends and family saw how depressed I was getting, and within 2 months I was enrolled in programs like marching band and drama where I was with other like-minded people, having fun, forming relationships (both romantic and non), and I was pulled out of that hole. Coincidence? I tend to think not.
In many respects, High School can be thought of as both Boot Camp and Prison tied into one. It can also be full of fun and games. It all depends on where on the social ladder you fall. Congregate with like-minded individuals, work on a goal that will provide a sense of accomplishment, and you'll find yourself enjoying the experience much more. Kids just need the proper motivation to do it.
Unless you live alone in the wilderness, you live in a community, and that community has every right to deny you any and all benefits of membership in the community, including the right to title to land, the right to trade with members of the community, and the right to use community property like roads. If you don't like it, go build your own community and stop trying to tell others how to live their lives. If people want to set a limit, say, no public nudity, and then you go around in the nude, those people have the right to remove you from their community, by force if necessary. Are you trying to say that people aren't even allowed to talk about what is decent and what isn't?!?
I've noticed that people who say they should have the right to do whatever they want with their lives without hurting others always seem to reserve the right to define for themselves what "hurting others" means. That kind of selfishness needn't be tolerated by any civilized society.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
And yet, the article author, who was actually THERE, didn't seem to get this impression. You're just making his point for him - that "we" (pro-gaming people) need to actually find out what the other side are saying rather than throw around arguments like "Oh, I know all about them, I know what they would have said." You just come off sounding as ignorant and closed-minded as the other side. Now, if you could tell me some specific ideas espoused at this conference and what is wrong with them, I'd listen.
People in power are listening to the people at this conference - and they're not listening to people like you, because you don't give any impression of actually knowing what you're fighting against. True, the anti-gaming people generally don't know what they're fighting against either, but they're good at faking it in a way that is convincing to other people who also don't know what the anti-gamers are fighting. Pro-gamers have to learn to talk that language, and what better way than by listening to native speakers?
I expect it from Lower 48ers, but you live in Alaska and you don't know the difference between "the" pipeline (ie. the Alyeska Pipeline) and an infield pipeline? I'll give you a hint. The ones in the field are a lot smaller, and the damage is much less than it would be. I was astonished that happened, as a matter of fact, because I spent half my summer on the BP side of the North Slope, and I was always passing maintenance crews inspecting pipeline between camp and the rigs. GP is correct, the oil companies are much, much more environmentally conscious than they are given credit for. (disclaimer: I interned for an oilfield services company last summer)
No man is an island, and we are all our brother's keepers.
That sounds like an Old Testament quote - and if you're a Bible fan you might be interested to know that I as your keeper will soon be banning the Old Testament, to prevent youth from being corrupted by the divinely-sanctioned rape and genocide depicted therein.
What's that, you don't want to have such objectionable material banned? You didn't want me to be your keeper, you just wanted to be mine?
I thought so. Nobody ever says "Please tell me what I can and can't see"; it's always "I'm going to tell you."
Well, my entire generation has played video games, and the murder rate has gone down.
As an aside, isn't it strange that for some reason, the people who want to ban video games because they're dangerous and might possibly show a slight statistical increase in violence tend to be the same people who call it a 'socialist nanny state' when you're talking about regulating food safety or the environment or something that could actually save thousands of lives at once, contrary to this video game tripe, which could allegedly cause a few dozen murders here and there over time?
It's been a long time.
It's not a simple issue. Many things communities do and hold in high esteem are trash. Extreme individualism is also correct and soundly critiqued by people like you.
Communities have no rights in reality. Neither do individuals. People in the community have power to act, and so do individuals. If your community decides to bad nakedness, and I go around naked, you cannot just remove me by force. Why not? Because even though I may be in the minority, I may have enough determination and power to make life for that prudish community living hell. Why? Because although I may be alone, my determination to go around naked is probably very high, or else, I wouldn't do something that obviously endangers my standing in community for no good reason. That means if you use force, you will not create a situation of peace, which is what you ultimately desire. You will simply polarize yourself further and create divisions. This is how gangs form. Although gangs are minorities, they are going nowhere and wield considerable power, just for that very reason. So, just because you are in majority, you can't just willy nilly control the minority, because minorities also have significant power, commensurate with their determination to apply it.
In no case does anyone have any inherent rights. I don't have a right to be dressed or to be naked. The community has no rights either.
This is why communities change and evolve. If what you say was true, then community standards would stay locked in and never change. But they change quite a bit over time. And guess how it happens, and will continue to happen, forever and ever more? It happens due to individual influence. It happens because someone ran naked across the street. And you can't stop it. You can participate in this process and throw your 2 cents into the pile. But you can't stop the changes and you can't really claim that any sides have any rights.
The rights are declared as a statement of faith or belief. And that's fine. But as you declare such things, it would be wise for you to understand the relative nature of any such declarations. Any person can declare anything they like. If enough of them agree, there you go -- a community. But this tells you nothing about the community or about how it will change.
You might have a community of naked people where running through the street dressed is an act of rebellion.
Things change. Individuals do matter. Individual still stands at the center of change, and your reasoning doesn't take anything away, but rather, it just explains the stage upon which the individual dances. This is neither selfish nor selfless. It's just how it is. I have no inherent right do slap you, but if I want to, I can, and there is nothing you can do to stop me, except post-factum, which is useless, except if you crave revenge. It's useless for the purpose of totally controlling the situation or for giving someone protection from some event happening.
As I see it, communities owe to individuals and individuals owe to the communities. It goes both ways.
What good would come from appearing there. If you speak on behalf of the game industry then you are "against the children" if you speak out against game violence you are "against the gamers" sounds like a no-win situation to me. If I was in that position I'd likely choose to stay home as well.
That's somewhat true. Once we've determined that certain observations are tied to certain events, we can use start using these observations as evidence of these events. But until we understand these correlations, the observations are just that: observations. Not evidence.
Actually, it's completely true. The definition of "evidence" does not concern itself with how one comes to know the correlations/causations. Your stated definistion of evidence would reduce the word to uselessness. How could you know that burglars break windows without a controlled experiment to find out what burglars do? It would still just be an "observation."
We are not living in any sort of experiment, since we did not set up anything to test per se, there is no control group, we can't effectively, at present, create new ozone layers to test, etc. Just like you can't "test" evolution in the sense that you cannot brew up a life form in a controlled environment and watch it for a few millenia, you can test things related to it, and observe what is at hand, both of which are "evidence."