Fox News / EA Spar Over Mass Effect 'Controversy'

The whacked out rantings of Kevin McCullogh have been a hot topic on games blogs in recent weeks, as his lurid description of Mass Effect prompted vitriol from actual gamers. That exchange would have been easily left behind if not for the fact that Fox News stepped into the fray, adding a measure of 'fair and balanced' to the discussion. Their 'Sexbox Sexpose' drew in veteran games journalist Geoff Keighley, who optimistically thought he'd be given the chance to set the record straight. Instead they filled the airwaves with plainly false generalizations about the game's sexual content. Kotaku is reporting that EA is fighting back, protecting BioWare's property and demanding a correction. From EA's letter to Fox: "The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards. As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness." I hope the EA folks aren't holding their breath.

Comments

Wow, EA

[Applekid]

I'm generally in the camp that EA executives are full of crap, but...

As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. ... I find that quote to be rather insightful. The same congressional members that make laws granting more and more power to the MAFIAA at the expense of the people are the ones demanding game companies be held to an unrealistic standard of decency in entertainment.

Recently /. had a story about how some parent's group was "outraged" that game companies are now trying to lobby congress for favor, but, as long as the TV, radio, and film conglomerates have deeper pockets and the numbers keep dropping in favor of interactive entertainment, it's not going to be enough. Faux News is showing their hand without fear since the existing career politicians are already beholden to those guys.

Re:Wow, EA

[jollyreaper]

I generally think the whole convergence thing is a load of hotair but I think that's just because the pundits called it a decade or two early. We really are seeing this now, communications and entertainment all coming down one pipe. And because of this, entertainment will drastically change, too. Are you gaming tonight, are you going to watch something? Video on demand isn't coming to us the way that was anticipated, we're seeing it via PVR (the super-vcr) and bittorrent (a product completely bypassing the cable company middleman!)and whole season DVD's. Behavior patterns and expectations are shifting now, not in the future but now. People are getting used to the fact of moving away from the primetime structure, of watching what they want when they want or doing something else if they feel like it. Back before TV, radio and movies were the kings of pop culture. Before radio, sheet music reigned supreme and families played piano, singing along. For single entertainment, books and newspapers were available.

Newspapers aren't dead and I truly think that the Internet is giving them new life and relevance, they're just not going to be quite the way we knew papers in the past. The written word is the cheapest form of information creation and distribution we have and the computer only gives it more power. We already see amateurs creating works with a worldwide following. It may not be on quite the same scale as Dickens in his day but on a smaller scale, it remains possible. I mean hell, web comics are turning a profit! That's astounding. And when you're independent and not beholden to a big stupid parent company, it doesn't take nearly as much revenue to remain in business.

Anyway, dems my thoughts.

Re:Four words.

[CowboyBob500]

How about these four: Rated M for Mature

Seriously? Here in the UK it's rated 12 (as in suitable for 12 year olds).

Bob

Re:Faux News

[Bloodoflethe]

Well-trolled *cough*, I guess I'll bite: I know plenty of well-informed non-fundies that read/listen/watch content from The News Corporation, including Fox. Why, because they also read/listen/watch liberal stations. There is plenty to take seriously from each side, the effort is spent sifting through the fallacies and weighing out bias to get at the heart of the matter and from there deciding what your stance on the issue will be. Remember, the truth is more easily found when most conflict is filtered out. There are exceptions - i.e. the big issues, in which the points of view of either side perfectly cancel out. These are fundamental differences and will determine your stances on other things. *shrug* Go with what you feel comfortable with, I just try not to have a herd mentality.

Hypocrisy

[Rebelgecko]

I went to http://www.fox.com/ looking for an email address to send a complaint to and saw an ad for the Terminator TV show with, you guessed it, a naked woman (or robot, or whatever) who is showing way more skin than I saw when I played Mass Effect.