Slashdot Mirror
The War Against Virtual Beer Pong
Michelle Shildkret, 360i on behalf of TIME.com writes "JV Games was all set to release 'Beer Pong' for the Nintendo Wii when parents and lawmakers got a whiff, forcibly renaming the game to Pong Toss and filling its pixelated cups with water instead. But the game is still rated 'T' for teen, and anybody who encounters it will be able to draw clear conclusions as to its intended purpose (drink and get drunk)." Lesson: Don't play games that simulate drinking before you play games that simulate driving, or larceny.
Really, this isn't such a big deal. Now if it was, say GTA or another game, but not this shovelware that has cropped up on Wii Ware. (Review here: http://www.wiiware-world.com/reviews/2008/07/frat_party_games_pong_toss). Seriously, it is a really crappy overpriced ($8) game.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
My friends and I, when I was living on campus, usually found the only real ping pong table already in use. Then, one of us got a Wii, and we played Wii Sports' Tennis as beer pong :P. Sure, there wasn't a glass to knock the ball into, but that didn't stop us getting more than a little tipsy :P
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
This issue perfectly illustrates why we need strong laws protecting freedom of speech. Just having the 1st Ammendment isn't enough. If there was a federal law saying you can't sue over video game content, NO MATTER WHAT, this game would have been released as intended. The fact that you can sue somebody because you're "offended" is nonsense.
But little Jimmy will eventually turn from the sweet angel he is now to some sort of brat. It's called puberty. But since Jimmy's parents can't accept that their baby ain't no baby anymore (which only makes that puberty problem worse, btw), something else has to take the blame. THEY of course didn't do anything wrong. Even if Jimmy decides that H is a great because it lets him take a break from this perpetual pain called reality, it can't be that his parents didn't give a rat's ass about his wellbeing, only cared for his grades (after all, they only want the best for him and that means the best job, and why can't you be like Jacky next door, he has straight As), didn't listen when he told them he's being bullied (after all his teachers said everything's all right, probably he just didn't want to go to school, lazy little bastard)...
So it's not them, obviously. So it's something else. Preferably something his parents don't understand and especially don't understand Jimmy's fascination with it. Since TV is something they grew up with, and dad just loved those metal songs (and he turned out allright, after all), it has to be something else. It's certainly computer games.
I really wonder what's going to be our scapegoat when our kids turn into those pubertal monsters.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
From here
That was the case in the first article - the woman had taken part in a "water drinking contest." The second article describes soldiers who died when they drank large amounts of water after long periods of exercise. The key thing is to remember to replace those electrolytes.
Yeah, a little I guess. I have no idea what a beer bong game would involve, other than drinking excessive amounts of beer. My point was that replacing beer with something that can also kill you if you drink it to excess shows someone didn't think this through very thoroughly.
I don't care why you're posting AC
New Years Eve, 2006, on my wedding night, my guests to the reception after-party played Champagne Pong- 4 bottles, then switched to (homemade ~ 40 Proof) Meade Pong - 5 bottles! It was an awesome night, but a rough New Years Day.
How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
Okami is rated T, and that teaches your children that drinking sake makes you strong!
Ban this game now before it breeds a generation of sake-drinking hooligans who spend their days drawing circles around plants!
I compete in a lot of beer pong tournaments.
In fact I fly out to vegas every year for the world series (mentioned in article) and even placed top 10 for 2008.
Bizarre to see something like pong make its way onto slash dot.
There is another wii variant called Ping Cup in some type of party games package as well.
Personally I don't see the point to either simulations, since beer pong is ridiculously simple to set up an ACTUAL game in person.
All it takes is cups and ping pong balls! Why are you in front of a television - the game is supposed to be social.
Anyway, I can chime in on one aspect that most slashdotters are probably unaware of.
Beer Pong is extremely competitive. When you go to tournaments, it has nothing to do with getting drunk.
Make that shot and win that money. World series is 50k. Smaller local tournaments are 500-6,000 in prize money for 1st.
These politicians need to leave my game alone, damnit.
Beer Pong is not a crime.
The assholes are making me irked at my own country and envy other places' freedoms.
"Why is it video games are the new evil that's replaced song lyrics?"
What a wonderful question! I often ponder what the sociological/psychological motivation it is that drives a portion of the population to vilify imaginary evils. Whether it be witches or video games, comic books or Dungeons & Dragons, Alcohol or Rock & Roll, fluoridation or immunization; there seems to be a segment of the population that needs some imaginary social ill to oppose. Why these do gooders can not focus on something real and meaningful like government corruption or mentally illness induced poverty, I can not imagine.
I'd be inclined to call it Chicken Little Syndrome, but Google tells me that a whole host of people are laying claim to that title.
Is it just me, or does this ailment largely affect Soccer moms?
"There is nothing to do it. But to do it." -Floyd Pepper
So, although you are legally considered an adult upon turning 18, you cannot drink unless you sign up with the military and go off shooting people. I don't see how that's a healthy societal attitude.
Oh, and I'm too old to join up. Not that it matters, since I'm old enough to drink. Also, I'm more use to my country in a lab than elsewhere.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Try working in a cancer research hospital's outpatient clinic for a couple of years; I did. I saw far too many people die (yes, die... I was the one who went around gathering their papers from the various doctors and clinic offices they'd been to, organizing their final records folder when they died) who never smoked themselves, but either a parent or a spouse did, or they were exposed in the workplace. And don't give me that crap about the air quality being worse than second-hand smoke. That's like saying kids can play in the street because more kids are killed in accidents at home.
It's an addictive, dirty, poisonous drug that has no redeeming purpose whatsoever, and I have nothing but contempt for anyone who tries to trivialize or justify its use, let alone its being inflicted on everybody else.
System Shock (1&2) had loads of this stuff. Cigarettes (aka coughing nails), boozes, drugs to inject to get you all weird. If you played it like me (non stop from start to end, eating only when i could find something in the game, sleeping with the game running, everything for immersion), and drank often ingame, to overcome the stress... it could get *really* crazy.... ehem... it GOT really crazy.
Those were the good old times. My half plant half lion friends, the recreational deck, and every drug the (virtual) world had to offer. Loved those games like no other....
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
When I was 18, I used to work with a guy in his 30s, born again. With a solemn face he would tell me about his "sins" and how he had lived a live of debauchery for years but now he had seen the light and was a Christian now, and how I shouldn't make the same mistake he did and repent now. I'm thinking "Nuts to you pal, so you get your 10 years of hedonism 'til your good and done with it and then turn round and try to deny me the same?"
Nothing like saving other people from YOUR temptations.
"if the only argument against something is that it is illegal then I don't consider that to be an argument at all."
You don't have to just not consider it an argument, it isn't an argument.
You either have to base your laws off of your ethics, or your ethics off of your laws. You can't do both, as that's just circular reasoning, which is a logical fallacy, and therefore not a valid (i.e. rational, logical) argument.
If you base your ethics off of your laws, where do these laws come from? Well, I suppose if you're particularly religious then you might think that eternal, unchangeable laws come from God and fixed morals are based off of those. But if that is the case then you ought to still be selling your daughter into slavery, killing people who insisted on working the sabbath, etc...
No, laws are made by people, based off of their ethics.[0] We[1] decide what is legal and illegal based on what we believe is right and wrong.
But, the law-making process is not perfect. Sometimes laws were made in an earlier time, and our definition of what is right and wrong has changed since then. Sometimes laws are made imperfectly and do not solve the problem they were trying to. Sometimes they accidentally cause a greater problem than the one they were trying to solve.
If any of these are the case, it is up to people to write new laws, or strike existing ones from the books, in order to bring the law better in line with our ethics. It would be completely illogical to say that because a law exists, we must alter our ethics to adhere to it, and never change those ethics again. If that were the case, black people would still be giving up their seats on buses for white people.
It is therefore completely logically invalid to decide whether something is right or wrong based on whether or not it is illegal. We need to decide whether something is right or wrong solely from other ethical arguments. Only then can we create laws (if we have determined that laws need creating) to protect or outlaw a particular behaviour.
[0] Ignoring laws which are purchased by lobbyers for the purpose of this discussion.
[1] "We" meaning "the people that we have freely chosen (elected) to make such decisions on our behalf."
Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
In World of Warcraft, alcohol makes it look like enemies are lower level than they really are. So a level 45 Crocolisk shows up as level 40 and you say to yourself "I can take 'im"
The seekers do no need truth, the seekers do find truth and the finding do be painful