Moronic Anti-Videogame hit piece

[aimeeandbeatles]

Perhaps if the media didnt make such a big deal about shootings.... How is the media coverage on shoots on those other countries that were posted?

 

[AlpsStranger]

My sanity requires me to believe that the insanity of the US news media is at least partially unique. Other parts of my brain have doubts, however.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I cant say much about Canada as I dont watch the TV and when I'm downstairs it's usually on the American channels except the weather.

I remember just after the Sandy Hook, I went downstairs to get a drink, it was on the news. Three or four hours later I went down to get another drink and it was still on, and I thought "Isnt there any other news other than the school shooting?"

Then it was still on another three or four hours later.

 

[Arwon]

Of course they can. They aren't unique in that capacity, though, and I don't think they are particularly special in that capacity. It also seems like an insufficient case for denying 1st Amendment protection.

Columbine didn't erase their 1st Amendment protection so neither should Sandy Hook. That's really all I'm saying.

And yet here you are taking the mere suggestion of a causal link in a wire service article as outrageous and a plot against video games...

 

[AlpsStranger]

You keep insisting on acting like this piece was some kind of detached, Spock-like account of a peculiar influence on one particular killer. It was an agenda driven piece. It was also long on BS and innuendo.

Of course a violent video game can influence a killer. Barney the Dinosaur might eventually influence a killer. This piece wasn't making some detached observation of that fact.

 

[sophie]

You keep insisting on acting like this piece was some kind of detached, Spock-like account of a peculiar influence on one particular killer. It was an agenda driven piece.

Of course a violent video game can influence a killer. Barney the Dinosaur might eventually influence a killer. This piece wasn't making some detached observation of that fact.

No, but the way you're making it sound it's as if this article came straight from the Joint-Houses-Avatar-Mouthpiece-collectif itself.

 

[AlpsStranger]

The piece is wildly accusatory and sensational. If nobody wants to see that obvious fact I can't really help them see it.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

It's at a tipping point. They've got another few decades before they have 50 and 60 year old gamers with kids who are also gamers to deal with. Then they really won't have anyone else left to fool. For now most people >50 are still vaguely afraid of FPSs/GTA so they've got one last chance to demagogue. Exposure to GTA tends to drastically reduce how shocked people are by GTA. When they just listen to the news they think "rape and murder simulator" but when they actually play it they see "freeform action movie."

America also hates nerds ( unless they get rich ) and that's part of way gamers can be bullied.

Old people are often afraid of video games and feel threatened by them. My parents, who are in their mid-40s are like that. They still use internet explorer and I had to explain to them that you don't have to pay for Social Media (which they thought was full of Paedophiles and the like). Ever since I first got Civ III when I was 10 they have worked hard to make sure I'm playing it as little as possible (playing more than an hour a day is "unhealthy." My mom is considerably worse than my dad...

And my mom has become a victim of arguments by both anti-gun and anti-video game activists. She just can't get her mind around FPSs and things similar. My parents are nice people, but their ignorance is appalling.

 

[Borachio]

You're really nervous, AlpsStranger, it would seem, that there is a real danger there'll be actual legislation for videogames in the US.

This is kind of touching.

But it's very unlikely. It's very unlikely there'll be anti-gun legislation. Even less likely any anti-videogame legislation. Surely the US wouldn't be that inconsistent?

Take heart.

 

[AlpsStranger]

But it's very unlikely.

Time will tell. Here's hoping I'm wrong and you can all laugh at me.

I'm seriously concerned that we are, for better or worse ( worse IMHO ) seeing the end of the "Wild West" of US game development in favor of something more like ( again ) Germany.

 

[ace99]

The video-game devoid wasteland of Germany. Where gamers must scrounge through back alleys for their fix. Where police conduct door to door raids seeking Steam servers.

 

[Ajidica]

The video-game devoid wasteland of Germany. Where gamers must scrounge through back alleys for their fix. Where police conduct door to door raids seeking Steam servers.

Perhaps they will all migrate to Poland and make more RPG's like The Witcher.

 

[AlpsStranger]

The video-game devoid wasteland of Germany. Where gamers must scrounge through back alleys for their fix. Where police conduct door to door raids seeking Steam servers.

Germany obviously isn't as bad as this hyperbole, but that's only because of "reflected light" I'm afraid. If the USA loses free expression for VGs then Germans will suffer as well. While I realize Rockstar North is Scottish, for instance, I think we all know that Rockstar depends on US sales. If games like GTA can't be sold efficiently in the United States then they simply won't be made.

Which I'm sure will make some of you overjoyed, but I really like the series I realize it's rough, crude, and "lowbrow" but I don't think any other series matches GTA as an overall experience.

EDIT: Just so nobody is insulted I don't have any major problems with Germany. It seems like an appealing, progressive place in most respects. I'm just not down with how they regulate their video games. That's a small issue in the grand scheme of things and I'm not trying to cast a cultural stone at Germany as a whole.

EDIT2: How Crytek operates in Germany is a mystery to me given some of the weird censor cuts I've seen in German versions of games.

 

[Borachio]

Don't knock German policy. They haven't invaded anywhere for a record-breaking time. Most Europeans, including Germans, are in favour of this.

(Not that videogames were responsible for the two notable occasions last century, of course. As far as we know.)

 

[AlpsStranger]

Pretty sure that's unrelated to their game censorship policy.

EDIT: Or, at best, it applies to their policy re: depictions of Swastikas and such and not re: general violence.

 

[Borachio]

Hmm. Well, I don't know so much. Their experience would seem to suggest that a general atmosphere of militarism, and acceptance of the use of violence to provide a general solution to life's problems, could be a thing to be avoided. But this is just a blind guess. I don't know what their thinking is.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I guess. I'm not really here to judge the Germans but to complain about American stuff. If I were German I would complain about German stuff.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Perhaps if the media didnt make such a big deal about shootings.... How is the media coverage on shoots on those other countries that were posted?

The OP quoted the scumbag as saying he wanted to best a fellow scumbag in Norway. This is a problem the media is creating. People want attention, and these days that means embarrassing yourself on TV or shooting kids. If the media consisted of journalists with integrity, they'd sit on stories like these, giving the shooter absolutely no attention. But instead they're playing the ratings game, and images of terrified, crying children sell. And of course, even the media reversed its degeneracy and started acting with professionalism, the attention-seeking wretches on twitter would start sneaking phone photos and basking in the warm glow of their swelling follower numbers.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I'll never call for censoring the news media. Even if it would be for the best it would be wrong to censor the news because it could lead to other problems.

That said, it simply cannot be a good idea to make mass killers famous. Unlike video games/rock&roll/D&D/etc. I think the murder=fame connection is probably a real issue.

But, again, I simply refuse to go down the road where we go on a censoring rampage.

 

[GoodGame]

We'll see Naziesque video-game burnings before long eh?

Its too bad you can't toss Steam into a big pile and burn it eh?

too funny