There is no kind of anger quite like this. This white hot rage against the unjust hiding behind legal justice.
Some people are just failures. That they get a law degree, and champion a cause fit for the 1700's is not something they should be proud of. Gamers everywhere should now be familiar with the name of Jack Thompson, a certified bar member and poseur crusader against video-games that sport violence and sex. Now, lets get one thing straight before we start. Threats are bad.
Onto more pressing matters. Mr. Thompson has taken it upon himself to champion the cause against the video-game industry. As if there was some kind of bogus conspiracy to corrupt America's youth with violence and sex (note Stars and Stripes flapping in the background). To see it from his point of view, game designers are making games that purposefully corrupt the tender minds of America's youth by exposing them to damaging scenes of violence and sex. God forbid the little bastards ever get in a barfight, or you know... have sex with a girl in Junior High (loud gasp). It happens, deal with it.
What about movies? Hmm? It's perfectly alright to have a non-interactive media that shows graphic dismemberment and graphic nudity... yes, brestesses of all things, in PG, ZOMG! Are there children seeing this? Of course. But the moment there's a controller involved, and the players has a choice, it suddenly becomes wrong?
Dan, follow me on this one. Mr. Thompson is kicking off a "scandal" against Killer 7, to have it forcefully removed from store shelves and the market altogether, for purported scenes of "violence, and graphic sex." Apparently, a rating of Mature isn't enough. It needs to be Adult Only. Uh huh. Because if a parent buys this game for their children, it's the developer's fault.
Maybe they'd like to pull Resident Evil 4 as well. I've never seen to many heads lost to chainsaws, and honestly, Ashley's undies are white satin. Oooooh... I'm so corrupted.
As far as I've seen, video-games don't make people killers. Preaching war, intolerance, and generally poor values makes people into killers. Being unstable makes people killers. Repeat it with me.
Videogames do not make people killers.
Videogames do not make children have sex.
Those two things were happening long before videogames, and will continue to happen long after I'm gone.
Mr. Thompson, if you somehow find your way to this little backwater blog, know that from my personal experience, this little "scandal" you are launching against Killer 7 will be nothing compared to the firestorm against you that you are ignorantly holding a match to. I don't say this as a threat, but rather as a roadside warning. You are catering to one lazy generation to infuriate the next. I don't think you need me to explain the foolishness involved with this. America already suffers from the worst transition from one generation to the next, and you are doing nothing, save furthering the rift between these irresponsible parents, and their awakening youth.
6 comments:
I've been following this story and Thompsons "Crusade" as well.
Honest to god, he's a fucking douche bag. There is no other way to put it.
Video game fans all over are pretty much wishing for a chance to pop this guy one in the mouth. I guess he'd blame that on the games, too.
I'm all for rating games, and enforcing the rating. But come on. this is just silly.
I too, find it silly how there is always a "violence in videogames" issue kicking around, but hardly anything is said about film and television.
Oh, and that "graphic sex" they talk about is a complete joke. This is what happens when someone makes a big deal about nothing.
The bright side is that all this nonsense will actually help sales of Killer 7.
Oh, now I'm mad again.
One could also argue that the Bible depicts Violence does that mean we should ban it to. People think its blasphemy to talk about it but think about. How many serial killers/mass murders, quote scripture? i know of a few. So why not start up a crusade to stop all religion to, it promotes terrorism and violence and in some cultures, violence against women. But no we have to focus on something that is complete and udder bullshit.
My honest belief, I’ve been a gamer, since the conception of the NES. I've played some pretty violent games, but once the game is over that’s where i draw the line, i am not going to go start shooting up the neighbourhood. As for desensitizing a nation, I totally agree, i can sit through tons of gore without even flinching but in no means does that tell me its okay, to start murdering people.
If a developer wants to make a game with mature themes and or adult themes, the best to him. Its his right, and as consumer I believe its my right to view his art uncensored and the way he intended it to be. I also believe that yeah maybe a 6yr shouldn’t be playing violent games, but that’s up to the parents to moderate the content of games. If parents would actually spend more time with the kids watching what there doing, I don’t think we would have a problem here at all.
Censoring of anything is wrong, maybe stricter policing would be help, like stores actually following the ESRB’s rating guide. People just need an easy way out, something to bitch at. Its easier to blame movies/ games for why your kid turned into asshole, than admitting you’re a sucky parent, or whatever the circumstance might be.
The truth of the matter video games aren’t the problem, turn on CNN that’s the problem!
Violence in video games, tv and movies. There are two 'big theories' about this.
1. When someone seems violence they think it's ok, and therefore don't think it's that wrong to do it themselves.
2. Watching violence gives people a chance to relax and let out some steam in a peaceful way, and it minimizes the chances of said people actully performing violent acts themselves.
Research has been done. And not research as in a magazine asking its readers questions, serious research with children, adolescents and adults.
This research shows there is no so-called 'letting out steam', watching violent movies does not minimize the chances of someone acting violent.
It also shows that when a child seems someone perform a violent act, it seems acceptable to the child, and he/she more often than not tries to perform the same act. Watching someone knocking someone in the face on tv can lead to children thinking that's ok.
Now, video games are the issue here... Video games involves the player. You don't just watch, you participate. Which, on some level, makes people see it as slightly more ok than if they had just watched someone else play.
Of course this doesn't happen to everyone, maybe not to most people. It certainly doesn't happen all the time, not even to those it does affect. Practically everyone understands video games are just that, games. It would be interesting to really find out how it affects us, if we subconciously think violence is more ok than our parents did. Stupid though? Violence isn't ok. We know that. Right?
As for games such as Killer... Do we really need games where the purpose is to kill people? Anyone who plays video games would say "it's not like that", "we can play what we want". I'm just seriously wondering why everyone seems to be hooked on violence death. Isn't there enough in the world already?
Whether these games should be banned or labeled 'Adults Only' or even altered, I don't really have an opinion about. I don't know enough about it to say anything. I don't wonder what to do with it. I wonder why they're there.
Yes, children will play video-games and feel that it's just a little bit more okay to hurt people. That's a notion that all children get when they're young. Whether they get it from videogames, TV, daddy beating mommy up, or watching schoolyard fights and the teacher's pathetic attempts to control bullying, it's going to happen.
However, that notion tends to bleed out when the child reaches a mature level. I used to be able to watch visual dismemberment and not even blink. It's not the case anymore. I learned that stuff like that hurts. I cringe, even when I'm playing videogames, when there's a particularly brutal part.
I think it comes down to the choices people make. Whether or not a person thinks it's "okay" to do something, or to hurt someone plays a role in how they choose to act, but the choice is still theirs. Not the game developers for making a product thats in demand. If parents refuse to raise their children, that's their perogative, but they should at least have the guts, balls, and backbones to say that they weren't responsible parents, rather than putting on the facade, blaming the industry, and then getting lawyers like Thompson involved, when there is literally millions of greater crimes to be dealt with.
I learned that stuff like that hurts. I cringe, even when I'm playing videogames, when there's a particularly brutal part.
Why do you play them?
And I think it's way to easy to blame a child's acts on bad parenting. Some parents do all they can, yet their children act like brats and think they own the world.
I play games for the same reason I read books. It's a mental stimulation. Playing games without conflict is like reading a book with not plot. I'm sad that everyone automatically interprets conflict as killing and death, but in today's polarized world, "there can be no other means to defeat the enemy."
This is how I think of games. Much as books that I play, rather than read.
I learned early in high school that literature was made to reflect life, and all the things in it. From the height of euphoria, down to the basest natures of men and women. I feel that games are like an immature form of that art, or perhaps an extension of it. Only a small part of what literature has covered has been translated over to games, and that is mostly to do with death, killing, and murder. I play games because I like to be the character in a story. I don't like killing, and I find games that revolve around pointless (or thinly veiled) killing to be rather tasteless. Read that as, I hate Quake III, and will not play it.
I'm a big fan of story driven games. Look up Prince of Persia (the new one, but not the sequel for it). It's an engaging story to be a part of. Look up Resident Evil 4. It is chock full of killing and death, but that's not the point. Rather, it's a horrific tragedy story.
The kind that makes you think,
"Oh man. What if that happened in real life?"
It's all theory and fiction really. And yes, it's easy to blame bad children on the parents. I'm well aware of that. I'm a firm believer that people act of their own accord, and not at the duty of others. However, my problem lies with; not just parents, but people who lay blame where it's not due. Not all good parents are so blessed with good children, but good parents would also never resort to blaming other things whether it be games, rock and roll, candy, whatever, for their children's actions. Any person with half a brain knows that children can grow to learn from their parents, or they can grow to spite their parents. It's the choice of the child in that regard.
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