Ooh, yeah, thanks for that News I previously trusted. (A.K.A: Videogames, Australia, and YOU!)

[TheRealCJ]

Okay, let's see, nearly 700 dead in Chile. Another footballer drug scandal. Lots of rain in my hometown of Brisbane. More about that insulation debacle in Government. Videogames are the devil...

Wait, what?

Apparently there is a new study that proves that Violence is linked to videogames more thoroughly than Smoking is to lung cancer. That's right, if you play videogames, you're going to give lung cancer to a violence victim... or something.

Actually, that's not the problem, the problem is that this channel went the "Fox News and Friends Happy Hour!" route of journalism. Linking a throat-slashing-with-a-glass case in Melbourne, and the stabbing of a 12 year old boy at school in Brisbane.

Let me get something off my chest: Yes, it's tragic that this young man was killed, and another young man is responsible, but my sympathy is limited. For you see, the young man who did the deed had a history of violence (fights and whatnot). Logic dictates that you Do not spend the better part of two weeks making fun of this kid's recently deceased father to his face. But I digress.

Sure, I actually believe the study: Violence in common media = Desensitisation to violence in young people. It's as simple as that.

But, and I actually dry heaved at this point, the game they used as an example is everybody's favourite play-as-a-terrorist-in-that-one-level shoot-'em-up Modern Warfare 2. Or, as Channel Ten News called it: "Modern Warfare: Call of Duty 2: The Game Where You Plan A Terrorist Attack And Gun Down Civilians"

Anyway, back to the point at hand: Now, there's going to be a great big conference about what we do about all this violence getting through to young people in videogames. Let's discuss it some more. Or we could, I don't know, stop kids getting their hands on the damn games?. Perhaps some sort of "Restriction" of sale to "Over 18-year-olds" would work, I wonder what kind of Acronym we could use to make that sound catchy?

 

[JEBWrench]

Anyway, back to the point at hand: Now, there's going to be a great big conference about what we do about all this violence getting through to young people in videogames. Let's discuss it some more. Or we could, I don't know, stop kids getting their hands on the damn games?. Perhaps some sort of "Restriction" of sale to "Over 18-year-olds" would work, I wonder what kind of Acronym we could use to make that sound catchy?

Perhaps if people wouldn't complain about restricting the sale of games that should be restricted in the name of "ZOMG sensership!!1111!8" then the ratings system could get a push towards being taken more seriously.

 

[ssgt splatter]

Wow. Nice rant dude. Couldn't have put better myself.

Modern Warfare: Call of Duty 2??????? Do people really call it that?

 

[reg42]

A nutter stabs someone, videogames get blamed. A nutter shoots someone, music gets blamed.
I never see a case where they blame the parents, for as Marilyn Manson said "I wouldn't say a single word to them; I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did"

 

[Brad Shepard]

Okay, let's see, nearly 700 dead in Chile. Another footballer drug scandal. Lots of rain in my hometown of Brisbane. More about that insulation debacle in Government. Videogames are the devil...

Wait, what?

Apparently there is a new study that proves that Violence is linked to videogames more thoroughly than Smoking is to lung cancer. That's right, if you play videogames, you're going to give lung cancer to a violence victim... or something.

Actually, that's not the problem, the problem is that this channel went the "Fox News and Friends Happy Hour!" route of journalism. Linking a throat-slashing-with-a-glass case in Melbourne, and the stabbing of a 12 year old boy at school in Brisbane.

Let me get something off my chest: Yes, it's tragic that this young man was killed, and another young man is responsible, but my sympathy is limited. For you see, the young man who did the deed had a history of violence (fights and whatnot). Logic dictates that you Do not spend the better part of two weeks making fun of this kid's recently deceased father to his face. But I digress.

Sure, I actually believe the study: Violence in common media = Desensitisation to violence in young people. It's as simple as that.

But, and I actually dry heaved at this point, the game they used as an example is everybody's favourite play-as-a-terrorist-in-that-one-level shoot-'em-up Modern Warfare 2. Or, as Channel Ten News called it: "Modern Warfare: Call of Duty 2: The Game Where You Plan A Terrorist Attack And Gun Down Civilians"

Anyway, back to the point at hand: Now, there's going to be a great big conference about what we do about all this violence getting through to young people in videogames. Let's discuss it some more. Or we could, I don't know, stop kids getting their hands on the damn games?. Perhaps some sort of "Restriction" of sale to "Over 18-year-olds" would work, I wonder what kind of Acronym we could use to make that sound catchy?

-_-... planing out a terror attack? If i remember right, they jumped the shark on Mass Effect where you had "Full control." of the sex scene, and now there doing this to "Modern Warfare: Call of Duty 2"

 

[JupiterBase]

<spoiler= dont wanna give anything away>I was very surprised when the rest of the guys unloaded on the civs in that airport, but i dont remember the planning part i had a choice?, the level loaded and boom so i shot too. Am i desensitized to violence? maybe to a degree. Is this going to lead me to do the same? for fucks sake no! I do not believe in anything strong enough to do anysuch thing. In fact i wont even strike another beings in anger anymore unless they pose real threat to me or my loved one. Another thing i remeber in one of the Splinter Cell games you have the choice of whether or not to stop a cruise ship from being destroyed.

So i think its more likely that the kids used to make fun of when i was younger are responsible for any violent act i did as a younger man. not video games. If anything its an outlet for my aggression. Hell i even discovered that the noise of the scanner in Mass Effect 2 actualy puts me to sleep. NOTHING PUTS ME TO SLEEP I STRUGGLE TO SLEEP ALL THE TIME! Im so happy.

 

[TheRealCJ]

<spoiler= dont wanna give anything away>I was very surprised when the rest of the guys unloaded on the civs in that airport, but i dont remember the planning part i had a choice?, the level loaded and boom so i shot too. Am i desensitized to violence? maybe to a degree. Is this going to lead me to do the same? for fucks sake no! I do not believe in anything strong enough to do anysuch thing. In fact i wont even strike another beings in anger anymore unless they pose real threat to me or my loved one. Another thing i remeber in one of the Splinter Cell games you have the choice of whether or not to stop a cruise ship from being destroyed.

So i think its more likely that the kids used to make fun of when i was younger are responsible for any violent act i did as a younger man. not video games. If anything its an outlet for my aggression. Hell i even discovered that the noise of the scanner in Mass Effect 2 actualy puts me to sleep. NOTHING PUTS ME TO SLEEP I STRUGGLE TO SLEEP ALL THE TIME! Im so happy.

That's a little to co-dependant on video games there. Like Heroin addicts who need a boost just to get themselves out of bed.

You should see somebody.

Or not, it's all good. (please don't kill me)

 

[Viper_0419]

I still find that this kind of attack on video games is ridiculous and is largely put out of the context of the "storytelling" aspect of games, since games are dubbed as "simulations." Now maybe I'm going too far out on a limb to say that if there was any truth to their claims what-so-ever that the same could be said to movies, books, magazines, newspapers and the news itself. Which again, is ridiculous. Censorship has been a huge problem and will continue to be. Until then I shall try to ignore the "News: The leading cause of depression and top source of one-sided bullshit" channels.

 

[Uszi]

<spoiler= dont wanna give anything away>I was very surprised when the rest of the guys unloaded on the civs in that airport, but i dont remember the planning part i had a choice?, the level loaded and boom so i shot too. Am i desensitized to violence? maybe to a degree. Is this going to lead me to do the same? for fucks sake no! I do not believe in anything strong enough to do anysuch thing. In fact i wont even strike another beings in anger anymore unless they pose real threat to me or my loved one. Another thing i remeber in one of the Splinter Cell games you have the choice of whether or not to stop a cruise ship from being destroyed.

I mean, no, you're not desensitized.

Here's how I think of it: Do I have trouble distinguishing between making a violent choice in a video game (I.e. ripping out someone's spine in AVP, Shooting the civilians in the airport in MW2, smashing someone's face in Manhunt) and making a violent choice in real life (i.e. actually ripping someone's spine out, actually shooting up an airport, actually smashing someone's face).

No! I have never, at any point, found had any trouble distinguishing between my choice to mercilessly kill innocents in GTA and my choice to not mercilessly kill innocents downtown.

People are... stupid. As a species, I think we just always need a quick, easy explanation. We need scape goats to function, instinctively. It takes way more cognitive power to search for a complicated explanation, and people who buy into the video games beget violence bullshit are just unwilling to spent the mental reserves considering more complex possibilities.

 

[Latinidiot]

they just want to sell. let them sell their bullshit. anyone who knows a gamer knows they're just as prone to gunning down a school as the rest of humanity.

 

[Raikov]

I'm really gonna enjoy it when gamers are not a minority anymore. Then idiot newspapers and newschannels that still post crap like this will lose alot of money very fast. But that makes me wonder what the gaming generation is going to blame violence on...

Maybe we'll do something wild and crazy and actually try to find the real problem?

 

[Jindrak]

The problem with these studies is that video-games are so widespread. Any child who committs a violent crime is likely to have played a violent video-game, because every child has played a violent video-game. It's similar to the satirical news study of banning milk because it is found 98% of serial killers and school shooters were found to have drank milk on a regular basis.

I love Penn & Teller's bit on this. Imagine that video games and football (American) switch places in the timeline. Your school has a video-game team, equipped with cheerleaders and thousands of people watch on a regular basis. Some guys grab controllers and duke it out virtually. Then football is introduced. Thousands of people recieve broken bones, concussions and some people each year are killed playing this new sport. How do you think the response would differ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX60j_rlTOA

 

[teisjm]

I've run over tons of innoscent people whenever my parent let me borrow their car, and when the cops came, i've always just blamed GTA and gotten off with a warning, and a hi-fi up for the perfect stripe of hitting 10 in a row when i sneakily switched from the road to the sidewalk... guess the cops are gamers as well.

 

[Plurralbles]

The only news that you can actually trust is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.

remember the part where they talk to the rpublicans who went to hawaii for a conference and who were going on about financial responsiblity?

Yep. Great journalism and a great show.

 

[TheRealCJ]

I've run over tons of innoscent people whenever my parent let me borrow their car, and when the cops came, i've always just blamed GTA and gotten off with a warning, and a hi-fi up for the perfect stripe of hitting 10 in a row when i sneakily switched from the road to the sidewalk... guess the cops are gamers as well.

Okay, you scare me just a little.

 

[Radelaide]

I was watching that last night too. I called bullshit on the lung cancer stuff they were talking about, and as usual, I wasn't shocked by the games being lied about but he does raise a good point.

Games do desensitise us. But not to the point they think they do. If you see someone having their throat slashed in a kabab store (like one of the stories they used), do you stand around watching, or do you scream, call the police and help the poor bastard who is lying on the floor bleeding to death?

Personally, I would do the latter because I know better. I think that the media don't realise that all the studies are doing are giving us more ammo to prove them wrong. The more the media spouts that video games are hurting kids, we, as a minority, stand up and try to prove them wrong. Well, a small number of us do. A lot of gamers say "That's bullshit, I'm going to kill the guy who said that" and if you're that guy, shut the fuck up and go play in traffic. All it's going to do is give them MORE evidence that gamers are unstable psychopaths.

I think I'm going to write something about how gamers aren't complete morons and how violent, M15+ and above video games aren't for children. And how parents should be given more information about how ratings on movies and TVs are NOT the same for Video games. That is the only part of the study I actually liked. How the researcher said that information should be provided to parents, except it should be written by an INDEPENDENT board. Not the government, not gamers, but someone who realises our points, and points out that the games should be played by age groups that they're intended.

*sigh*

/rant.

 

[Kollega]

Apparently there is a new study that proves that Violence is linked to videogames more thoroughly than Smoking is to lung cancer. That's right, if you play videogames, you're going to give lung cancer to a violence victim... or something.

That cracked me up.

OT: I thought on the matter of grumpy old men who run the establishment. We, the young people, can either wait untill they all die from natural causes, or try and take the power from them in a worldwide coup d'etat (or however you spell it) right now. The choice is ours.