So, will you be participating in "Ceasefire friday"?

[Mikeyfell]

Yes, games are to blame...
What?
How does this make sense?
Oh yeah it's because firing a gun in a video game is exactly the same as firing a gun in real life.
It makes sense because if I was going to shoot someone in real life I'd sit down in front of a TV hold both sides of the gun, hold down the left trigger, aim with the joystick and pull the right trigger. It's EXACTLY the same as in a video game.

Especially that part in "recent popular shooter: the game" where you kill your own mother then shoot up her place of work.
Every video game is exactly like that. OH MY GOD! the crazy anti video game nut jobs have been 100% right about everything the whole time! Why did it take us this long to figure it out!


I'm going to break into a class room and start singing show-toons and see if video games get blamed for that.

Hey EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD, listen up I have a crazy idea.
[HEADING=1]Don't blame video games for every bad thing that happens![/HEADING]

Because I'm going to let you in on a little secrete. Crazy murderous psychopathic lunatics are bad people.
You don't seem to understand that. So I'll reiterate. Anyone willing to shoot up a kindergarten classroom is fucked in the head. He didn't do it because Call of Duty told him to. Does everyone under stand? Because if you don't I'm going to murder you. And not because of video games it's going to be because you fucking deserve it.


Okay now that I've got the megalomaniacal rant out of the way. sure what ever. If you look at it as some sort of movement then it's a good thing. Like "Hey! This happened so we're going to do this." Like running for breast cancer.
Nobody blames standing still for the existence of breast cancer, but the running is still a good thing.

The video gaming community is a real thing and they can show their support after tragedies like this, but if it's promoted as some kind of penance or an acceptance of blame for the shit that goes down then fuck it, and fight it with every fiber of your being. Because the second we as a community are willing to accept blame for the actions of insane mother fuckers then it's all over.

 

[janjotat]

I just played trouble in terrorist town and the hidden, and now I'm going to an end of the world party. So no, i didn't care

 

[Uszi]

Fuck no. I booted up San Andreas and shot only grand mother model NPCs today.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Anyone about to go "oh how could you do the very opposite on this day to spite mourners" should read the OP and remember that it's perfectly possible to do stuff like this.

Fuck no. I booted up San Andreas and shot only grand mother model NPCs today.

In a videogame without being compelled to do it IRL.

 

[Mr. Omega]

I was going to just ignore this. Leave things be. If I played a shooter or not, whatever.

And then Wayne LaPierre decided to weigh in on things. So now I think I'll play a few rounds of Worms and Team Fortress 2. Well, I was going to anyway, but still...

Hell, if I had enough clout, I'd propose a "Shooter Saturday" or a "Weekend of War" as a follow-up to this. We show solidarity and concern for the victims today if you want, and then give the NRA a great big "FUCK YOU" tomorrow if you feel like it.

 

[Sunrider]

This is more or less the equivalent of the mouse-click activism I see ever so often on facebook. It has always infuriated me, because people feel like "Look at the difference I've made! I'm such a good person!".
NO. Fuck those people. I refuse to participate in such a pathetic debacle.

 

[Easton Dark]

Well, I exterminated all the not orky enoughs on 4 planets today. That's a few (hundred) million dead.

And if the stars align, my tethered phone will supply enough internet speed to download Dishonored fast enough to make it so I can play it before midnight! That's an actual FPS I can play to show my displeasure to these people.

 

[The Nossa]

I don't see any point in stopping my gaming; nobody would notice and it would accomplish nothing.

 

[Uszi]

Anyone about to go "oh how could you do the very opposite on this day to spite mourners" should read the OP and remember that it's perfectly possible to do stuff like this.

Fuck no. I booted up San Andreas and shot only grand mother model NPCs today.

In a videogame without being compelled to do it IRL.

Yeah, it's not about spiting mourners. I think whenever someone starts talking about one party "spiting mourners" in the context of something like Ceasefire Friday, then that person is taking Ceasefire Friday way too seriously.

I guess I should be clear: If participating in Ceasefire Friday is personally a meaningful gesture for some people, then by all means, participate. I certainly do not want to discourage people from doing things they find personally meaningful.

I do not think it will be meaningful for myself, so I will therefore not participate. I think it had the exact opposite effect on me, where it made me want to perpetuate online violence just to show that I can do something horrible like a granny slasher spree in San Andreas and still be a well balanced individual.

 

[Loonyyy]

The idea behind Movember is that you get your family and colleagues to sponsor your silly moustache, and you then donate the money to the cancer charity. They actually raise a fair bit of cash this way, but the fact that not everybody's aware of the fundraising bit shows there's evidently still work to be done! This "online ceasefire" however, I can't see any direct benefit to.

My experience with Movember has always been people using it as an excuse to not shave for a month. It would seem to me that they're fully aware of the fundraising involved, but don't do it. Instead they do it "in the spirit of" and thus makes them feel good about doing a good thing as I described. I can use the same example for just about any cancer or disease awareness. The best way to do any of those things is to actually do something, such as making direct donations to the cause, and forget about the stupid little games.

There were some local organisers of Movember talking about how the "Awareness" is enough, and you don't need to fundraise, in my local area. I fucking hate people like this who don't understand activism, yet try their hand at it and do actual damage. There's a strong correlation between doing small actions like these and reduced donation to charitable causes: The people who grow moustaches without fundraising are less likely to fund others, which completely defeats the point.

Of course, "Awareness" is just the self-congratulatory wank as compared to actual action. We're still raising awareness for ass-cancers and breast cancers? I think we're all aware of them and even more aware of their fundraisers.

OT: Ceasefire Friday was a stupid idea.

It:

1) Correlates violent games and shooting in the minds of the public.
1a) As a promotional event, it PROMOTES that sentiment.
2) It's hypocritical and ignorant. You're not stopping watching television shows with guns, reading books with guns, listening to music which references guns.
3) It doesn't do anything positive.
3a) It makes a few people feel self righteous.
4) It trivialises the tragedy. Yeah, I'm so sad, I'm going to not play one genre of video games. I'm practically tearing my hair out and wearing sack-cloth for these people
5) It does not take a deliberate decision to participate. If you're playing most MOBAs, or camping, or hungover, you could do this without even trying.

I've got an idea. How about you do something. If you think the solution is to get rid of guns, support that. If you think the solution is to give teachers guns, support that. Donate some money to charities for research into mental illness. See if you can volunteer at a mental health hospital.

Altering your gaming habits slightly is the lamest thing you could do. Just for you guys, I'll switch hands for "special time" in the hope of changing stupid activist events into meaningful ones. I'll tell you how it works out in a week [spoilers-it doesn't change shit]

Solvemedia: "Ask questions"
Indeed.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I don't care for shooters but I played a ton of Guilty Gear Accent Core online on ps3 tonight, was hella fun.

 

[Generalissimo]

for this i'm going to play as many shooters as i can, i might even buy a few specifically for that day.

because i don't like the media

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Well, this ceasefire thing is both pointless, stupid and not worth acknowledging and in fact is actively detrimental to us SHOULD we even acknowledge that there might be a link by humouring such nonsense.

I spent my Friday playing Rocketeer for the NES. A game where you do nothing but shoot people, because screw your stupid knee-jerk reactions and implications of causation.

 

[Revolutionary]

Nope, I'll play what I damn well please...... Yesterday.
maybe mods should /thread.

 

[King Billi]

Well now since the day in question has come and gone I only hope those behind this "Ceasefire" found the support they hoped for and that their ultimate intentions and the message they hoped to convey proved beneficial in some way.

 

[metagaia]

The way I see it is this:

There may be a weak link between violent video games and actual violence, it seems silly to disregard it entirely.
However, the benefit of playing video games on my general enjoyment of life is well worth the very slight risk of negative consequences to myself. The same can be said about drinking in moderation, eating steak, and not studying new languages every single night.

The abstinence program will surely do more damage in the long run (to take any other straight abstinence program as an example). This is also the reason any changes to prevent "video game" massacres should be slowly phased in, whether their video game related or not.

 

[Adventurer2626]

I did it to prove that playing videogames with violence is a choice that I can choose not to participate in at any time and that it has no bearing on my personality/mental capacity.

 

[Brad Calkins]

I completely forgot about that, I was going to play Borderlands all day just to spite those idiots. I was even considering doing a let's play, and calling it the Christmas Murderathon, just to piss people off.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I'm doing it.
I might finally be able to pick up that achievement in Mirror's Edge for not shooting anybody.

And by the way, it's not about blaming games, they're not blaming anybody.
It's just a show of respect, you know, like the traditional "moment of silence"
Yeah, it doesn't actually do anything but it's still a nice little notion.

But I'd like to point out by putting down shooters for the day, most people and probably the media would think that not only shototers caused it but we accept that.

And beside, if we are going to stop shooters, then stop driving, ironing, cooking, folding, walking and breathing.

Because they all have as much to do with it as gaming does.

 

[Something Amyss]

I didn't play any shooters yesterday, but not because I was participating.

I didn't fire up my XBox at all yesterday, my PS3 played only Netflix, and the only title I played on my PC was Magic 2013.