Videogames Blamed for Alaskan Tugboat Accident

[Agent Cross]

Breaking News: Videogames Have Seized Control of the Tugboats of the World.

When this shows up as a headline, we can start blaming videogames.

 

[manythings]

Personally, I think the guy just had a really bad case of being sidetracked, and that the video game involved was incidental. You could have replaced the video games in question with a sudoku puzzle or crossword, or a book he really wanted to finish, or a TV that just so happened to be there, and it wouldn't of made a difference at all.

Mainly I think it's the fact that he is incompetent/a shitty captain.

That, too. Actually, I think that's kind of what I was getting at. Gilligan would have made a better captain!

Metaphorically speaking Gilligan was Beelzebub and the crew were the seven deadly sins.

 

[StellarViking]

Maybe I could use video games as an excuse for why I'm not studying as well as I should be and get off the hook with my exams.

How convenient it is when there's something else to blame other than human negligence.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Wat.

Why is it the video games' fault when your captain isn't doing his job?

Spoiler

This.

Are you kidding me? It was the captain's fault for being a massive idiot. If they actually say that videogames were at fault in the end then... you know what? I don't even know anymore.

And this.

This is the fault of the captain's negligence, not a game.

And this too.
Honestly, video games aren't the issue here, the issue here is that the captain wasn't doing his job properly. He could've been reading a fucking book, and if he was would we place the blame for this on books?

 

[Harbinger_]

So could I blame video games for not paying my credit card bills and then get out of debt? If only

 

[lacktheknack]

Wait... Hearts? who the fuck plays Hearts? it's not like you need a top end PC to play flash games...

BECAUSE HEARTS IS AMAZING!

OT: It wasn't video games' fault, and only the most delusional would say it is.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Lol negligence is fun... Also i don't think they were outright accusing video games, they were just stating a fact that they're a temptation

 

[Ranorak]

Should we blame the captain, should we blame the vessel, or the crewman who allowed his captain to do this?

Hell no, blame video games.

I see what you did there, buddy.

OT: Damn those card games, damn to hell I say!
How could they let this kind of addicting stuff come to a pc?
CHILDREN PLAY WITH THEM!

 

[Dastardly]

Permalink

That's because Hearts is a murder simulator. It will also lead to rape.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Yeah, now here we have another unnecessarily alarmist Escapist headline. The original headline says "Alaska tug captain faulted for playing video games" that is not "Videogames Blamed for Alaskan Tugboat Accident". Really Chalk, get it right.

No one is blaming videogames, stop being such a bunch of overly defensive hysterical headless chickens.

You could have been a little more delicate in the way you said that, but god damn if you aren't right. I just read the original article, and it doesn't victimize games in the slightest bit.

Really, Escapist, hate to say it, but that's a bit bad on your part =/

 

[Smooth Operator]

See, video games do kill people! And make you a rapist, they are also responsible for the economy and global warming!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

You know these cell-phone thingies? The ones they banned in cars because people kept running into things? You think you should perhaps follow suit?

 

[Formica Archonis]

Simple solution: Go back in time and kill all the tarot card readers so Hearts never gets invented. Because that makes as much sense as blaming video games for distracting someone who would clearly have been just as distracted by a real deck of cards, or a particularly big housefly, or some navel lint....

Metaphorically speaking Gilligan was Beelzebub and the crew were the seven deadly sins.

Acutally, Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory].

 

[LordBag]

Umm yeah unless I'm missing something, I didn't see videogames being blamed once in that article, just blamed the guy for doing that when he should be concentrating on his job. Bit of a misleading title, no?

 

[Frank_Sinatra_]

Last time I checked, human stupidity was the fault of the human, not the inanimate object.
Oh well, while the trend is dying picking on video games is trendy.

 

[mjc0961]

The incident actually took place in December 2009 but the Coast Guard's preliminary report wasn't completed until May 5 of this year.

Good job Coast Guard, keep up that extraordinarily efficient work.

Seems to me, it's more the fault of an easily bored captain than videogames.

Easily bored seems to generous. I'm thinking completely incompetent. This numbnuts playing Hearts instead of watching his surroundings is just one one the things he did wrong.

 

[JDKJ]

Umm yeah unless I'm missing something, I didn't see videogames being blamed once in that article, just blamed the guy for doing that when he should be concentrating on his job. Bit of a misleading title, no?

I'd say. But that's become the norm, not the exception. After a while, you learn to ignore the headlines. Rarely do they have anything to do with the actual substance of the article.

I guess it's thought that if it had read the more accurate "Captain and Second Mate Blamed for Tug Boat Accident," no one would bother to read it -- but I'm not seeing the logic in that line of reasoning

 

[McMullen]

So, does this mean I can miss my deadlines and blame Dwarf Fortress and Mass Effect? Or if, say, my climbing partner slipped and fell to his/her death, I can blame my not catching the belay line in time on Angry Birds?

Nice to know there's fallback options for when my own judgment fails. I'd hate to think I'm actually expected to be responsible for my own actions in serious situations.

 

[BrownGaijin]

Breaking News: Videogames Have Seized Control of the Tugboats of the World.

When this shows up as a headline, we can start blaming videogames.

Suddenly I have a vision of various consoles and PCs taking the over tugboats and running them into other objects. My happy thought of the day.

OT: I take it the captain did not get the same memo most of us did stating that there is a time and place for everything. So according to my score card, a captain playing video games was responsible for the spill, and an engineer who was busy texting was responsible for a train crash in my county a few years ago. Are we not taking notes class?