Anti-Videogames

Barlett

Hey everyone just doing a bit of work on the gaming industry...have you come across anyone in Ireland who is anti-videogames due to violence? I know a Senator and Mary Mitchell O'Connor have said a few things in the past, anyone come across anyone else?

Thanks

VinLieger

Just wait till GTA gets released in 2 weeks they will be coming out of the wood work. It happened with the last game, I remember having to listen to morons on the radio spouting on about "getting points for drink driving and hitting pedestrians".

Captain Chaos

VinLieger wrote: »

Just wait till GTA gets released in 2 weeks they will be coming out of the wood work. It happened with the last game, I remember having to listen to morons on the radio spouting on about "getting points for drink driving and hitting pedestrians".

I'm amazed Saint Row 2, 3 and 4 are not hit on more than the GTA series now. The Saints Row series is far more off the wall language, violence and sex wise than GTA ever has been. It's real laugh though at the same time but not for under 16-18s.

Sarky

Nobody who wasn't also hopelessly ignorant about the games they were decrying, or hadn't even watched it being played. Or who wasn't also just a bumbling fool.

So Fidelma Healy Eames, mostly.

Barlett

Captain Chaos wrote: »

I'm amazed Saint Row 2, 3 and 4 are not hit on more than the GTA series now. The Saints Row series is far more off the wall language, violence and sex wise than GTA ever has been. It's real laugh though at the same time but not for under 16-18s.

I think it's mainly because it's not a real massive seller and doesn't have the same marketing drive behind it

super_furry

Think Healy Eames was attacking it from a deep vein thrombosis angle. She'd be better off trying to ban aviation.

VinLieger

Captain Chaos wrote: »

I'm amazed Saint Row 2, 3 and 4 are not hit on more than the GTA series now. The Saints Row series is far more off the wall language, violence and sex wise than GTA ever has been. It's real laugh though at the same time but not for under 16-18s.

Its because of what GTA has become outside of video games, anyone who doesnt know anything about games has heard of it, Saints Row has never had a Hot Coffee scandal or stories in the media about being able to murder hookers

Sarky

super_furry wrote: »

Think Healy Eames was attacking it from a deep vein thrombosis angle. She'd be better off trying to ban aviation.

It won't take long before she's panicking that it literally teaches our children to fornicate and calling for a ban on teaching children about biology.

thegame983

Barlett wrote: »

Hey everyone just doing a bit of work on the gaming industry...have you come across anyone in Ireland who is anti-videogames due to violence? I know a Senator and Mary Mitchell O'Connor have said a few things in the past, anyone come across anyone else?

Thanks

Unfortunatly these are just moronic politicians looking for the conservative vote or trying to push their own agenda. The whole videogame & violence debate was brought up in a big way in the states last year as a huge no. of politicians (at the behest of gun lobbyists) were trying to blame videogames for the school shootings that occured. As opposed to y'know the actual guns or the dickheads that wield them.

returnNull

thegame983 wrote: »

Unfortunatly these are just moronic politicians looking for the conservative vote or trying to push their own agenda. The whole videogame & violence debate was brought up in a big way in the states last year as a huge no. of politicians (at the behest of gun lobbyists) were trying to blame videogames for the school shootings that occured. As opposed to y'know the actual guns or the dickheads that wield them.

I posted this in another thread the otherday but is good for this one too

The former White House "video game czar" (official title: senior policy analyst for the White House Office of Science and Technology) Constance Steinkuehler tells the Christian Science Monitor that the discussion about Grand Theft Auto's part in yesterday's shooting involving an 8-year-old in Louisiana is simply bait for pageviews and viewership because there's no research to support such claims.

"If you look at the state of research right now, there isn't a causal link between violent media and violent behaviors," said Steinkuehler. "That's contested in some corners," she adds. "You have to keep in mind that in much of that work that's trying to assert there's a positive relationship, it's pretty tenuous – showing, for example, that after 20 minutes of playing a game subjects have an increased likelihood to fill in a letter in a word that is EXPLO_E as 'EXPLODE' rather than 'EXPLORE.' ...There are a lot of inferences that you have to draw in order for that to work."

http://gamepolitics.com/2013/08/27/former-white-house-video-game-czar-responds-louisiana-shooting#.Uidp_cY4sqB

C14N

It's not really an ongoing thing in Ireland I don't think. I remember when Manhunt 2 was released there was a lot of discussion about it and they did ban it in the end (a ban which I believe is still in effect). GTA always stirs up some controversy on release but amazingly, most parents never seem to cop on and continue letting kids play it every single time.

LuckyFinigan

With GTA V out in a few weeks you can be sure there'll be a Joe Duffy special on it.

brianregan09

Manhunt 2 ban....nobody told my local xtra vision they have it for a fiver for Wii of all things lol

o1s1n

Second hand maybe? Due to it being released in the UK, quite a lot ended up on the second hand market over here.

Funny seeing it on shelves though after the huge deal our censorship office made out of it

brianregan09

Oh yeah definitly second hand box is a bit tattered hence the fiver euro price i have a Wii at home , But from what i heard it didn't come near the original (which is due a next gen one btw) and was just played for violence gore without any substance behind it

C14N

brianregan09 wrote: »

Oh yeah definitly second hand box is a bit tattered hence the fiver euro price i have a Wii at home , But from what i heard it didn't come near the original (which is due a next gen one btw) and was just played for violence gore without any substance behind it

I heard it was alright but I think it was heavily modified to reduce the violence for release. The Brits originally banned it too, as did the Americans so they couldn't just let an entire game go to waste like that.

brianregan09

Maybe ill pick it up then if they still have it lol

o1s1n

Both the games at a surface level can be viewed as just violence for violence sake, but at least the original did try to do something interesting (the whole being stuck in a rolling snuff movie thing was actually kind of interesting - freaky while wearing the headset)

I do like the whole thing in them of someone being forced to kill. Killing in those games is a dirty, bad thing. Even if it is really gratuitous in it's execution. You come out of a session of those games wanting to give yourself a good scrub.

It's quite the contrast to games like COD where you're blasting everything in sight without any thought of what you're really doing.

o1s1n

brianregan09 wrote: »

Maybe ill pick it up then if they still have it lol

Don't bother with the Wii version, they censored it to a point where it's not really playable anymore.

krudler

Sarky wrote: »

Nobody who wasn't also hopelessly ignorant about the games they were decrying, or hadn't even watched it being played. Or who wasn't also just a bumbling fool.

So Fidelma Healy Eames, mostly.

ages back when Modern Warfare 2 came out there was a Joe Duffy episode with lots of hysterical mothers saying it was being used to train US troops due to it's "realism". I bet there's a rake of snipers with 360 no scope kills in Afghanistan right now.

Dont be at yourself

Barlett wrote: »

Hey everyone just doing a bit of work on the gaming industry...have you come across anyone in Ireland who is anti-videogames due to violence? I know a Senator and Mary Mitchell O'Connor have said a few things in the past, anyone come across anyone else?

Thanks

Our Hobbit president laid into them a while ago, though not about violence.

http://breakingnews.ie/ireland/president-urges-young-people-to-switch-off-video-games-529504.html#IDComment226619371

He's obviously never played LittleBigPlanet, or Minecraft.

landsleaving

super_furry wrote: »

Think Healy Eames was attacking it from a deep vein thrombosis angle. She'd be better off trying to ban aviation.

She loves aviation though...

C14N

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Our Hobbit president laid into them a while ago, though not about violence.

http://breakingnews.ie/ireland/president-urges-young-people-to-switch-off-video-games-529504.html#IDComment226619371

He's obviously never played LittleBigPlanet, or Minecraft.

He was quoting Welsh novelist and playwright Williams who, like him, was a lifelong supporter of the arts...

...During his election campaign, Mr Higgins pledged to champion the arts and creative industries, and to help bring in more related jobs.

So why doesn't he support video games then? Shouldn't he be encouraging kids to create games and not patronizing them for enjoying them?

VinLieger

C14N wrote: »

So why doesn't he support video games then? Shouldn't he be encouraging kids to create games and not patronizing them for enjoying them?

Product of his generation, he simply cant grasp the idea that they arent a childs plaything and games like LBP give kids the tools to be incredibly creative, similar to all the other people who blame violence on games while ignoring the fact those games are meant for adults. They are stuck in an old view that video games = toys for kids

C14N

VinLieger wrote: »

Product of his generation, he simply cant grasp the idea that they arent a childs plaything and games like LBP give kids the tools to be incredibly creative, similar to all the other people who blame violence on games while ignoring the fact those games are meant for adults. They are stuck in an old view that video games = toys for kids

I'm not just talking about games that encourage creativity though, I mean that the article says things like

During his election campaign, Mr Higgins pledged to champion the arts and creative industries, and to help bring in more related jobs.

So why isn't he promoting the idea of kids learning to make video games along with all other creative industries? More and more we're seeing tiny teams and even individuals being very creative with the medium and if give kids as young as 12 or 13 the education on how, there's no reason they can't try their hands at development too. What's more, there are far more jobs (which it specifically mentions) that can be generated with a populist medium like video games than with traditional things like prose, poetry and painting.