Violent Games to be Banned

Canis Lupus

Cows With Guns wrote:

Im gonna go throw bricks off a bridge and blame it on tetris

LOL comedy gold

LegacyUser

Canis Lupus wrote:

U slagging my folks????

Well...quite possibly.

LegacyUser

[CrimsonGhost] wrote:

What about idiots who have difficulty forming sentences, and have no grasp of punctuation!

theres a special place for them too. They write for the Sun or the Mirror.

Kain

I should hope for McDowells sake that he doesn't ban these games, cause he'll probably find himself on the end of some GTA nuts gun/petrol bomb/baseball bat/remote plane with minigun.

Canis Lupus

cheesedude wrote:

Well...quite possibly.

Then I'd like to take the opportunity to explain that while my parents enjoy the Mirror (I'm at a loss as to why), they possess a vocabulary greater than that of 100 words.

qz

I seriously doubt that violent games will start getting banned, I know that some people are against them and what not, but it'll never happen, imo.

[CrimsonGhost]

qz wrote:

http://greendayauthority.com/Downlo...will_aiicon.gif "Eventually I stopped caring. But that was the '80s so nobody noticed."

I'm sure that's a great image, but you need to set permissions so people can view it.

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Retr0gamer

The only piece of positive journalism about videogames that i've seen in the last 3 or so years was in the Culture section of the times when they were talking about GTA san andreas and that its only a matter of time before games will be recognised as art and get the respect they deserve.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum an example being this weeks sunday independent. One of the 'violent videogames listed is Shadow Hearts which 'worryingly' contains 'lots of demons,ancient rites and heavy hetero and homosexual innuendo'. The mention of demaons and ancient rites stinks heavily of 'Burn the witch, burn them all!'. Also Doom 3 is mentioned as having decapitations and exploding heads and there are various other mistakes made about other games. These journalists have never played these games and thereofore don't have an educated opinion and shouldn't be allowed to write this offal.

monument

Retr0gamer wrote:

Then there is the other end of the spectrum an example being this weeks sunday independent... offal.

Was there any text between 'Sunday Independent' and 'offal'? I got lost and merged the two.

Seriously, that’s exactly the kind of sensational ignorant nonsense the Sindo is known for.

dloob

Found an article about it from the sunday independant
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1294284&issue_id=11744

I think the gist of it is to make selling 18s games to under 18s illegal.
It seems in Ireland it doesn't matter what rating is on the box there is no legislation behind it, it's only advisory. :cool:

Put that in you Mirror/Sun Headline maker and it becomes a ban on violent video games.

They also have that list of top 10 violent games from the " Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility"

What do you think of these descriptions
HALF-LIFE 2 (Sierra)

The player is a scientist who must save earth by killing aliens and fending off attacks from giant insects in a Big Brother-type state. Weapons range from a crowbar to a pistol. Realistic graphics make for a terrifying atmosphere. The player's presence affects the emotions and behaviour of those around him.

HALO 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)

A genetically enhanced 'super-soldier' fights to prevent the destruction of mankind. Contains swearing and lots of alien blood. :rolleyes:

dloob

Just a note on that interfaith thing.
They are a US organisation and they published their list last week to great fanfare with a press conference at the US Congress.
Long time video game fan Senator Joe Liberman was supporting them.

We need xXx to drive his car off a bridge

qz

dloob wrote:

Found an article about it from the sunday independant
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1294284&issue_id=11744
What do you think of these descriptions
HALF-LIFE 2 (Sierra)

The player is a scientist who must save earth by killing aliens and fending off attacks from giant insects in a Big Brother-type state. Weapons range from a crowbar to a pistol.

I really don't see what they're complaining about.
You get to be a scientist, everyone loves scientists. Plus, you're not a bad scientist, you're a good one, you get to save the world.

So what is the Indo on about? I mean it's not as if you play someone who destroys the world. Sheesh. :rolleyes:

monument

Ian O'Doherty restoring some of my fate in the Indo (just the Indo, not the Sindo!)...

It's up to parents to monitor what their children are doing

It was, we were reliably informed, merely the latest example of an unregulated industry run amok.

Determined to rob our children of both their innocence and their money, computer games manufacturers are, it would seem, the modern equivalent of the Nic O'Teen, the 1970s cartoon villain whose main goal in life was to lead children away from the straight and narrow.

Nic O'Teen used tobacco to lure children into a life of moral turpitude but, this being a more technological era, computer games are the bugbear du jour.

The release last week of JFK Reloaded saw the usual kerfuffle break out in the media as pundits and parents scrambled over each other in an effort to condemn what one TV network described as "sick, exploitative and a new low in an already debased industry".

Of course, the truth was rather more complex. The game, in which the participant attempts to recreate the Kennedy assassination is actually a far smarter and subtler affair than the casual observer has been led to believe. Indeed, the fact that the producers have put up $100,000 to the first player who can accurately recreate Oswald's firing pattern - and manage to kill Kennedy while doing so - shows that the game is another instalment in the ongoing Kennedy conspiracy debate. The producers have put up the prize because they know that it is impossible.

The controversy over JFK Reloaded will fade, but the furore over console games is likely to only increase in the run up to Christmas. Ireland is second only to Japan in the amount per capita we spend on games, and a game like Grand Theft Auto - Vice City, which features prostitutes, cop killing and - gasp! - people having sex is likely to be one of the year's best sellers.

For the past week, GTA and other games such as Doom 3 have been the favourite topic of conversation on phone-in radio programmes and newspaper columns as critics of a certain age mourn the loss of innocence and hark back nostalgically to the time when the definition of a sophisticated computer game was Pong, the tennis simulation that involved scrolling a bat up and down the screen trying to hit a ball back to your opponent.

The outrage felt by many parents, of course, is down to their own ignorance. Because, simply put, this whole debate boils down to parental responsibility.

Contrary to what some people would have us believe, it is not the business of games companies to parent your kids, and no amount of crying in the media over the alleged negative impact of games can change that.

Parents need to educate themselves on what games their offspring are playing. For instance, any parent who allows a young child to play a game like GTA should be reported to the Social.

After all, you don't allow your children - presumably - to look at violent movies, but I haven't heard anyone calling for Martin Scorsese movies to be banned.

As things stand, the age guidelines on games are just that - guidelines. The legislation necessary to make it a crime to sell a restricted game to a minor simply doesn't exist and, therefore, the onus is on parents to educate themselves about what games their kids are playing.

The hysteria and confusion caused by internet chat rooms has largely dissipated in the last 12 months because parents now realise that they need to monitor what sites their kids are visiting. The same applies to what games they play.

So the next time you hear some parent on Liveline or a similar radio programme bleating on about some unsuitably violent game they caught their kid playing, ask yourself this - who bought the child the game in the first place?

It was interesting to see some influential Church figures such as Archbishop Diarmuid Martin come out with remarks which have been seen by some as offering guarded support for the rights of gay people to get married.

While Martin seems to be an unusually enlightened general in the Catholic Chruch, the news that at least 50pc of his footsoldiers disapprove of gay marriage comes as no great surprise.

Recognising that overt opposition to gay marriage simply makes the opponent look like a bigot, some clever Catholics have tried to dress up their revulsion at the idea in a cloak of pseudo-sociological nonsense.

US Republican Senator Rick Santorum, for instance, copped a lot of flak for saying that once you recognised gay marriage, what was to stop you from recognising polygamy and incest, and while Irish commentators have been rather more subtle than that small-minded fool (who has been tagged as one of the rising young stars in the Bush administration), any opposition to gay marriage is an act of bigotry.

It boils down to the fact that if two people love each other and choose to formalise their relationship, it is not the business of you, me or anyone else to get in their way.

And while the Catholic Church is entirely entitled to stick to its own traditional anti-gay agenda, the State has no such luxury.

That there is even a debate about this, let alone that some people can argue against equal rights for gay marriage is quite staggering, and once again shows the prurient, fussy minded intolerance of so many people - particularly people of a religious bent.

After all, I got married last year and if all I have to look forward to is several decades of tedious subservience followed by a messy break up and years of alimony, I don't see why my gay pals should be allowed to escape scot free.

iodoherty@unison.independent.ie

Ian O'Doherty

Wrong GTA game named, but good over all.

http://unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=45&si=1294558&issue_id=11745

magpie

Where can I get that JFK game? Sounds class.

monument

http://www.jfkreloaded.com/

cHilliSheep

100% of Tom & Jerry Episodes are violent.

monument

And who honestly thinks the Simpsons is ‘suitable’ for children?

hoolio

watch out,here comes a

[rant]

Journalists in general are sickeningly un-informed when it comes to games.For example not very recently but in the last year or so there was an article/editorial in the Irish Times by some woman whose name i can't remember but it isn't important anyway. It was one of those great ones where she explained how evil faceless game companies are peddling violence to the poor innocent little darlings,one of those articles that allow all parents reading it to fool themselves into thinking that its nintendo/sony/microsoft's fault that their kid is an anti-social mainiac and not theirs.She tried/failed to be sarcasticly witty too,trying to describe games as people - she said things like 'now our kids have made new friends, like Max Pain,who loves to kill ........

I remember it because she singled out firstly 'Hit Man'.The spelling is partly what pissed me off as it was clear from what she said that she didn't even understand that it was called Hitman because you are an assassin in it.She seemed to think that it was a name like Super-Man,Bat-Man,Mega-Man,Jump-Man etc and that the first part of the name obviously stated what the game was about .So just as Spiderman is like a spider and just as Megaman is ,ahem, Mega then Hitman would obviously be about hitting.No depth to her argument,not even a mention of any details of the game,just that the children's new friend 'Hit-Man' was violent.

And for all those who though that was a typo she then set at the childrens other new friend 'Max Pain',so called because of same logic as "Hit-Man" above - pain is what the game champions.The spelling error might seem trivial but it really gets to me as it was obvious she had done exactly zero research,just recycling what she heard some other fool say about evil games at one point.I'm not dismissing her argument (not that there was much of one) just because of spelling errors, it's just that if a journalist can't even be bothered to research and get something basic like a game's name (which is in big fat letters on the box,in case she didnt know) right the how could she possible make a decent argument about anything else relating to games?

I actually do think that who games are sold to should be controlled,well really only to the young (by which i mean sub 15).I mean as far as i'm concered everyone 16 and over can tell the difference between films/games etc and reality.There isn't really much i can think of that really deserves an 18's but i still think that violent games shouldn't be sold to the very young and it should be the shops job to sell it to them and the parents not to but it.

For example i wouldn't want my 9/10 year old son/daughter watching Hellraiser or playing Soldier Of Fortune and therefore I'd do something drastic,something just crazy,which most people who rant against violence in all media forms don't seem to be able to think of - I a)woudn't buy it for them and b)wouldn't let them have play/see it.Where do 9 year olds get copies of GTA? Mommy & Daddy. Who puts a tv,computer and PS2 in their room? Mommy & Daddy.Who lets them play and watch whatever they want? Mommy & Daddy. And finally who suddenly claims it's Rockstar's fault when their kid does something stupid? Yep thats right - Mommy & Daddy.

It's every parents resonsibility to know what their children are watching on tv,listening to on their stereo,playing on their computers and looking at on the internet.It is not however a parents responsibility to run screaming to the nearest rag blaming Microsoft/Eminem/Hollywood every time their child messes up.People like this are always far too quick to point the finger at someone else and far too slow to take a look in their own back yard.If your child is acting like a prick then it's probably your fault,not someone elses, you raised them,well you should have.

[/rant]

and breath.................


Oh and for some amusing game reviews try http://www.almenconi.com/topics/games/reviews.html - gotta love those bible belters for giving us things like this.

They rate games based on how much violence,language,sex,occult content and how moral it is.They gave Deus Ex an F for "violence with blood and gore, foul language, and scantily clad women.".Fable got 2 ratings - a C if you are the Hero,an F for the anti-hero.Tony Hawk Underground 2 got an F aswell - low brow humour,crudeness,the occult and those scantily clad women again.Good stuff.

SantaHoe

Retr0gamer wrote:

The only piece of positive journalism about videogames that i've seen in the last 3 or so years was in the Culture section of the times when they were talking about GTA san andreas and that its only a matter of time before games will be recognised as art and get the respect they deserve.

Ah yes, the video game generation are growing up and getting jobs... now they can write about video games with some actual knowledge of the subject.

Wertz

Out of interest and seeking balance I went in search of The Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility's website, thinking I'd come across some sensationalist, neo-con, American-Christian organisation.

...and I did, to some extent, but I read their press release on this issue anyway, and found that it didn't seek to pursue the outright banning of mature videogames, perse, but was moreso asking for more forms of control on the age of players these games reach:
"Corporations must assume greater responsibility for education about, and enforcement of, rating systems and guidelines applicable to violent interactive videos.
Be a voice for change. Write to leading retailers and renters of video games and find out what their policies are to prevent children's access to violent video and computer games".

It followed with this statistic (which sorta rings true to me at least):
"Mature"-rated games (for persons 17 or older) are now the fastest growing segment of the video game industry (Knight-Ridder Newspapers, 1/5/03). About one-third of video games now purchased are rated "M," the marketing firm NPD Funworld reports. About 40 percent of those who play "M"-rated games are under 18, according to the Federal Trade Commission"

So once again we see sensationalist "journalism" from the tabloids ring completely untrue. No-one wants to ban violent videogames. Hell, the Americans aren't naieve enough to think that you can suddenly outlaw a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry (in which their own country is a mnarket leader) and not affect the global cinema or music industrys in a similar fashion.

I do not agree with the reports about violent games leading to increased violent tendencies in chilren who play them, but then again I'm not a behavioural psychologist.
I always held with the belief that games (especially these days) are a form of art as mentioned above, and that as in the case of all other art media, art immitates life, not the other way round...

http://www.iccr.org/issues/violence/featured.php

magpie

Ah yes, the video game generation are growing up and getting jobs

Seeing as how Pong was available in the home in 1976 the elder members of the 'video game generation' would be in their late 30s, so its about time those bums got jobs!

Ah, the mighty Pong. And now 'Pong Doubles'

http://www.pong-story.com/atpong2.htm

Cactus Col

magpie wrote:

Seeing as how Pong was available in the home in 1976 the elder members of the 'video game generation' would be in their late 30s, so its about time those bums got jobs!

Plasma screens are available for homes now, but I don't have one, and neither do most people.

(point is, I doubt that there are huge legions of people growing up in 1970;s who had pong in their living rooms.)

magpie

(point is, I doubt that there are huge legions of people growing up in 1970;s who had pong in their living rooms.)

Atari released the Atari 2600 in 1977, 1 year later, and sold 30 Million consoles. Enough people for you?

Read all about it here

dloob

Penny Arcades take on it all
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-12-01

po0k

SyxPak wrote:

HL2 and Doom3 are perfectly valid "games", and their themes and storylines/plots reflect their target audience.

[biased but with some fact]
To be honest, I think alot of the fear of games affecting kids stems from console gaming, and parents being ignorant of what they letting their children play.
I haven't seen a PC-only release being advertised in the media, yet there are regular ads for console games, some of which are not particularly suitable for young children.
GTA:VC/SA and Killzone being prime examples.
If the parent(s) hasn't the cop-on to realise a game called Grand Theft Auto will have some for of anti-social behaviour in it (ignoring context here for a second) then they have no-one to blame but themselves.
One 'problem' is that often kids will borrow a game off their friends, who in turn might have taken it from their older brother/sister, and the child's parents don't know he/she is playing it.

There should be a ratings system in place for games, and it should be displayed prominently on the front of the packaging and on the game media.
It should be coupled with an effective awareness campaign, perhaps bolstered by distributing material to schools to give out at Parent-Teacher meetings / mailed to each household.

As for banning games, I don't think a game can be rated in the same manner as a film as they are different media, and the subject gets a different experience from each.

The psychological profile of the child will greatly affect the experience he/she gets from playing a game.

From my own perspective, I really enjoyed Half-Life and the GTA series.
I haven't put a cap in anyone's ass or gone mowing down civilians in a freshly stolen car.
Contrast this to the uncontrollable rage I felt whilst being subjected to The Matrix: Revolutions.
Had to get a new keyboard, and the housemates weren't too happy with my roaring and ranting. Left a nasty dent in the back of the door.
The less said about the Postal 2 'episode', the better.

From pam's journal

monument

But he has turned into a woman! :eek:

koneko

monument wrote:

But he has turned into a woman! :eek:

A pretty little girl rather than a woman.

irldavem

Peace wrote:

And when you are all tighly packed into the church I'll just toss in a frag and send you all straight to hell...

LOL
That'll sort em all.
Don't forget to add a quirky catchphrase like "Say your prayers" or something along those lines.

also

Trivo wrote:

Parent always seek to blame game manufacturer and film makers for the kids hyperactivity or anti social behavior etc.........
This argument is nothing new and won’t go away personally i blame the parents lol

Reminded me of Bowling For Columbine when this knob was giving a speech about violence in music (Marilyn Mansons music in this case) and comparing music to an Audi advert!!!!!?
He was saying that this type of music causes violence. Crazy!
People become violent mostly because of the way they were brought up. i.e. not good parents

heggie

was that charlton heston ?