The assault on video games


Missy

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That and Joyce Carol Oates has never been falsely accused of sleeping with Michael Dirda for a good review in the Washington Post.

Video games have come a long way in just 40 years as an art form. It took the Library of Congress 80-odd years to start a registry of films. We're at a point where over half of the population grew up playing video games. Within a decade, it's going to be a firm majority and in two, nearly everyone in Washington will have some memory of playing Donkey Kong. Of course, by that point out oil reserves are going to be pretty much depleted and OPEC will have blindly led us back into the Dark Ages but that's neither here nor now. The point is, art takes time. It'll be at least another decade before Galaga is next to Archie Bunker's chair in the Smithsonian.

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  • 2 months later...

Everything I've ever read about and from Anita Sarkeesian outside of the whole Gamergate mess gives me the distinct impression we would not get along.

She gives a very radical and often ignorant voice to a well-intentioned cause. The fact that she's latched on to a medium that she apparently hates isn't helping.

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Furthermore, many of the more detailed complaints McIntosh put forward—such as the fact that the "Doom" trailer features someone being sawed in half — were almost comical in their ill-informedness.

For starters, the "person" referred to is a demon, not a person, and furthermore, the act of using a chainsaw to destroy an enemy is far from unique to "Doom."

http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/16/why-the-left-hates-video-games/

Video game critics have long relied on dishonesty and half-truths. For those old enough to remember, the descriptions of "Night Trap" by critics such as Joe Lieberman were just brazen lies.

Equating a demon with a person is dishonest - and it's not a person anyway! It is computer graphics. No actual people or demons are harmed.

But I have long since given up on expecting vidio game violence crusaders to be honest.

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Yeah, Sarkeesian seems to be really. Well. She just seems to be drumming up needless drama, honestly. It even extends to stuff like films, with calling Mad Max: Fury Road cartoonishly unfeminist, which, bullshit on a fucking stick. I already didn't have the time of day for her or Gamergate, but the shit she's been pulling lately has been fucking ridiculous.

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A person on the internet finds gameplay footage from a violent videogame unsettling. Also finds the reaction from it's fans troubling. Tweets about it.

Internet reacts; an article is written. How can this person find violent videogames troubling? Why do they want to stop other people from enjoying a videogame? Wait, did they say that? Well uh... they probably implied it. Y'know, indirectly.

The internet reaction dies down. Nothing changes. The world continues to turn.

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It's more notable in this case because it's coming from a person that's finding increasing power and influence in the industry despite frequent evidence that she doesn't fully understand it.

There are plenty of extremely knowledgeable and capable women in the industry that are raising valid questions about important issues. Sarkeesian has rarely come off as anything other than exploitative.

She weakens her own stance by presenting feminism as some sort of witch hunt.

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She put forward a value judgment upon people who enjoy over-the-top violence in video games. It would be one thing if she said, "man, this level of gore is just not for me," but she made it into a moral judgment upon the game itself and those who enjoy it—which carries more weight because she's recognized as someone with an important voice in the social issues of gaming.

I mean, I'm not really a fan of Mortal Kombat's fatalities, but I don't go around telling all my friends that I'm disappointed in them because they like it.

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I know she’s dry and abrasive, and she sometimes seems uncompromising on her points to the point of absurdity. But whatever sliver of influence she's had on the industry seems mostly positive. She may be opportunistic, but ultimately she's just another person on a soapbox; she's not trying to censor anyone, she's just putting her opinion out there.

And the article in question reads like a witch hunt. Yeah, I get that she's judging other people over what they enjoy, but was also very careful about how she worded it. Saying she finds it "troubling" just doesn't seem all that offensive to me. It seems like a bunch of fervour over nothing.

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It seems like a bunch of fervour over nothing.

Which is basically what her comments amounted to.

I actually thought the article made a good point: rather than judging a violent game for existing, she/we should be pushing for more non-violent games to be made as well. Expand the market, don't shrink it. Violence isn't the same thing as various social ills like sexism; it isn't a blemish to be purged.

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I guess I just have a problem taking the opinion of someone that once described Bayonetta was a patriarchy simulator seriously, and I'm kind of bothered that so many people do. There are better voices out there for any cause she claims to be a part of.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So Tale of Tales (creators of The Path, a game I championed a lot and even put on my favorite games of all time list) have kind of gone off the deep end and they've sort of outed themselves as a pair of ultra-pretentious douchebags. They've been having very immature outbursts on Twitter and have basically blamed everyone within the sound of their voice for their most recent game being a failure.

To cap it off, they're now writing batshit articles about the industry. Try to read without rolling your eyes. I dare you.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I had forgotten about this one. It showed up in my "on this day" page on Facebook.

http://www.cnet.com/news/peta-wages-war-on-pokemon-for-virtual-animal-cruelty/

Idiots. Pokemon is not real. No actual animals are harmed. Put the bong down.

I know people who do not play Pokemon for that same reason, however they do not get upset at people who do play it. My thoughts, I have found Pokemon fans get worked up and cry over cruelty done to a character either in the game or the show. So I do not see Pokemon as training the next generation of animal fighting rings. 

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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...

https://www.facebook.com/nbcnightlynews/videos/10155875993533689/

WATCH: Washington sheriff after latest school shooting: "You started glorifying cultures of violence -- you’ve glorified the gang culture, you’ve glorified games that actually give you points for raping and killing people. Gun didn’t change. We changed.”

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There are no mainstream video games on consoles (XBox, Playstation, Wii, 3DS or Switch) that allows players to rape people. He is either lying or repeating gossip without checking the facts. Neither is a good trait for a law enforcement officer. And NBC so-called "News" should know better.

Furthermore, violent crime has dropped dramatically over the last 25 years, as violent video games (from Mortal Kombat onward) have become much more popular. So there's no statistical data to back up what this guy is saying.

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Hey folks:

How do I insert text as a quote? I would rather quote the #FakeNews from NBC instead of separating it with the symbols I used above, but the option to use BB Code is gone.

I don't see anywhere I can insert text into a quote box, other than quoting another user. The new version of Invision appears to have eliminated that functionality.

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  • 4 months later...
5 hours ago, S-T said:

"PETA wants Warhammer characters to stop wearing furs now"

http://www.pcgamer.com/peta-wants-warhammer-characters-to-stop-wearing-furs-now/

This is what we call Reefer Madness.

Seriously, PETA, put the bong down.

I first got interested in Warhammer 40K when I heard someone comment on this story.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Since everyone is blaming video games for school shootings, consider this:

As many more violent games have been released , crime has fallen.

Crime is far lower now than at its peak in the 1990's, both in real numbers and even more on a per-capita basis.

So if anything, if you look at the statistics, violent video games have reduced violent crime.

Police are safer on the job than they have been in generations.

But by all means, continue the fearmongering and calls for censorship while ignoring the facts.

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No, video games are dangerous.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but Phoenix Wright games for two weeks and started shouting OBJECTION! everywhere I went.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but Zelda games for two weeks and started smashing every piece of crockery and pottery I could find.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but Pokemon games for two weeks and started making animals fight.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but Batman Arkham games for two weeks and started consistently blocking a third of the screen.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but Grand Theft Auto games for two weeks and started shooting people indiscriminately.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but Call of Duty games for two weeks and started threatening to fuck everyone's mothers.

I remember the madness I went through after playing nothing but King's Quest games for two weeks and started talking to an owl.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here are some stats to back up what I said earlier.

1993:

  • 24,530 murders
  • 106,010 rapes
  • 659,870 robberies

2017:

  • 17,250 murders
  • 95,730 rapes
  • 332,198 robberies

So not only is crime down in absolute numbers, but we have a significantly higher population. This means the crime rate is down even more.

(For @The Master.)

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