Continuing to blur fiction and reality

[nightwng2000]

http://www.masslive.com/metroeastplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-3/119372881629720.xml&coll=1

It's amazing how many constantly dredge up real events to try to confuse people with the fictional events of games such as Manhunt 2. Failing to suggest that their moral superiority is sufficient to demand an end to the First Amendment in regards to fictional material, such individiauls will constantly use (and thereby abuse) the tragedies of individuals, families, and communities to confuse their audience into an additional sense of outrage at the fictional events.

While weak minded, ignorant individuals will easily buy into such nonsense at the wink of an eye and a nudge (and sometimes not even a nudge), it might be easier for such "authors" to suggest to their other readers that they should not eat or drink for 6 days and not sleep for 4 days/nights while listening to subliminal tapes that repeat over and over "<the author> is my God. I follow my God blindly in all things."

Even at an ABC News areticle, there are actually a couple of commenters, not sure if they are really serious, bitching that the game actually should offend mentally ill folks or that the game does harm to the mental health profession.

The Escapist has an article at the San Jose Mercury News ( http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/10/what_parents_should_really_do_about_manhunt_2_make _their_own_decision.html ) goes after the so-called "watchdog" groups. But maybe he should be taking a few pot shots at the author of The Republican article as even that author implies that alarms should be raised (wow, an alarmist who admits being an alarmist. will wonders never cease?).

[MaskedPixelante]

Whenever I hear the term Watchdog group, my mind goes back to Jan Brown from Vice City. Anyone out there remember her?

[Twin-Skies]

http://www.masslive.com/metroeastplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-3/119372881629720.xml&coll=1

It's amazing how many constantly dredge up real events to try to confuse people with the fictional events of games such as Manhunt 2. Failing to suggest that their moral superiority is sufficient to demand an end to the First Amendment in regards to fictional material, such individiauls will constantly use (and thereby abuse) the tragedies of individuals, families, and communities to confuse their audience into an additional sense of outrage at the fictional events.

While weak minded, ignorant individuals will easily buy into such nonsense at the wink of an eye and a nudge (and sometimes not even a nudge), it might be easier for such "authors" to suggest to their other readers that they should not eat or drink for 6 days and not sleep for 4 days/nights while listening to subliminal tapes that repeat over and over "<the author> is my God. I follow my God blindly in all things."

Even at an ABC News areticle, there are actually a couple of commenters, not sure if they are really serious, bitching that the game actually should offend mentally ill folks or that the game does harm to the mental health profession.

The Escapist has an article at the San Jose Mercury News ( http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/10/what_parents_should_really_do_about_manhunt_2_make _their_own_decision.html ) goes after the so-called "watchdog" groups. But maybe he should be taking a few pot shots at the author of The Republican article as even that author implies that alarms should be raised (wow, an alarmist who admits being an alarmist. will wonders never cease?).

"The Republican" - the publication's title sums them up rather squarely.

The article they've got posted already had me face-palming by the first paragraph no thanks to its sensationalist writing.

Makes me glad I decided to be a moderate...and I will personally beat the snot out of the first dude who says I'm just being indecisive.

[Soldat_Louis]

http://www.masslive.com/metroeastplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-3/119372881629720.xml&coll=1

It's amazing how many constantly dredge up real events to try to confuse people with the fictional events of games such as Manhunt 2. Failing to suggest that their moral superiority is sufficient to demand an end to the First Amendment in regards to fictional material, such individiauls will constantly use (and thereby abuse) the tragedies of individuals, families, and communities to confuse their audience into an additional sense of outrage at the fictional events.

Does someone have a full version of the article ? On their site, you have to pay in order to read the end.

[TheNova]

Maybe we should turn the First amendment into a giant metal baseball bat...

So if these so called "Watchdog groups" start running their mouth and calling for bans and censorship just swing the First Amendment at them and maybe they will shut their yaps for a change.

It's a thought

[nightwng2000]

Does someone have a full version of the article ? On their site, you have to pay in order to read the end.

Strange, if you're talking about The Republican, all I have to do is enter my zip, year of birth, and gender, then hit go to massive.com.

Anyway, here is the rest (2nd page):

Where are the public voices of alarm and open, constructive debate on this important cultural issue? When it comes to the marketplace and free enterprise, does anything go?

Now, let's willingly suspend our collective disbelief. "It's just a game. It's not real; therefore, it can do no harm." Repeat it as a mantra.
Now, let me tell you about Mike DeBardeleben, a sadist, serial rapist and murderer who was likened to Ted Bundy during his trial.

In author Stephen Michaud's book, "Lethal Shadow," Michaud explains that DeBardeleben "took steps to strengthen his approach to victims as if he needed dance steps drawn on the floor before he could participate." DeBardeleben divulged that he would write about his plans of rape and murder. How much easier would it be if he could actually play out the plan? Michaud also states that the ritualistic killer is driven by fantasy.
In "Lethal Shadow," FBI Special Agent John Douglas from the Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Va., lists behaviors and personality characteristics of rapists and killers, including "fantasy, influenced by sadomasochistic pornography, and the stalking of victims." According to War Cry Network, the British Board of Film Classification cited "unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying" in its decision to ban "Manhunt II."
I hope Take-Two and Rockstar hear me howling from the pit of my being over their insensitive release of this horror after our national, monthlong stand against violence. Thompson may have been silenced on this issue, but the consumer has not.

We have worked hard for victims' rights to be important to our society. What about the survivors of violent crime? How do they feel knowing that they live in a culture that promotes this type of "play?" I feel revulsion!
Maybe I am overly sensitive, since the number of murders in Massachusetts has increased this year over last. According to Jane Doe Inc., during the first nine months of 2007, 30 domestic murders occurred in the Bay State. In all of 2006, the number was only 24, including same-sex couples and children killed at the hands of a parent or their murdered parent's partner.

In the wake of Cleveland's Success Tech Academy killings and the Virginia Tech shootings, I find the promotion of mass murder appalling.
Maybe my sensitivity arrives from being a survivor, or that I live in Warren, where the abduction and murder of Molly Bish stills goes unsolved. Or perhaps it's the recent headlines in The Republican: "Testimony ends in teen's killing." Sixteen-year old Kelsea L. Owens' death on Aug. 15, 2006, was gruesome. Joshua Whitaker, 21, of Hampden, was accused of "bludgeoning her with a ball peen hammer, 10-pound weights, and a log and pruning shears."

This is not a game. This is real. Madeline A. Wheeler, of Warren, a survivor of attempted murder, is a veteran activist in domestic violence and date violence prevention. She also is a member of the Warren Domestic Violence Task Force.

[Darth_Toxic]

My, how insightful... I'm gonna go watch Ichi the Killer now. You don't mind, do you? Of course not... It's not a video game.