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ZippyDSMlee
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[QUOTE]Shocked into Silence: The Debate over Violence in Games
by Sean Sands, 12 Oct 2007 5:00 pm
bioshock, editorial, feature, games, halo, media, sands, violence

There are familiar names in positions of power and authority who deal in the business of vilifying video games; media seeking vultures who subvert informed discussion with the intention of converting their own extreme and ill-informed crusades into public policy. They swoop into tragedy and create simple answers to explain evil, manipulating the wounded and the weak-minded into swallowing easily digestible pills of placebo truth, and as the villains of modern media, we gamers are judged guilty in a court of public opinion that makes the Salem Witch Trials look rational. It is an unpleasant environment if you're in the uncertain public minefield of developing mature video games.

We enter a rare season of gaming, where the flavor of the month is first person shooters, among them: Halo 3, Team Fortress 2, Quake Wars, Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 4 and others. It is an unexpected return for a genre that has suffered serious criticism in the face of public outrage about violence and the supposed connection it has with these kinds of games. Despite evidence that violence in young-people is actually on the decline, and the lack of serious evidence linking gaming to violent behavior, video games have become the social pariah and poster child for everything from underage obesity to tragic shootings. The result has been endless negative press and frequent lawsuits for developers of mature content. It is a different environment for developers to work in, and the potential public response - reasonable or otherwise - to a game must increasingly be taken into account.

Let me be more clear: Companies are going to try not to get sued.

From a business perspective, I think we can all agree that philosophy just makes fundamental sense. Aside from a few companies whose entire advertising budgets seem to revolve around paying court costs in the hopes that the old adage about there being no bad press is true, most developers, and more importantly, publishers, want to avoid being branded as culpable for the death of anyone no matter how ridiculous such an accusation might be. The problem is not precisely that we have lawyers and psychologists parading around on all manner of often misnamed news programs telling us that Halo is the reason people go crazy and take guns to school, but rather that there are millions of people on the other end listening and nodding their head in comfortable agreement. Game companies find themselves up against a mindset of remarkable tenacity, if not clarity, and in the modern age of the lowest common denominators defining the terms of the debate, the political climate is one where public perception trumps rational debate.[/QUOTE]

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[url]http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.50128?p=1#343295[/url]
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My own posts

[QUOTE]Great my fcking post got ate....lets try this again

The problem with this is the elite(well to do,rich,moralists,ect) have always tried to not understand the masses, look at the bible and reading and well literacy for the masses it scared thos in power at the time, look at the elite blocking theater something they enjoyed for years once the masses started to like it they made a fuss about it, its a "they just don't understand" issue, they always seem to know better and their morals are better than everyone elses, by using free time and near inf sums of money they can impact on the populace more than anything else..look at the great crusades on all form of media over the years from words to dancing to to music its all been blamed before.(anyone with a better brain want to run with this thought? and I do mean in a non sarcastic/humor way :P)

I am not anti elite/rich but it seems that they always try and gang up on the masses either trying to protect them half heartily from the dangers of life or rape them of what lil money they have.

Anyone see the Glenn Beck ep where he talked to D.L Hulgy? His reaction during the the "walmart can sell guns but not songs about guns" part is what I mean he(I can't tell if he was play acting or not) tossed his head back and scoffed at the idea that stupid people are stupid regardless of the media they consume, this reaction that media brainwashes the masses is the reaction the elite have to "X" media since they do not understand its really no different than the media they consume they use it to pile on societies woes and try and ban it, the naivety is astounding.

Life is hard,people can break, people are indavenauls that tend to heard easily however media makes a killer/abuser as much as a word dose,as much as a gun dose, as much as a game dose, as much as life dose.

There are a few main factors that do mental stability, heathly child hood, drugs(not bashing drugs but the right mix of some can lead to mental insabilty,I think they should be legalized and the war on drugs refocused 180 degrees) 1 of these 3 factors will always be relevant in cases of humans killing them selfs(to kill another is to kill thyself bit by bit) , BTW if one is stupid enough one can be mental,also mental stress to protect ones self can lead to short term instability.

I'll stop now before I contradict myself more LOL[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]danimal1384
the mentality to control the populace you do not understand is on factor, another is we have near instant infermation flowing 24/7 that with more dense centered populaces you'll just have more instadents of sht happening just because more people=more problems.

I don't mean to sound like a anti elite conspirisist but any group of well to do humans = elite so when they join forces for any cause (organized religion,goverment,corporations) the likely hood of the the views of the fee being expressed and enacted upon are high, the trouble with the few leading the many, the few live hidden lives and tend not to understand the many thus you get fcked up nuances in morals,regulation and fleecing the public.

Sure I believe in "limited regulation" (de regulation,ban lobbying,legalize drugs, funny thing prostitution is legal its just most states don't want nothing to do with it, why can't we effect more things at the state level?) anyway I am trying not to sound like a loon, but alas I fails :P

Bascily the elite or thos in the power have always tried to nanny the adult populace in one shape or another, its never been the "media" itself but thos around it seeking to use it for their own gain.[/QUOTE]

__________________

Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
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Incoherence is my friend and grammar my bane, which is the fulcrum of suffering I place upon others!:ZippyDSMlee
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