CBS news segment on GTA: fear mongering

[CptStern]

it was on last night ...your usual knee-jerk alarmist fluff piece meant to scare parents

there was one mom (she just looked stupid) who was sitting with her 2 kids aged between 4-8 yrs of age ..she was saying how she doesnt want those kind of games (GTA) influencing her children HELLO YOU FREAKIN DUMBASS YOUR KIDS ARE 4 AND 8 ..the game is rated mature

anyways here's some of the alarmist crap cbs was pushing:

"They start with this magnificent lede:

"WELCOME TO THE DARK WORLD OF “GRAND THEFT AUTO SAN ANDREAS”- WHERE KILLING COPS EARNS YOU POINTS, NOT PRISON."

Points? Does GTA have points? Even if you take this at something other than its literal meaning, the game sure as hell doesn’t reward cop killing, in penalizes it. You kill a cop, two come for you, you kill two, a SWAT, kill more, the FBI until eventually you are taken down."


here's the full transcript

 

[CptStern]

some of you are quick to dismiss this as just a fad or just a small group of outraged parents ..but this is really snowballing into something that the gaming industry should be taking notice of and taking the appropriate response to this witch hunt


latest crap:

Parents group urges recall of video game 'GTA'


"A media watchdog group said on Tuesday it has demanded Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. unit Rockstar Games recall "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," the blockbuster title at the center of a swarm over a hack that helps players unlock a sexually explicit mini-game. "


"Just last week, U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joseph Lieberman stepped into the controversy.

Lieberman demanded that the company allow for an independent analysis of its code, while Clinton has promised to introduce legislation that would curb the sale of violent video games to minors."


"Patrick Wildenborg, a Netherlands-based programer identified as the lead author of the hack, said on his Web site that content in the modification -- including the animation and dialogue -- was available on the original game disk.

He noted, however, that the material is completely inaccessible in an unmodified version of the game.

It "is most probably just leftover material from a gameplay idea that didn't make the final release. I would really like to stress that this material is only accessible after willfully applying the 'hot coffee' mod (or something similar) to the game," he said on his site."

 

[iyfyoufhl]

i wouldn't worry about anything, i mean, i makes me mad how all this dumb people talk shit about something that they don't understand, but i wouldn't worry about it too much, because Game intedustry makes a shit loads of money, and if something in america is making money, it's not going to stop

 

[CptStern]

no one's saying it'll stop the gaming industry but it will affect it ...do you really want people who've never played a game in their lives making decisions about what we should or shouldnt be playing?

 

[Icarusintel]

no one's saying it'll stop the gaming industry but it will affect it ...do you really want people who've never played a game in their lives making decisions about what we should or shouldnt be playing?

nope, which is why we should kill everyone who has never played a game and just make things easier for all of us who do play games

 

[Laivasse]

I notice in the first link they begin to ask the opinion of a 15 year old kid, but when he replies with a perfectly reasonable and sane response instead of saying "OMFG W0T R JUU TALKIN ABOT i *heart* KILIN DOZE COP MOFOZ", then they abandon that interview and don't follow it up.

And why the hell should Rockstar have to submit to having the code for GTA independently inspected? It should be their intellectual property or something, and protected as such, right?

You can bet if it was a book receiving this much criticism and calls for censorship, then comparisons to the Nazis would not be far behind. I swear these mindless "THINK OF TEH CHILDREN" hordes are the next big enemy to freedom of thought and expression.

 

[iyfyoufhl]

nope, which is why we should kill everyone who has never played a game and just make things easier for all of us who do play games

see games do make kids violent

 

[Lemonking]

wow dumb parents they just have to watch what their kids are playing lil kids shouldnt
be playing GTa anyway....its amazing how dumb people can be

 

[Icarusintel]

see games do make kids violent

shit, i guess i should go shoot up my school now... :|

 

[Absinthe]

For ****'s sake. The kid they interviewed is probably the most sane and rational person out of the whole bunch, but they cut it off and go back to disseminating the ****ing drama.

I should find these people, pay them for sex, kill them, and then beat the money out of them with a baseball bat. Yeah, that's my kind of irony.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Yeah, this sort of thing really disgusts me about this country(the US). Everyone flies off the handle and imposes fines and new regulations and outrage all over because we get a split second shot of Janet Jackson's nipple, but no one cares that the stuff we hear and see on CSI, NYPD Blue, Nip-Tuck etc. is violent, sexy, and oftentimes deviant to the extreme, not to mention criminal. Plus, you can see much more skin on any channel in Europe any time of the day. If the US were not so uptight about nudity/sex (and alcohol too, now that I mention it), we would see a lot fewer of these issues coming up for conserative rectal units(read:a$$holes) to lambast.

The hot coffee debate is the ultimate example of the US being the worst kind of hypocrites around. Here is a game that lets the player be as violent as he/she wants to be, killing people with knives and shovels and bats and such without unlocking any sort of code(I love it!). Here too is the same game that, with a couple of hours of fiddling, you can unlock something less sexually stimulating or revealing than a shower gel commercial and everyone is up-in-arms saying that this sort of filth should be banned, etc etc. Wow. The ignorance of people will never cease to amaze me.

Does anyone remember a game called(interestingly enough), Sex Games, for the C64? The object was to acheive orgasm though rhythmic movements of the old one-button atari-style joystick and it explicitly depicted penies entering the private parts of women and I do not EVER remember hearing a peep from any watchdogs about it. Perhaps now that videogames are now such a huge revenue-generating industry people are starting to take notice.

It comes down to parenting, like someone already said. Parents need to be more aware of what their kids are getting into. I heard from a game store employee how it turns his stomach when a kid tries to buy a mature title and is declined, but then gets his closest parental figure to get it for him 5 minutes later. Bad bad bad. Just last night while playing Counter-Strike(but I hear it ALL THE TIME), I had what sounded like a 10-year-old squadmate giving orders and cracking jokes. What are his parents doing? Not parenting, in my book. The state of the US sickens me right now, but perhaps in a few years, the old guard in the Senate/House will die-off, the spots will be filled with younger, more open-minded videogame players who know what they are talking about when it comes to these issues. What a colossal waste of time, money, breath, life....

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

$10 says hiliary clinton can't activate the ps2 version for "coffee" or for that matter run the pc mod. It clearly states no nudity on the box for a reason, THE GAME SOLD HAS NO NUDITY, when you start editing files, using cheat codes, thats different than how you can play the game normally. You are cheating, therefore its not the correct way of playing the game. Alas I don't understand why they get all up in people's faces about the mod, its not like their kids have never seen boobies, or a porn flick in there life.

 

[bliink]

This whole media game-violence orgy gives me a headache

 

[el Chi]

This whole media game-violence orgy gives me a headache

Ditto.

I should find these people, pay them for sex, kill them, and then beat the money out of them with a baseball bat. Yeah, that's my kind of irony.

I think I love you.

You can bet if it was a book receiving this much criticism and calls for censorship, then comparisons to the Nazis would not be far behind. I swear these mindless "THINK OF TEH CHILDREN" hordes are the next big enemy to freedom of thought and expression.

...and you too. But less so, 'cause you're a Tory
These kinds of people ALWAYS dump their hatred onto games and films, etc. but rarely on plays and even more rarely on books. I really do wonder if this kind of fuss will help or hinder our medium's progression into accepted art form.

 

[gh0st]

Lieberman demanded that the company allow for an independent analysis of its code, while Clinton has promised to introduce legislation that would curb the sale of violent video games to minors."

I dont think anybody in government is trying to stop people from making whatever games they want, as long as, like in the cbs segment, idiotic parents arent allowed to give them to their 4 year olds... its common sense. hillary's idea is not a bad one, i'd almost support it. lieberman is just a buffoon who is waaayyy past his prime.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

This whole media game-violence orgy gives me a headache

I wouldn't use game and orgy in a sentence anymore, hell may be unleashed. :rolling:

 

[thorvale the red]

Hey I'm 17 and I play GTA. Have I shot up my school yet? No. Why? Because I am not mentally ill, depressed, a drug addict, or abused by my parents. Any of those reasons can be the reason for a school shooting or a violent nature. If you shoot up a school because of a VIDEO GAME, you probably have an IQ of -4 and should be set on fire and then thrown screaming from a helicopter over dry land.

 

[el Chi]

...you probably ...should be set on fire and then thrown screaming from a helicopter over dry land.

Nope. No link 'twixt games and violence.

Seriously though, people need to stop looking to games for something to blame. I wouldn't be surprised that a game could potentially nudge someone over the edge, but it's not the CAUSE.

 

[Absinthe]

I wouldn't be surprised that a game could potentially nudge someone over the edge, but it's not the CAUSE.

Exactly. Somebody that mentally unstable is just as likely to snap over the price of oranges.

And I love this quote from a Game Revolution rant.

It's pretty simple: People are prejudiced against games. Like black actors who can only get jobs playing pimps and drug dealers, the only time you see video games on television is when some deranged teenager huffs a bottle of Pine-Sol and shoots up his homeroom. "He played video games!" the pundits all cry.

Of course he played video games! Most teenage boys play video games! Might as well say he ate hamburgers. It would have been more interesting if he didn't play games.