Media misrepresenting games/gamers

[veil222]

Link: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/163925.html

For those of you who haven't seen this, it's basically FOX news bashing mass effect for it's "not even nudity nudity" to the point of saying it's a deplorable game that should be rating AO, and it quite possibly making children objectify women and interact in a socially agressive manner usually resulting in fits of violence.

I'll tell ya what makes gamers act violent.... news spots like that is a sure fire way to get your butt kicked. You'd be surprised how hard a nerd can punch if he's pissed off.

 

[Cs_Nexus]

Are you saying theres no nudity and fox is mad?
BTW every fox program shows gratuitous material.

or

Are they saying "some people" are offended by the game?
BTW fox news casters use "some people think"... to voice any opinion; which is typically theirs.

or
IDK
games are like porn...
don't get mad at the company that makes the DVD players or people that make porn.
Look at PARENTS.

my opinion:
And for the "M" rating and it needing to be"AO"
if its not v@gina, h0les or p3nis....
"M" is all it needs

 

[Pluvia's other account]

or
IDK
games are like porn...
don't get mad at the company that makes the DVD players or people that make porn.
Look at PARENTS.

Wait? What?

 

[veil222]

I think it's hilarious that gamers have lashed out at the "expert" they brought on the show... the woman that thinks she's a developmental psychologist. hundreds of amazon users have found her books on there, and rated them down hundreds of times. All her book have a 1 star rating and about 50-500 negative reviews.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

You'd be surprised how hard a nerd can punch if he's pissed off.

Do you mind if I sig that? XD

On-topic: I agree that the media has a habit of unnecessarily bashing gamers. I seem to recall a Fox news broadcast talking about "hacker" sites (i.e. 4chan), and had some person who was allegedly hacked by a member of one of these sites. I was just shaking my head wondering how journalists could be so ignorant.

TBQH I couldn't even watch that video the entire way through. Frankly I think that everyone who thinks that video games are inexorably linked to degradation of women and whatnot need to get a life. Seriously. I haven't played Mass Effect (don't have an XBox, for one), but I'm fairly sure that it is not exactly a huge factor in the desensitization to violence and sex that is purported. The newscaster brought up a point when she said that teenagers are not going to ignore Playboy's existence. We don't have generations of now-adults that see women as mere objects to fap to, do we? Along the same lines, a game with violence (what game doesn't have violence these days?) and graphic scenes (you could probably see worse at your local theater or Blockbuster) won't suddenly turn our children into violent rapists.

Granted, there are the occasional nutcases in the world, but they are a minority at best, and what I'm getting from this is that the people raising such a fuss are treating these rare cases as the norm. Which isn't true. With this in mind, I think I can modify a certain phrase:

VIDEO GAMES. ITS SERIOUS BUSINESS.

 

[Junpappy]

I hate the "let's blame the game company for making the game instead of blaming the parent who ignorantly bought the game without knowing what kind of content was in the game" attitude. People are seriously expecting the government to do too much parenting.

While it's an interesting and aggravating story, I think posting on this forum will only get you one side of the argument, which won't make for much of a conversation.

 

[GoldShadow]

While it's an interesting and aggravating story, I think posting on this forum will only get you one side of the argument, which won't make for much of a conversation.

In all fairness, there really only is one legitimate side to this argument.

 

[veil222]

Indeed, I didn't do this to bring up an interesting debate, I did this to make fellow gamers more aware of how they and the games they play are viewed by most mass media. I'm even afraid if they got a hold of brawl they would talk about Zero Suit Samus promoting the further degridation of women by depicting an unrealistic view of them.

I'm just waiting for the day when gamers and other internet based/savvy cultures have more of a say in the media. It's getting close, because at least this time there were serious reprecussions for the guest "expert" they had on. It's a small step, but at least games and gamers aren't defenceless anymore.


Oh, and yes paranoid... you can sig that lol.

 

[TheFifthMan]

Pssh. It's Fox Faux News. I think that says enough.

 

[Junpappy]

This reminds me of a politician I read about several months ago that was also an avid WoW player.

I guess it's good news that they are actually bringing in someone from the gaming side to discuss the "issue", even though its ridiculous to single out games to begin with when other forms of media don't get censored for having the exact same content.

 

[adumbrodeus]

Link: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/163925.html

For those of you who haven't seen this, it's basically FOX news bashing mass effect for it's "not even nudity nudity" to the point of saying it's a deplorable game that should be rating AO, and it quite possibly making children objectify women and interact in a socially agressive manner usually resulting in fits of violence.

I'll tell ya what makes gamers act violent.... news spots like that is a sure fire way to get your butt kicked. You'd be surprised how hard a nerd can punch if he's pissed off.

Must point this out.

Unless that psychologist is using the term "adolescent" to mean something very different then it generally means (I've heard it placed as high as 33) she is utterly ignorant.

Sure, it's nobody's fathers, but it's nobody's teenaged children either. The average gamer is 29 years old.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-05-12-gamer-demographics_x.htm

Nobody seems to realize that like movies, games can be marketed to a certain demograph, not just adolescents, in spite of the fact that the average gamer isn't even an adolescent...




But hey, at least in their analysis segment they concluded the right thing, it is the parent's responsibility.