Video game stuff


to <ranma@ML.usagi.org>
from "Don Wang" <dwang@hmc.edu>
subject Video game stuff
date Mon, 6 Nov 2000 21:40:20 -0800
> A kid can buy pretty much any R rated movie out there.
> Movies with Nude women, bisexual scenes, and cold
> blood murder are as readily availible as Hershey candy
> bars. But the Media and politicians want to censor
> videogames.

    And movies are under close examination more so than video game.

    People like you are also the problem.  There is a real problem with
increasing violent crimes commited by minors (at least it's been bought to
attention more often) and there has to a cause to this, and it's a known
fact that there is a clear corrleation between the two.  Heck, I learned
from Megaman Legends 2 that the guy who tried to assassinate Reagan (or
maybe it was Bush) got his idea from watching a movie.  Yeah I'm sure you
don't go out and kill people after playing Quake.  I'd hope not.  If even 1%
of the people go out and kill people for playing Quake we need something
more like an immediate ban on sales of all games.   How much does violent
games swing people toward violent crimes?  It's known that it is harder than
the statisical average, but what's not clear is how big this deviation is.
No one knows for sure how this factor scales relative to some other factors
we can't control, like income, living condition, and race.  And that's where
the debate comes from.  But people like you who outright dismisses the
possibility that what you like can even be responsible for the increasing
violent crime do not help the cause in anyway.  If the debate is won, it'd
be because some professor ran some statistical tests somewhere to show that
the effect of playing violent games is negligible compare to say, just born
being a white (white late teen to early 20s males have the highest rate of
commiting violent crimes, I believe).  This debate is certainly not going to
be won no matter how many self-righteous Internet gamers say playing violent
games don't relate to violent crimes.

    The government is not out to screw you, and the video game industry has
as much money as almost anyone else in this world.  Tobacco industry gives a
huge amount of donation and they're still regulated heavily by the
government.  Believe it or not our political system doesn't work like 'give
me $ and I'll let you do whatever illegal stuff you want".

> Is it because the Game companies haven't made as many
> campaign contributions to political candidates and
> organizations as the major Hollywood studios?? that is
> totally BullS**t there, IMHO.

    Perhaps like the movie industry, the video game industry has always
targetted younger audience with things that are meant to be for older
audiences?  And that now they're finally have to take responisbility for
this?  Evercrest is currently down but they've a strip on the evolution of
Firionia Vie, Everquest's mascot, and you can't honestly tell me that this
game is intended for younger audience consider each expansion Firionia Vie
has less and less clothing on, but Sony constantly tried to sell EverQuest
as a game where the whole family can play together.  A game with a M tag on
it shouldn't be trying to sell itself to some 10 year old, but clearly the
video game industry does do that.

> BTW, The reason I say "Alleged Outcry" is that the
> vast majority of American consumers either enjoy video
> games or really don't give a damn about them. Yet,
> certain politicians and Media entities use my hobby,
> that I enjoy, as a scapegoat for the world's ailments.

    I think you're the one who're mistaken.  Your behavior is very typical
of the average Net game player.  You always complain that the media and the
government are out to screw you and that the system is screwed up, but less
than 1% of you will actually go out and vote to try to get things changed.
Even if the system is indeed out to screw you, they wouldn't care because as
long as the opposition is not politically active, they might as well not
exist.  Or, to quote something I see on slashdot, a single written letter to
your Congressman is more valuable than a thousand signatures of an online
petition.  As a general rule, the late teens early 20s population is a very
politically inactive one, and politicans know this.  I remember seeing a
post on slashdot about how they have to not vote for Bush because he says
Internet is bad for the children.  Of course there's a hundred response or
something on how the government sucks and Bush is a moron, but guess what,
99% of these people wouldn't have voted anyway.  Hell, most of the people
said they won't vote at all to protest, which certainly doesn't hurt Bush
consider he probably won't get their vote in the first place.  In fact, if
he actually reads slashdot, he'd be happy to know that the people he
wouldn't have gotten votes from anyway won't be voting for any of his
opponents, either.

    Besides, it's not as if the video/movie industry is completely innocent,
either.  It may take forever before they can discern the exact effect of
vioelnt games/movies, but we know the effect is clearly there, and that
these industries are still trying to sell what's labeled as Mature or R
rating to people who are definitely not of that age.

> Hypocrisy is something that really makes my blood
> boil!! So excuse me if I digress and start preaching!

    There is a truth in that, since we know showing violent stuff gets
people desensitized to it, and that if the media always reports on violent
things, doesn't that desensitive its viewer as well?  But it's certainly not
what you said.

Don



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