Anti-Game Activists Help Promote Violent Video Games
from the nice-work dept
Last week, we witnessed various attempts to ban the game Manhunt 2 through various country censors. This campaign also resulted in the ESRB giving the game its "AO" or "Adults Only" rating -- which makes it quite difficult to sell. Following this, Take-Two Interactive announced it's going to delay the launch of the game in order to respond. This led to cheers from the activists fighting against the video game -- but they may be cheering too soon. Various analysts all believe that the hype is only going to increase sales of the game once it finally launches. In other words, in attempting to make the game disappear, these activists may have helped the game succeed. Nice work. Update: In the meantime, a NY Times reviewer plays the game and watches a few horror movies and notes how much more gruesome the movies are compared to the game (though, the reviewer still believes the game deserves an "adults only" rating).Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Games you'll never see
Domestic Violence: Beat the Bitch
Baby Boiler
Grand Theft Auschwitz: Round Them Up
MLK Assassination
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Anyway, I just wanted to stop by and make the following comment: I grew up in the UK during the "video nasties" scare, and all that this news is doing is giving me a case of deja vu. Games fans (myself included) just need to ride out the storm until the media finds a new scapegoat.
With the video nasties, all that controversy really did was make cult classics out of banned movies like Driller Killer and I Spit On Your Grave, that were largely forgotten in non-censored terriories. Eventually, all the banned and censored movies have been released uncut without incident, and the tabloids found something else to bitch about.
Manhunt 2 will be a very popular game, be it as a legal release or as a torrent. More people will play it than if the whiners had kept their mouths shut, and in 6 months, it will be forgotten as the next controversy starts (most likely with GTA4). I'll certainly be playing it.
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man...
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Meh.
I've played the crap out of that game and still have yet to kill anyone.
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ugh
Oh, Dorpus...I suppose you never saw the games about the JFK assassination, or Super Columbine Massacre RPG.
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The problem is a lack of understanding. These people are too intellectually challenged to understand the basics of human nature. At this point in history we do not deal with violence and conflict on a daily basis in most modern countries. We don't feel loss, we don't feel terror, we don't feel anger or rage, we don't feel any of the primal feelings. We spend so much time trying to remove them from the person that what we are left with are the making of a psychopath. People have the primal urges of fighting, killing, hunting, etc, but no where to let them out and no healthy suggestions. How about we figure out why people feel the need to seek these forms of entertainment and accept our natures. Maybe that way, whatever we do, may actually benefit the succeeding generations rather then fulfilling our current egotistical morality quests.
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Does anyone remember...
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violence in games
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more violence
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Looking forward to this one....
Swords of Allah! RTS
- The Muslim Weekly, via HotAir
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/06/25/islamic-rts-game-on-the-way/
Kill the infidel! Allah Akbar!
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Point the finger at the activists.
Now a good friend of my family was murdered in a church not long ago. The guy that did it was never exposed to these games. But that didn't stop him from going into the building and putting 2 bullets in her head and one in his. How do I know, because we know both the killer and the woman.
Every crime I see in my area is either linked to hate crimes from the news, drunk, or desperate for money. These people who want to stop video game violence should focus on other aspects of life to stop violence. Here's a though...go out to the community and try to make a difference with poverty or drunk driving. I have yet to see evidence where music or gaming is linked to all these so called violent crimes. I'd like to see these people blame themselves for not paying attention to their children and teaching them what's real and what's not. The gaming industry is not your babysitter people. That's the parent’s job. I blame those activists for poor parenting and being lazy.
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violent games relese stress
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I want it!
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Casper
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One more thing - it's a little stupid to compare video games to movies and television. How many people do you know who watch the same movie or television episode over, and over, and over? Compare that to the number of people who play the same video game, the same level, for hours and hours at a time.
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Re:
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RE:
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