Video Games Are Evil

[CyborgZeta]

Jack Thompson stops being a problem when everybody ignores him. It's just that conservatives keep bringing him on their shows and the like, thinking he's an expert on what he's talking about.

[Trigger's Elysium]

Duck Hunt is pretty epic.

As for army simulation games, I think the first go to game is America's Army.

http://www.americasarmy.com/[/code]

[The Eva Monkey]

In all likelihood, Jack Thompson is exactly what the video game industry needs. So long as the person waging against the "evils" of games is a bumbling and ineffectual idiot, games are safe. If Thompson doesn't, someone else will, and with Thompson, we're pretty much sure he won't accomplish anything. We could have someone out there who is an actual threat.

[AchtungAffen]

Maybe because I don't do games, I saw that documentary trailer as political propaganda. The moral movement wants a new issue. They want more money from state subvensions.

[TriLink]

As long as we're bashing ignorant assholes, can we throw in Pat Robertson too?


Please...

[Ornette]

As long as we're bashing ignorant assholes, can we throw in Pat Robertson too?


Please...

I bashed him (I think) in the 3rd post of this thread.

[Trigger's Elysium]

Let's bash Bill O'Reilly too! No juvenile bashing thread is complete without BillO bashing.

[Ornette]

Let's bash Bill O'Reilly too! No juvenile bashing thread is complete without BillO bashing.

I don't have cable, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my bandwidth to stream fox news. So, unfortunately, outside of "I get the feeling he's a closeminded not very smart hothead" I can't bash him. On the otherhand, the 700 Club comes on the antenae at a time when the other 2 channels I get are (believe it or not) even less tolerable than the 700 club. So I actually do hear Pat Robertson go off about the craziest shit on a morning talk show.

[Trigger's Elysium]

As I live in Canadia, I thankfully don't have to put up with Pat Robertson. I lol at televangelists in general.

[The Eva Monkey]

If it has nothing to do with games, create a new thread.

[Anonymous_Evafan]

[Hexon.Arq]

I have no thoughts on the subject. There are stupid people who say stupid things that have an influence on other stupid people, and there are people of average-to-exceptional capacity for rationale that simply do it for the money. All of my favorite things have been added to the Parade of Terribles at one point or another; eventually you just learn to tune it out. It's not until words and sermons become actions and legislation that it's worth a thought, and then it's time to make youself something worth parading.

As for games, I think Rocket Knight Adventures is underrated.

[Dascoo]

Americas Army taught me how to operate and M16, an M82, an M24, an M203, an AK47, and many more guns. It's a learning tool! :twisted:

[Soljer13]

A yes beautiful horrors of "Conservative" people. Hmmm... A yes when I was in 8th grade(I was in a christian school) I went to school one day that had an anime character(dont remember wich) i was insulted for it, saying "youve gotta nip toon on you, or tentacle pr0nz lover and such".

[slothen]

In response to EM's original post. I fucking HATE Joseph Lieberman.

[Eternal Yamcha]

I actually don't care about Lieberman. His stance on games has softened since the introduction of the ESRB... But that doesn't mean he's not going to stop getting huffy over certain games. It allows him to stick to his "media watchdog" image that he wants others to see.

Personally, I give him kudos for helping establish the ESRB, but beyond that, concerning video games, I usually just ignore him. I don't want to hear what he has to say about video games that he should be saying about parents.

Jack Thompson wants attention and that's about it. He's like one of those kids on shows like "Nanny 911" or "Super Nanny" that'll scream, kick, break things and be an all around pest until you ignore him long enough.

[Eva Yojimbo]

My favorite thought on this matter came from Frank Zappa from the Senate Hearing on "Porn Rock", 1985, in response to Tipper Gore's allegations that music incites people towards deviant behavior, or influences their behavior in general.

Frank Zappa: "I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?"



Can kids take what they see in video games and act out the violence in real life? Sure they can. Would 99%+ of the under-18 population do so? Of course not. Instead of blaming games for what that 1% or less does, perhaps a better COA would be to figure out why THEY did it and not the other 99%. Even the "uber-evil antichrist" Marylin Manson said something extremely smart after Columbine: When asked "If you had the chance, what would you say to those two boys?" he replied "I wouldn't say anything, I'd listen."

There was no violent TV or video games in the 20s and 30s, yet Al Capone still managed to kill how many people? There was none of these things certainly in the late 1800s, but Jack the Ripper remains one of the most well known names in history for what he did.

Although, pointing out that violence has been around since forever doesn't really work here. The argument is whether or not violence in artistic mediums increase violence in society overall. To prove this one way or another would take a lot of time and effort. One would have to track the rise and fall of violent crime (particularly in teenagers and children) since the advent of TV, movies, and games.

To compesnate for the fact that nobody actually wants to do this, simply blaming these mediums for what's happening is the easiest thing to do. There's lots of senseless violence that happens in society. Much of which can't be explained away. I think many of 'The Right' are simply looking for something to blame because they think there has to be a reason why two kids can takes guns into a school and kill other kids.

"There has to be a reason, something to blame and turn our anger towards." Unfortunately, it's not that simple. But telling them that won't change anything. People need tangible things to explain away the unexplainable. And video games is that thing to explain away the reasons some kids are able to commit such violent crimes.

It also helps that most (older, usually) adults don't understand video games. It's easy to blame something you don't understand because you just take the most obvious examples of offenders and use them as your poster child (like others have said, games like GTA and Mortal Kombat make up a very small percentage of all video games). Adults understand (now) movies and TV, so blaming them as harder as they don't want them censored as much since they use these mediums. But to most adults, video cames could disappear off the face of the Earth and they'd probably be happier.

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

This Jack Thompson character is a real piece of work! Had no idea just this one guy was behind all that litigation and lobbying. I had never even heard of this guy before now. Shit! :shock: Reminds of that Ms. Censordoll character from Moral Orel. Now I know there is such a thing as right-wing lawyer.
Anyway, on this whole video games and various media are the spawn of Satan, I would direct you to the fcuking BRILLIANT analysis of the late great Frank Zappa.

The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like.

And now for your viewing pleasure...
Zappa on CNN's now-defunct Crossfire(Too bad. That was a damn good show back in the day when Braden and Buchanan would really go at it. Happy that Stewart brought an end to what had become that stale and shallow parade of hyper-partisan nonsense, btw.)
Mr. Zappa Goes to Washington, Pt. 1 of 4
Mr. Zappa Goes to Washington, Pt. 2 of 4
Mr. Zappa Goes to Washington, Pt. 3 of 4
Mr. Zappa Goes to Washington, Pt. 4 of 4

[Eternal Yamcha]

This isn't anything new.

In the 1950s politicians and "family groups" lobbied against comics becoming too violent (crime and horror comics were very popular in the 50s) and ended up establishing the Comic's Code Authority.

In the 1980s, politicians and "family groups" lobbied against BOTH television and music (particularly rock.) Outcome of that was more kid friendly shows (Care Bears would be an excellent example) and the establishment of the "Parental Advisory" stickers that are on so many albums nowadays.

In the 1990s, politicians and "family groups" lobbied against video games... ESRB... Stuff.

It's nothing really new... People have problems with certain things and some go out of their way to either end it or do something to affect it negatively. Jack Thompson is just another one of those people, but he seems to be alone on this one (I HIGHLY doubt Hillary and Jack are working together.)

I'm tired and I hate my sleeping pattern... I'm going to go put an I.V. of caffeine into my blood stream and hope that it'll either wake me up or put me to sleep.

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

I am aware that nearly every society has some kind of self-appointed "morality police force." I had simply never heard the name Jack Thompson before now.