Home General Discussion

Potential Bill against Game Devs

polycounter lvl 18
Offline / Send Message
HellMark polycounter lvl 18
http://komonews.com/stories/35494.htm

Sounds like a load of crap to me. Everyone wants to push off blame IMO.

I can just imagine all of this is going to be grouped with that.
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/crime/kids-kill-teen-with-mortal-kombat-moves-034678.php

Replies

  • Mishra
    Offline / Send Message
    Mishra polycounter lvl 18
    thats stupid. if anything they should punish the retailer who distributed the game to a minot, not the maker of the game.
  • Asthane
    Offline / Send Message
    Asthane polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    "There's a very strong video game industry in this state that we want to support. We don't want to bring undo attention to an area where there's actually jobs being created, where there's actually some good economic development in our state"

    [/ QUOTE ]

    What I wanna know is: Is it the speaker, or the journalist that can't spell "undue"? wink.gif
  • Bradfordart
    Offline / Send Message
    Bradfordart polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    "If you sit up and watch this and play these games over and over again... it seems that this is alright to walk up and hit a police officer over the head with a bat," Hanson said.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    laugh.gif

    I don't get it, games brainwash you? Or do they somehow take away you're ability to disginguish right from wrong? I still think it's the same case every time since columbine, and it's that you're not being looked after by family and they aren't raising you to know what's wrong and what isn't. I've been playing violent video games since they were released and I don't have an ounce of violence in me.
  • Malekyth
    Offline / Send Message
    Malekyth polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    What I wanna know is: Is it the speaker, or the journalist that can't spell "undue"? wink.gif

    [/ QUOTE ]

    ZING!
  • Asthane
    Offline / Send Message
    Asthane polycounter lvl 18
    Once, just once, I wanna see one of these kids blame it on, say, 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson. "I tried to get through it, I really did... But I just couldn't take it. The twenty-pound black tome frustrated me to no end, so I clubbed little billy over the head with it."

    Or a teen pregnancy case blamed on romance novels wink.gif
  • Ryno
    Offline / Send Message
    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    Well then, you'd have to be able to sue movie makers for violent movies, bookwriters for violent books, actors for portraying violence on TV and in film, and newscasters and reporters for reporting violence. That would be a good start. Maybe in the second round, we could branch out and get some other people too.
  • Mishra
    Offline / Send Message
    Mishra polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Once, just once, I wanna see one of these kids blame it on, say, 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson. "I tried to get through it, I really did... But I just couldn't take it. The twenty-pound black tome frustrated me to no end, so I clubbed little billy over the head with it."

    Or a teen pregnancy case blamed on romance novels wink.gif

    [/ QUOTE ]

    i'll sue the internet for these stains on my sheets
  • oXYnary
    Offline / Send Message
    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    I don't get it, games brainwash you? Or do they somehow take away you're ability to disginguish right from wrong?

    [/ QUOTE ]

    BAM!

    Bypassing Conscious Control
    http://www.warwick.ac.uk/staff/S.L.Hurley/papers/bypasssing%20conscious%20control.doc
  • Lore
    Offline / Send Message
    Lore polycounter lvl 18
    In the States, the bartender is legally responsible for you if they served you and your drunk and then you enter public drunk or drive drunk.

    So if they can prove somehow that playing violent games produces some sort of intoxicated high that causes the individual's distinguishing of reality to falter. Then they have a case and lets open the floodgates to more Patriot Acts and the bandwagon of censorship.

    But based off the case of the kids. Its been proven that hormonal imbalances in teenagers cause them to become detached from reality or perceive situations differently and make poor decisions. Or at least that is what Dr. Natalia Hughson claims, and I would tend to believe someone who expertise is psychology and PediaCare.

    Then lets take a look at another case that my Aunt told me about. Two kids 17 and 18 where out drinking and driving when they saw a guy on a bike. The got out of their car and pulled the guy off the bike. They then took the bike and drove off. After awhile they decided to ditch the bike to go back and beat the guy. When they got back the cops had arrived to take a report at the scene when the kids showed up and got caught. When asked why they did it, they said they learned it from playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City. What my Aunt failed to notice is that they where out drinking and probably intoxicated with a depressant.

    But the game got the blame, as kids today now know that it’s a good excuse to avoid complete blame. Kids are smart enough to know dating and popular politics and argue the fact that they want to be treated like adults but without the adult punishment. And make their own decisions, then the adolescent gamer is cognitive enough to recognize that the escapism in the game is what it is. But the sad truth here, is the kids pointing the blame at games or others often don’t care what they are truly saying as they think ultimately it doesn’t effect them.

    Did GTA threaten to beat you or take itself away if you don’t act retarded and steal a vehicle and run the owner over with the vehicle. Going to Skinner’s Positive reinforcement the only reward I can see out of this is the self-pant (ego induce) on the back that you did something rebellious. Which to me, this is a clear sign that the individual who acts out something they saw in games or on the screen needs psychological help. They are suffering a form of schizophrenia where they have allowed an outside influence to dictate their reality. And they have an issue of asserting themselves as individuals. Sounds like their still kids and need to be held back a grade in order to ‘grow up’.

    But that’s enough of my rant.
  • danr
    Offline / Send Message
    danr interpolator
    it's totally reasonable to expect the producers of any form of media to take responsibility for what they produce, and other offshoots of that media that they have direct control over.

    For those same people - for example - to take responsibility for the actions of others "related" to that media is another thing entirely. A case has to be made of a rock-solid line of direct cause-->effect or there ain't no case at all.
  • KDR_11k
    Offline / Send Message
    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    The problem I see is that it's impossible to determine whether and which games had an influence on a certain action. what could you do, look at his game stash and see if any of them contain acts similar to the one commited? Ask a convicted felon??? Of course it also has to be taken into account how obvious it is that such an action could be derived from a game. If someone hits someone else with a wooden hammer (the large, one-hit-kill ones) because he thought that was cool in Donkey Kong, would Nintendo be liable for creating a game where you are a freaking carpenter that has to defeat a crazed giant ape???

    Seriously, this is as insane as the INDUCE act. It's overbroad and can be triggered so easily it has the potential to kill the entire medium. But I guess that's exactly what those neophobe nutcases want.
  • Slayerjerman
    Offline / Send Message
    Slayerjerman polycounter lvl 18
    That will never pass. First admendment rights will block it.

    Also, if they are going to old game devs responisble, then they should also hold the MPAA and RIAA responsible for making movies and music that affect people.

    I know I wanted to murder some people after watching Catwoman.

    America sucks balls now, too many uptight anal retentive fuckfaces running the country.
  • Asthane
    Offline / Send Message
    Asthane polycounter lvl 18
    Lore: Your bartender analogy would work if they were talking about giving stores some liability, but suing the game company is more like trying to sue budweiser because of a DUI incident. The company that makes the product has no say in how, or to whom it is sold.
  • jzero
    Offline / Send Message
    jzero polycounter lvl 18
    This is like trying to sue Martin Scorsese for making "Taxi Driver", which provided John Hinckley the inspiration to shoot Reagan — so he could get Jodi Foster's attention. I believe that case was attempted. Or perhaps suing Lennon and McCartney for the actions of the Manson Family?

    No thought is ever given to the outrageous pathological reasoning of the person committing the crime. It's not like GTA alters your brain to make you lose the knowledge that beating someone to death with a bat is 'wrong action'. You have to approach GTA with your wrong thinking already in place.

    /jzero
  • Malekyth
    Offline / Send Message
    Malekyth polycounter lvl 18
    When I was first playing GTA3 and Vice City, I was fuckin' hitting it hard, playing for hours and hours every night. I think maybe weekend World of Warcraft marathons have broken my GTA3/VC records since, but at the time, those games were an unstoppable obsession. So one morning I was on my way to work, waiting at a stop light behind a few other cars. Waiting, waiting, goddammit. I noticed to my right someone's front lawn, and beyond that the street I intended to turn onto. It occured to me that I wouldn't have to wait if I just drove across the guy's lawn and went on my way.

    And that is exactly the kind of impulsive thought that murders classmates.

    Case CLOSED.

    (edit: smile.gif )
  • TomDunne
    Offline / Send Message
    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    Actually, that's a nice argument for the defense, Malekyth. Since you are (I assume) a mature human being, you may have felt that impulse but the fact is you *didn't* tear across the lawn to cut out the red light. If you didn't lose your mind because you played GTA, why should someone else get to use that excuse? If GTA is the common factor, why aren't we all jacking cop cars and shooting pedestrians because of these impulses? If DOOM is the common factor for schoolroom shootings, why aren't well all dead or in jail as the result of gunning down our classmates? Because they *aren't* the common factor, they're just the new age excuse fostered by an older generation to deal with things they can't relate to.

    This isn't even a rare occurance. Once, it was rock & roll. I'm sure some of you have seen the famous clip of the DJ at KWK smashing a vinyl LP and declaring "rock and roll has got to go!" Maybe it's listening to Ozzy Osbourne that makes kids kill. Once, it was comic books that were poisoning children's minds. Look into Fred Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent." Maybe it's 12 issues of Batman a year that makes kids kill. Once, it was Dungeons & Dragons that was driving kids to madness. Read about the organization BADD, or any of the Jack Chick propaganda. Maybe it's rolling dice with an elven archer that makes kids kill. Once, and most recently, it was movies that were to blame. A lawsuit over this was once filed against the distributors of 'The Basketball Diaries.' Maybe a couple hours with a DVD from Blockbuster makes kids kill. Books have *always* been a great source of this complaint. 'Catcher in the Rye' is implicated in more murders than I can actually recall. Even today, Harry Potter books get banned in bible-belt states because of this attitude.

    There have been bullshit excuses for why kids act as they do since time immemorial. You'll notice that the target of blame often changes, usually relative to what the previous generation grew up with. Why aren't rock music and comic books to blame anymore? Because the parents of today's kids grew up with them. Why won't video games be used to blame kids in fifteen years? Because the parents then will be the kids who grew up with games today. The next generation's excuse will be whatever new media culture arises that the parents can't relate to. This hamster wheel has been spinning in America for over a century. Remember, we once banned *alcohol* because it was to blame for our societal ills! As a culture, America blames anything it can rather than encourage taking personal responsibility. In all the instances of all of the kids who have shot up schools or killed for fun or anything else, have you ever once - just once! - heard any parent take responsibility for raising a fucked up kid? That's your common factor, gentlemen. Not all kids play video games. Not all watch movies. Not all listen to music. But all are born of a mother and father, and all are raised, in some fashion or another, by adults responsible for their maturity and well-being. If parents do their jobs, kids can grow up playing video games and watching movies and listeing to music without turning into cold-blooded killers.

    This is common sense, and America does not wish to hear it.
  • jzero
    Offline / Send Message
    jzero polycounter lvl 18
    Amen, Brother Vermilion, Amen.

    People look for the quickest explanation for anything that goes wrong, and they cling to it, even if it's not the correct explanation. It's just the tendency to associate things that are similar. Don't make me invoke the name of Frederic Wertham again. Oops, just did.

    Malekyth: Case not closed. As Verm said, you didn't act on your impulse, and why? 'Cause it was wrong, and you had the maturity and the psychiatric health to understand that. It's not the thought that 'murders classmates' -- it's the action taken based on that thought. Klebold and Harris planned the Columbine massacre for a good while beforehand, more time than any normal person should need to rethink that very wrong decision. And certainly more time than anyone should need to consider consequences, something that I find is the biggest psychiatric disability facing humanity.

    Now, I will allow that for the first few days of playing GTA3, it did have a certain effect on my world perception. But it had to do with driving. There was a time while, I was first getting accustomed to the driving interface, when other cars in GTA3 would hit me almost routinely. This made me somewhat more cautious at intersections in the real world. So I was literally made more cautious, not less, by GTA3. At least briefly.

    Does that, in contrast to your account, demonstrate a difference in our personal attitudes? I think so.

    /jzero
  • ScoobyDoofus
    Offline / Send Message
    ScoobyDoofus polycounter lvl 19
    There has been more than one occasion where I've been out walking and seen an ATM or a security camera and thought "Oh, I should go hack that ATM for some cash" or "I should use my multi-tool to disable that camera..."

    I didnt do those things. As soon as I thought of them, I chuckled at how silly it that my brain was suggesting game activities in reality.
    Yes, I played a lot of Deus Ex and other FPS & RTS games, but I've never shot anybody, or stolen a car, etc.
  • Malekyth
    Offline / Send Message
    Malekyth polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Does that, in contrast to your account, demonstrate a difference in our personal attitudes? I think so.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Of course I appreciate the time it took to pounce on an opportunity and all, but Jesus fuck, does a post that tries to prove the lethal consequences of GTA by recollecting how I thought about taking a shortcut across someone's lawn once, really require a "just kidding" disclaimer? Please say it ain't so!

    (edit: smile.gif )
  • jzero
    Offline / Send Message
    jzero polycounter lvl 18
    Malekyth : It does require at least a smiley, because we can't see your body language. Read your post again and you'll see how you might seem stone serious. Dude.

    This is the Intertron, after all. People say stuff like that out there all day long. And mean it.

    /jz
  • Malekyth
    Offline / Send Message
    Malekyth polycounter lvl 18
    Well, I figure that six or seven years of fairly consistently-styled posts should eventually grant me the ability to tell everyone in my most serious voice that I just distilled the cure for cancer from the President's semen, without having to mug the camera and add "wakka wakka".
  • ndcv
    Offline / Send Message
    ndcv polycounter lvl 18
    DOOD U HAVE THE CURE FOR CANCER omg why are u wasting ur time?!?!?!?! u should go sell it and make ur millions! OMG!!!1!!11!11!!!11

    !1
  • KDR_11k
    Offline / Send Message
    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    Not everyone remembers everybody's posting style. We have quite a few people on these boards who have a posting style similar to your joke there.
  • James Edwards
    Offline / Send Message
    James Edwards polycounter lvl 18
    Some of us still remember mal... and appreciate =]

    Also, save some of that semen for me! 0_o
  • Malekyth
    Offline / Send Message
    Malekyth polycounter lvl 18
    haha ... holy lost threads, Gwotman! smile.gif
Sign In or Register to comment.