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Maybe MMORPGs will be banned
Vema
Member Posts: 16
Pathos, Logos, and Ethos. The facets through which healthy debate is conducted.
However, whenever such a tragedy happens, people with a certain agenda have the opportunity to make an impassioned (pathos-based) plea in favor of their position while blasting any logical(logos) or authoritative(ethos) counter-argument. They have a rare window to force action to be made almost exclusively on the basis of emotion.
We find ourselves in a position where a tragedy has occurred and a Garrosh Hellscream quote guarantees that WoW, MMOs, and games in general are about to come under a microscope. This is bad...this is really bad. And when the Jack Thompson crowd starts coming out of the woodwork, it's going to be tough to defend games. Indeed, it's going to be just about impossible to defend games in this atmosphere.
We have a rare debate where, because of the emotions involved, their side is going to be able to respond to anything said in defense of games as "STFU...have you no shame?" And even people sympathetic to your standpoint come out and say, "Dude...STFU. Now is not the time...we'll have the time to say our piece later...just give it a couple of months."
And what's the problem with that? Maybe those of us who believe that games are not sufficiently dangerous to justify their banning should just STFU for a while...why not?
Well, the "why not" is that while we're STFU'ing, the very basis of our democratic way of life is broken. Specifically, you have people, heartbroken and very well meaning, screaming their position at the top of their lungs. They would really believe that punishing games is the right thing to do in this situation. And the people who would stand opposite them have permitted themselves to be shamed into silence. If we STFU, then the situation we create is akin to a ballot proposal where one side of the debate stays home.
And that's why, even if people will call you a monster for daring to defend games when they bring up an outlier situation where games did enormous harm, IMHO you must. Now is not the time to STFU. Now, more than any other, is the time to stand in defense of games. If we don't, then our opponents have a blank check to, while emotions are still high, pass any policy they wish.
Sorry, I'm not an especially skilled writer...I hope I've articulated my position adequately.
Comments
won't happen , rock and roll has been blamed for a ton of things it didn't go away ....before that comics etc.
worst case scenario is some politicians get all worked up about video games and video game companies start donating money to politicians campaigns to make them got off the gaming industries back. Bottom line 99% of people who play games don't do crazy stuff like this.
Any censorship in games is quite silly tbh. Restrict who can see it sure. I'd rather not have an impressionable 12 year old getting a gore filled game.
But out right censoring just makes me want to remind people that the "games" and entertainment in the past was blood filled gladiator combat. We're far more civil even with violent video games.
As for game regulations I think developers like their games and how they design them. If violent video games are being banned in countries they reside in, they would probably put it through a service not tied to one country or another. For instance steam or another service of the like. Meaning that anyone willing and able can acquire the product.
As far as I'm aware owning and playing violent games in countries which ban the sale of them is not illegal. Australia has a lot of experience with this what with ordering their games from over seas when it's "too violent" for the country.
Though it could have an adverse effect on the industry as it would require everyone to most likely have internet for an online service, or extra funding when buying games for the shipping fees.
There is no debate, the only people who are blaming video games are radicals, rabble-rousers and idiots. The guy was nuts, plain and simple. if you read more than just the mainstream articles he had a history of anti-social (almost violent) behaviour towards women and should have been flagged as needing help long before this happened.
If anyone is to blame here its the system and the 'responsible' adults in his life. If you personally feel that to defend video games is monsterous then sorry but that's your issue, not everyone's. If anyone villifies gaming to me I will simply ask them if they feel alcohol should be banned too, as misuse of that has caused more violence than anything since religion!
There is something different about MMOs versus other online games. One can point to the vast amounts of time many MMO players spend and allege that this empty time interferes with their ability to become well-adjusted members of society(and therefore makes them a greater risk to themselves or others). While it's entirely possible to get similarly hooked on Starcraft or Call of Duty, a case can easily be made that MMOs are worse in this regard. Someone told me "there's something wrong with anyone who does anything in 10 hour sessions" and I can't really say anything against that.
This is my point. That bottom line can be swept away if we aren't willing to tersely repeat that ">99% don't do crazy stuff like this"...that these situations are outliers.
This is second thread I have seen about something that's happened had a look on a couple news sites and not seen anything. Could someone link or explain.
http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/santa-barbara-slayer-mimicking-warcraft-character/
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Games, as with any form of distraction (basketball, baseball, football, cage fighting, crazy-cop shows, super hero movies, drinking, drugs etc.) will never go away - the controllers don't want that. They want us as deep as possible in our addiction/distraction of choice .. it helps hide their crimes.
Make sure your hat is *tin*, not aluminum, aluminum will not protect you from s***t, especially the orbital mind control lazorz.
As for controversy, just look up "Leland Yee", San Francisco's own!
Whatever prompted the OP, I am reminded of Dee Synder's testimony before Congress, the PMRC thing, and Al Gore leaping across the table.
SO it turns out I had seen this on the news. However when I seen it reported It didn't mention gaming it talked about how he raged on twitter about killing women that had spurned him some how and that he was going to punish all dumb blonde women.
Ok so he was gamer played a lot of wow. To be honest if a killer is under 30 theres a chance he probably spends a lot of time gaming.
Edit: No reason for me to be an ass, blather all you want.
To the OP, you write with almost too much fluff.
And though I do agree we shouldnt stand around with out hands in our pockets. There isnt much to worry about. There are more people of voting age who game now, or have, than ever. So the chance of Jack Thompson actually pulling off some kind of law that has an affect of gaming is small indeed.
A hundred years ago it was movies, then comics, then cartoons, then rock and roll, then action toys, then rap music, then television, and now its video games. We can see how effective these "anti-" campaigns are.
This Jack Thompson is getting more press because hes anti-gaming than the message hes spouting out about. Meaning, I bet there area few lawmakers that know his name because of what hes against, but would be hard pressed to name exactly what are the specifics of his agenda.
Or to put it another way. Then know him because hes the current nut on the corner with a sandwich board, but no ones bothered to stop and listen to him.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Just like booze and fags .. Don't the gov't make a lot of money from taxing gaming anyway? If they do I can't see them giving that up. It's already been mentioned how ..
Booze
Fags
Rock n Roll
Metal
Dungeons n Dragons
And god knows what else have been blamed for one thing of another. Books to at some point and given how much imagination you use when reading they should be banned before games if anything.
Music wise .. Didn't rock/metal rise from the blues? So we can blame that too ;-)
If they want to start blaming gaming for the worlds ills, well, we can all play that game and I'm sure we'd be better at it lol
Millions of people play WoW and other mmos, how many of those people turn out like this kid?
While we are at it, millions of people fly in planes everyday, and yet we know that planes have crashed so do we "ban" planes as well?
No, mmorpgs won't get banned. In some states, like North Korea or China with their intranet - yes, it's possible to cut down lines, censor and ban. Not an option for the rest of the world.
No, it could hardly be that any politiciant would want to becopme a prototype for monster in, say, WoW..
Yes, people are quick to judge. If a kid takes machine gun and goes on killing spree shouting "Long live Minbari Federation!", people would start to scream how violent Babylon-5 was. If kid takes a gun and goes on killing spree with slogan "Me luv u, Milla Jovovich", everyone would start to blame Milla's rolles in Resident Evil.
On the other side - yes, there are lots of violence in mmorpgs. When my big-chested toon in AoC died, I saw blood, her head cut off, I saw my enemies electrocuted etc. Yes, in most mmorpgs you fight humanoids and you see blood spilling etc.
Does it encourage crime? Hardly.
The solution could be - less gore, a bit less humanoid enemies. There may be Golems (Istaria), overgrown spiders/cave rats (Lotro), even evil undead (think of Nazgul) or dragons. There could be more missions that encourage stealth/diplomatic solution. Example: there is Orcish outpost and it needs to be eliminated. You can kill all the Orcs and get 5 gold coins, but you can pour some drug to their ale so that they fell into deep sleep, get 25 gold coins and some nice equipment/title.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
I'am wondering if the OP's parents are having any discussions with his therapist ?
MAGA
Back when I was a kid, nothing settled stuff better than a little school yard fight. Now the soccer moms get to step in and stop it. So now we have build up and kids come in with guns.
Add to the fact that no one has any money to eat, and things are gonna get worse, video games are the least of our problems.
Now you can thank lawyers politicians and taxes !
How would you ban them anyway ? You could cripple the gaming industry in America and force thousands of trained professionals to leave your country....but you couldn't actually stop people from playing them on line.
I live in Canada and many of the US shows are blocked here. Anything on hulu is blocked for example. With the push of one single button in chrome it lets me watch anything I want. I don't need to be a hacker kid living in a basement to do it. I just had to go to the chrome app store and DL it from the popular apps section.
This shit is gonna blow up when we get VR. Dam, human race will go extinct since the millions of people playing games will all go on a murder spree.
The only person that blamed games was someone who was close to him and in denial. Not the media from what I have seen not anyone else. One quote is not the world, the masses calling foul on games.
If anyone was responsible more than anything else it was the people around and close to him. It's exactly why they are in denial blamed games. People like him. They don't just pop. There are usually plenty of signs, tells if you will. Especially if they are around others and interacting with those people. Nothing excuses the actions. NOTHING! This stuff doesn't just happen in a vacuum though.
I forgot about D&D. I grew up in the 80's when if you said you played D&D some people thought tha meant you were a satanist.
Little did they know....muhahahaha.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."