Video game simulates mass-murder at best buy

[nolies32fouettes]

http://progressiveu.org/011313-video-game-simulates-murder-of-random-people-not-enemies

Am I the only person against this game?

[lvx35]

1. Man, I'm going to make a video game that simulates killing all the programmers at Rockstar...

see how they like it.

[kiahzero]

20. Jack Thompson? (n/t)

[Kagemusha]

2. What game? I don't see a name. Why do you think this is real?

And not just some sick gag based on what people think Rockstar is willing to publish?

Notice that the huge uproar over "Bully" fizzled badly when the actual game turned out not to have so much of what people had assumed, or fantasized, it would.

[nolies32fouettes]

3. except that without GIVING them money you don't know if it's

terrible or not.

And bully may have fizzled but it doesn't mean this one is the same.

[Zhade]

32. YOUR POST IS A LIE.

The game does not exist.

Jesus, did you even read the link you posted?

[progdonkey]

4. "This article is satire and is not intended as actual news."

That's on the bottom of the page your post links to.

That's why you're the only person against it: the game doesn't exist. :eyes:

[Kagemusha]

5. Thank you for clearing that up.

I tried to find where the page linked to but for some reason, didn't quite find it.

[nolies32fouettes]

9. haha I missed the fine print. thanks.

[progdonkey]

15. this didn't clue you in? :-)

"The premise is very simple and very harmless: You open fire on innocent people standing in line at a Best Buy, and when everybody is dead you walk around and collect their Playstations. If you want, you can bludgeon the corpses with a baseball bat. So what are people complaining about? It’s not like there’s a sex scene in it or something."

;)

In all seriousness, though, I hope this has gotten you to realize that the game publishers are nowhere near as bad as you'd like to think they are. Much of the criticism against violent video games comes from people who think that video games are still only something for kids and that all games are therefore targeted at kids. Most video game players nowadays are adults. Think about it: a kid who was maybe five when he got his first Atari in 1981 (which wasn't even the first system) is now thirty years old. Yeah, he's a busy professional now, but he spent his whole childhood playing video games, so it's something he still enjoys doing in his free time. Since he's thirty, though, he wants games that are meant for thirty-year-olds, not games dumbed down or censored so twelve-year-olds can play them, too.

And it's not just a matter of killing time, or whatever. Video games are supplanting movies as the chosen form of entertainment for adults. Video game publishers are a lot like Hollywood movie producers (both good and bad) with one huge difference: video gamers are much more demanding than movie goers. Your average video game provides maybe 10-15 hours of play (something like Grand Theft Auto III and it's off shoots easily offer double that, and we won't even get into role-playing games... and then there's the online role-playing games that are endless!) and costs maybe $40-$50, and a gamer expects to be satisfied that whole time. Besides storyline, graphics, etc. there's basic gameplay (control, etc.), where the designers want to make something new and distinct that still fits on the Playstation and/or XBOX controller (only like 12 buttons to do fifty different options--computer game designers are fortunate that they have a 100+ keyboard to work with), so there are plenty of aspects of a video game that the designers have to test out and perfect that simply don't exist in movies.

Your average movie in the theater, on the other hand, costs $9 and is usually over in under two hours. Even with a good movie, you're getting far less bang for your buck than from a good video game that could give you 30 hours of playtime for $50 bucks (not to mention the rich story options that can be explored with 30 hours to work with instead of just two!). So even the best that Hollywood has to offer can't measure up to the best that the game industry has to offer.

Also, no matter what, you'll get to the end of a bad movie as long as you keep it running, but if a game is bad for any multitude of reasons (bad AI, control, graphical glitches, bugs) you're liable to get stuck somewhere a third of the way through and never see the end, or get frustrated and never finish it. There's nothing more frustrating than playing a game for a few hours, only to come up against a brick wall because the designers messed up in testing; at least with a movie, the most time that's been stolen from your life would be around two hours. (And you could just have it running in the background while you're doing other things if it really gets boring, no such luck with a game where you are the actor.) You just paid $40 for a third of a story, and you're pissed. This means that you (and other gamers) are going to be sure to check reviews and only buy games that provide a very rewarding experience: you're spending more money and investing much more time in the game, so it better be good!

So, the primary reason that there are much more violent video games now is not because the game publishers want to exploit children's impressionable minds, or whatever, but because the gaming community itself wants more violent (ie. realistic) video games. Also, adult video gamers aren't the fat pizza faced thirty-year-old living in his parents' basement, but rather the thirty-year-old professional, or athlete on some downtime, or just your average guy (or girl) who's been playing video games his entire life and wants something appropriate for his age level.

[nolies32fouettes]

16. actually...just exhaustion. working lots of jobs, school, & trying to

win that scholarship at the same time. It's difficult to grab any sleep. So I honestly thought it was serious. (lol) SEriously...I"m just flat out exhausted--more exhausted than you'd believe. It went right owver my head.

But I grew up playing Ultima Online, Diablo and many other online games. Though I admit...I've been nintendo deprived and don't own this game center either. (Can't afford it.)

[progdonkey]

29. hey, it happens...

In my English AP class my senior year in high school, the teacher had us read Jonathan Swift's classic satirical tract saying that the most sensible way to end the Irish Famine would be for the Irish to start eating their babies, even going into how many calories your average baby would provide, and the best ways to serve baby ("like a roast suckling pig, only with less fat," or something like that...). The satirical tone is pretty thick, but there was this one girl in the class who just didn't get the satire. She wasn't dumb, by any means; she was just reading it straight and that switch in her brain just didn't get flipped from "serious" to "satire," so she was horrified, all the more so because many of us were laughing our asses off while we were reading it!

[Poll_Blind]

6. It is satire. This is not a real video game...yet. Link inside.

This appears to be the original (satirical) story or an authorized reprint, anyway.

  One day there will probably be such a game, and there probably are (Macromedia) flash games like that, but not from Rockstar and not today.

  I still love greasing Nazis in video games, though. It just works. Why people would want to play games about killing innocent people when you can lay fascists to waste in something like Company of Heroes, I'll never get.

Poll "The only good Nazi is a burnt Nazi!" Blind

[nolies32fouettes]

10. i have an old monitor. the red lines on my monitor were so

blurry i couldn't read it. I thought it was just copyright info.

Thanks.

Especially since I really thought they were serious!

[aquart]

7. Have you ever shopped at Best Buy?

It's a completely reasonable impulse. That place is nasty. I keep looking up for the guards in the gun turrets.

[Zhade]

33. LOL!

Best. Response. Yet.

[tomreedtoon]

8. This is a FAKE. The author WANTS violent video games.

Why are we talking about a bad parody? The basic fact is that the videogame industry has nothing to offer but violence, and they refuse to take any criticism for it.

Anytime they come up with a game that boosts the violence level, and people complain about it, they start talking First Amendment and how it's all a "parody" or "cartoonish" and that it doesn't really affect people. That is what this article is really about. It's the videogame industry trying to deflect blame from the crap they turn out.

Nobody sees the videogame publishers as being on a par with those people who want to drill for oil in Alaska, preferably through the bodies of several polar bears. They are exploitational. They don't wish to use their games for the same reason as, say, authors of books, to shed some light upon the human experience. They want to make profits off moronic, stupid teens looking for a thrill that isn't drugs.

[trumad]

11. moronic, stupid teens?

LOL--- That's what my parents said about me when I dropped acid back in the seventies....

[progdonkey]

13. please, who's being "moronic" and "stupid" here?

Your post shows that you have no idea what you're talking about. So, you think all gamers are teens, and all game publishers are targeting them? Did you know that most gamers are now over 18? The people who were eight years old when they got their first Atari are now in their thirties. Most of them still like playing video games, but since they're in their thirties, they want games with more mature storylines and realism.

Grand Theft Auto III was not made for kids or teenagers, just the same way that Goodfellas or the Sopranos weren't. Should Martin Scorsese have had DeNiro and Pesci saying "Oh, those fudging poopyheads. I want to give them a stern talking to," because someone's kid might see it at some point? Or should he have made it as real as possible, with the requisite level of violence and profanity for a story about gangsters?

Staying with Goodfellas/GTA III, Goodfellas only had three hours of story to it, while GTAIII (Vice City especially) has perhaps a good thirty hours of story--and that's if you just stick to the main quests and don't do any of the side quests! That you would say that the games have nothing to offer but violence just proves you've never played a single one of these games that you love to hate.

Who's said that the games are a parody or cartoonish? They're neither, and that's just the point. The vast majority of gamers are adults now, so they want games that are equally adult in nature. They don't want cartoon violence a la Looney Tunes, they wan't the Sopranos or Saving Private Ryan.

Yeah, a kid might be able to buy an M-Rated game (you do know that games are rated, right?), just the same as he might be able to buy an R-rated movie, or go to a library and read a book with an even greater level of violence.

"Nobody sees the videogame publishers as being on a par with those people who want to drill for oil in Alaska."

Of course not, because nobody's that fucking stupid.

Try playing through the siege of Stalingrad in Call of Duty or the Omaha Beach landing in Medal of Honor, and tell me they don't "shed some light upon the human experience."

[tomreedtoon]

22. All gamers ARE teens, even if they're over 21.

Sheesh. The whole point of videogames is to KILL PEOPLE. Yes, they're pixels on a screen, just as fictional characters are concepts made of ink blots on paper. But the whole point is to give the teen - who as I say may be as old as 55 - the vicarious thrill of killing.

I suppose you'll also argue that little kids never read Playboy or Hustler. Yeah, games are rated. So are movies. You think kids don't sneak in? And again, I'm talking emotional maturity, and modern-day Americans don't have that.

And what is this about "quests?" This isn't a live-action D&D game, where you have a living Dungeon master and living players interacting with each other, and a story line depends upon their joint imaginations. This is a pre-programmed (whether multi-path adventure or single track doesn't matter) killing spree. It is impossible, for instance, for your Uzi-toting carjacker to make peace with the police or help Katrina victims. Not only isn't the programming or the system that flexible, it's something that the gorehounds don't want.

A good example of how your lens is skewed is your calling "Saving Private Ryan" or "The Sopranos" sophisticated. They weren't. "Full Metal Jacket" and "Chinatown" were sophisticated.

I will admit that you are right. The videogame publishers aren't like people drilling oil in Alaska. They're more like guys selling heroin outside grade schools. And you, in effect, are acting as their defense attorney.

I note that the two games you mentioned are military first-person shooters, or as I like to call them, Columbine Trainers. Good choice for showing complex moral qualities. Point. Shoot. Kill. Repeat until Game End.

[progdonkey]

25. oh, sweet Jesus!

You think that every videogame involves killing people? Holy shit, that's ignorant. And that you would say it so boldly--that it's "the whole point"--is just one more sign that you've never played any of these games and don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about.

Yes, little kids get ahold of porn and violent videogames. It's the parents' responsibility to keep an eye on their kids, not mine or that of the publisher (whether it's Hugh Hefner or Electronic Arts). Why should I and other gamers and movie goers have to live with G-rated crap because some parents are too lazy to watch their kids? If you're kid keeps getting ahold of your porn, maybe you should stop buying it or just hide it better.

Quests. Missions. Where do you get the idea that it has anything to do with live action roleplaying? Ever heard of MMORPGs? Or really any RPG? Maybe it's a sign of your complete ignorance of the whole subject that you don't even understand what a "quest" is in a videogame. Yes, outside of the MMORPGs, there's always a limit to how open-ended a game really is, but they're often far more open-ended than any book or movie.

Of course it's impossible in GTAIII (for instance) to make peace with the police, because that would be fucking pointless. You know how stupid and pointless a game where you just walk around saying "hello" to everyone would be? The whole basis of the storyline is that you're a small-time hood who's just gotten out of prison and you want to work your way up, so of course you're going to be on the wrong side of the law. Don't you love the part in the Godfather where Don Corleone brings the heads of the other mafia families together with the chief of police and they all drink some wine, agree to let bygones be bygones, and live happily ever after? Wow, such an interesting story.

Yeah, "This is my rifle, this is my gun. This is for fighting, this is for fun" is so sophisticated. (I do love that movie, though.) Besides, I never said "sophisticated." I called them "adult," which is completely different. Sticking with Private Ryan, viewers would've been insulted if there had been no blood or guts at the opening scene. The whole point was to show how brutal and bloody that assault was--to pretend it was totally bloodless so the little kiddies could watch would insult both the viewers and the memories of those who fought and died. The same goes for Call of Duty, which is very violent and hectic, because that's how war is. It would be more disturbing if the games tried to make it seem like war is something fun and cool--it isn't; you're sent out on one mission and you have no idea where you are because you're going in and out of buildings that have been reduced to rubble, and before you're even able to finish your first original objective, you're given a new one and you're immediately sent somewhere else, and there are snipers everywhere and you have no idea where the enemy is. Like I said in my last message, if you want something that comments on the "human condition" you should try Call of Duty--nothing will make you fear war and have respect for those who had to go through it more than that.

"Columbine Trainers"? Fuck, that's even more retarded than calling game publishers heroin dealers. Though, I've fired M-16s at Basic Training, and I have to tell you that it's exactly the same as using a mouse and keyboard or a gamepad. It's amazing how identical the mechanics are. When I hit my first bullseye, the DS said, "Private, you've obviously played a lot of video games!" :sarcasm: Not to mention that, when I want to run everywhere in real life, it's as easy and effortless as pressing and holding "w" on the keyboard or pushing the analog stick on the gamepad forward.

Before you go around calling everyone who enjoys videogames an immature moron and the people who make them drug dealers maybe you should actually try playing one so you have at least some idea what you're talking about. :eyes:

[Solon]

35. There are shock games, just as there are shock movies....

Both, more or less, parody the extremes of life. The GTA series is a classic example, for they lampoon everything from gangbanging to conservatives, hell, you should listen to the radio ads as a simple example, and the storylines also reflect this stuff. Side missions may actually involve SAVING people even! Wow, who would have thought of that!

Not to mention that in many video games, you play the "hero" the newest on the XBox 360 is Superman, for crying out loud. The game is open ended, so you are technically free to do "evil" if you wish, like picking people up off the street and dropping them while flying, but the game penalizes you for stuff like that, in addition to "collateral damage" to the city while you are fighting the bad guys.

One thing people seem to not be able to grasp is this, damned near every human culture has its values reflected in all art, whether interactive or not. Our cultures all thrive on some type of conflict, violent or not, and those arts reflect it, period. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a fact, deal with it.

[0rganism]

36. In GTA III you can play as a cop, or a firefighter, or drive taxis & ambulances if you so choose

See, you can "make peace" with the police by catching crooks, you can help the sick & injured get to hospitals, you can put out fires, you can help pedestrians reach their destinations for a fee. Of course, doing so doesn't advance the main plotline, but the player gains certain power-ups from playing those roles, and doing them is necessary for the coveted 100% completion.

Which is one of the many reasons GTA III is considered a revolutionary game, compared to its contemporaries in the shooter and platformer genres. There really is a high degree of choice and freedom of action involved, moreso than one is led to believe by the very public (and occasionally legitimate) criticisms the game received. And much moreso than those who assert "Not only isn't the programming or the system that flexible, it's something that the gorehounds don't want" would care to suss out for themselves, apparently.

[FVZA_Colonel]

38. "Columbine Trainers"

Are you Jack Thompson?

[benEzra]

40. Yeah, saving humanity from alien hordes is SO much like murdering your classmates...

I note that the two games you mentioned are military first-person shooters, or as I like to call them, Columbine Trainers. Good choice for showing complex moral qualities. Point. Shoot. Kill. Repeat until Game End.

Yeah, vicariously saving humanity from alien hordes (Halo, Half Life) while wielding a game controller is SO much like murdering your classmates with a sawed-off shotgun.

Do you think the Star Wars series should be banned, or at least X-rated? How about the Matrix series (terrorist training films that they are), or the subversive V for Vendetta?

One could advocate that those evil horror movies should all be re-scripted to involve Nice Ghosts (The Ring III: Casper Learns a Lesson), and Freddy Kruger/Jason/etc. should only pop out of closets and sewers to wish people a nice day and serve them tea and crumpets. And all those mobster movies--well, those are just murder trainers...

Step back a minute, and compare what you are saying about video games to what 1950's fundamentalists said about "Hollywood movies." Different medium, same arguments.

And FWIW, I'm a 36-year-old technical writer and Xbox owner who is currently playing through Half Life 2, a first-person shooter" that is a cross between George Orwell's 1984 and the post-apocalyptic genre. My wife, who is 35, played all the way through the Halo and Halo 2 campaigns with me, simply because the plot was so gripping that she wanted to experience it.

If you don't like first-person video games, don't buy one. But I like them, and I'll keep buying them.

[akushuki]

24. I just LAN'd medal of honour with my suite

I dont think i feel like going to shoot some germans now!

[Zhade]

34. Katamari. Okami. Animal Crossing. Guitar Hero. Lumines. Tetris.

Soooooooooooo many other examples.

You're wrong about violence being the only thing gaming has to offer.

[Ian David]

12. I doubt Joe LIEberman and Hillary Clinton will be complaining about THIS one

See:

Progressive Christians oppose Left Behind game
Spero News - 14 hours ago
... CAP’s letter declares: “The Christian Alliance for Progress deplores the release of the video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces in which the game's object ...
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=134&id=6801&t=Progressive+Christians+oppose+Left+Behind+game


Oh Jeebus! Lieberworm to grandstand about video games on CSPAN today
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2823824

[NYCGirl]

14. And what's this I hear about Soviet Jewelry?....Oh, never mind.

You're the only one against the game because IT DOESN'T EXIST!

[ComerPerro]

17. I would expect to read an article like that on RW and fundie sites

[Minnesota_Lib]

18. You think this is bad, just watch that right-wing nut case, Stephen Colbert some time.

:D Just ribbing ya.

[Little Wing]

19. My God! They've tapped into my brain!

:scared:

[Minnesota_Lib]

21. Speaking of stupid games...

The Left Behind game, where you get to slaughter unbelievers (the evil unbelievers are known by the ominous name 'Peacekeepers'), has been released if anyone wants to buy it for your young ones for Xmas.

http://www.leftbehind.com/

:evilgrin:

[progdonkey]

30. check out the review at Gamespot...

Don't mock Left Behind: Eternal Forces because it's a Christian game. Mock it because it's a very bad game. The real-time strategy/adventure game from Left Behind Games based on the best-selling series of novels from Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins will even let down born-again types who expect the Rapture to beam them up to heaven any day now. Nobody has enough faith to endure a game with such a hokey story, terrible mission design, serious problems with the interface and graphics, and loads of crippling bugs.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leftbehindeternalforces/review.html

:rofl:

[NuttyFluffers]

39. i've played several Christian video games... almost all were mind blowingly bad.

which is such a pity because apparently some Christians out there were talented enough to make a rather passable collectible card game (the now defunct game Redemption) ages ago. i always loved that you could say things like, "I'll loan you my Whore of Babylon if you let me use your Great Horned Beast in my Lake of Fire deck." ahh, memories...

[Johnny Appleseed]

23. Somebody actually did make a Columbine massacre game

once. Which was sort of tasteless.

[benEzra]

41. It was solely a publicity stunt...

sort of like PETA smearing people with blood on the street. And, contrary to the perception of gamers that people like Dave Grossman/Jack Thompson would like to promulgate, nobody bought it (if it was even released at all). It was a total bomb.

[Kelly Rupert]

26. Yes, because it's a satirical statement, and not real.

It's designed to point out how the hidden sex scene in GTA got everyone all pissed off, but how wonton violence is accepted everywhere.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

27. I'd Buy It. It's A Video Game. I Used To Love Entering Codes In Grand Theft Auto And Blowing Away

the shit out of everybody.

It's a game. Just a game. Nothing more.

[Zhade]

28. Funny headline, made me think of fragging Best Buy customers to get to the front of the line.

Oh, I slay me.

[benEzra]

42. That's fine, until the zombies show up and steal all the Playstations. (n/t)

[Zhade]

31. You mean against this NONEXISTENT BULLSHIT LIE?

The game that DOESN'T EXIST?

You fell for it, as did some of the prohibitionist morons here.

[Evoman]

37. Damn...I was hoping it was a real game. It sounds fun.

Kind of like Postal 2. Except in Postal 2 you could pee in peoples faces too. Good times.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

43. This is really disturbing.

Not the game, the reactions against it in this thread. Reads like a Jack Chick tract.