The outrage stems from comments he made referring to drug use and teen pregnancy. Gamers interpreted his comments to be a direct comparison of those two acts to playing video games. What he actually said was, "I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them."
Violence in video games seems to always be the easy answer for rallying politicians. From Jack Thompson to Joe Leiberman, it seems like everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and now gamers have the opportunity to make a buck from reporting crimes influenced by gaming.
A national newspaper in the U.K. has posted an online ad requesting stories from gamers on how the games they played turned them to a life of crime. The ad states, “Write a few lines about how computer games turned you to crime and if it’s something we like, we’ll call you straight back.” The paper is apparently willing to pay hundreds of pounds for anyone willing to sell their story.
As the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 draws ever nearer, the waters are already starting to boil. This, without Rockstar’s title even around to help it bubble over. The latest blowup is in Boston where the mayor wants to ban violent video game sales to minors.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is apparently hopeful that banning sales of violent games to minors will cause a drop in street violence in the city. Larry Mayes, Menino’s chief of human services, said of the issue, “Children aged 17 and under should not be sold this stuff, so they are not getting into the hands of 9- and 10-year-olds. Is it going to be an uphill battle? Sure. But it’s absolutely a battle that the mayor feels he should take on.” (more…)
Do you ever stop to consider that perhaps the entire world has gone crazy? Stories like this are enough to make you do so. Apparently a 15-year-old boy in Marble Falls, Texas was shot in the head potentially over the game God of War.
The details state that the 15-year-old shot and another boy were over visiting the shooter, a 13-year-old. The two visitors were playing God of War when the 13-year-old left the room, retrieved some bullets and then returned and without saying a word shot the 15-year-old in the head. It is unclear exactly how the shooting tied to God of War (a game in which there really aren’t guns). The link is credited to a parent. (more…)
That headline is perhaps misleading in that it’s a gross over simplification of the issue at hand. That issue being that a game is currently being developed in Europe centered on the Holocaust. In it, you play a young French boy who escapes the horrors of Nazi occupation during World War II by retreating into a fantasy world. Does that premise sound familiar to you Pan’s Labyrinth fans?
Nintendo officials have stated the game will not see a US release. The game, titled Imagination Is the Only Escape, is being developed by a single independent artist and distributed by British company Alten8. It appears to be an artistic attempt to deal with the horrors of the Holocaust in a game that might educate young people. (more…)
Four million teachers from around the world have called for retailers to boycott selling the new game Bully: Scholarship Edition. Actually, Bully isn’t a new game but a sort-of director’s cut of the original PS2 title. Regardless, teacher unions from around the world worry about the implications of a title they feel glorifies the act of bullying.
Eight teachers’ unions in Canada, the United States, Britain, South Korea, Australia and the Caribbean have banded together in order to request the boycott of retailers. “We’re asking retailers to be responsible,” Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, said yesterday. “Yes, they can sell it and make a buck out of this, but is this the kind of marketing that they want to be [doing], selling games that glorify violence?” (more…)
The video posted with this story almost entirely speaks for itself. Essentially, a group of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) players decided that real life retaliation was needed for a simulated world slight. The outcome? Murder.
What’s perhaps even odder is that not only did the group kill the player they were mad at, but they followed that up by harassing his sister. Now, granted, the individuals involved in this sound like they must have been truly disturbed individuals, but one wonders about the sociopathic behavior exhibited in stalking the dead man’s sister. What would cause such actions? Rage alone could explain the murder, but apparently this was very premeditated-over a game. Then, to follow that with harassment of a completely unaffiliated bystander, makes one question if these people had any indication that they were playing a game, and then suddenly weren’t? (more…)
As the release of 
Do you ever stop to consider that perhaps the entire world has gone crazy? Stories like this are enough to make you do so. Apparently a 15-year-old boy in 
Four million teachers from around the world have called for retailers to 
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