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Mediawise hates gamers
SilentSword
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I haven't combed the forums, so I hope this is not a repeat post. Sorry if it is.
Have you all seen the Mediawise commercial? In it a young boy descibes how he went to a cool hangout club and decided to shoot up the patrons. When the police arrive, he tells how he lit them on fire using gasoline. There is no context given, and the kid seems legitimately excited about describing the violence. Then, at the end of the commercial, it says something clichêd and crappy like: "Know the difference between fantasy and reality? Kids don't. Videogame violence is real!" and then directs you to mediawise.com.
Man. This really pissed me off, so I contacted them through their website. Just wondering if this bothered anyone like it bothers me.
Have you all seen the Mediawise commercial? In it a young boy descibes how he went to a cool hangout club and decided to shoot up the patrons. When the police arrive, he tells how he lit them on fire using gasoline. There is no context given, and the kid seems legitimately excited about describing the violence. Then, at the end of the commercial, it says something clichêd and crappy like: "Know the difference between fantasy and reality? Kids don't. Videogame violence is real!" and then directs you to mediawise.com.
Man. This really pissed me off, so I contacted them through their website. Just wondering if this bothered anyone like it bothers me.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to. - Gandalf the Grey
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Anyway, anything like that makes my blood boil. People who have no idea what they are talking about should not open their mouths. These "Anti Gaming" brigaders are a laughing stock and everyone but them can see it. I won't even bother explaining why all this "ban these evil games" crap is total nonsense, as anyone who has ever played a videogame before already knows.
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
Most "Anti Gaming" propaganda is complete bull, as you say its all scare tactics, designed to avert peoples eyes and scare them. The thing is though, most of it is so ridicolous I can't see how anybody could beleive what is said.
Which leads me to this point: if you're really concerned about violence in america, why not spend the same amount of time, money, and effort on something that can legitimately help, like prison reformation, alleviating poverty, public school systems and drug abuse. These factors all play major roles in American violent crime and all of them need help.
My question is this: Does that heightened aggression extend into the real world or does it remain contained to when the individual is playing the game?
For instance, if I die 15 times in the cookie cutter galaxy, I may become more aggressive or angry. This is also the case with violent games, hell, I grew up playing diablo 1. But I think most studies dealing with this subject are set with a pro or against agenda. Very few are legitimately trying to find a truthful, unbiased answer.
Video games will not fundamentally change a person from a kind a quiet fellow to a murderer, but they can shape someone with violent tendencies to do something stupid. The key is that there needs to already be a lean towards a particular behavior for the game to have a large influence. This is me talking out of my ass, based purely on conjecture, but synthesizing all of the studies I've read in my Uni's comm. department, it makes logical sense.
Also, people get up in arms about desensitization which blows my mind. For some reason we correlate desensitization with approbation when that is not necessarily the case. Just because I don't flinch when someone is shot doesn't necessarily mean I approve of the act - if anything it allows me to logically evaluate a situation. For instance, an emotionally swayed jury can make a poor judgment call based on shock images, whereas desensitization may allow an individual to come to a more logical conclusion.
Of course, the danger of desensitization is that the individual becomes apathetic - that wouldn't be good either.
Do kids know the difference between fantasy and reality? Yes, they do. Unless they're psychotic with which to begin.
I flinch when I see that someone on Facepunch Forums creates a Zoey Rape Thread or when some idiot on DeviantArt draws a guro depiction of Zoey, though. That is just going too far. There's quite a big difference between playing a game where you shoot zombies (or pounce on and kill survivors) and drawing a pretty girl getting her intestines torn out or writing a fan fic about that happening. That's just sick and it has little to do with games. People do that with anime and TV characters (such as Kate from Lost) all the time and it's deeply disturbing.
Because nobody wants to work toward real solutions, they want to find a scapegoat and blame it. It'll be interesting to see what the next scapegoat is after video games are passed over.
It reminds me a lot of the early 90s with the "cop killing" rap and even before that with comic book violence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx7MwrBv8kM
I honestly dont think its that bad
1. Never thought I'd hear a little kid describe decapitating a prostitute. Awesome.
2. Who the hell lets their kids play these games?
Yeah - that video is not bad at all.
Also - I think it's important to note that immersion for children (elementary school, say) is VERY different than it is for us. In many cases, they do not register that it is a game, or that there are rules and limitations to what they can do. I see it in my nephews who play kids games: to some extent they think that the world they are playing in, while not our world, is real and that the characters have a form of logic rather than scripted responses.
That all changes once they get to middle school or whatnot, but it's important to note. None of this is an issue though if the parents aren't letting them play grand theft auto.
Exactly - especially a kid that age who looks like he might be, at most, in 6th grade.
It's pretty bad, considering the game he describes does not actually exist. Could be it's Postal 2 (doubtful), but the game doesn't really give you much of a context for you to describe it in that sort of detail. They're just trying to make it sound like the kid played GTA IV, but you can't actually decapitate prostitutes in the game, so that's bogus.
You're right. I've seen worse in manhunt.
If anything, the AD is advocating parental involvement in what their kids are playing, which is what I'm all for. The OP said
Which comes off as an overreaction and defensive.
Yeah, but you murder them.
Or have relations.
Or both.
That's still pretty bad for a kid that age.
(someone has to teach kids that murdering hookers is not cool)
For real, GTA IV is not a game I'd recommend to kids (or to anyone else, for that matter).
I think that games like Grand Theft Auto give the whole industry a bad reputation, because they capitalize on the infamy they receive as violent games, but I also believe that it's up to parents to make sure that their kids don't play GTA instead of blaming the company for it. They're rated M for a reason.
I'd have no problem recommending Doom, Quake, Call of Duty 4 or Left 4 Dead to a kid. They're good games, and playing these games is no different than watching Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later. The negative impact is negligible and the fun you get out of playing the game is pretty awesome.
I recall that when I was only 12 years old, and my neighbour's 9 year old kid wanted to play Duke Nukem 3D, I enabled the parental controls so he wouldn't have to see boobies or blood. I think it's funny that I was policing what he could play, even at that age, though I never sought to deprive him of the fun of playing the game.
Yes.
That has NOTHING to do with the videogame.
These companies and ads need to stop with the "Violent games are dangerous" and send a "Parents! Watch what the fuck you're buying for your kids" message.
Yeah. I'm kind of torn, because I hate bullshit hyperbole and fearmongering, in that as an adult gamer I'm going to be painted as someone who enjoys shooting up virtual clubs/cops/hookers, but if we have to get to the brick-to-the-face level of subtlety to make parents take an active role in, well, parenting, then so be it.
Of course that's sad for a different reason that we have to stoop to that level, and parents who can't be involved in their child's life probably shouldn't have children, but now I'm getting into some serious D&D shit.
So yeah, how 'bout them hookers?
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
I think it's good to raise awareness that M-rated games are not necessarily suitable for kids. But it ought to be approached from the perspective of getting parents to actually pay attention to what, specifically, their children are playing, rather than the sensationalistic behavior that's so often displayed, which more or less amounts to BANBANBAN.
In short: Banning games is stupid. Getting parents to pay attention to the games their children are playing is good.
Yeah, but as pointed out by OremLK, the simple fact that you identify as a "gamer" means that people will think "Oh so you enjoyed Cop Killer III and Hooker Murderer DX?" based on the implication put forward by these ads.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Not to be antagonistic or anything, but have you read the thread? Have you seen the commercial? That's what it's doing, using a slightly exaggerated example of what happens in some games currently present on the market.
Wait; just so I don't misunderstand you.
You aren't trying to create some sort of "good guy gamer" vs "bad guy gamer" schism are you?
Well, TF2 is technically just two construction companies fighting over a contract. Is that really worth killing over? Why don't they unionize together and can then screw major corporations to the point where they collapse and bring down the economy of North America?
ololsocialcommentary
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
The focus of GTA is hardly to kill hookers or kill cops. There is a really in-depth story rife with character development, but the choice to explore that facet of the game is entirely up to the player. Games have always been about choice, so it's important to be able to choose whether or not to explore the protagonists story or go on a killing spree.
However, every action has a consequence in GTA. Cop killing will certainly get you a game over screen pretty quickly unless you use some sort of ridiculous cheat that gives you immortality and at that point you aren't operating within the natural confines of the game. Kill a cop and you'll have the entire department tailing you. Kill a hooker, and well, no one really cares unless it's in broad daylight, which I think mirrors reality pretty well.
I think RED is in the business of demolition.
They must always be in conflict, for the Universe demands balance.
Seriously though, I read out some column in our paper to my mum the other day, about how kids are playing "games that glorify murdering everyone and dealing drugs". I then pointed out how games that feature this kind of content are rated 18 and not for children to be playing, and it's the fault of the parents if they buy these games for their children.
edit: I'll have to actually watch the ad when I get home and make a judgement then, the bit at the top is not a serious statement. If it is just saying "pay attention to what your kids are playing", then good.
Yeah, I can count video games that are similar to the fake game described in the commercial without going into the double digits. There's even less of them if you only want to talk about games released within the past year or so.
The games in question are:
Grand Theft Auto IV
Saint's Row 2
Far Cry 2 (except everyone you meet has guns and wants to kill you, too!)
Please tell me if I've left anything out.
Whenever I hear about games in the media they're always making it sound as if 9 out of every 10 games consist of violent acts of misogyny (e.g. raping and killing a woman). The reality is that the real number is closer to being 1/1000. Ultra-violent flash games should not even count, because some people on NewGrounds are just plain crazy and nobody plays those games anyway, much less little kids.
I'm reminded of a recent article on a feminist website that characterized every gamer as being a hateful misogynist that wanted to perpetrate acts of vulgarity and/or violence upon innocent women, and it made me feel rather disheartened because most gamers I know, including myself, are the total opposite of that and despise games emphasizing pointless violence against innocents as much as any reasonable person could.
Tru dat. I think parents should know what games their child are playing. A kid that young shouldn't be playing anything like that.
Reliable Excavation Demolition, and Builder's League United (IIRC)
But I'm guessing that there's some overlap, otherwise they wouldn't be competing so violently for the same contracts.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
No, definitely not. I do have friends who enjoy GTA IV and they're not misogynists or psychopaths in any stretch of imagination, even though they do kill hookers and cops in the game. I just think that the game itself gives a bad portrayal of gamers because you can do that sort of thing in it. Most people can tell the difference between reality and fantasy and don't 'get off' on it, even if they do commit pointless acts of violence within the game itself.
There are a few people who do, and these people are probably the same kinds of people who would, as I mentioned earlier, write something like a Zoey rape fanfic or dismemberment guro of their favorite anime character. These people need psychiatric help, and painting every single gamer as being like this deprives the individuals who need help the most from actually receiving it, due to the misconceptions that society forms in painting an entire subculture with a broad stroke.
That is more or less what the commercial is saying.
You shouldn't even respond like that to your mother. They don't feature violence - and that violence usually has a message, a consequence, or some sort of reasoning behind it. The only game that I have played that really glorifies violence in the same way that, say, SAW glorifies violence is Manhunt.
GTA doesn't even come close.
You know, somewhere out there on the internet, there is a message board of parents saying:
Nobody accepts the blame.. nobody.
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
Hopefully when the current generation of 20-somethings has kids, this need will dry up. I mean, I know if I have a kid they're going to be my consoles first. Also I may see how long I can convince the kids that the most recent console is the SNES. I figure it'll be awesome for them to discover modern gaming all at once.
Just an aside.