Mousey

It seems that for now most newspapers and magazines over here in the UK have laid off games for the increasing amount of beatings, muggings and murders that occur.
But dammit it's a completely retarded link.
I've just played 2 hours of the postal 2 demo, running round, shooting people and whacking their heads off with shovels, i laughed my ass off and even urinated on them just for funnies, but i haven't developed a sudden urge to smack somebody's head off with a shovel.
Just like i don't feel the urge to go out and stab people after playing Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory, or the urge to go out and put 3 bullets through somebody's head after playing Halo 2.

We all have our moments when we say this kinda thing is too gruesome to put in a game i'm sure, i had my moment especially with Saw 2 and the pit of needles (Still makes me shiver does that, i fucking hate needles), but the underlying message is, if you do'nt like it... Don't fucking watch/play it >_<

Who agrees?

And Video Game Addiction? WTF Is that all about?
Being addicted to a game is like being addicted to alcohol, drugs or cigarettes. The only reason you get hooked and can't be without it is because you spend too much time playing it in the first place as i'm sure a lot of WoW Players will agree.
Video game addiction DOES NOT KILL PEOPLE, just how many millions of times will we have to say it to stop magazines and newspapers blaming everything on games?
WoW is very addictive i'll give it that. The first time my mate let me use his account, i made a human paladin and charged around like my hero (and mate) Booth ;p
It was practically the only thing i played until i got to about level 10, then the ZOMG factor wore off and i went to go play Battlefield 2 instead.

The only kinds of people that get addicted are the kinds of people who'll get hooked on any game.
For every person that's addicted to WoW there's another one addicted to Guild Wars (which i used to play).
And for every person that's addicted to Battlefield 2 there's one addicted to Quake 4 ect ect...

Anyway, [/rant]
Enjoy

__________________

OmegaRED

Let's be honest now, the UK is collectively losing its damn mind. First you had those "Big Brother" cameras on every corner and now the assault on video games. Why video games? Maybe because games are played at home and the home is the only place the cameras can't monitor

__________________

Mousey

Amen to that, Even the bloody food industry has been blamed for problems ffs.
If people want to get fat they will, i miss the good ol' days when junk food was cheap

__________________

topbob

You only played it for 30 min?
And I'll agree anyone that gets addicted to games has an addictive personality. I'm still fighting off my WoW addition, obsession, what ever, while my friend who played even more then I did (45++ hrs/week), recently quit, sold his accounts, and switch the game off for good, and hasn't had a single thought about it since. I'd never be able to do something like that, and honestly I'm glad. I'd never be able to fully enjoy games if I don't become immersed in the world, its just who I am. Now is this dangerous? If you become so blindly obsessed and lose your ability to control how much your playing and what has higher priority, sure, but you would have to start thinking that this game is more important then your life. At which point its easy enough to realize what your doing and limit your self. This isn't a drug, its a game, sure the mind may still have withdraws, (and yes it does if you reach a certain point, believe me) but the bottom line is its not physically dangerous. At least, not immediately, over the two odd years I played WoW, I rarely did any physical activities, and my mussels, especially in my legs, shrank a lot. I still have leg pains to this day if I sit for 3 hours uninterrupted, like how I used to sit playing WoW all day.
But my case is kind of an extreme, not many people get to my point of addiction/obsession, even though I've seen plenty of other people who have, but I don't know them personally.

As for games being related to real life violence, I think the way Jeremy described it in Pure Pwnage episode 14 did the trick;
"any noob can tell the difference between RL and a game, I mean, this is like DX9000 GRAPHICS"

__________________

12090 in 3DMarks06 on current system, 5001 on old system, 4164 on older, 1587 on oldest

BlueMak

The problem is not games, the problem is fucked up life that one has. With horrible parents, bad sex life, and a very very tough society/way of life. Sure we don't need to hunt to get food on the table and we don't usualy die because of a broken leg etc, but the way we live has nothing to do with nature. Humans need ways to have all their natural violence be eased by doing something. Games if nothing else, they help in that. People who feel trapped, people who have had enough with life (either their fault or not), one day find something that makes them feel better. For others it is games, for others it is real life violence for others it is terrorism, stealing, beating other people in football (soccer) games etc.

What humanity needs is a new enemy that can be fought and killed. Now, where are those aliens?

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Da_Jewish_Fonzy

I've actually studied this very topic very thoroughly. My girl is a lecturer at a renowned University, she has a phD in mass comm. blah blah, I don't even know the rest. But she has to use the medium of gaming in alot of her teaching and lectures and she relies on me to keep her up to date on what is currently poppular.

I like to live by the old adage that you are your environment when you are young, from there you make decisions based on what you have experienced. Its funny cause she actually thinks that there are some games that should be banned yet she is all for free speech in a public arena.
The weirdest thing is she is one of the top academics in this field and ultimately chooses the content that reaches us.

To me games are games in that movies are movies. Don't buy your kid Bioshock and don't rent your kid Texas Chainsaw. I think Games should be a little more regulated but not outright banned. I would like to know what my kid is renting but I would also like to know what my kid is being hidden from.

Judas

Parenting = outcome

If a parent relies solely on letting a tv reguardless of the medium or the internet for that matter simply teach a child everything.. without stepping in occasionally at the very least and ENFORCING some specific "rights and wrongs"..... yes they will replicate and be complete losers that'll likely do some of the most stupid of things... and not expect any lashbacks..

Parents FAULTS.... plain and simple


In no way did i ever feel likely running people over in a car... even in the midts of being pissed off..... the thought of "they would deserve it" would occasionally pop up.. but the act of doing it is completely rediculious... Even thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing, because as the very least, there is a thought running through ones head about it..... instead of just not thinking and acting on it emediately.... and just for kicks, some of those people that "act" should be shot


Majority of the kids today need thier asses tanned beyond reasons.... but the parents keep pulling out the "cout to 3 or 10" bullshit which the kid takes all of 2 trials to figure out how to get by that one quick and back to being a little prick they think they deserve to be...

Parents = outcome

If parents Fully Disaplined thier children including the physical disapline they REQUIRE.... we'd have less parents that think thier children are angels while that child is off behind the scenes, raping someone or killing or doing some pretty damn cruel stupid idiotic crime/things.

__________________