The Targeting Of the Gaming Industry Is More Than What It Seems

reply to post by Spruk


I don't play video games, but I'm glad the gamers are doing their own making of games online. It would seem to me that the gov't is just trying to make a criminal out of every law-abiding citizen out there.

It's just lunacy if you think you can protect your children for too long from what's on the web, you need to try to raise them with some kind of moral judgment.

They tried to make criminals out of pirating music and movies - I see the megaupload guy is at it again. I say good - let's have a blackmarket in guns,, food, medicine, entertainment -- that's what this tyrannical gov't is making. Free enterprise by pushing their communist, socialist crap too far.

reply to post by Panic2k11


It's a hard pill to swallow to be honest. Personally I think the government has no business implementing ANY rules regarding the kind of content you can purchase. Other than the clearly for good reasons illegal stuff, like snuff films.

What it comes down to is that we now live a society where we expect everybody to raise our children, but us. We spent countless hours entertaining ourselves while our children are left to be educated by the MSM and the crappy education system.

Then, when things go awfully wrong, we blame the education they got, as opposed to the lack of education they SHOULD have gotten from their parents.

~Tenth

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by Panic2k11

 

It's a hard pill to swallow to be honest. Personally I think the government has no business implementing ANY rules regarding the kind of content you can purchase. Other than the clearly for good reasons illegal stuff, like snuff films.

What it comes down to is that we now live a society where we expect everybody to raise our children, but us. We spent countless hours entertaining ourselves while our children are left to be educated by the MSM and the crappy education system.

Then, when things go awfully wrong, we blame the education they got, as opposed to the lack of education they SHOULD have gotten from their parents.

~Tenth

Dear Sir/Madam,

Not wanting to sound like a "fan boy", but here, here. Spend a day or two people watching and these comments are well proven. A comic handed to me by one of my associates, which i looked at and had to agree with. Sadly i cant find it so i'll describe it and one of our lovely google wizards might find it

Panel one: (80s-90s) Report card interview, kid received bad grades parents looking visually steamed at their child
Panel two: (00s-10s) same scene as above however the childs parents yelling at the teacher for the kids bad grade.

IF you can find it, pass it around its actually pretty accurate description of a general observation (these are now the rule, and the parents actually parenting are now the exception sadly).

reply to post by Spruk


But the same company that promotes and runs gun shows for NSSF - National Shooting Sports Foundation is also the same company that does the video game conventions. Video game industry has become tightly connected with the firearms industry. And the NSSF is also larger than the NRA.

Reed Exhibitions does video games and the NSSF.

There's no conspiracy in the game industry (except perhaps to keep from maturing). As others have said, the game industry is just an easy target for blame. As one developer recently said, the game industry is sort of insecure. Some within the industry are even willing to entertain the possibility that violent video games are partly responsible for Sandy Hook and Aurora (which were actually motivated by gun control, although I'm guessing those conspiracies are a bit too "real" to be discussed here). Once the game industry fully matures and puts out games that show that it is absolutely the best medium in existence, then it will be much easier to deflect these bogus claims that aren't even believed by those pointing their fingers.

The only potentially real conspiracy in the game industry is Hiroshi Yamauchi killing Gunpei Yokoi (creator of Game Boy) after he left Nintendo to create his own handheld (Wonderswan) with Bandai.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by deathlord

 

Well, first off did you even check into Sony before saying they are against the free to play model?

That is NOT Sony's decision. Free to play is being offered by the publisher, and game developer, not the hardware manufacturer. Sony has nothing to do with price of services that aren't purchased via their portal, even then, the markup isn't enough to consider them a factor.

As for the bioware mention, they only went free to play because this allowed them to create advertising revenue and to have purchased content for players who want that little bit extra. Bioware is not a publisher.

All their games are published by other companies. Lucas Arts for KOTOR and Bethesda Softworks for all their proprietary IP's.

Guess who is the publisher and developer of those games I mentioned? Sony Online Entertainment, lets go through the list again and see:
Planetside 2 - Developer: SOE(Sony Online Entertainment), Publisher: SOE Planetside 2
Everquest: Developer: 989 Studios(owned by Sony), Publisher: SOE, Everquest
Everquest 2: Developer: SOE, Publisher: SOE Everquest 2
DC Universe Online: Developer: SOE, Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment, DC Universe
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Developer: SOE, Publisher: SOE, Vanguard
Magic the Gathering - Tactics: Developer: SOE, Publisher: SOE Magic the Gathering
Clone Wars Adventures: Developer: SOE, Publisher: SOE, Clone Wars
Free Realms: Developer: SOE San Diego, Publisher: SOE, Free Realms
PoxNora: Developer: Octopi Media Design Lab SOE, Publisher: SOE, PoxNora

How does Sony have nothing to do with the pricing and marketing of those games when they developed and published them ALL? You seem to be under the impression that Sony just makes hardware, they have branched out from that a long time ago.

I'll give you the SWTOR wasn't the best of examples, but to say they have players pay for "that little bit extra" is very wrong. They freaking make you pay for an extra action bar for your abilities, they severely cut what a free user gets to a paying one. The game is absolutely terrible in the free mode, you are so limited on characters, action bars, skills, and all kinds of things.

And yes, 60$ for a game that will take me between 15 to 20 hours to complete, then never touch again, is far too high. If I am going to buy digital media from you, I expect at least a 30hr experience minimum.

Some people think that's putting too much on developers, but I beg to disagree. Games of the past were made with the same budgets adjusted for inflation and were hundreds of hours of content and replay-ability.

We've come to expect mediocre products for the amount we pay, and don't even get me started on console hardware prices and their inflation for no good reason other than brand name.
~Tenth

So how do you get "hundreds of hours of content" from Sonic the Hedgehog? One of my favorite games on the Super Nintendo was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game Turtles in Time, and that only took me 30 minutes to beat a few years back. Once the game is beaten nothing changes, so there really is no replay value.

The above isn't the point of the thread, but I wanted to address your points.

Thanks for addressing my points, sorry it was a little off topic. I hope you don't mind this one last reply, I promise I won't make anymore unless they are on topic.

Furthermore, video games tend to be an escapist reality for young people which is a problem that also needs addressing. Finally, violent video games do desensitize children and young people to violence of all kinds, it is not the immediate shock of violence, but the long hours they spend being exposed to violence which is the main culprit. Video games normalize violence so to speak.

Actually simulated violence is far less impacting than realist violence found on TV and in movies. Please explain how TV and Movies aren't worse at desensitizing young ones to violence.

~Tenth

Video games are different from movies and TV. Video gamers spend hours concentrating on perfecting their ability to kill in a simulated environment through games like "Grand theft Auto" and "Call of Duty". There is full interaction with the video game medium. Video games replace the real reality with the virtual reality and demand the full attention of the player over long periods of time during which the player is engaged in acts of simulated violence. The whole experience is nothing short of stimuli-response conditioning. Can you imagine what happens to a child's brain when the spend many hours a day in a murder simulator?

Originally posted by QQXXw
Video games are different from movies and TV. Video gamers spend hours concentrating on perfecting their ability to kill in a simulated environment through games like "Grand theft Auto" and "Call of Duty". There is full interaction with the video game medium. Video games replace the real reality with the virtual reality and demand the full attention of the player over long periods of time during which the player is engaged in acts of simulated violence. The whole experience is nothing short of stimuli-response conditioning. Can you imagine what happens to a child's brain when the spend many hours a day in a murder simulator?

You're right, kids who grow up playing video games are more likely to... *shock*....want to design their own video games! All seriousness aside, the only study that really showed negative effects of video games was one that showed it's harder to fall asleep at night after playing them because it makes your brain more active.

reply to post by QQXXw


Video games don't replace reality with any form of virtual reality. As someone who has been a gamer since the dawn of gaming, I have had a whole lot of opportunity talking with my gaming peers. At gaming's worst, the aspect where one's reality may become altered is purely on a sociological or personal basis. It's been my experience that gaming, especially for those who game for hours and hours at a time, tends to act as a crutch for social interaction. Part of the reason why they may keep playing and playing is to get better in the hopes that their social status within the game will improve. It's not necessarily related, from what I have been able to glean, to any violence. You can find just as many WoW addicts as there are CoD MW addicts. I would say the one area where it may be toxic would actually be within the gaming communities themselves but even that, I would say is a reflection of society itself today. We all kind of forgot how to be polite. In a gaming community where it pays to play like one's a tough b.a., it gets even more warping and can become incredibly toxic.

I had the misfortune to watch an irc channel of gamers respond to someone who had said that they were depressed and were thinking about killing themselves. Thinking it was all just a big joke and not taking it seriously, they started making suggestions what the young man should do. Unfortunately, he took those suggestions. It absolutely rocked me. We have this tendency to forget that we are all as much human beings online as we are offline and that sense of being able to say whatever one wants without recourse to another human being is a very powerful thing. It allows for venomous hate, rage, and more to be spewed out without any comprehension that we're all human beings and that leads to a very jaded, acerbic view of the world.

In my opinion, it is less about the video games themselves and more about a failure within society to remember what it means to be civil. Okay, ending rant. Sorry but this is something that I do very much care about.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

I believe it is more of a red herring to keep people occupied, The military industrial complex play a huge role in the gaming industry, even Prince Harry in a recent interview made reference to his X-box control whilst being in his helecopter, the idea is to get younger and younger people better at the use of these peripherals and the games themselves are more violent that they do appear.
even a game such as lego lord of the rings has players deliberately destroying objects for rewards.

I would possibly agree with part, but it may have more to do with keeping the military more involved in games.

reply to post by munkey66


Yeah, that kind of thing reminds me of Ender's Game. MIC did put out a game a few years ago called "America's Army" in 2002. It's on its third installment now. Considering remote piloting of drones and whatnot, I suspect that that truly is going to be the military of the future. And I do agree. I think that it's a distraction--an oversimplified answer to a highly complex problem. In the 90's it was video games, Rage by Stephen King, and rock music at the supposed root. Considering the number of gamers there are today (85% of kids play videogames), you'd think the number of similar recent events would be through the roof compared to the far less significant prevalence of gamers in the 90's.

This article posted today on Rock Paper Shotgun might be of interest, it discusses how gaming can help people with depression:

Definition of Insanity: Games and the Stigma of Depression

There's good evidence of the positive impact of games, for example in the classroom, and the research discussed in that article. I do think we need to keep open to the possibility that they could have a negative impact on some people too. I say this as a passionate gamer

reply to post by Brocade


Absolutely. Anything, when taken in excess, can be damaging. I did find the Far Cry 3 definition of insanity to be humorous. I played MMORPG's a few times in my gaming life but was always repelled in the end because really, it was doing the same thing over and over again. Kill X rabbits for their tails. Kill X mushrooms for their spores. It fell under a similar definition of insanity in my book, lol. Games can be a much needed distraction. I'm not much of a tv viewer. I even have a tendency of ripping apart movies. Games are typically the only way that I can shut my brain off for a couple hours at times. The problem is that it is awfully easy to focus so much on the infinitely more empowering and frequently positive and proactive worlds of games, then to actually to do something to rectify those things that may feel one helpless, weak, tired and depressed in reality. Can't do anything about the things that are making you depressed in real life? Play a game where you can be the hero.and try to avert some terrible fate for the world. Just don't pay attention to the fact that, even after you leave an area after "fixing" a problem, the issue still exist, lol.

Gaming does have some great aspects from improving hand-eye coordination, mental acuity, and faster reaction speeds. Overall, though, the best thing I think there is about gaming is that when you're gaming, you're not watching TV. Maybe that's the reason why it gets so heavily attacked, lol.

So TPTB want to have Control over the games.

they can put an endless amout of subliminal comands in the games.
picture and sound.
Kids play the game endlessly!!!

reply to post by deathlord


Try beating Final Fantasy IV in 30 minutes.


Not possible.

You can make the case that games are being used to program youth into wanting to be a soldier.

Call of Duty, Metal of Honor, Battlefield, Wolfenstein, Doom(space marine?) , Rainbow six ,Socom, Gears of war, Halo(master chief? ranks?)

Originally posted by JBA2848
reply to post by Spruk

 

But the same company that promotes and runs gun shows for NSSF - National Shooting Sports Foundation is also the same company that does the video game conventions. Video game industry has become tightly connected with the firearms industry. And the NSSF is also larger than the NRA.

Reed Exhibitions does video games and the NSSF.

edit on 23-1-2013 by JBA2848 because: (no reason given)

In the United States, probably. However the NSSF is not a lobby group for the gaming industry, they are simply a promoter. Looking at the major ones that have i have been invited too, they are not run by the NSSF (E3 as an example, Game Masters (AU), PAX & Blizzcon (Which is run by Activision Blizzard) ) they are all run at the industry level, usually by hardware manufacturers and distribution houses.

However gun expos are generally run (in the US) by the NRA. Are the industries intertwined (as in one cannot survive without the other) unlikely because if that was the case look at highly regulated countries like Australia (as an example) their game culture is still relatively large, and yet we have extremely tight gun control, yet our development houses (what ones are left) are churning out things like L.A Noir (yes I'm aware, Bondi was shuttered), Bioshock (Developed partially by 2k Sydney) just to mention a few off the top my head.

Edit -


@John_Rodger_Cornmar - You can also say they are making our youth turn in the mayors (SimCity), military stratigists (various military strat sims like Red Alert, total annihilation etc), Forensic Investigators (LA Noir, CSI games), the list and examples can go on forever really

reply to post by Spruk


Pax Australia Game Festival is ran by Reed Exhibitions.

Page 7

www.reedexpo.com...

Reed Exhibitions is the connecting advertiser who connects gun makers to the video game industry. They play the big game of festivals, guns show and video game expo even comic cons.

there is indeed a massive attack on violent games right now, heres a recent video

CT senator says games influenced Sandy Hook shooter

reply to post by John_Rodger_Cornman


Yes, that is part of my point, it was very rare back then for a game to have 20 hours of content like the Final Fantasy series back then. However, a majority of games were a few hours at best and still cost the same amount as they do today. Things have flipped around and 15-20 games are more so the norm, or you have games today like Oblivion which had over 400 hours of content in the game, no old game ever came close to that.



Now, I promised I wouldn't post unless it was on topic so let me add to the discussion some more. There has always been attacks on the video game industry for a very long time, as far as I remember it started with Mortal Kombat. That game got huge opposition when it came out, then Doom was next when Columbine happened, next it was the GTA series and so on.

It is getting more attention now because FPS games have gained a lot of popularity in the past few years. So, now with everyone in the politically correct age and all the crazy people doing shootings people they just find a scapegoat to blame. I'll stick by one of my earlier post is that the main people against it are lazy parents who do not want to take responsibility. Then people looking for political office side with that to help get votes and get them elected for whatever position they are going for. Nothing bad will ever come from video games if parents actually take time to teach their kids good morals and actually spend quality time with their kids.

reply to post by QQXXw


The news also desensitizing children, along with Lot of the crap they teach at school. It's called parenting people!! Teach your children and thy will be ok no matter what they play etc. OR don't buy the game