Racism and Mysterious Americans
Comment by: GameraTheGreat
Nominated by: onomeister
Nominated by: Makeda

You guys should think of the importance of TV and the impact of Hollywood and mass media when regarding the perceptions of people abroad. Many countries around the world base their understanding of foreign cultures on movies or characters popularized in film. As an African American, I have faced a great deal of frustration with how my culture has been exampled. For a long time (and still to this day) film and TV has cast a mostly negative light on my community. One solution is to seek out more and more experiences with cultures different from your own. This way you will be able to demonstrate the diversity of your culture and learn more of someone else's ethnic/cultural experience. What really grates me is when I experience this in my own country. America is quite prejudice and ignorant of its own cultures. X-box live has been one of the best case studies on a broken society that I have ever had the displeasure to take part in. The sheer amount of children that are aggressively ignorant is staggering and does not bode well for this country. I have had so many arguments with kids and adults over the use of the word nigger. I don't use this word, never have....but there are many people that believe that all because some people have it falling out of there mouth that it's ok to toss the word around like it was going out of style. More problematic is the fact that due to my being pretty articulate when I make it known that I am African American I have to deal with people flat out saying, "no you are not, you sound whiter than me." As if only White Americans can speak articulately or convey a clear thought/message. This kind of foolishness gets very tiring and comes from all sides of the cultural spectrum. The assumption is that Black people speak a certain way, as do Whites, as do Latinos, as do Asians and so on and so forth...when in actuality that perspective is usually influenced by having only a limited experience with target culture through some superficial vehicle like music or movies. I am not certain whether this article counts as racism, but I do consider it prejudice and ignorance...albeit on the light side, as I have been the victim of malicious attacks for my perceived differences. All I can say is that I believe it is worth everyone's time to take a moment or longer to actually educate the "ignorant"(I say ignorant because sometimes it's not racism its just not knowing any better) so that we all can evolve.

Obama Sees Gamers as Underachievers
Comment by: J-LI-L-i-LI-S
Nominated by: nikolajz1

How are gamers underachievers? The 360 has points which are unlocked when you achieve something within a game...

PC Psychic Controller Hits This Year
Comment by: psycoking
Nominated by: sasuntsi

Connection error (0x8CBD4FEE): Brain not found.

Racism and Mysterious Americans
Comment by: DaiMacculate
Nominated by: 天人

The key to this "battle" if you want to call it that is the same as ever: more cross cultural dialogue and physical interaction. We should put a priority on foreign language education in the U.S. education system, particularly the pre-K level since thats where language is most easily learned, and try in general to do even more student exchange and other cross-pacific ventures with all the various states in the region. China, Japan, Korea, etc all need to learn more about us, culturally, and the reverse is also blatantly true. Pointing out the problem is great, but gamers should put our money where are collective mouths are, perhaps some type of charitable organization/NGO, Gaming without Borders or some such, would be a productive outlet. Could also serve as a rhetorical clearinghouse for anti-douchebag campaigns in online gaming, since that often crosses over into nationalism, racism, sexism, etc as well, and a source for qualified experts to counter the Jack Thompson's of the world.

Sony Donates to Children's Hospital
Comment by: And after this our exile
Nominated by: NeoAkira

@HANK-SP: Years back, I spent a few months in a Vietnamese orphanage operated by a French guy who told me an interesting anecdote.

A journalist had once interviewed him on his activities in Vietnam, and criticized him for accepting donations from a man who happened to belong to a far-right political party.

Apparently, the journalist was extremely self-righteous about it, and was shocked that he'd accept the money. Of course, she'd never even set foot in Vietnam and had no idea how orphans lived over there.

The Frenchman just said to me: "This guy is my biggest donor, his yearly donation is enough to feed all 49 children for 12 months. He might do this for tax deductions, or to gloat and make himself look good, or for political purposes, but that simply doesn't concern me. I am here, now, not discussing politics at a dinner party in Paris."

And why should he have felt concerned? The donor may have had all sorts of hypocritical motives and agendas, but who - fucking - cares?

Anyone who's worked for charity knows how hard it is to get... well, to get anything. You take all the help you can get, as long as: 1) that help doesn't come at the expense of anyone, and 2) it doesn't force you to compromise with moral absolutes. Keyword: absolutes, as opposed to holier-than-thou bullshit.

Nobody here believes that Sony are doing this solely for altruistic purposes, but isn't doing something, even as a PR stunt, still better than doing nothing?

Over the years (and I'm obviously not talking about you, HANK-SP, as I know nothing about you), I've noticed that the people quickest to dismiss this kind of operation as sheer manipulation are hardly ever involved in any kind of charity.

This is exactly like MS-haters who systematically slam Bill Gates for his charity work, and can't accept the possibility that he might, just might not be Evil incarnate.

China Launching 'Operation for Tomorrow' Crackdown
Comment by: RObster
Nominated by: Erwin

They will also be putting kids in camps that will help them concentrate on their schoolwork.

Are Games Going to Grow Up? A Debate
Comment by: ArmiMaan
Nominated by: Evil Tortie's Mom

I think the primary reason gaming is in danger of being forever infantilized is the industry's reliance of violence as the primary gameplay factor. 99% of games out there involve shooting, bashing, stomping, cutting, and so forth. Even the ones with great, mature stories — BioShock and Mass Effect, for example — require you to go blasting away through waves of enemies to get to it. When a game comes out that doesn't feature violence, it's derided by the fanbase and met with low review scores, while games that overemphasize violence are lauded. It's the same thing with comics. There are exceptions to this, of course, but those are too few to make an impact on the overall perception of the industry.

The majority of books and movies, on the other hand, focus on drama. Sure, there are lots of action movies out there, but there are a lot MORE comedies, dramas, mysteries, thrillers, and so forth, that rely on character and internal conflict, instead of pure power fantasy. For every violent action film that gets released, there are ten non-violent films.

Quality of content aside, this is why movies, books, TV and music are viewed as being "legitimate" forms of entertainment: they address a broader range of topics about the human condition, and they do so in a manner that doesn't evoke the image of a three-year-old throwing a temper tantrum.

Remember: violence is considered juvenile, and while being juvenile isn't a bad thing, being TOO juvenile is. Currently, the gaming industry is too juvenile — we focus too much on violent gameplay. Things are changing, but we do have to tread carefully, otherwise we WILL end up permanently living in the kiddie ghetto with comic books and no hope of moving on up.

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