yeah. because ESPN's "Jacked Up" segment featuring the 5 hardest hits from the NFL weekend doesnt do anything.............

The developers of Ace Combat planned 9-11. Believe.

Next time I get a speeding ticket, I'm gonna protest it saying PGR is responsible and I didn't know I wasn't supposed to drive that fast. Think it'll work ?? Not likely.

How does Madden have 'cartoon violence'? Hell, you can turn injuries OFF in the game. This guy clearly has no idea what he's talking about, moving on.

It's true. I was watching my roommate play NCAA '08 and one of Lee Corso's recommended plays is to drop an anvil on the opposing team's quarterback. He calls it "the Acme."

This from an industry where men get paid millions of dollars to try to injure each other? Ha.

Coming from a Deadspin perspective,

No its sports that desensitize us to sports violence.

I love how it's specifically "Xbox games" and no other.

pro wrestling ? Boxing? Hello? In contactsports, atheletes get paid millions of dollars to visciously attack each other. Sometimes people get maimed or even killed. (yes pro wrestling is fake, but its ultra violent, and they do get serious injuries).

when I was in school, the only campus related violence we ever had was over football rivalries. A kid I knew got clubbed in the ribs with baseball bat. Serious shit, and it had nothing to do with video games.

Is this guy serious? Did he even see the play where Everett got injured? It looked about as routine as you can get, but just turned out to be a very unfortunate, albeit unlikely scenario. I didn't notice any "cartoon violence". So I'm confused. Is this guy saying something against the sport of football, the Bronco's runner who was involved in the play, or is he just using an unfortunate situation to make a comment that makes no contextual sense whatsoever?

Of course - any violent subject matter will desensitize you to violence - be it video games, movies, tv, books, comics, or what have you (or, hey - even sports themselves!). It's just absurd how video games (or those darn "Xbox games") are singled out. But hey, it's not like we haven't been over this before.

Its called displaced guilt. He's the one making a living off of people facing serious injury and shortening their lifespans.

@ludwigk: MMA video games desensitize us to MMA violence.

Exactly how sympathetic must I be for a player who forgot the cardinal rule of always keeping their head down? Of course I feel sorry that he's paralyzed, but it's one of the basics of the game that got him into that situation.

I've been saying for years... the best way for the Government to get the economy into surplus is to type Shift-F-U-N-D repeatedly.

Football games do remove the emphasis on individual matchups and battles between players and place it unevenly on strategic planning. I don't think they do anything to take away from the brutality of football. The fan himself has been changed by a countless number of things, from ESPN to ticket prices, which is something Vic Ketchman of Jaguars.com summed up pretty nicely in his daily question column:

"Brian from Jacksonville: As one who defended you on the message board during the disagreements between the board reports and your reports, a question entered my skull: Do you think the internet and message boards have changed the fan?

Vic: Everything has changed the fan. ESPN has changed the fan. ESPN has probably been the single-greatest influence in changing the fan because ESPN made sports a 24/7 obsession. Video football games have changed the fan because they emboldened him. High ticket prices changed the fan because it gave him a sense of entitlement. How can you blame them? Owners who fire their coaches as often as they change their socks changed the fan because it validated impatience and disloyalty. Then came the internet and that was the final straw because now we have an unbridled venue for expression. Everybody is fair game. Wake up in a bad mood? Go to the message board and rip somebody. In the final analysis, however, it's OK, I guess, because it's all just a game. Maybe this is what we need to get rid of our aggressions. The way I figure, if providing a forum on the internet for releasing anger helps somebody smooth out the bumps in their real life, then I'm all for it."

This isn't exactly the same situation, but it speaks to the same issue. Fans and their views are being changed by the culture around football at large, not one specific item.

@Maldron:

You got that one backwards. You're supposed to keep your head up when tackling.

"A drunk driver ran over somebody and I blame it on the invention of the wheel! Ban the wheel! Oh, and while you're at it... ban fire too. It causes deaths too... no more fire. You hear that Mother Nature?"

Basically, just personal agenda and stupidity being overcome with a small cense of power. As the sayings go, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" (even if the writer has no power at all) and "The only difference between genius and stupidity is the fact that genius has limits." Just ignore the stupidity.
Also, I was shocked seeing Mr. Evenett being carried off the field in the way he was. Scary stuff. Gladiator sport... heh.

you mean those oversized morons actualy know how to speak ?

my xbox 360 is a terrorist...

crazy little robotic bastard as he is, i love him.

Meh, its just a sports writer. The only people listening to him are statistics freaks and drunk sports fans.

Yet another ignorant journalist attempts to draw in readers by taking a completely horrible situation and attempting to lay blame, any sort of blame, on someone.

This hack proved his ignorance by labeling all sports games as appearing on the Xbox. Can't we all just ignore this douche as we've grown so accustomed to doing with he who must not be named?

I was actually thinking he might have a point, since sports games are more realistic than most except for the injuries and stuff...

But eh, he's a crackpot.

@Maldron: Yeah man, you keep your head up like Dazz said.

since no one here probably has seen sports since '96, he actually isn't paralyzed, his movement will just be bad.

Can gamers sue this guy for delamatory comments ment to harm us and make us look bad?

Stranglehold desensitized me to slow motion, and now I can never look at the Matrix the same way.

*makes poster child face*

This is asinine. Sports games don't desensitize us to real-life sports violence. Guy's talking out of his ass, nothing to see here. Move along.

Thats funny because I was just about sports violence desensitized me to real violence.

How can anyone not watch the UFC or boxing and not think its total f'in rad to see a fight break out outside a bar on a drunkin friday night???

Nobody, thats who!

Worms desensitized me to flying bananas :(

In response to Marlor
*tries typing Shift+F+U+N+D and fails to acquire anymore monies. - is sad*

A few people have had great comments. Like Endaround, it does seem to be displaced guilt. At the very least, a way to get attention from the media or at least somebody. It's all BS nonetheless.

@Dazz:
It is amazing how much things have changed the fans of the sport. And obviously it doesn't quit there either. I think a few of the people on Kotaku really demonstrate that it is easy to openly attack somebody without remorse.

@Lissar: Do you think this guy has actually played a game? Honestly, has he ever played a sports video game or even a video game in general? Tecmo Football doesn't count in this case though... heh.

Nice comments from most everybody. Glad to see that.

In a situation where this competent player is faced with the possibility of never being able to walk again for the rest of his life, it's highly unnecessary to bring up a done-to-death argument about the effects of video games on people.

@Latonone: Looks like someone has bad memories of being picked on in high school by the football team! If you stoop to insulting athletes, are you any better then this stupid columnist who is attacking our favorite hobby?

Uh huh, and my playing Quarterback Club '95 caused African genocide.

What an asshole.

On a pleasant note I read somewhere that Everett was moving his hands a little today.

I think that desensitized me the most was that this guy was paid millions to play a game where there is no guarantee for his safety. Sucks ass that dude can't walk, but he went onto the field knowing damn well what could happen. PS: Madden sucks. PPS: Football is worse.

He's wrong. You know he's wrong, I know he's wrong, and I bet 95% of people out there would scratch their heads all confused like at his comment.

This stinks of a "get my name further out there" BS article. There's no basis, and he knows it, he's just trying to get the attention of venom-spewing gamers who don't get the value of flame wars.

Leave him alone. The only place i've seen this article is on gaming sites, no one else is caring or believes a word of it.

Hilarious, just hilarious.

@Elly: I knew that was you.

Ass.

@Latonone: Cute. Now, let's see you walk up to one of these "oversized morons" in person and show the same attitude that you have when you're behind your keyboard.

@Dazz: Wow, first: impressive comment.

like you put it, ESPN and the internet have changed the fan, like you implyed, madden, blitz and all pro ect have changed the game as well. From the madden curse to the Hester whining about the 100, video games are changing the game as well. People ARE paying attention. The fan is changing with the game and vice versa.

Have games desensitized us? a little clearly on some level. Games are being used to train using a simulated environment for a real life. Americas army anyone? Make it a game, and you remove emotion, fear and consequences.

For Madden, if someone gets hurt, you see a 30 second notification on screen and a player wiggling around. You can later put that player on the IR to save money. What we don't see is the months of rehab, the blood sweat and tears and the sheer love of the game that is displayed just to get back to the sport. To us. We see our database number... I mean player, active and running again next season and nothing else.

When injuries happen and we dismiss them like we do in madden's presentation, we have become desensitized.

How do we fix this? I'm not sure, but it makes me wonder why in Madden their is no career ending Injury.

@Wraithfighter:
agreed

Maybe not sports games on the whole, but when you look at the new football game: "Backbreaker" which uses the ragdoll physics engine, you can't help but think that maybe this guy has a point. At the same time, "guns don't kill, people, they make it easier to kill people."

@Dazz:
My bad. The rest of it about the basic rule and the not following it should still stand, though.

Just demonstrates I shouldn't talk about cardinal rules in a game I don't follow.

You should see how little I care about the genocide in Darfur, all because in Civilization IV I dropped some nukes on the Khmer!

Why the fuck should be sensitive to another man's injury? omg hes hurt gaiz even tho he makes millions to put himself at this risk. It's a fucking sport, people. People are dying in the world who have no choice, whereas these people are living in extreme luxury to put themselves at risk of being injured and not make those millions. How about we care about innocent deaths more than whether or not some money machine gets a sprained ankle. If playing games desensitizes us to sports injuries, great! Now we don't care about something that doesn't matter!

Seriously, people, why do we care? The money machine controls you, that's why.

@debloon:

its called a sense of humor. I have it. He doesn't. and im glad i grew up in holland where no such things as collage football exists but merits are earned on being sensible and using your head.