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violent video games
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grand theft auto iv
violent video games
Stephen King Weighs in on Video Game Violence
Best-selling author Stephen King points up and rips down the double-standard of what's tolerable in violent films, compared with video games, in a brilliant op-ed for Entertainment Weekly. You should take a look at this, because as a creator of worthy stories filled with violence and suspense, he speaks with real authority. Plus, it's great to see this kind of defense in a mainstream medium.
King's been writing horror novels for nearly four decades, many of them reaching the big screen, some of them even winning Oscars. And he rightly points out that to a politician, a 17-year-old can see gruesome flicks like Hostel or Saw, but would be a danger to society playing the less graphic Grand Theft Auto or Hitman series.
Then he loses it on a bill before the Massachusetts state legislature, and it gets good.
More »
game ratings
Australian Game Ratings Behind The Times
Victorian deputy premier and attorney general Rob Hulls believes that Australia is behind the times when it comes to video game ratings, and I'm inclined to agree. Currently the top rating a game can receive is MA15+, as opposed to movies which can be rated R18+. While games like the Grand Theft Auto series have squeaked by with an MA15+, games like Dark Sector and Soldier of Fortune: Payback have encountered trouble limboing under the bar. Hulls thinks it is time to raise the bar."It seems inconsistent that in Australia, adults are allowed to view 'adult only' films which have been classified R18+ by the Classification Board, but not computer games with an equivalent high level content," he said in a statement. "With the increasing convergence between films and games, the different approach to classification principles is difficult to sustain. At the moment, Australia is out of step with the rest of the developed world on this issue."More »
law
Boston Mayor Backs Games As Porn Bill
And yet another state takes a stab at the consistently failing "Games As Porn" bill, which would classify violent video games in the same category as pornography, making it illegal to sell them to minors. This time around it is Massachusetts, whose legislature will consider House Bill 1423 tomorrow. Among the bill's supporters is Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino
"Children aged 17 and under should not be sold this stuff, so they are not getting into the hands of 9- and 10-year-olds," said Larry Mayes, Menino's chief of human services.Similar bills have come and gone in Louisiana and Utah, so I doubt this one will be any more successful. I almost wish that a state would actually pass one of these, if only to prove that it won't do anything to help curb youth violence."Is it going to be an uphill battle? Sure. But it's absolutely a battle that the mayor feels he should take on."
Menino: Ban violent vid games for kids [Boston Herald via Game Politics]
been there
Teachers Still Demanding Bully Ban
Haven't we been over this already? A year and a half after the release of the original game, a coalition of teachers' unions in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, South Korea and the Caribbean are urging retailers to ban Bully: Scholarship Edition from store shelves.
"We're asking retailers to be responsible," Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers' Federation, said yesterday. "Yes, they can sell it and make a buck out of this, but is this the kind of marketing that they want to be [doing], selling games that glorify violence?"I'd daresay that's exactly the sort of marketing that video game retailers want to be doing. This reborn ban Bully movement is possibly a result of the huge outbreak of violent bullying that completely failed to occur after the release of the original game, despite prognostication of doom, gloom, and wet-willies.
Teachers demand ban on bullying video game [globeandmail.com]
foaming at the mouth
LaRouche Blames Microsoft For NIU Tragedy
"International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler." That is the title of a news posting over at the LaRouche Political Action Committee website, home of the supporters of American political nutcase Lyndon LaRouche. Taking their lead from the New York Post's sensationalist article "COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME", the LaRouche Camp is apparently blaming "Microsoft's Counterstrike killer video-game" for the shooting. Never mind that Microsoft doesn't make Counter-Strike - that's probably all part of the conspiracy as well.
The intended effect, to foster an environment of mass suicide terrorism in the U.S.A., is a by-product of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' policy, organized by Felix Rohatyn and George P. Shultz; the same individuals, who not only helped to install the fascist Pinochet into the Chilean government, but are the prime backers of a fascist Bloomberg Presidency.We really need to get LaRouche and Thompson into a room together. Then we can lock it and forget where we put the key. Perhaps sweet love will bloom.
International Fascism: Microsoft Will Kill More Youth than Hitler [LaRouche Website via Game Politics]
science
Video Games Damage Your Frontal Lobe
Stop playing video games immediately - you are hurting your brain! A doctor Chou Yuan-hua from the Department of Psychiatry of Taipei Veterans General Hospital conducted a study on 30 25 year-olds, monitoring their brains for blood flow during a 30 minute gaming session. He discovered that the act of playing video games "obviously causes a decreased blood flow in the brain" with increasing severity when the games in question are violent.Noting that the study focused on subjects who played video games for only 30 minutes, Chou said many youngsters spend far more time on video games each day, unaware that doing so on a long term basis could damage the frontal lobe of the brain, as well as the anterior cingulate gyrus.More »
violent video games
Surprise! Mall Shooter Didn't Own Video Games
It seems to be the vogue lately to blame video games for every violent crime attributed to a teenager. Last week 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic went on a gun toting rampage through a Salt Lake City Mall killing five or six people (the Deseret News article I read reported both numbers) and injuring several others. When questioned about motives for the killings, Salt Lake City Police Chief, Chris Burbank, had this to say: More »
violent video games
Priest Uses 3rd Century Writings To Denounce Violent Video Games
Wow, talk about reaching! Father Germogen Tucker of Florence, KY has written a thoughtful editorial on his thoughts about the endless debate over violence in video games. But, the Father has taken a new approach. He doesn't need to rely on statistics or pie charts or specific examples, oh no. Father Tucker has the sage words of 3rd century Priest, St. Hescios... More »
violent video games
