"Yes, I have received several e-mails like yours. And I'm impressed by the passion you and others display. Thanks for your strong response."

I undestand that as "Alright, I get it! I misspoke a bit. I did actually read what you had to say, but I wish you fanboys would calm down a bit."

The guy's nice for personally replying to me.

YotaruVegeta

0starter0

krunkjuice

Anemone

Deletable_Man

Bob:

In regards to your column "Video-game generation may be desensitized to NFL injuries", you make a lot of good points about how people think of athletes as just cogs in an entertainment machine.

I don't think bemoaning the effect of video games will help since they are protected by free speech. What we need to get rid of are sports and sports journalists. This way perhaps newspapers can focus on news, schools can focus on education, doctors can focus on non-sports related injuries and diseases, and fans can focus on more serious endeavors such as local politics.

To quote your article, "This week, more than many, we're reminded that in real-time, real-life football, the violence and its consequences are all too real." Maybe that's why we need to take a good long look at whether or not football is good for society.

Vroshnak

Before Madded was 3d, there were people who got desensitized to violence. It's not the fault of a game series. I'll also say it for the kazillionth time: violence and people exposed to ficticious (and real, newsworthy) violence existed WAAAAAAY before video games arrived.

How many wars have video games started? How many gangs, murderers, terrorists, extortionists, criminals and wars are the fault of video games? Answer: none. Not a damn one.

YotaruVegeta

@Polluted: Yes, the doctors are already calling it a minor miracle. He had feelings in his extremities, and was moving his legs a little too. The docs said that him doing that so soon after the surgery means it's likely he'll be able to walk again after all.

@MIKEAWESOME: My dad and my brother were there, and were telling me about the collective gasp and uneasy silence for the time it took them to bring the ambulance on. The Bills' site has a link to send him well wishes which I've already done.

To a large portion of the rest of the thread: I hope the banhammer comes down on insensitive and/or self-righteous assholes really, really hard this week.

Karlott

Purple Dave

Entirely apocryphal story but my cousin went down to Australia recently and caught a few games of Australian Rules Football. He was stunned to learn that the brutality the sport is known for is limited to a few scattered incidents per season and that for the most part the average game is, in comparison to the sport's reputation, remarkably tame.

jcsunshine

Squeegoth

L_K_M

mexfreak86

Anemone

That aside, I blame Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular for desensitizing me to athletic violence.

StickyPurpleCat

Zuiyo

@Anemone: All the same, back to the ultimate topic, the fact that I play games has nothing to do with me not being moved on a personal level by this man's accident. The fact that I'm not moved doesn't mean that it's not an unfortunate incident.
I agree with that as well, the conclusion he made was off-base. Especially considering, like others have said, how much the violence in sports has been glorified; one might say the sports themselves, or at least their nature or the sports casters, have led the fans to this point of desensitization.

MIKEAWESOME

Anemone

ego531

Us3dtab3

Anemone

MrTex02

I'm just saying compassion should be universal and not exclusive to issues of Genocide, poverty, famine or disease. Compassion should be something we all seek to have in all facets, from someone in the entertainment industry getting severely injured to the child in Sudan whom is faced with finding a means of living through mass famine.

Now whether or not people are informed about these things isn't an issue that's even very relevant to this topic, that's likely something that's more attributed to the rampant apathy in our country. Which makes me seriously sad for the future since the majority of the populace, if the trend continues, could end up being completely uninformed and blindly ran on the Government's word.

MIKEAWESOME

Oh, player Z is on the DL due to a rotator cuff injury, blah blah blah.

That's what desensitizes us to sports injuries. There are so many of them, and most get no more attention than a couple of seconds on the SportsCenter BottomLine.

UnnDunn

InsidiousTuna

diablofreak

When do we get to read one of those?

Why must the nation mourn a guy who gets payed millions and millions of dollars to wear a colorful outfit and play with a ball when a terrible occupational hazard befalls him? Why when there are many, many thousands who suffer similar tragedy whom are subsequently made bankrupt from their ridiculously inflated medical expenses?

While I don't mean to belittle the hardship whoever this guy is faces, it's not like he's gonna have a hard time getting the best medical treatment money can buy, now is it? It's not like his grandkids are ever gonna go hungry...

stranger

Naidraug

swordfish2eva1

Anemone

If you pay for the NFL Ticket on Directv you can flip channels the next time your game gets stopped by some dude getting paralyzed.

THE-HATER

SpacePenguinBot

Don't bring world hunger into this conversation. It's completely unrelated. This is about a man, who got seriously injured on live, national TV, doing something he loves. That's what makes it sad.

Barob

Sorry if I'm being heartless, it's just that the only reason that people are caring is because it's a sport. Of course I'll feel bad for him, and I hope for the best, but I won't go to the trouble of ever listening to someone who says that video games will make us desensitized to something that, in the big picture, is trivial. He's injured, and that's never good, but how about the no recent news about a genocide that's going on without any intervention? I'm just saying that people are giving way too much priority to sports over disease and FUCKING GENOCIDE!

Again, I apologize if I sounded heartless, it just saddens and angers me that people give weight to small(and big) things that come out of entertainment when people are being dehumanized. I was comparing the fact that they are willingly putting themselves into this position and profiting with the fact that others in Darfur have no choice and pay the ultimate price. It just saddens me, That's all.

Darthvinder

Samos42

If you sympathize with one issue you can't care about the rest of the world!!!11

jaw70

Anemone

Erinaceus

There was a huge hit at the end of the week #1 Cal/Tennessee game where one of the Tennessee players got drilled. My headline for the game, "California Paralyzes Tennessee Defense".

My favorite games are online multiplayer. I watch UFC. I am desensitized baby and proud of it!!!

THE-HATER

In other news, doctors say that Everett will be able to walk again. He was able to voluntarily move his arms and legs.

Agies

icelight

Anemone

He has feeling in his limbs and can move them both slightly. The initial report was that the injury was catastrophic, and now it is very hopeful, given that we hear positive news about his condition on a daily basis.

Aex

Does that mean we have to hold a protest every time someone breaks a leg? of course not. And when the rare event that a player is horrible injured or even dies (remember there have been several death in the NFL in the last few years, I didn't see video games blamed there. And if they were put in the game because they are a part of simulation, there would be an unbelievable outcry) we extend our sympathies and hope for the best.

It's not like we ever wish for anybody to get hurt. We all love big hits but we also always hope that the player was not hurt of the play. We love to see these guys play, not get crippled. To suggest that for some reason gamers are less sensitized to this is ridiculous. Watching sports makes you desensitized to the sport by definition.There are no degrees of this.

kuzuboshii

The man made a hit that, for all intents and purposes, was a good tackle, he was just slightly off with his head (at least that's what I saw). When he hit the ground and just didn't move, and you saw him, like, twitching; I honestly don't think that you could not be effected by that. I mean, maybe it's because I see the players every home game struttin' down the tunnel, or maybe it's because I'm sort of a part of what keeps that place running, or maybe it's just because I love my hometown, but anyway you slice it, I still felt sick as soon as I saw that hit. I honestly think the whole stadium stopped in that moment, I at least know that everyone who I was within eyesight of had froze up.

MIKEAWESOME

You can't be serious.

RoyalSimonBoobs

This sports columnist is a fucking dipshit.

redgopher

Dumbass.

Raynre

Krytha

since you can type i don't see why you should feel offended.

Latonone

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.

Latonone

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

Darthvinder

Mister Adequate

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

Maldron

ibelli

Snukadaman_

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.

huginn

Draconis

Ass.

InsidiousTuna

Seven Is Darker

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.

Wraithfighter

Anemone

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

Polluted

Elly

debloon

Draconis

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.

M. Kava

Deletable_Man

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!

Alski

*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.

InsidiousTuna

Rabidsquirrel

iactuallylikesports

AvidAbey

But eh, he's a crackpot.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

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?

Atheist Jew

The Amazing Exploding-Man

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

slapme7times7

Latonone

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.

M. Kava

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

Dazz

"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.

Dazz

Marlor

Maldron

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

endaround

Nate128

bman784

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.

ludwigk

Lissar

No its sports that desensitize us to sports violence.

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

iwanttobeasleep

Toasticus

Stormrider

MadChad

Moonshadow101

hungry_for_worms