oh good, I thought I was the only person who was thinking this (although I was thinking showbiz pizza which was the same type of restaurant back in the old days, lol)!!!!!!!!!!!!

freespeech

freespeech

LuppyLuptonium

Bleeeee

So should religious beliefs be free from criticism? Please provide reasoning for this?

Leathersoup

Mattz

kyosuke9999

Good thing Rock Band still knows how to throw a good time and not piss off artists at the same time.

KevinSetzer

kidnicky

The fact that you're battling the devil (did not know this) at one point strengthens my belief...

Demaar

GOLD5

I dont think he is making too big of a deal out of it, I think those of us here posting are. The guy probably said these comments as a side story on a 42page interview. He probably cares very little about it, but kotaku decided to post the story in traditional flamebait form in order to drive up the number of comments.

RuneX

PurpleMonkey

LMAO awesome point my man!

Zookey

CanaryWundaboy

TheCheese33

Charlie Daniels: Yes, you wrote the song. It's a classic. Still, there's a bit of a disparity here. Conservative religious beliefs vs. a song about a guy who basically only duels the devil out of arrogance and greed. (He played of his own free will, said he was "the best that's even been", and only really did so for the fiddle.) It just kind of amuses me slightly.

Imagery: I only really notice the imagery before and after the songs, since during the song I tend to be focusing on the notes themselves. And as a practicing Catholic, I really don't have any problems with the imagery. It's all about the context. Oh, and as for being who claim that "Lou" isn't the devil or whatever... he's playing the role of the devil for the final boss battle, and I'm figuring the name is much like Al Pacino's character in "The Devil's Advocate": Lou Cypher. A.k.a. The Devil, or Lucifer.

Song rights: I know a number of you have seen the "Viva Viagra" commercials. The Presley family have gotten MAJOR grief for letting Pfizer use one of Elvis's songs to hawk an erectile dysfunction medicine. The thing is, they don't own the rights, and never have, so they can't do ANYTHING about it, no matter how much they or anyone else want to. It's all about the decision of the rights holder(s). The same thing applies here. As much as Charlie might not like it, all he can do about it is complain, but he has no real recourse other than that.

The cover: A lot of people are complaining about how Charlie's being ripped off here and how Steve Ouimette has talked about how he came up with the idea of a rock/metal verion. Too bad that's just a bald-faced lie. Back in 2003, a band named Point Blank originally did a cover of DWDtG, and about 2 years ago, they were contacted by Activision to have their version of the song in an upcoming version of Guitar Hero. Please note: Activision contacted THEM, not the other way around. Activision's contact shortly afterward went quiet for a few weeks and then responded with a case of "We're sorry, we won't be using the song because of licensing issues." Then some time goes by, GH3 comes out, and they hear a version of the same song from Steve Ouimette, an in-house musician for the game, that sounds HIGHLY familiar. Considering they've gotten nationwide exposure due to appearances on the Opie & Anthony show and O&A aired their song as early as 2003, I'm thinking if anyone has a beef, they're in line ahead of Mr. Daniels, mainly due to Activision's prior contacting of them.

JimTheFly

This ain't no rag it's a flag
And we don't wear it on our heads
It's a symbol of the land where the good guys live

and

We're gonna hunt you down
like a mad dog hound
and make you pay for the lives you stole
We're all through talking and messing around
and now it's time to rock and roll

and

You've been acting mighty rash
and talking that trash
but let me give you some advice
You can crawl back in your hole
like a dirty little mole
but now it's time to pay the price

You know, I liked the album "Million Mile Reflections" (which gave us Devil Went Down To Georgia and Reflections [a song about fallen rock stars]) and owned a copy when it first came out. (On vinyl, no less.) His comments in the months post-9/11, however, left a really bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather my daughter play Guitar Hero III than listen to this racist crap.

Nekura20x6

Like I said, I'm no OMFG it's satanic!?! type, but there was enough satanic stuff in it for me to feel a bit uncomfortable giving it to my Dad for Father's Day when he is the OMFG it's satanic!?! type.

It was a bit over the top.

@SpartanQ77:
I live in Dallas.

Charlie Daniels does not represent or reflect most of us... then again, I consider Texas... Texas, not The South. I consider Louisiana to Georgia "The South"... we're more like a rednecky Florida... which is still pretty bad.

Evil J

LOL!!! What a stupidass old fuck!

kidnicky

And by that logic, where the fuck is my golden fiddle?!

Benguin

Charlie Daniels, that was really a good one.

djHEAT

SpartanQ77

warlock7

+ Watch video

TxKARATEDUDE

CanaryWundaboy

BWAHAHAHA!
My best friend and I have for the last 25 odd years had a running competition to see who could find the worst cover version.
If you think that the muppets are bad I've a jazz/lounge piano version of suicide is painless that you have to hear.
My ten year old daughter visible winces when I even mention it let alone play it.

Weirdwolf

No? Me either…

-EDGE-

Wubbytoes

However, craziness aside, the man does make a decent point. I guess voluptuous (demon) dancers in tight leather is not exactly the BEST image to give out to little kids. But obviously there are far better outlets to concentrate attention to, seeing as the kids don't pay attention.

P.S: Does anyone ever play that song AS Lou, and then when it says 'Lou wins' you just feel amazing?
I just can't beat it on expert...those battle whatevers kill me.

tripleripus

NocturnOwl357

Fireblast

kidnicky

But really, I can think of better things to complain about. Nevermind that the presence of your song on GH3 exposes an entirely new audience/generation to your music, and could lead to a fair amount more money as a result ...

Strangelove

Evil J

Comparitively, GHIII is crazy innocent looking.

On topic...

It's called a cover. Deal.

So, let's go down the list of things that Guitar Hero has taught us:

If a cover sounds too much like the original, it's copyright infringement.

If a cover sounds too different than the original, it's a perversion.

Apparently, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Evil J

ManjiKengo

RomeoDude

ManjiKengo

kidnicky

I don't know about martyrdom (explosives weren't invented till after it was written) but it sure as hell advocates violence. Here, I'll post some direct quotes from the Quran;

FIGHT THEM: ALLAH WILL PUNISH THEM BY YOUR HANDS AND BRING THEM TO DISGRACE, AND ASSIST YOU AGAINST THEM. (9:14)

ANNOUNCE PAINFUL PUNISHMENT TO THOSE WHO DISBELIEVE (9:3)

O Prophet! urge the believers to war; if there are twenty patient ones of you they shall overcome two hundred... (8:65)

And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah (8:39)

When the sacred months have passed away, THEN SLAY THE IDOLATERS WHEREVER YOU FIND THEM, AND TAKE THEM CAPTIVES AND BESIEGE THEM AND LIE IN WAIT FOR THEM IN EVERY AMBUSH (9:5)

And if they intend to act unfaithfully towards you, so indeed they acted unfaithfully towards Allah before, but He GAVE YOU MASTERY OVER THEM (8:71)

FIGHT THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN ALLAH, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, NOR FOLLOW THE RELIGION OF TRUTH, OUT OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE BOOK [Christians and Jews], until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and THEY ARE IN A STATE OF SUBJECTION. (9:29)

O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard. (9:123)

The punishment of those who pit themselves against Allah and His Messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned(5:33-34)

Sam_Lowry

Kaizin514

JGab

Ethereal006

NinjaMarion

+ Watch video

Weirdwolf

perrinbar

Molotov

Unless of course those albums DON'T generate $$$ for him, in which case he's probably not going to see that as a bonus. I sincerely doubt that the average kotakuite or GH3 player is going to rush out to get the latest album of a 72 year-old conservative country-and-western singer based on the strength of his one cross-over hit. At best, they might buy THAT song on iTunes, and it sounds like he wouldn't get residuals worth a damn off of them.

I don't much agree with most of his views, but I don't question his right to them. I don't think he's an idiot for not liking his classic 'met the devil at the crossroads' folk story being turned into a rocking show-down in the pit of Hell's Rock Concert. It doesn't bother me, but I'm not Charlie Daniels, either.

WizarDru

"Mr. Daniels needs to realize that Millions of people have been introduced to this song and he should be very proud of that fact."

For a song to have lasting power like it has is a testament to its originality. He should just soak it up, AND the $$$ its going to generate for him by curious players/listeners who actually go out and buy a Charlie Daniels album because they dug it.

axiomatic

If it satisfies people as music, then it's fine, isn't it?

blueshoals

my biggest beef with the game is the boss mode, in that it's stupid. I'm glad they released the boss songs as separate downloadable songs.

as far as him not having rights to a song he created and blah blah blah, I have no sympathy. I'm an artist (supposedly :P) and if I make something I have two options. keep it or sell it. if I sell it I lose rights to it. if i create some character and then sell it to someone and then they do something to it I don't like, the only person I can blame is myself for selling it. If anything he should have been more responsible in who he sold it to, in that they would better care for it instead of just making an assload of money off it. in the immortal words of the knight in the last crusade "...he chose poorly". Somehow though (call me crazy) i think he's still doing alright.

demonknightinuyasha

All I keep seeing lately is people getting fame from these games and then bitching about it afterwards because the song "sounded different" or "sounded too much like the band".

It's unfortunate that these artists and musicians who have made it so far still have so much to learn and that it is not about their bank accounts and image its about the fans.

Mr. Daniels needs to realize that Millions of people have been introduced to this song and he should be very proud of that fact.

static

"But wouldn't a solid gold fiddle way a ton and sound terrible?"

...That was a classic.

TRT-X

I have to agree with you. The main reason I was dying for GH3 was because I greatly enjoyed GH and GH2. And for the first couple of tiers on GH3, I was happy. And then came the harder songs. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good challenge, no matter how mad it makes me. However, I was listening to songs I had heard before, and they were being changed, having notes thrown in that just didn't belong. And why? To make the game more "challenging."

Honestly, if you don't think a song is challenging enough without being "modified", why bother including it? "Devil Went Down to Georgia" would have been difficult enough without having notes thrown at you that were never there originally.

DeRangedKaos

But I'm too busy flailing at notes and praying to God that the Devil doesn't get two lefty flips and a broken whammy to enjoy the fact that I'm playing along with it.

TRT-X

uranutan

BeefieCheesie

Spoony Bard

Witzbold

However, the fact that he advocates parental guidance (actual parenting) rather than an outright ban is encouraging.

Lastly, DWDtG would be considered blasphemous by many, but somehow the south always managed to turn a blind eye to that fact. He was on shaky ground to start with on that song, awesome as it is, so he really doesn't have much room to talk, philosophically.

Billkwando

Skunky

Interesting thoughts, but I've got to disagree on some key points. Over the past year or so, narrative has taken center stage in video games in exactly the way you claim it hasn't.

You shouldn't dismiss Bioshock out of hand, simply because it offers up a violent world. The games message isn't simply, "there is no moral universe," nor does it just "subtly refer" to Ayn Rand as its crutch. Objectivism, the impossibility of creating an masterpiece society, and free will are explored more deeply than in any game I can recall to date. It's also one of the few games that actually breaks down the narrative barrier and challenges the player to think about his or her role in the story.

But ignore Bioshock -- games like Portal, Masss Effect, even Assassin's Creed all take gaming in new narrative directions. In the past, Shadow of the Colossus and Ico told complex stories with a minimalist flair.

Sure, 95 percent of what's out there is crap, or juvenile fantasy fulfillment based on popular movies. But then, 95 percent of everything is crap. TV brings us garbage like Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, etc., but it also brings us The Wire. Movies are the same, and as far as literature and theater go -- you think every play out of 16th Century England captured man's moral condition? Remember, Shakespeare's main competition was bear baiting.

Video games are a relatively new medium, and I can forgive the lack of narrative sophistication in yourt average FPS.

All that said, I'm not particularly put off by Charlie Daniels' remarks about Guitar Hero III. Maybe he'd enjoy Rock Band instead.

TrueCrime

Eville1

I'm not kidding, guys. I love Guitar Hero 1 and 2 more than most any other game in the history of anything and yet Guitar Hero 3 sucks so much ass it hurts. Rock Band, however, brings back the magic of Guitar Hero 2 and adds drums and singing.

dowingba

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Red Octane
T
Lyrics, Mild Suggestive Themes
PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3

Seems accurate to me. 13 and older.

Jordan Lund

Yuki

Yuki

I've listened to the song in question since I was little, and I'm 22. I was appalled at what slapped me in the face when I first heard the "remade" version all the way through. Was I happy with it? I was not. However, I have friends who are the complete opposite. Am I happy when I hear them talk crap about the original? No, but to each his own. And that's just as listeners.

As the man who wrote and played the original version, I do believe he has every right to voice his opinion, be it negative (as is this case) or positive, regardless of whether or not he holds rights to the song, just as everyone here has had the right to voice their opinion as to whether or not they like the remake more.

As for his other comments regarding the imagery within the game, he may very well find it disturbing. Now, there is a great likelihood that he finds it disturbing because he has not been exposed to many of the other games we, as gamers, have. Is that his fault? No. He's not any older than many people's grandparents, and you don't expect them to have played video games.

DeRangedKaos

Point number two, it's rather hard not to laugh even more at moral commentary by a man who wrote and performs a song ("Uneasy Riders") about him and his buddy wandering into a gay bar, realizing it was a gay bar, deciding not to leave anyway, and when the somewhat inevitable occurs beating the shit out the people in the bar.

Charlie Daniels has always been an unhinged good ol' boy, he just happens to be a video game news-worthy one.

KayBlue

z357x

It's so short and meaningless you may as well have shouted "FIRST POST!"

fuchikoma

Islamic text doesn't mandate martyrdom, not literally. A particular sect of Islam adheres to a very skewed interpretation of the texts, but it is their spin on it that has lead to the proliferation of suicide bombing.

There's a-holes everywhere. Just look at Christianity. There are Christian fundamentalists in this country with very large followings who believe that hurricane Katrina was God's vengeance on homosexuals & non-Christians. These people speak to an audience of millions on their own TV shows.

Don't blame the religion. Blame the a-holes who twist the meaning of ancient texts (as written by the poor & uneducated) to suit their own bigoted agenda. Too bad that pretty much everyone who quotes religious texts these days does so to justify hate, bigotry, and intolerance... no matter the belief.

stranger

karmaghost

...he's not calling Guitar Hero a tool of the devil, you know.

Ashurahori

Cchrist

WolfGod

this_will_be_fun

Something tells me that if Mr. Daniels was gettin' paid, this post would not exist.

stranger

And people, please read the article. He's not upset about the cover. Around half of the comments here are commenting on whether he should or shouldn't be proud of the metal cover, and frankly he doesn't seem to care about that. He just cares about the evil imagery, which I can understand to a degree. Frankly, I was a little bothered when I saw the stage, particularly when the children playing it kept picking that same one over and over again.

The other half of the comments here are arguments about religion (well, mostly name-calling, really), which I have sworn off over the internet. Seriously, who thinks they are going to convince anyone about anything spiritual from the confines of a blog comment? Reality check, people.

Comatose Turtle

I dont know about anyone else, but if my lifes work was trampled all over like that and there was nothing I coudl possibly do about it, id be really upset too.

Charlie Daniels may be a redneck, but he is a classic musician.(classic in terms of well known and loved, especially in the south) I personally hate country music, with a fiery passion actually, but I can still enjoy some of charlie daniels songs.

In the end though, I think this is just him being upset about his creative thoughts being bastardized by the highest bidder. No differant than if some jackass turned bambi into a porn and disney somehow didnt own the rights anymore.(or if michael jackson decided to let slayer do beatles covers and alter the lyrics and music to make the songs more evil sounding)

RuneX

As food for thought, I think statistics have shown that artists typically get a bump in sales after appearing in rhythm games. The big question, however, is how they fare if the notechart completely sucks.

I'm looking at you, Slayer.

Kyouryuu

Do artist are control freaks? maybe people want to play this way. Is nothing of your bussines, even If is your music, how the people want to use it. Once is out of the door, is out of the door. Stop tryiing to control other people lives!

Tei

By your rational if you find a handful of child molesters who are priests, then that must mean that being a priest is what led them to diddle their alter boys.

Sam_Lowry

Until i played GH3 and listened to his song and went to look for the original one. I liked his band because guitar hero showed his music to me.

Now...If he had only taken a look on the good side of things, he might've been happier with his comments.
But instead, the plays the part of the ignorant religious zealot hillbilly.

pulyx

Good song though.

Tiber

ca$h

In a later post I clarified that I also hate atheism.

Snaphaunce

So why should religion get any kind of special treatment of being 'out of bounds'? If you're an adult with imaginary friends, thats fine, but you can't expect everybody else in the world to walk on egg shells to keep from hurting your feelings.

Sam_Lowry

Fonic

But what to do? I suggest hiring them out as consultants who, for a small fee, will make calls to customer support hotlines on your behalf. Need that RMA? They may blow off you, powerless college student, but let Charlie Daniels have at them and you can be damned sure you're not gonna end up paying the postage on the return.

PositivelyGreg

As to Charlie Daniels, he created the song in question and has every right to complain about how it's used. Write one song that's as well-known the world over as "Devil Went Down to Georgia," then you can talk to me about Charlie m'f'ing Daniels.

kidjesus

Charlie you flex your fingers now and play your gee-tar hard.
'Cos hells broke loose at GameStop and the devil plays on hard.
And if you win you get this shiny gee-tar made of gold.
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.

The devil put in GH3 and he said: "I'll start this show."
And fire flew from his fingertips as made those buttons go.
And he strummed the strum bar nice and quick and didn't even miss.
His pinky nailed the whammy and it sounded something like this.
When the devil finished, Charlie said: "Well you're pretty good ol' son.
"But if you'll sit down in that chair, right there, and let me show you how its done."

Story of My Life is really fun.
Nailed Paint it Black and Metallica's One.
Suck My Kiss and Evenflow.
"100% Perfect?"
"Oh, hell, no."

The devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
He laid that golden Gee-tar on the ground at Charlie's feet.
Charlie said: "Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.
"I told you once, you GameStop hack, I'm the best that's ever been."

And he played The Killers- When You Were Young.
And then The Stone Roses- She Bangs the Drums .
Then, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, whoa.
"Beat it on Expert?"
"Oh, Hell, no."

crushthemall

Couldn't agree more about GF. In genre choice, variety, and complexity/difficulty, it BLOWS GH AWAY. GH is just a cheap GF ripoff Americanized for metal fans, the devs said it themselves...gimme GF/DMv2 over RB/GH any day.

zgrowler2

legacyed

He doesn't have to openly condemn Guitar Hero either, right?

Snaphaunce

Guitar Hero is about as innocent as they come. Mario Bros is more violent for god's sake. As someone who has played GH3 but has watched other people play it more, I never took much notice of the background. Yeah, I saw the giant demon guy slamming his hammer but I didn't really think about it. I was too busy watching the damn dots during my 4000000000th listening of "Slow Ride". I bet no kid anywhere in the world ever thought of turning to the dark side of the force just because they beat "Lou" at a song in Guitar Hero while "eerie lighting effects" flashed about and "weird things" popped up on stage. It's the adults that complain that put the ideas in their heads. "Mom says GH3 is evil and I like it so I must be evil. Oh well. Rock on!" Congratulations, you've planted the seed in your child's head. Dummy.

adheananda

Ashurahori

MajorMcMuffin

Charlie Daniels is also NOT a nice old man. He is a nasty, close-minded bigot.

Also also, The Devil Went Down to Georgia is an awesome song and the Guitar Hero version is like cancer and AIDS in your ears. I say this from a place where I generally hate country and like metal best.

pluckylump

In terms of his comments about Guitar Hero imagery... his opinion will be his opinion. But notice that he's NOT saying the game should be banned or taken off shelves. He's saying that parents should sit down with their kids and see if that's the kind of stuff they want their kids exposed to. I'm in total agreement with him in that regard.

VoodooHack

Hilarious.

vonfaustus

It's unfair for him to call out fierce imagery that's debatably evil when he's saying things that, in his own world view, should really be the first thing he looks to change.

DaoKaioshin

tshack

My 2 cents? The original was great, the remake fit with the style of the game. If he didn't like the remake, he's entitled to his opinion (having WROTE the song), and I happen to agree.

However, judging the game on the fact that you battle with the devil, and on its imagery? That's silly. He wrote a song about the devil in a musical competition, and there's a musical competition with the devil in the game. Don't hold it to a double standard. Yes, you can lose... so what? If the devil always lost, maybe Johnny wouldn't really have had to be "the best there's ever been." The fact that the overall goal is triumphing over the devil, I find it silly that he's offended. Furthermore, being concerned with the imagery? There's a lot more graphic stuff in the Bible. Again, don't hold a double standard.

ninjafetus

kingross

jayntampa

No, he's the character played by Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction.

Snaphaunce

Quoted for epic mother fucking truth

I wish people would focus on THIS part of the quote instead of spitting their bigoted views regarding religion because the guy believes in something they don't.

Lackshmana

"We need video game characters like William Wallace"

Oh, I forgot to ask. Is that the guy from Wallace and Gromit?

NeoAkira

Smidget

Now while I can't completely agree with all the comments I can understand them. This man wrote a song about a Devil and then complains about the thematic imagery associated with the song...do you see the problem here? Even if he wrote the song to be understood as a story about puppy dogs and unicorns and rainbows it doesn't change the fact that his song will be associated with devil-like imagery with most people.

And I can't really agree that there's a certain amount of "art-graffiti" in music sims. Especially since "art" is not defined to be any one thing. Everything is art in it's own respect.

"I do think video games at times have an unhealthy connection to the occult, and just the fact that they put monsters and demons on the screen for a bluegrass song, though it be about the devil, suggests the type of crowd they are appealing to."

Guitar Hero is a very casual game. You can pick it up right away and start playing with anybody, even if they don't play video games. I stick it in with the likes of Endless Ocean. And Endless Ocean doesn't have this occult imagery you speak of. Not to mention the fact that the Guitar Hero series brought in more revenue for the gaming industry than any other franchise in 2007. So I doubt it's any one type of person that the game would be appealing to.

Now the rest of your rant about the stories and character developments in games I can somewhat agree with. But there's a problem. You're basically asking video games to imitate another medium; movies. I think generally, most people, as I, play video games for the experience which has more to do with gameplay than anything else.

For instance given the choice between the following two which would you pick:

Ok story, Amazing gameplay.
Amazing story, Ok gameplay.

I'd choose the former personally, but that's because I can experience an amazing story in a plethora of movies already available. I would rather game developers spent more resources on creating new experiences in terms of gameplay as opposed to high-profile story lines.

Now putting that aside, I agree that it would be nice to see some games with a deep sense of moral conflict and authentic character development. But let's remember that the game industry is an infant compared to the music or movies industry. It's still growing and finding it's place. Eventually is what I think.

NeoAkira

squish123

crapsh00t

Kanadwen

zakky venom

Not an aetheist, for the record. I hate just about all religious convictions equally, including that one.

Snaphaunce

I sure don't agree with the man's beliefs but that doesn't make him a moron, or an idiot, or a backwater hick, also, he's far from a one hit wonder, having had a good string of releases (Country and spoken word)

Besides, does his criticism deserve suck a knee jerk reaction? Nope, and if you're going to criticize, do it, criticize the argument, not the person who brought it forwards.

zoesch

xot

ShaggE

@Spoony Bard: Do you really think "Islam" never means this?

Mohican

jcsunshine

I called him a dickweed because he insulted someone because of their religious beliefs.

Ashurahori

psychobaka

JoRo1986

I wonder if Mr. Daniels ever saw that Futurama episode with Bender in hell. That was great.

kelptocratic

Infradead

Wolfers

teh_joe

chardish

He has a problem with this, but I betcha if you got to use the guitar to kill some Iraqis in the game, he would be cool with that.

suburbancowboy

dowingba

Sir_Crocidile

When musicians make songs and put them on albums for people to buy, they give something of themselves to the people who love their music. But once it's given to the public, it's not the song of one man, it's the song of millions.

Sorry charlie.

XWonka

In the effort of getting BACK on topic, here's my take on this whole thing. If someone wrote a song, they have every right to make a comment on how it is used and if they agree with it or not. Yes, even Charlie Daniels.

Spoony Bard

jcsunshine

My point is very different - he's made plenty of attacks on others over the years - I've been reading his Soap Box on and off for several years just to see what he's saying.

I would NEVER stoop to criticizing ANYONE for their religion, nor should anyone else. Everyone believes what they believe and should be afforded the same respect, across the board. I believe in this principle wholeheartedly.

Charlie Daniels? Well, he said this last week: "The word Islam does not mean peace, it means submission, blind, sheeplike submission up to and including walking into a group of people you don't even know and blowing yourself up for the greater glory of Islam."

That's all I'm going to say on that.

Spoony Bard

Dukeman330

Talk about a way to build and confirm stereotypes, gentlemen... just scan this column and it looks like it is composed of some of the most juvenile, bigoted highschoolers to walk God's green Earth in a few hundred centuries.

I am a musician and I think there is a degree of art graffiti in every aspect of these music sims, but at the same time I think it is cool that video games are making people so interested in music. I actually played violin in an orchestra backing up Charlie Daniels on the lawn of the Capitol on the first anniversary of 9/11. He was a very nice guy, and he'd be the first to admit he's a "redneck," it's just part of the role he is playing.

I do think video games at times have an unhealthy connection to the occult, and just the fact that they put monsters and demons on the screen for a bluegrass song, though it be about the devil, suggests the type of crowd they are appealing to. They could have put bluegrass characters on the screen, just as well.

I don't think he is saying anything superstitious or silly, he's just questioning the value of being exposed to such negative and scary images in such a regular, mundane, civilian context.

I think the video game industry needs to think this way more often in order to ever grow up and not be forever resigned to B-movie, comic book level lack of refinement and sophistication. It's true across the industry - the things the game industry hypes up as being dramatic, intelligent, and sophisticated are hardly so... in their obsession with the twisted, the violent, and the occult, there is rarely any true philosophical benefit to mankind, and/or any true exploration of moral complexities in the sense of original good and evil.

I believe this is true on a story level as well, it's time that more video games were influenced in a truly classical and traditional sense - we need story writers who can understand that all of mans moral conflict is often contained in a 5 word sentence from Shakespeare. So much of story is merely a dumbed down, cloned version of pre-existing movies... games like Grand Theft Auto get labeled as sophisticated because they are "like Scarface."

Take a step back - is that really sophistication? The amount of hype the industry generates only serves to justify the equal amount of disappointment and jadedness it provides.

Video games need Renaissance as much as the world needed it after the fall of Rome and the ultimate end of the pagan age. I wish that more games would come up with stories and characters that didn't have me predicting the next words out of the character's mouth... and didn't make me feel slightly uncomfortable, like the writers and designers were geekily high-fiving each other at final cut because the cutscene "looked and sounded so much like {insert fanboy stereotype film or character here}." Even when developers announce new games, they talk about mixtures of other pre-existing, tired, pop-culture standards... they say "think such and such crossed with such and such, in the world from such and such."

I want to see game that says, "what is man? who is man? what is good? what is evil? do they exist? how do our choices drive us further towards or away from the other?"

If anyone replies and suggests Bioshock is an example of this, I totally disagree... all that moral universe tried to say was that there was no moral universe, and it was in many ways a more twisted and intentionally violent story than 90% of games out there... yet everyone in the games industry acts like it is Shakespeare just because it subtly refers to a mildly well known philosopher. That is an antithesis to the kind of Renaissance I am talking about.

This is partially why I enjoy the God of War series - it has a hint of the kind of character development and sophistication towards classicism that I refer to - but I am constantly haunted by the feeling that the developers always went with the fanboy, violent, over-the-top, crass decision at each juncture, vs. going with a more classicist response at least part of the time. We need video game characters like William Wallace or Jan Valjean from Les Mis... who suffer, who have to make choices, but make the world a truly better place by their ultimate simultaneous smallness and bigness. They do what they do because they have to, because it is right - and not only for themselves, or just for bigger explosions.

Good needs to ride in on its high horse and re-introduce itself to mankind - in many arenas beyond video games. I doubt the video game industry will ever develop the sophistication to really develop and think on its own, but I continue to partake in it in a manner that searches for such clarity in a world that is fast losing the ability to even remember such old, ancient, and reliable things.

Mohican