I tried to buy San Andreas today. It is gone, everywhere (I live in Boston). I found a used copy--the last--at my local EB. But before this, I went to 12 stores in four nearby towns and cities and no place had it anymore...not even game exclusive stores. I'm outraged.
More to the point: Axman, I think you misunderstand Mr. Thompson's motivations. It is really simple--there is a fat paycheck in it for him if he manages to prove the ESRB too biased to be in charge of the ratings; because then the fed law pigs make a new federally regulated system and then get to control the previously unregulated game industry. Everyone of the law pigs are happy; no more 'evil' games come out...the 'evil' developers go out of business...and the federal government gets to lay crazy fines and laws down and get a slice of the third most profitable consumer market on the planet. it is an attempt at monopolizing control of the cash cow, nothing more.
Games with guns have existed for 20 god damn years. Dungeons and Dragons for longer. No one in England shot up their school...no one in Canada laid pipe bombs in their cafeteria...so what's different?
We live in a ****ed up country. Axman, correct me if I'm wrong, but judging from your accent you live in England somewhere--doesn't that sort of imply (not meaning to sound rude) that you really aren't getting why we 18+ americans are not happy about this?
You are neglecting the facts here, Gir. This Thompson prick is making obviously false allegations toward the game developers, saying that they intentionally have 'hidden' these pornographic things in there.
He says right in the article, "anyone can download a simple file and remove the blurs, revealing [detailed genitalia description here]." He doesn't even know what a god damn MOD is...nevermind the fact that it is not the designers' responsibility. He alleges that EA intentionally 'hid' nudity so their game would get a lower rating, with the intent to literally entertain pedophiles as part of their eventual goal. He alleged that GTA: SA also 'hid' their sex scene from the ESRB.
It's ****ing ridiculous. I'm sure the **** is looking on google for "world of warcraft+nude code" right now.
Either way there is no way this is right. Taking the games off the shelves is ridiculous. The only way kids get these games in the first place is because they piss and whine and their idiot douchebag mothers buy whatever the brat shoves at her in order to shut him up and save herself embarassment and/or a beating from an annoyed husband.
THE RESPONSIBILITY IS ON THE PARENTS. They need to ****ing pay attention to what they're buying, end of story. Do movie companies have their movie not shown in theaters because there's a blurred sex scene that might be uncensored on the director's cut? No. You know why? Because it's YOUR OWN FAULT YOUR BRAT KID SAW IT, SINCE YOU WOULD'VE HAD TO TAKE HIM TO SEE IT/BUY THE DVD.
All this aside Gir, you fail to see the point--the man is trying to BAN The frigging Sims, possibly one of the only harmless games in the last ten years, because he claims they INTENTIONALLY BUILT IT WITH THIS 'HIDDEN FEATURE' SPECIFICALLY TO ENTERTAIN PEDOPHILES. Come on man...anyone can see that for the ridiculousness that it truly is! He even said that the Sims is "more graphic then Grand Theft Auto by far." It's ri-god-damn-diculous!
The guy is a complete ******* watchdogging for Lieberman's ****ing people, that's all. He is on the lookout to find whatever bull**** he can, and use it to pull the damn wool over White Middle Class American Parent's eyes. They are ignorant and will buy whatever he says, and once he's got them on his side, it's all leverage.
After all...I've been playing video games all day every day for most of my life, since 1989. You think my mother could name one game I played...? She doesn't even know what a Playstation 2 looks like. Most american parents are clueless--that's why they have spoiled little whiny ****head kids who should be deemed KOS by Congress. But they turn on their ****ing TV, and there's a guy in a suit with an official looking title under his name on the ****ing news, and he says "The Sims 2 was built to entertain pedophiles!" and they eat it up like that fat disgusting media hogs they are.
It's federal manipulation at its finest. They struck us with the GTA thing and now the ****er smells blood, he's in a frenzy. If Thompson can prove the ESRB--a game industry-appointed ratings committee--incompetent or horrifically biased...then they get to seize it. THAT is his goal...not 'protecting' us.
Protect me from a video game. ****ing A. Don't you live near London, somewhere, Axman? You'd think someone who's subway just exploded would see this game scenario for the unnecessary crock of american lamery that it is. Protect us from the big bad video games...they make us crazy in the head!
I wonder what video game those guys who blew up that subway learned how to make bombs from?
Like I said in the GTA thread...Thompson is going to just jump from target to target now. This ****ing clown doesn't know **** from diamonds when it comes to games. Also, many of the people in this thread make a good point when saying that, when it comes to video games, they are vastly more experienced. I mean, Gir, you are talking about parental 'age' and 'experience' but the fact is most parents have never even looked at the screen while their kids are playing a damn game. If you're talking about 'life experience' that's fine...btu the world changes, and let me just tell you, speaking as an adult...neither of my parents could stay afloat in today's teenager's world, if they only applied what they learned in the seventies to nowadays.
I still believe firmly and truly that this responsibility should fall on the parents, and only the parents. We watch movies with rape, drugs, murder, horrific amounts of violence, etc...nobody forces them to not put their movie off the shelves because Charlize Theron takes a 3 minute shower in the last hour.
I've said it a million damn times: when I was a kid I watched Optimus Prime and his giant ****ing black rifle of death lay out decepticon after decepticon; I watched GI Joe lighting up battlefield after battlefield; I watched Liono carve some mutant ass with the Sword of Omen. Did I think all those things were cool? Hell yeah I did. But I don't want to go out and do them to people. I even re-enacted it all with my friends--but I was a damn kid, and never once did the thought cross my mind to go get a real gun and start shooting trucks and cars, or to go hammer on things with a sword.
My point of view is simple: your kid hands you a game and you look on that back and you see a car full of black dudes shooting missile launchers at police, you ought to have a damn clue not to let them have it.
I agree that modern kids and teens are total asshats, and that most of them deserve a long overdue beating or two to put them back in the spot on the food chain where they are in reality as opposed to in their egotistical little halfway developed minds. But video games statistically do not breed killers, rapists, or psychopaths; on the contrary, people who play video games have been statistically proven to be more productive in clerical office environment type workplaces, and are statistically speaking 'sharper' then the average tool in a shed; able to react much more quickly to orders or requests, and able to handle multitudes of tasks effectively, when compared with those who have not ever played video games. We are also not fat lazy layabouts like most people care; something like 80% of all gamers are reported to have multiple extensive hobbies (bands, after school programs, creative interest stuff, computer knowledge, etc).
Seriously. Look it up and don't listen to people like Thompson. You'll be surprised and fascinated by the conflicting results when compared with political statistics on the stuff versus university stuff.
What's he protecting us from, exactly? Productivity? Fun? Intellectual stimulation? Oh right, a black guy shooting police on a TV screen that could turn us all into mass murderers. I mean, come on man.
Either way. Nobody who was alive before Nintendo happened has any clue what this thing we all share a love for is really all about. I wish they'd all just stay out of it. But they aren't. We need to make our voices heard, somehow. We need to lobby and let people know what WE, the gamers, think. No politician is going to stand up for us, no politician is going to stand up and say "I play games and love every minute of it, it's great entertainment." We have to do it ourselves.
Seriously. We need a voice, before we get castrated without even making a protest....