Prev/Next Blog
by date

Do not fear Game Industry!

Name:	Okashira
Date Posted:	Dec 22, 2006
Rating:	4.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Okashira

Blog post

This was my post to the topic which can be found here - www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=55631

The topic was concerning this article - www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,1969920,00.html

Basically there is a bill in the process of trying to get passed in Germany(I have no idea how that works there) which will force people 12 months in prison for killing human beings or beings resembling humans in video games. It also forces the game makers into a 12 month prison sentence.

Here was my reply to it-

Quote:
I personally think it is tainting the memory of the people that have been killed by these pyschos. I mean, do you really think that the countless people that have been killed in school shootings would want everything blamed on ######## game makers whose games they probably played? Or do you think they would want the pyscho(s) that walked into their school and shot them cold-blooded?

This is just another example of the ages old "somebody needs to take the blame, but the person who did it can't take the blame!" problem. These politicians think that they HAVE to punnish somebody, so the only way they can think of is to pass laws and bills suppressing people's freedom(note - I have no idea what can of liberties Germans are given).

But don't worry! 20 years from now the generation that is in office will be the generation that grew up playing Quake and Halo. So, do not fear Game Industrialists(wow, I made up a word)! The future is not bleak!

And as a slighty edited quote from "The Aviator"...."video games are the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future..." (Note - he really said it many more times then that...I believe he went insane again in that scene, if I remember right...)

-Okashira

Why did I post this here? Because, I figured this site needed more useless blogs...useless blogs are the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... the way of the future... Ok, I'm done.

-Okashira

Recent Blog Posts

List:	02/04/07 - 2D, where have you been? I was SO worried! 12/22/06 - Do not fear Game Industry! 12/13/06 - Shotguns, Vehicles, and Headaches 09/15/06 - Finally Making My First 3D Game 09/08/06 - My Goals

Submit your own resources!

Steve Flowers (Dec 22, 2006 at 02:59 GMT)

Wow, the inspiration for the law wounded 37 people. Obviously (not to sound too insensitive) he wasn't that good a student. Really, if you want to draw a parallel between games and violence --- is this really the case to do it?

Crazies are loons -- sometimes because they are simply loony. Perhaps the folks in this case should pause to think before passing judgement on an entertainment medium - with a punishment that doesn't match the crime - that produces less violent offenders, death, and distruction than:

> corrupt officials in government
> the oil industry
> the RIAA
> Barney the Purple Dinosaur

Okashira (Dec 22, 2006 at 03:07 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Don't people realize that banning something doesn't stop people from getting it? Don't they realize that thousands of gamers will be up in arms if this happens? Don't they realize that these game increase brain activity and intelligence?

Nope. They don't. They see games like Quake or Mortal Kombat and say "Blood? AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! The computer is teaching people to kill!".

Techinally we shouldn't play Chess or Risk. Both teach people to think of strategies to conquer the enemy. Risk teachs invasions and imperialism. Dipolmacy teaches backstabbing and such. In even the most kid-friendly games you kill things(like platformers - Super Mario ain't knocking out goombas when the x's go over their eyes and they fall off the screen).

And here's the best part - Pacman teaches cannibalism and drug use. "Eat the big pill so you can overpower your enemies and eat them!"

:P

EDIT : The filters filtered out the word "i.nn.ocent"? Maybe the game industry will is evil when game industry sites are filtering out the word "i.nn.ocent"...lol
Edited on Dec 22, 2006 03:08 GMT

Bryan Stroebel (Dec 22, 2006 at 03:43 GMT)

If they put you away for killing human like video game creatures i would be in jail for thousands of years just from playing battlefield 2 (not including any other game).

Steve Flowers (Dec 22, 2006 at 04:01 GMT)

Thinking about it, this is potentially scary... Ever see the movie Equilibrium?

What's next? Logical leaps include:

> Gun magazine publishers
> Gun makers
> Martial arts instructors
> Books of all types
> ... Art

Okashira (Dec 22, 2006 at 04:04 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

You know what's next...Airsoft, Paintball and similar sports. Technically these would train people the most to kill. I mean, what could someone shooting a place up use more - Quake skills or Airsoft/Paintball skills?

Really, this is claiming that 3d models are humans too. Do they realize how absurd this is? This means that if I go there and this bill is passed, I could make a crappy 3d model of a human, stick in some piece of crap DarkBasic shooter, play the game, then get sent to prison. That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.

Jeppie (Dec 22, 2006 at 04:19 GMT)

Well lets see, the kid also wore a certain kind of shoes, and a certain kind of pants, and he probably ate oatmeal for breakfast, and pizza for dinner, and went to church on Sundays. Lets pass a law against all that stuff too, since it's all *obviously* a contributing factor in his irresponsible behavior. Sheesh. There are certain lawmakers here in the States that would love to pass these same type of laws. Make your votes count!

Mincetro (Dec 22, 2006 at 08:01 GMT)

Well, When I'm in Germany instead of whipping out Quake 3 for a fragfest with friends we'll have to use our real miniguns. What? Life is stressful!

Okashira (Dec 22, 2006 at 12:31 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

@Mincetro
Be careful! I hear Germany is banning jokes next! :P

mb (Dec 22, 2006 at 14:42 GMT)

What happens when the AI kills you? Do the programmers get sent to prison or do they send the AI to some virtual prisons where the tax payers have to pay real money to keep up their servers. haha Sometimes I wonder how these morons get jobs in government.

Saurabh Torne (Dec 22, 2006 at 15:48 GMT)

Such a law will clearly violate the basis of democracy, freedom of free will and imagination. How are firefighters and Soldiers and pilots and builders gonna save real lives if they could not experience these contingencies and drastic measures and casualties in real life simulations.

So if a guy destroys an airplane , how will be counted the the number of lives taken by him ? By the size of airplane or the historical analysis of the most relevent incident which will be considered the most similar.

Foooe!

Okashira (Dec 22, 2006 at 20:47 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Good democracy doesn't exist anyways.

NOTE - I am not anti-democracy or anti-government. The US is not a democracy!

EDIT : But let's not get political...wait...
Edited on Dec 22, 2006 20:47 GMT

Dx (Dec 22, 2006 at 21:12 GMT)

just like a goverment to use big events that send fear through communities to restrict peoples freedoms, i mean don't get me wrong the political world has look like their doing something to prevent things like that so they way up the options and choose something that would cause the least uproar plus people have been blaming tv and video games as a cause for violence for years now.

to be honest i think introducing a kid too early to a extremely violent film would effect them but that lone can't send them on the path of becomming part of a gang or shooting someone or something like that, i mean our personalities are made up of both genetic and environmental factors so assuming that all of the kids that shoot up places don't have a genetic history of something that would make them more violent you still can't narrow down kids actions of shooting people to games, i mean you have to look at the parents, the upbringing the area they were brought up in which is a hell of alot of factors, saying something like kids will become violent and have no value for human life because of games is insane.

to be honest i think it's more the way that we as a society are developing, we're becomming more and more impatient because things like information and objects are comming to us more and more quickly, we want to know whats happening in the world, we switch on the news, a quick google search helps us find most stuff and what about the rules of creating websites, something like if a page takes longer than....either one or five seconds to load up people are alot less like to wait and see the page when it's fully loaded.

as a result people want solutions now, not later, i think people are less likely to stop and look at future consequences because of this (i mean how many of us get annoyed at loading screens for games, and i gotta tell ya if i see another dor opening scene from resident evil....)

also have you noticed how more methodical kids are getting, it's pretty scary, my little brother can prioritise better than me and he's 7 (i'm at least 3 times older than him ;) maybe kids are starting to actually rationise things like mass murder it's kinda scary but theres many ways they could do it, seems that society's are becomming more and more detacted from one another not caring about them just ourselves, as a result i suppose we find it differcult to listen to other people if the 1st glance doesn't meet our expectations.

....i'm gonna stop now, i've really rambled....bit of a tendency of mine, sorry people

oh well, i'm gonna read something else :P (this is why i don't usually comment, i don't shut up ;)
Edited on Dec 22, 2006 21:37 GMT

Okashira (Dec 22, 2006 at 23:25 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

If we MUST blame somebody, why don't we blame the parents who didn't notice that little "Johnny" brought a shotgun to school? Why not the teachers that didn't see that little "Billy Bob" was always getting picked on and beaten up? Why don't we blame the public schools for having abosolutly no drills or protection against school shootings?

But of course! Video games are the spawn of Satan! I always forget that...

Florian (Dec 25, 2006 at 17:30 GMT)

damn, this kinda stuffs pisses me off
i mean like wtf is this bullcrap, this doesnt make sense at all, couse then you might as well ban action movies or other movies where actors "kill" people..
this is the most stupid thing i ever heard and what if a AI shoots ME!!
what will hapen then, they will arrest my computer?
and offcourse you must bann all the family games as well, i mean, chess, is killing, risk is killing, zeeslag(sea battle?, i dont know the english word), and i could make this list very long
if this law gets official, i will protest and protest till they get nuts, and i will trick them in killing things in video games MUAHHAHAHAH
and what about the prisons, i mean like, how many people game? 1 billion? 2billion?
i wonder how they will get the all those people in the prisons

morons who make this stuff up should really just die, because the fact that they made this up must mean that they must be so dumb that there live isnt worth living

You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.