Comments on: Video Gamers vs. Cable News Pundit

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 06:52:36 +0000

The only reason I even heard of Bulletstorm was because of Lieberman’s bullshit. So naturally, I made sure to reserve it and bought it on the day it was released. I guess Epic Games can thank her for at least one inadvertent sale.

Incidentally, there are no sexual situations and acts at all in the game. Lots of gore and lots of swearing, but nothing sexual.

By: Kit Tostado

Kit Tostado — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 21:44:05 +0000

It’s laborious to search out educated individuals on this matter, but you sound like you understand what you’re talking about! Thanks

By: Rob in CT

Rob in CT — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:04:49 +0000

#53, Oddly enough, I’m really a “builder” player at heart. As in I actually enjoy playing for hundreds of turns w/o war, just building up my empire… perfecting it (building Wonders, nifty city improvements, working the land, etc).

It’s just that I found that it’s easiest to do that after I have driven my enemies before me, bathed in their blood and listened to the lamentation of their women… :)

Seriously, the best time to be a “builder” is after you’ve destroyed or at least hamstrung the other civs on your continent (or at least those that are anywhere near you). Sorta like… well, US history. ;)

By: varmintito

varmintito — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:49:51 +0000

@ 43, 48, 50, 51: Really, though, why bother building the space ship unless you want to slaughter and subjugate the inhabitants of the alien world after you arrive? Once I’ve broken the back of any serious rivals, the game becomes literally as thrilling as watching crops grow (yippee! I can turn everything into farmland and turn luxuries to 90% to maximize my happy population! Or I can turn science to 90% and accumulate generic future technologies! Hours of gaming where nothing happens! Yay!).

Also, I have not played as a male leader/chief/praetor/minister/president in years. Not sure why.

As for Dr. Carole, she is just the latest on the “bad tendency” thought crime gravy train. Video games > rape is a clever twist, if only because proving it has a higher degree of difficulty than porn > rape (or video games > violence).

After all, the drop in the incidence of rape has coincided with the shrinking availability of porn over the last 20 years, amirite?

I’ve been studying this phenomenon since I was about 13, and after exhaustive research, I have concluded that porn causes the following societal ills:
1) calluses
2) painful sores, especially during the Great Nivea Shortage of 1998
3) a powerful urge to take a piss
4) curiosity about the leftovers in the fridge
5) sleep

By: CK

CK — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:16:13 +0000

I’ll try to maintain a veneer of seriousness here even though the topic is television infotainment shows. Radley does infotainment shows, I assume the checks he recieves for appearance fees do no bounce. People watch infotainment to be tittylated, to watch leggy blondes chatter, to have something to tut tut or harrumph about at their work the next day, except when Merkin Idle is on. Folks its a tv show, it has its regular cast and its guest stars and it sells soap, and services and prescription meds. Take the payment and smile. Is it not obvious that this talker and Fox have helped sell way more of this video game than any paid advert could?
I remember doing a senior ( high school ) thesis on Dr Fred Wertham and his war on Comic books. It involved reading much trash including his magnum opiss Seduction of the Innocent. Change the sex of the talker/author and the media involved but the story is the same. Now excuse me while I go find some Satanic backwards music to enjoy.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:02:21 +0000

@43 only if you play as Churchill, or Lincoln, or Stalin, or Mao, or Monteczuma, or Napolean, or Atilla, or Isabella, or …

By: Rob in CT

Rob in CT — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:39:43 +0000

#48,

Oh, sure. After the slaughter of one’s neighbors, one can build that nifty spaceship. ;)

By: J.S.

J.S. — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:32:20 +0000

I played world of warcraft yesterday, then watched a violent movie last night. I’m scared of myself and what I might do next…

As for Assange and Polanski… gimme a break. Assanage may be an ass if thats your politics but his “rape” case is a complete and utter joke. Its a case of two bitter Swedish feminists upset he played them for a roll in the hay.

By: omar

omar — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:33:17 +0000

I play Civilization. I am therefore more likely to be a genocidal maniac?

Maybe. I prefer to think of myself as more likely to build a spaceship.

By: dhex

dhex — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:57:36 +0000

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has been all over this

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/bulletstormgate/

By: johnl

johnl — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:36:53 +0000

@44 Women in their 30s are less likely to be in situations where they are vulnerable than a teenager (because they are richer, smarter, better connected, more likely to be married, …). So them being attacked less doesn’t tell us much about the motivation of the attackers.

By: Mattocracy

Mattocracy — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:59:05 +0000

@ #43

I totally LOL’d at that.

By: Maggie McNeill

Maggie McNeill — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:02:54 +0000

Oh, my, are there really “psychologists” who buy the feminist propaganda that rape is violent but never sexual despite the fact that 65% of rape victims are between 12 and 30 and 29% between 12-17, and the rape rate for girls of 16-19 is four times that of women in general? Not to mention the fact that rape rates decrease in every country where prostitution is decriminalized: http://www.independent.org/pdf/working_papers/50_prostitution.pdf.

“Desensitized,” my foot. :-(

By: Rob in CT

Rob in CT — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:59:08 +0000

I play Civilization. I am therefore more likely to be a genocidal maniac?

By: Bronwyn

Bronwyn — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:52:23 +0000

I’ll just point out that there are not “thousands” of studies on anything. What a life she must lead, so thoroughly self-deluded.

By: witless chum

witless chum — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:22:39 +0000

“Do you really think Assange and Polanski are equal? One has had his day in court, the other has not…plus a bunch of other differences in the cases.”

I think damn sure they’re equal in getting a lot more support from liberals who’d be louder in denouncing in them if they didn’t help run Wikileaks and direct “Rosemary’s Baby,” which is what I took megs’ point to obviously be.

By: Mike T

Mike T — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:48:30 +0000

I know I haven’t been around for more than 30 years, but I’d much rather come forward with a rape now than 20 years ago when the prominent accusers of harassment were loudly all proclaimed to be liars and loose women

That's because a large percentage of rape accusers are liars. Something like 40% of them are either proved to be false or recant. Do some research on Google if you find it hard to believe. This is an explanation of why rape is so hard to prove today within the boundaries of the Bill of Rights. Of course, it would help if women who are proved to make false claims of rape would get prosecuted. 10 years for him? 10 years for her. That would make it a lot easier to get around the hangups about whether it was consensual or not.

By: paranoiastrksdp

paranoiastrksdp — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:21:22 +0000

“#31 | The_Chef | March 3rd, 2011 at 12:36 am ”

Surely it was Commander Keen that led to the uptick of sexual assaults.

By: paranoiastrksdp

paranoiastrksdp — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:15:43 +0000

Dr. Lieberman’s Website is nauseatingly pink – Psychiatrist to the stars!

http://www.drcarole.com/

By: Leah

Leah — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:09:22 +0000

#35 – Amen. And props for working “mansplaining” into the comments.