Topic: Video games, violence, and stupidty.

This is kinda old (it was posted in march, and the actual show could have aired even earlier) but I only just saw it, and it blew my mind at how stupid people can be.
[youtube:TAxtHtp5Dto](it's a commentary by some guy on youtube. The commentary is not part of the actual video itself, but it's the only one I could find, and his comments are good)

...These people have NO idea what they're talking about, and end up attacking Tim Ingham (The one defending video games) out of pure desperation, simply because he's actually intelligent. Give him a medal for staying calm through this whole thing.

Also, the woman there actually VOICE ACTED in a violent game. Talk about hypocrite.

It's in two parts, so watch part 2 for even more stupidity.
[youtube:P9KbvboOcgs]

Which is why the British Government recently shafted the UK games industry by cutting all funding. (although times are tough with the national budget)

And it's because of the views held by the grannies (among others, incl. out of touch London mayors and hysterical middle-class parents who are worried their children may play a videogame and join a working class gang) who probably made up the majority of that audience (the presenter titchmarsh is almost a sex symbol for OAPs in Britain - he fronted a gardening show before he brought his obvious "talents" to a chat show studio), who we can thank for these attitudes.

I liked how that woman was able to get away with a completely unsourced (she called it an "American" study - but didn't come out with an actual name) while the games journalist (with an actual source, I believe) is thoroughly dismissed by the performing seals in the audience.

What would happen if the government (or through the media) decided to whip this up and make it a big issue. Maybe a boy is stabbed and they claim it's solely down to videogames (the awful woman in the 2nd video attributed the murder of young boy James Bulger to videogames. However, in '93 when the murder was in the papers, they were claiming he was inspired by the movie "Child's Play 3". They mobilised the troops so to speak and tried to outlaw "video nasties"). Then what? Will the government be compelled to do an 'Australia' and effectively ban the sale of 18 certificate games? Would that be enough for some 'concerned mothers'? Would it just be easier for them to claim videogames are grossly detrimental to your health (physical and mental) and should be banned?

@edhe We don't have a ban on the 18+ rating for video games, we simply don't have one.Yet still, we all have something to complain about, with people saying games like our edition of L4D2 is still too violent. If someone showed them a comparison of the two different version, then that would probs shut them up.

Point taken. I suppose it isn't really an issue of legality (on owning a violent game) if the game isn't even given a certificate. I also hope this doesn't force Nintendo to implement a region lock on their upcoming 3DS (in fear of being complicit in selling 16+ rated games to minors).

This is like FoxNews in America, making up lies & using misinformation & scare tactics to get old white people to stay tuned.

@edhe How many 16+ rated games are there on the DS??

I'm talkin' about 3DS, and the upcoming Resident Evil/Metal gear and Saint's Row games. I should have said 18+ (and I know that not all of them are technically 18+), but there are even fewer 18+ games currently on the DS.

I'm speaking theoretically though. Would Nintendo be responsible for allowing unrated games (that might feature a bit of tit or blood) to be played on a console - by a kid too young, and would Nintendo (or indeed either of the 2 console producers) be required to combat this.

Because if Japan gets another Ouendan, it doesn't matter how much underboob (not that I buy the ouendan games for that) or indeed "peril" they contain, this may have implications beyond the obvious effect of games being watered down for my market.

It's discouraging to see people so blatently ignore the sane speaking of a man who actually knows what the heck he's talking about. I've been trying to tell people the same thing for some time, but they just don't want to listen. Take responsibility for your parenting, eh? No? Morons.

No offense, but unless the topic is about politics, don't talk about them. It makes people mad.

Indeed stuff, why complain about violent games, when you just can't control what you buy your kids.

Those people are such bias . Games will never be as violent as movies because you have real peple in movies so it looks more violent.

Hahaha wow, that was worth a chuckle. This is why no-one with functioning brain matter watches The Alan Titchmarsh Show

I got most frustrated at the part where the audience cheered on the stupid women's comments, (Promoting racism? Sexism? REALLY? I've played violent video games before, and I have yet to see an instance where such games actually PROMOTE hate. I mean, come on. How incredibly pathetic.) and then booed (Booed? Laughed at? I couldn't really tell...) Tim Ingham. What a fair debate.

This debate shows that many people simply judge about something they don't know anything about. Many of the older generations don't see that video games are actually the same thing as movies and literature. If we ban all video games just because there are some violent ones, we might as well ban all other forms of art too, simply because some movies or books or paintings or whatever depict violence. If we go by this completely retarded line of thought, we should ban all art.

But if you ban art, you ban freedom. Welcome to Big Brother, goodbye to freedom.

Governments should make sure parents are informed about rating systems and if they do not know what to buy for their kids, the retailer will usually kindly help them along the way. There is also a responsability for the retailers not to sell violent games to young kids and explain what age category the games are meant to be sold to. The same thing goes for other media such as books, movies etc.

The people debating against games are a bunch of biased jerks who've probably never played any games. The guy doing the commentary was right on all points.

Ultimately, what this debate comes down to is that the average parent is too stupid to actually check a videogame to see what's in it before handing it to their child(ren), and after that don't actually see what their child(ren) are doing in said game. I'm not saying parents should be hovering over their child(ren) every second their playing a game, but more that they're in the same room looking at what their doing for a couple of minutes. Honestly, the problem isn't the rating system, it's parents not doing their job. At least in NA, there's a clearly marked box that displays the rating, and on the back of every game there's a little box that says why the game go that rating. Do parents look at that box? Do they go onto Youtube and look at a couple of trailers and gameplay videos for the game? The answer, most likely, is no! Just because not every newspaper reports on what's in every video game doesn't mean you should just randomly pick out any game on a store shelf. Honestly, if parents actually did their jobs and monitored their kids and what they were doing, this wouldn't be a problem.

No kidding. :/

They've don't only talk about politics, I remember just a week or 2 before Mass Effect came out they made a big deal about a full blown porno like sex scene in the game, & when people saw it was no worse then what you see on cable tv, instead of saying they made a mistake, they just ignored the problem.

Kind of like in the videos.

Lets see I play NMH so that means I want to cut everyone up with my Beam Katana?
I Play Kid Icarus So that means I shoot people with a bow and arrow and belive I can fly but for 5min.
And dont get me started on Pokémon (I cant wait to capture every living person on the planet)

Comments like this don't help, trying to argue the opposite by swinging it 100% in the other direction just makes you sound as misinformed as the woman in the video.