Initially, I had no intention of watching this "report," much less posting it on Destructoid, but after reading the transcript on
GamePolitics, I finally broke down and sat through the whole sorry affair. Now, I may goof on my research now and again, and I hold my hands up to that, but watching this video is akin to watching a group of men talking about how painful period pains are. These are people with no experience or knowledge whatsoever regarding
Mass Effect, trying to pass themselves off as experts and it's finally ground me down to the point of sorrow.
It's hard to remain angry about these kinds of ignorant attacks against videogames, because they've become so frequent and so mind bogglingly stupid, that it takes far too much energy to be mad. You just bash your head against a brick wall until your skull is liquid and you've slumped onto the ground, unable to do anything but twitch. The smug ignorance of Cooper Lawrence as she giggles and grins her way through Geoff Keighley's eloquent and intelligent debate is disgusting, and the way that Geoff's sole voice of reason is effectively squashed in order to hand over to a panel of people who'd clearly never seen more than thirty seconds of game footage is a depressing shame.
Most shameful of all, however, is the pitiful reaction of host Martha MacCallum who answered the rightful claim that "it's up to parents to control what their kids are seeing," with "it is, unfortunately."
Unfortunately ... it's become unfortunate that parents have to take responsibility for their own flesh and blood. I don't even think I need to point out just how miserable that statement is. I'm at a loss, really. For what it's worth, I think Geoff did an admirable, if futile job, and I'd like to thank both Lawrence and MaCallum for reminding me why misanthropy is almost noble.
Contest:
11:57 PM on 01.22.2008
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This just shows how ignorant people are. Apparently they would be happy if all of our rights were taken away so it would make it easier to raise children. Or more aptly, not raise their own children.
The world is in a sick state of affairs when you have to make up lies about how bad and indecent video games are.
The one woman's point that a lot of children let themselves in after school and can go and have free reign over the video games is made entirely invalid by the part run earlier in the segment where Microsoft explains that parents can quite easily lock out certain game ratings and limit play time.
The actual informed debate was cut short so a bunch of jerkoffs who know little about the topic could have a little roundtable discussion amongst themselves.
And then, yes, it's not a right of our government to control what we can and cannot play, but rather, that onus belongs to the parents. Unfortunately.
Hopefully Fox will recieve as much backlash for this as Kevin McCollough did for his uninformed drivel-spewing outbursts.
Worst possible scenario is Kudo Tsunoda on the tail end of a 3 day booze and coke bender defending Mass Effect on Fox News.
But seriously, WTF was up with that panel in the second half??? Do people really listen to the completely vapid nonsense that comes out of their mouths? People need to stop worrying so much about children and videogames, and start worrying a little more about the corrupting influence of Fox News on adult mental states.
"But you have to pick up the box and look at the back for the rating and then..you have to be involved in what your kids are looking at."
GOD-FOR-FUCKING BID YOU HAVE TO BE INVOLVED WITH YOUR CHILD'S LIFE! These people are morons. And the Black woman says that it's dangerous to have games like that in the house because a kid is going to say "I'm going to play my dad's video games." Did she not read Microsoft's statement about parental controls? Is she an idiot?
I'm just FUCKING tired of these things because no one gets to have a word in the topic. Anything that's worth listening to, anyway. What's the point? What's the point if you're going to have these right-wing dip shits have more time to spew out their ignorant word vomit? Geoff did not get the time he deserved to talk about the topic.
There has to be some major news cooperation that has some intelligent and lengthy discussion about this.'
"I'm surprised that this game wasn't rated AO."
FOR SHOWING A FUCKING SIDEBOOB AND AN ASSCRACK!? If that's the case, you dumb cunt, then we should have any movie with a sex scene be rated X.
Goes to show that Fox News is crap.
I can't believe this video. They give Geoff a grand total of maybe 30 seconds to defend his position... Of course, I guess I should have expected this from Fox (Faux?) News
"It has an M rating, says Sexual Themes rught on the box"
"But don't you think that--"
"It has an M rating"
"Right...but what about--"
"It has an M rating"
"Yes I see but if--"
"M RATING".
"BUT THE CHILDREN!"
"ITS M!".
Geoff Keighley is awesome.
Ms. Cooper,
I recently watched your interview on Fox News regarding the nude content within the videogame Mass Effect and I was quite taken aback by the level of misinformation that was displayed.
"If you look at the statistics, who is playing videogames? Adolescent males - not their dads."
This was the first statement that caught my attention. It appears that you are unaware that the average age of a videogame player is 33. Only 20% of game players are males under the age of 17 (compared to 31% of gameplayers being females over the age of 18). I'm afraid you have fallen prey to the stereotype that adolescent males are the ones who make up the majority of game players.
Source: http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php
"Seeing these women as objects of desire, as these hot bodies. They don't show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality."
I would agree with this statement to the extent that this is a general trend in the media that is problematic. It gives young men the wrong idea about what to expect from women and can lead them to objectify females. However, this really is not a prevalent theme in Mass Effect in particular, which you might know if you had played the game. As Geoff explained, the partial nudity exists for only a few minutes in a 30 hour game. It seems that some people are unable to see nudity in any form of media without considering it objectifying. It is important to remember that it can also be used to further a narrative of a romantic relationship. The sexual situations come as a result of the relationships you have with the characters.
It just seems to me that any time nudity is in a videogame, the media fails to consider the context. Sexuality is a part of human nature and I don't see a reason why a videogame cannot explore this aspect of humanity without a barrage of uninformed criticism. Notice that we do not see news segments discussing nudity everytime it appears in a film (wherein it is usually infinately more graphic than what is displayed in Mass Effect). The reason is simple - people think videogames are just for kids. This is untrue, but most people refuse to believe it.
Here it is the big porn scene hahaha!
Its a good thing all that partial nudity from the movies that nutjob watched in the 80's didn't make her a wacky repressed cunt. Research also shows that parents don't talk to their kids about sex and they have to figure all that shit out by themselves, or better yet, in college when it's time to get drunk and explore the joys of rape! Research that!
Golgo 13, anyone?
Man, I feel bad for Geoff. He’s absolutely right: the psychologist and the panel were completely misrepresenting Mass Effect, and video games as a medium in general. It seems that any discussion of video games on the mainstream media just turns out to be a way for non-gaming adults to spout fallacies and propagate smear campaigns against video games. So, Martha...parenting is a chore, is it? It’s unfortunate that parents have to regulate what their children have access to? The government should do your job for you? Maybe you never should’ve had kids in the first place, if you weren’t ready for the task of raising them.
Anyways I bet very few kids under 18 would have the attention span to play through the whole game and even get the X-rated scenes as well. You really deserve it. Do you get any achievements for it?
If no, then you should.
To quote the stupid woman herself -- "Let me at 'er, Martha."
Actually I have to comment on this. One defense that never gets used but I SO WANT someone to say is that when someone says "Well the University of Elves says that games have a damaging effect on young people" to just go "Actually the study I have here says that games turn 99% of people OFF violence, get them more friends and usually increase the amount of money they earn each year two fold". As soon as they say "Can you prove that statement?" you just say "Can you prove yours?". Combat BS with BS.
That's nice.
Awesome work! Hope you hear back from her, although I doubt that shameful fraud will have the guts to say anything when presented with the cold hard facts of JUSTICE!!
This statement infuriates me to no end. Yes, video games are guilty of doing this... however, FAR FUCKING LESS than most other forms of media, notably movies and television. There are far more respectable women in video games than in god damn television. Look at Super Smash Bros.; Zelda, Peach, Samus... all hardcore badasses.
God I hate people.
And the fact that I'm a psychology major. *spits on myself*
Best way is for people to educate themselves, unfortunately many are too lazy to do even that, and settle for spoon fed lies and ignorance.
I've always said, the established media see games as a rival for peoples time and money, and will thus always seek to dumb the games industry down and focus on anything remotely negative about them. They fear the day people switch off the news and on their consoles.
I never trust these so called experts (even Hitler had some of them). It gets like the very draconian nations we are trying to topple every day. And the weird thing is these same propaganda pushing news outlet, take cheques for running game ads on their stations. It seems that developer/publisher money is good enough for them, but the truth about games isn't for their public.
Its no different in the U.K with Sky News or BBC either.
that right winged bitch on the left in the beginning can go suck a chode. she has no idea what the research means, so instead she twists the data to represent her side of the argument.
i think i had about 5 "you've got to be kidding me" moments when my jaw just dropped at what these... artards are saying about the game industry.
my dad loves playing video games. LOVES them. and hes fuckin 60. given that he mostly plays gliding and flight simulators, they are video games nonetheless.
kids are NOT the majority gamers for god's sake, they're just blown a lot more out of proportion because it can make bs news.
geoff, again, man props.
@everyone
i am so glad we all have a decently level head about all this crap. i just wish people outside of our community LISTENED.
........
"Fox News:
News for the criminally inane!"
Seriously after the chick said she never played the game, I would've ended the conversation right there. It just goes back to people who bash a game they've never played. Reading up a bit on it, watching a few vids, then they think they know all about the game when clearly they don't.
if you wanna see something funny, you should see reviews of the book. Most people don't even read reviews, but if they see 1 star they just steer clear of it. serves her right.
I'd also like to point out that becoming one with the Asari gal (no penetration at any point) requires a powerful amount of thought, rationalization, and just old fashioned flirting. Kind of like a REAL RELATIONSHIP.
Old media is a joke. I expect its death within 15 years.
and could someone tell me why on earth they had that panelist part at the end? Rather than let the expert tell you something about the topic, we are given crap some idiot has trouble reading the back of a box. I honestly can't understand how anyone gets their news from TV any more.
"Let me at 'em, Martha"? Fuck you. Get your own talk show, if you want to work your own agenda and call in your friends to help you gang up on your guests. You're on a major news network, so act like it.
What the hell are we supposed to do when that's who's against us, people who have no rhyme or reason, who bask in their own arrogance and sense of superiority as they and their cronies gang up on their "childish, game-playing" opponents? I would love to've seen Adam Sessler or Chris Kohler (they originally had contacted him) on there, people who wouldn't have taken any guff and would've talked their asses off.
Something needs to be done about this. I'm serious. The industry needs someone who can reach out to the housewives. Someone who can sympathize with their desire to protect children from violence and sex and keep them "kids", but at the same time can educate people to realize that the video game industry isn't filled with depraved people.
Also games made by people other than Rockstar need some press.
I think Ninendo needs to bring some Wii's and DSes to Fox news and some smiles, but that's an aside.