Mega Thread The Random Thoughts Thread Part 1

[raman]

Oh hurrah, our very own Andrea Yates.

 

[Trewth]

*, anyone got some good news?

 

[Quadzilla]

Full points for obscure reference.

Thanks ... Some are probably going... wtf?

 

[Grave Danger]

Alice Cooper says hello

His middle name is Damon - nothing ludicrous about that.

 

[Andre]

LOL at the idea that video games don't have a misogyny problem.

Also LOL at the idea that Target is going to fix it.

I wish I had time to play games. I won't be letting my boys play GTA or the like, but I wish those complaining instead of trying to enforce their views on developers would instead make their own games. If there's such an untapped market they can make a fortune.

s**t as a teen I played plenty of violent games, read fantasy full of fighting and loved my action flicks. Yet despite getting 'messages' from three different types of media I didn't attempt to go Rambo or assassin on society ?!

 

[Dylan8]

I wish I had time to play games. I won't be letting my boys play GTA or the like, but I wish those complaining instead of trying to enforce their views on developers would instead make their own games. If there's such an untapped market they can make a fortune.

s**t as a teen I played plenty of violent games, read fantasy full of fighting and loved my action flicks. Yet despite getting 'messages' from three different types of media I didn't attempt to go Rambo or assassin on society ?!

The point Portia is trying to make isn't that you will want to go full blown murderer, but the depiction of women in video games for the most part will subconsciously make you view women in real life as powerless sex objects.

I don't see it personally since I don't feel that way about women.

 

[Andre]

The point Portia is trying to make isn't that you will want to go full blown murderer, but the depiction of women in video games for the most part will subconsciously make you view women in real life as powerless sex objects.

I don't see it personally since I don't feel that way about women.

LOL If I thought that (I don't) and did that, my wife would laugh and then hit me. Or hit me and then laugh.

 

[Dylan8]

Some of which may have been true, and some of which may not.

How many Bigfooty rumours have you read and had to make a call on if they are true or not?

Dan Gorringe is a petulant child. I read it on the internet. Is it true?

Do I have to make that call? Actually judging by his own posts he seems like a bit of a campaigner but beyond that I don't care about Daniel Gorringe. These examples are about issues which aren't even issues so I don't really get the point.

Slightly later you said...
Why is that fair to presume? Its a fictional game. You think they didn't exaggerate to tell a story, like any other fictional media?

Because it's something which I will likely never be involved in and something which will never affect me first hand. Until I explicitly need to know about underground prostitution rings, then I can go with my media-formed view on it.

Except he approaches them from a viewpoint formed by exposure to media, like everyone else in the world.

People make decisions on how to treat people they don't know (or do know) every day, and these are shaped by conscious thought, but also from random bits of s**t in your brain that you aren't actively aware were fictional or not.

If I ask one of the middle aged guys on this forum right now to immediately talk with a german accent, are they going to come up with something that sounds like one, or drop straight into a ridiculous one like they heard on Hogan's Heroes as a kid?

Media, and video games are like every other media, are something that human beings accept as an information source. Some parts you file away as fictional, but some parts (like assumptions about what Hong Kong prostitution is like) you file away as factual. Where is the line drawn? Do you even consciously know you're drawing one?

I think how I was raised to treat people by my parents probably has the biggest influence. Playing as a Hitman who can kill without hesitation doesn't really shape how I think of women. Who are you to say it does? I like to think the way I actually interact with women and treat them in real life reflects how I was raised to treat people, rather than how I act in a video game. I seriously think I can draw a line and say "I don't want to act like an emotionless killer with scant regard for women in real life."

Also I want to revist this quickly
In a game, developers make choices about what the player can't do.

In Hitman, a couple of the options developers didn't bother with:

- Strike up a conversation, and talk about vampire fiction
- Get into an argument
- Ask where the toilets are
- Apologise for barging in like a maniac

All things a person could do, but rated not important or interesting enough to include.

The options developers did include are `walk right past' and `kill them'. This was an active decision on their part. `Kill them' was rated `important or interesting enough to include'.

If they didn't have `kill them' as an option, I am betting a lot of players would complain that `that isn't realistic!'. Neither is not being able to interact with prostitutes as human beings, but comment on that and you're likely to be disregarded as a twitter feminist who hates video games.

Developers make a deliberate decision to include the killing of unarmed women in their games. It requires special programming to implement. It is an intended portion of the game for the player to experience. This is undeniable.

I agree, more choice in this department would be awesome. For now it is fine since talking to these women isn't the primary part of the game or the mission. I honestly don't think these devs for one reason or another were thinking about the social impacts of only implementing a walk past or kill option. It would have been a matter of what do we spend more time doing - focusing on story, environment or background. Especially with AAA time constraints, it would be hard to add this much background detail. For this reason, huge games like Skyrim or DA don't fulfill their potential.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

8 kids stabbed to death and mum fighting for her life is as much an act of terrorism by a nutcase as any religious nut blowing people up or taking hostages and killing them.

 

[Grave Danger]

Ah, that's nice!

 

[raman]

I wish I had time to play games. I won't be letting my boys play GTA or the like, but I wish those complaining instead of trying to enforce their views on developers would instead make their own games. If there's such an untapped market they can make a fortune.

s**t as a teen I played plenty of violent games, read fantasy full of fighting and loved my action flicks. Yet despite getting 'messages' from three different types of media I didn't attempt to go Rambo or assassin on society ?!

I am not suggesting that video games have any direct causal link to criminal behaviour. You can acknowledge that video games tend to have a negative portrayal of women and prey on some disturbing aspects of the young male psyche without going that far.

 

[raman]

8 kids stabbed to death and mum fighting for her life is as much an act of terrorism by a nutcase as any religious nut blowing people up or taking hostages and killing them.

No it's not, because that's not what terrorism is.

Who knows what the * has happened in Cairns but it's doubtful that what motivated the killer is an attempt to frighten a people in the name of a religious or political cause.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

No it's not, because that's not what terrorism is.

Who knows what the **** has happened in Cairns but it's doubtful that what motivated the killer is an attempt to frighten a people in the name of a religious or political cause.

substance vs legal form. terrorism is causing terror to the victim as far as Im concerned

 

[ozph1870]

8 kids stabbed to death and mum fighting for her life is as much an act of terrorism by a nutcase as any religious nut blowing people up or taking hostages and killing them.

no.

 

[raman]

substance vs legal form. terrorism is causing terror to the victim as far as Im concerned

By that standard any crime with a victim can be construed as terrorism.

But, yes, what a week it has been.

 

[Grave Danger]

No mention of any man (person) hunt and the wounded woman is apparently not a suspect. Sounds like one of the older kids did this and then took their own life.

 

[raman]

No mention of any man (person) hunt and the wounded woman is apparently not a suspect. Sounds like one of the older kids did this and then took their own life.

Yeah if it wasn't the mother than it's hard to imagine anything else.

 

[I Dont Care]

His middle name is Damon - nothing ludicrous about that.

I thought you said it was Spring?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

no.

whats the practical difference. I dont really care about the modern dictionary definition. Its a despicable crime carried out by a nutcase. you are going to have a whole lot of people distraught by this and a whole lot of emergency services people who will be affected with ptsd as a result of what they have to witness and "clean up."

 

[raman]

whats the practical difference. I dont really care about the modern dictionary definition. Its a despicable crime carried out by a nutcase. you are going to have a whole lot of people distraught by this and a whole lot of emergency services people who will be affected with ptsd as a result of what they have to witness and "clean up."

It's not a difference that matters to the victims, no. But the distinction is significant for the society. You can't say that motive doesn't matter.

 

[Grave Danger]

I thought you said it was Spring?

Nooo - Alice Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier

 

[I Dont Care]

Nooo - Alice Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier

So it wasn't Spring then? You must have got confused with Alice Springs

 

[Grave Danger]

So it wasn't Spring then? You must have got confused with Alice Springs

The boy called Spring kept ferrets, if that helps.

 

[Doctor Feel]

The boy called Spring kept ferrets, if that helps.

 

[Kickpuncher]

Ahh the end of year can count that pays for my next 3 or so cartons of beer is always joyful.

$118 worth this year.