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Stephen King takes a stand on video game violence |
Listed in: PS3, Wii, PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PC Gaming Tags: Counter-Strike, Rampage, Virginia
Violent video games are really taking the heat, especially from legislators. It seems that countless numbers of bills are filed one after another to curb its effects on society, especially on the innocent.Since it's one pressing matter, horror author Stephen King finally has spoken his mind regarding it. As for the house bill that was legislated by Massachusetts that will regard violent games as porn, King remains doubtful that it will remain as a law.
As for the whole hubbub happening with the nation and violent video games, King had a mouthful to say about it. He said:
What really makes me insane is how eager politicians are to use the pop culture — not just videogames but TV, movies, even Harry Potter — as a whipping boy. It's easy for them, even sort of fun, because the pop-cult always hollers nice and loud. Also, it allows legislators to ignore the elephants in the living room.
Elephant One is the ever-deepening divide between the haves and have-nots in this country, a situation guys like Fiddy and Snoop have been indirectly rapping about for years. Elephant Two is America's almost pathological love of guns.
It was too easy for critics to claim — falsely, it turned out — that Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech killer) was a fan of Counter-Strike; I just wish to God that legislators were as eager to point out that this nutball had no problem obtaining a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.
Cho used it in a rampage that resulted in the murder of 32 people. If he'd been stuck with nothing but a plastic videogame gun, he wouldn't even have been able to kill himself. Case closed.
Well said, Stephen. How 'bout you guys? Got anything to say on the matter? We're sure you have a lot, too. Join in the discussion over at the comments section.
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But It feels nice to have the comment of a great horror writer. His stories are often more gruesome, cruel and violent than what we saw in videogames and he get praised for his writing, so why would games not recieve the same treatment. I guess it's the public. And yet the big elephant there is that parents let their 8 years old play man hunt 2.
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Right then and there I stopped reading. The "divide"? In no time in history has the average person been amassing wealth and prosperity than now. In no time in history have such large quantities of people left their economic situations and moved into higher, better ones than now.
This guy is just another clueless pundit looking to get his name and face on a published page. How does writing books make him qualified at all to discuss video games?
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*legislator2* Brilliant! but that also gave me an idea... If i remember correctly Ted Bundy was human so he had to eat, therefore if we ban food serial killers will not exist anymore!
*legislator1* you have a gift sir! ok let me get this ammendment ready... no women and no food. i think this is gunna stop the murders.
The moral of the story is... PYSCHOTIC people kill people, video games don't make them do it anymore than bread does.
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Both of my boys r now 13 and 11yrs. old and they both have a calm since of being. They talk to me when ever they need anything or if they r having a problem at school, but they have never acted out in a manner to which they wanted to kill someone. I don't believe that video games can cause u to kill someone, but I do believe that pushing someone and not listening to them will.
Mr. King is correct, law makers are quick to point out that Cho liked to play a certain video game, but they didn't point out the fact that it was so easy for him to get a gun and shot someone. I feel that law makers need to make stricter laws on gun control. Everyone has the right to own a gun, but they shouldn't make it so easy to get.
P.S. Mr. King is my favorite writer and I don't agree with him because he is my favorite writer, but because he is right!!! (This is my sons account, and when he read this to me I had to respond as a mother and as a video game jockie!
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Second off, maybe you should get out of your cave and look around, over 90% of Americas wealth is controlled by less then 1% of Americans. If you dont call that a divide, then your not only stupid, but blind.
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pundit - 2. a person who makes comments or judgments, esp. in an authoritative manner; critic or commentator.
learn2english you dumb *****
also, learn some economics - your facts are just bull***** you pulled out of lard-laden ass; why even both posting links to facts and data when all you will do is make ***** up without thinking
@ teh not so l337 gamer - all he did was BLAME SOMETHING ELSE, forgive me if I value a valid argument over the same bull***** legislators do
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This is why I love Stephen King.
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You can't just 'leave' an economic situation either, wtf?
I also have to say SRLemmiwinks is kind of an idiot too, for not knowing what a pundit is. But 'clueless pundit' is quite oxymoronic; i can see where there would be confusion. I digress.
Orlyeh, you should have read the article and realized he was supporting video games, and he made quite a valid statement. Ignorance is not strength no matter what you think.
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"This guy is just another clueless pundit looking to get his name and face on a published page. How does writing books make him qualified at all to discuss video games?"
Name and face on a published page? You mean more published pages than the hundreds of books he has wrote as himself and under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Go crawl back into bed with your sister you backwoods idiiot.
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I have no idea what you were trying to say about King. I think you need to read a book on syntax instead.
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Also you kids need to stop buying this B-f'ing-S about the wealth gap. The US is still the worlds largest, technologically advanced, and most robust economy. Americans live the most prosperous lives in the world by far. You guys are so well off, that you have the time to even complain about having a few of the most disgusting and vile titles taken away. There will -always- be the rich and the poor. That will -never- go away. But on average, the is very little "absolute poverty" by defnition in the US compared to the rest of the world.
I work in China now. I came here to join one of the world's fastest growing economies and to learn how to utilize my Asian background to do business with them. Let me just tell you guys firsthand, this place is ass. Or maybe some of you retards might prefer it, it seems like anti-Christianity or religion in general (no moral 'watchdogs' on your back anymore), no intellectual property protection (unlimited free games, movies, and music, for everyone!), the inability for anyone to obtain a firearm for any reason (people murder with knives and much more gruesome tools!), and corrupt law enforcement (they won't get you for anything, but if they do, just give them money!) are right up the alley for most of you guys. Why don't we switch places.
Violent video games desensitize us to violence. That doesn't mean they make people go out and kill each other. However, it does mean that there is less hesitation to pull a hypothetical trigger on a real person. I have seen what conditioning can do to someone's thought process. A lot of my peers here in China are deeply nationalistic even though I tell them their government is one of the most conniving in the world. It is inevitable, just as the games we play inevitably condition us. So let us draw a sane line between an age where people are likely to have matured to the point where they not only know killing in the game is fake (duh, that shouldnt be the point at all), but when people are old enough to really resist permanent conditioning (which unfortunately is older than we all want to admit).
Resist the urge to be the tools of some of those in the gaming industry who couldn't care less about you and want to make a fortune off feeding you an addictive vice. I am not talking about a particular case or a particular game. I just would rather people keep this in the back of their heads before blindly lending their support to anyone who takes a bit of heat off the gaming industry or whatever.
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Is your argument that since there is a "Place A" in the world that is worse off than "Place B", we have no right to criticize the conditions of B? Why else would you be bringing up China? American women had far better living conditions in presufferage times than their contemporary counterparts in the Middle East. Is this to say that it was then "B-f'ing-S" to organize for the rights of American women? What a terrible argument.
Or is it that poor poeple in America really don't have it all that bad? Ever been to New Orleans? How about the projects? Sure, it's not the third world, but I think the previous paragraph covered this line of thought pretty well.
The fact that America is the richest nation in the world makes it's horribly lopsided income inequality a complete scandal. We should all be rolling in it, not wondering how we're going to cover all of our medical bills. By the way, I'm glad to see that you can predict the future and have enlightened us all with the grand prognostication that their will ALWAYS be the "rich and poor" (people used to say the same thing about slaves you know). I, meanwhile, will not stick to self-defeating aphorisms that have no basis in reality.
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steven king is just telling us like the writings on the walls... the cake is not real
ps: i'm voting for steven king for president now and i think everyone else should promote the cause "the cake is not real: vote for steven king" www.stevenkingthecakeisnotreal.com for free bumper stickers!
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Seriously though, the (gaming) world needs more mothers like you, more adult people who understand what video games are all about and what video games are NOT all about. I'm really concerned about Jack Thompson, the controversial anti-game lawyer, getting more and more people on his side. Especially mothers who do not see beyond the gun and blood shown on the TV screen.
Personally, I don't buy games because they are "cool", violent or because they contain lots of guns, blood and gore. I always see the story as what makes the game good. That's why I almost never play any FPS games because honeslty, FPS games are not the game genre known for the best stories in the industry. Games like Uncharted are perfect because it has a story that is genuinely presented with good dialogues, cutscenes and humour. Sure, you kill a lot of pirates but it isn't extremely violent and personally I played the game through almost only to find out the end of the story.
Video games don't kill people, guns do. And if there's one thing that is easily obtainable in America, it's guns. Fix the gun laws and you'll no longer have any problems with so-called "game shootouts" in schools.
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When a child becomes a murderer, then thats due to years and years of being pushed around, lack of (self-)respect, misunderstandin g, rejections and neglect. A video game MIGHT then -and only then- act as some kind of "template" for a scenario which the child then decides to live out.
But when we take the video game out of the equation, then it will get replaced by a movie, or by a violent book, or even by international news.
So we could either have people living in complete isolation so that they dont get any ideas what horrible things they could do (still, some might come up with their own ideas....) or we could blame the teachers and parents whose job it is to react on alarming behaviour in the first place. (And find ways to raise their awareness and competences).
Somebody once said that it would be better to send 10000 Psychologists into schools than to place 10000 policemen in front of the schools. I would add "than to ban 10000 violent video games".
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While you make very valid points, you are missing the biggest and most important key.
YOU ARE RAISING YOUR CHILDREN! You have an active role in their development.
I greatly question the validity of this article:
1. It doesn't address a main point. It addresses violence which (today) has many different areas being dealt with. So you first have to quality his words with unknown information.
2. If you read the source article you'll quickly find opinionated comments that don't hold water. For example:
"....Girls Gone Wild, for that matter. Can parents block that stuff? You bet. But most never do."
Sorry, but that's the biggest bunch of BS I've read in a while. So tell us omegaridley, would you let your 11 or 13 year old watch GGW movies? I think not. So how right did you say King was?
3. All he does is complain. There's no actual point to his rant. First he agrees that young people should adhere to the game rating but then he further continues to say that we shouldn't ENFORCE those ratings. If the ratings are a good idea, why not enforce them? At some point someone decided a certain magazine publishing was for adults only AND we enforce it. How hypocritical is that? He claims all this violence is normal human nature so who cares? The naked body is more NORMAL then violence any day. Hum, wishy washy to say the least.
4. After all the ranting of how we shouldn't ENFORCE the rating system there isn't so much as ONE REASON as to why we shouldn't!?!?!? Aside from a clear dislike for the government. For example:
A 13 year old can't walk into a walmart and buy a game that consists of strong sexual situations, violence and strong language. No one has ever given a good reason as to why that's a bad thing!
I love King as a writer but this little bit of news is go general and so many people are running with that THEY THINK it means that it's nothing but garbage at this point.
The end result to all my verbiage is that there is NO black/white response to this issue and that's certainly what King gave us.
On a side note, as for the Canadian who thinks all guns should be outlawed....thank God you are Canada. Please, STAY THERE!!!! We Americans hold dear the right to BEAR ARMS (obviously not all). Maybe if you had so much as an inkling as to what that meant you would change your views. Your ignorance of how guns are only used for ONE thing serves as a constant reminder how dangerous ignorance can be.
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Or years of indulging in violent movies and games. Please point us to one plublished article that states someone became a murderer after playing just ONE video game???
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But take it from someone whos worked with people who have committed some of the most horrible acts you can imagine on there fellow human beings it isn't that easy some people are just bad and while playing violent video games wont help these fragile people theres no reason to believe that stopping them playing them will cure them.
As a final point i'd like to say i like playing violent games and watching violent films so why should i suffer to protect the minority, think im wrong believe the minorities should be protected? then ban guns to protect the minority that believe they should be.
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It's astonoshing how quick parents are to blame video games for their childs behavior rather than look at other factors. Where were the parents of the kids responsible for the columbine massacre when they were getting their guns, building pipe bombs, and whatnot? Did the Dad walk into the basement "Hey son, you gotta pack the powder like this, that way you get a better kill radius!" Did they even pay attention to what was going on, or even express even the slightest bit of concern about what their children were doing?
Parents can be so quick to blame video games, but if they don't want their kids playing Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, why are their kids playing them? Did the parents buy them without knowing the content? Do the parents even know what they're buying their kids? I'm not a parent, but I am an older sister, and as such I did have some responsibilitie s in raising my little brother. I'm not talking about a two or three year age difference between my brother and I. I had graduated high school, was working full time, and was in college before my brother ever went to middle school. Even I, not as a parent, but a sister, took an active role in monitoring what my brother was doing and explaining the differences between fiction and reality. When Grand Theft Auto 3 came out, he was about 14. EVERY kid wanted that game for Christmas that year, it seemed. Not every kid, however is mature enough to know and understand the content of the game. Admittedly, I was a little disturbed by the fact that he wanted THAT game, but we had a little talk about it, I talked to our parents about it, and we had this nice little family dicussion talking about how the things in the game aren't REAL and that in REAL LIFE those kinds of things aren't acceptable to do. He understood, and never once tried to imitate the game, or even expressed a desire to own a gun. He played that game untill his PS2 broke. He's 18 now, and in college. He's very against firemarms, and it's obvious that the game he played had no effect on his behavior whatsoever.
I think some parents either don't pay attention to their kids enough, or...for some reason...expect everyone else to do it for them. Some parents are relentlessly overprotective, which can be just as bad, if not worse than not paying attention to them. I've seen parents practically try to shield their kids from bright colors, claiming that bright colors inspire their kids to act out, or some bull***** like that. These kids end up not having any sense of the real world, and a lot more things have the "forbidden fruit" effect.
I think I've done enough ranting for now.
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Actually, I'm thinking that comment was aimed more at television channels like Comedy Central -- If you've ever bothered watching it past 9PM, you will literally be buried under 3 minute girls gone wild commercials at practically EVERY commercial break. You can't block them either without blocking the entire channel as they are commercials and not rated separately. And these commercials will be played even when the television program itself isn't rated M or PG!
Quote:
Complaints are just as valid criticism as anything.
Opinions are just that, He holds an opinion and so therefore he speaks that opinion -- he's entitled to! It's up to the listener/reader to put it in a context that's valid.
A rather long quote from Thank You For Smoking comes to mind:
Joey Naylor: ...so what happens when you're wrong?
Nick Naylor: -Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong.
Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right...
Nick Naylor: -Well if it's your job to be right, then you're never wrong.
Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong?
Nick Naylor: -OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say:
Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.
Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end-all and the beat-all of ice-cream, do you?
Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.
Nick Naylor: -Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?
Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.
Nick Naylor: Well I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the definition of liberty.
Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about
Nick Naylor: -Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.
Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...
Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.
Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me
Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them." ***Points into the crowd***
And another quote from later in the movie:
Senator Lothridge: Now as we discussed earlier, these warning labels are not for those who know, but rather for those who don't know. What about the children?
Nick Naylor: Gentleman. It's called education. It doesn't come off the side of a cigarette carton. It comes from our teachers, and more importantly, our parents. It is the job of every parent to warn their children of all the dangers of the world including cigarettes so that one day when they get older, they can choose for themselves.
And in my opinion, that right there is the true liberty our country has been fighting for all this time -- the ability to make informed decisions ourselves without relying strictly on what other people attempt to impose upon us.
4. After all the ranting of how we shouldn't ENFORCE the rating system there isn't so much as ONE REASON as to why we shouldn't!?!?!? Asid
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1. You DO control what your kids watch.
2. Those are commercials which are censored.
"Complaints are just as valid criticism as anything."
When you offer no solutions, it's just ranting.
"It's up to the listener/reader to put it in a context that's valid."
That's just it, there are way too many idiots that turn these things into way too many different issues.
"the ability to make informed decisions ourselves without relying strictly on what other people attempt to impose upon us."
Which is great! ADULTS get to make informed decisions. NOT CHILDREN. Which is why it should be the responsibility of the STORE to only allow ADULTS to make such decisions. The rating is a TOOL for the ADULTS to use but no one ever lets the ADULTS use it.
"the ability to make informed decisions ourselves without relying strictly on what other people attempt to impose upon us."
This argument right here is what I find hilarious. When I hear this argument, it tells me that you want all restrictions on alcohol, tobacco and porn to be lifted. If you say that is incorrect then you would be a hypocrite.
Inappropriate material is inappropriate material. I don't care if it comes in the form of liquid, plant, paper, video or video games. You can't regulate one and NOT the other. But then again, this country is FULL of hypocrisy. Obviously, or this discussion wouldn't be happening.
It seems to me there are only two types of people that complain about these laws going into affect:
1. Bratty little kids that realize they actually need their parents permission to obtain violence and are bummed because they know their parents will say no.
2. Lazy parents that realize they will now have to get off their fat lazy American a$$ and go to the store with their kids and play an active role in the decisions their kids make.
Sounds like a bunch of BOO HOO to me. The end result is YOUR KIDS CAN STILL PLAY whatever game you want them to play.
Not to mention that MOST retail establishments REFUSE to sell mature games to minors anyway. Most of you don't even understand what exactly is going on here. There are already policy restrictions in place. All these laws do is inflict FINES. Go to Walmart and try to have a 13 year old buy a mature game. Their POS system tells them to check ID. I saw a kid get turned away from buying a game that was obviously mistaken as a mature title since it was a Mario paint type app for the PC. The kids had to wait for his mom to show up and tell the cashier that it was ok. The cashier apologized as it was obviously a mistake but she didn't want to question the "computer". The mom understood. Now THAT is a person with her head screwed on straight. Most of the people on this forum would be one of those jerk parents standing there SCREAMING at the cashier....... spoiled rotten....
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What I dont understand is im sitting here watching tv and im reading this article. We are complaining about how we let our kids play violent video games yet i just saw a comercial for a movie called "Prom Night" about a Nut Job killer. This comercial was MARKETED at kids. IS it just me or shouldent all media been in the fire not just games? "Honey its ok to go see hostile but you cant play gta" wtf is that. And shes prolly yelling at him saying that while hes listening to 50cent talking about shooting up clubs.
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