Games responsible for terror attacks?
via gamesradar
A video posted on YouTube titled Moral Kombat is set to become a controversial forum topic - a trailer for the first full-length film documentary to tackle the videogame violence debate head-on, featuring none other than game-obsessed lawyer Jack Thompson.
According to the film's maker, Spencer Halpin (quoted on the Apple Pro/Video website), his aim is to show that "consumers need access to information about the content of games so they can make their own decisions about what to buy". Which seems a bit of a non-starter given organisations already exist to do just that (the BBFC and PEGI age rate games in the UK and the ESRB have a similar advisory role in the US).
From the look of the trailer it's all a bit alarmist, with one memorable sequence suggesting that videogames were in some way to blame for the World Trade Center attack. How? The pilots learned how to fly the planes by 'playing' a flight simulator, obviously. As you might expect, background footage is a roll call of famous game scapegoats including Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto and Hitman.
Despite high production values, and a balanced approach promised (the film includes interviews with videogame apologists as well as the likes of Jack Thompson), we can't imagine any major movie studios will want to sign up Halpin's film, given their close relations with videogame film and TV licences, many of which contain violent content. Good job, then, that Halpin has made the film without profit in mind. Instead he's going to donate all the money it makes to a kidney research foundation.
Check out the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIu3JMGxk3Qand let us know what you think.
This is some bull for real.
From the look of the trailer it's all a bit alarmist, with one memorable sequence suggesting that videogames were in some way to blame for the World Trade Center attack. How? The pilots learned how to fly the planes by 'playing' a flight simulator, obviously.
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.. OH YEAH .. We all know that we can actually get enough training and experience to fully understand the workings of an airplane through a flight sim. Come on. Yes you can get some "simulation" experience, but real world things are much different. All games are designed to give an experience. Yes we learn things. Yes there is violence sometimes. Yes there may be language factors. All these things are screened by a rating system that is already in place. As far as getting enough knowledge to actually maintain a weapon and use it with pinpoint accuracy to kill someone because i play first-person shooters is silly. Just look at America's Army, the game developed for and used by the government to train soldiers. They have stated that they use the product to teach group movements and teamwork and that by playing the game you can't learn anything vital. There it is straight from our own government. For things like the Columbine incident. Blame should be put on our weak society NOT video games. The reason incidents like that happen are because of neglect, abuse (at home or from peers), and other worldly problems that cause nice people to crack with all the pressure. We get all this flak from organizations and other people saying video games are evil. They say that video games cause people to kill. I think it is them. When I hear these sorts of things I feel like stringing them up by a rope, or destroying an organization that makes these claims. I don't, but I am more inclined to do something like that because of them rather than video games!
Sorry for the long rant, but I feel that it is more towards the truth than what is trying to be portrayed.
