zifnabxar said:
I have to agree with you on this. The article makes it seems like Fox was mostly debating the Terrorist Scene and whether it went too far. This is a legitimate discussion. Maybe they didn't use the best representatives, but still a good question to ask and something the public might care about.
I can't believe the bias in this article though. The article seems to hint that Fox was all gung-ho to pick up the video game banning pitchfork, but besides the comments by Steyer, I can't see any evidence of this.
The comment about the hosts leading the gamer into a trap is what really gets me here. How is that a trap? From Kotaku the "trap" is the host saying, "Jon, you essentially get to be a terrorist and kill people and it's very realistic." I've not played the game, but from the clips I've seen of the said level, that's about what you're doing.
While I do get upset when people blindly stereotype games, it makes me equally as frustrated when gamers (or the gamer media) in turn blindly stereotype the media back. While there's not much to this article, it disappoints me. I normally expect better and less biased writing from The Escapist.
I agree with this post (and by extention Apocs post that was quoted there). The article was rather biased while the segment did not appear to be so.
Now to make a few points. I think Fox News is a terrible news station. The reason is that, as has been recently clarified (and broadly shouted out by John Steward) the vaste majority of their broadcasting is in fact now news. When this is the case you can't really call yourself a news network anymore. There is a kinda saying that goes something like "5 million people can't all be wrong." That is not really true. There are deep philosophical reasons for this but they are not really important here. What is important is that just because a thing is the most popular does not make it right, correct or even truthful. In the case of Fox News I believe it is just entertaining.
Now theApoc I am sure you can feel that most of this rant so far is aimed at you so I am not going to beat around the bush any longer. Fox News viewers has been shown to be the worst informed viewers of all. Incidental the person you called a "hack", John Steward and his counterpart Colbert had the most well informed viewers but this does not really mean that either The Daily Show or The Colbert Report (I am sure there is some joke there why they don't pronounce the "t" but I have not been a diligent enough viewer to find out) are any kind of news show but it is interesting. The fact that viewers of Fox News are the least informed is indeed very important as this shows that either Fox applies importance to the wrong things giving a skewed picture of current events, they outright lie or their viewers are stupid (or are otherwise unable to see the truth). Now I am inclined to believe the first option.
Now for a source of all this (I only need one... this isn't science): http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/16/daily-show-fox-knowledge/
Also I suggest reading this: http://people-press.org/report/559/
It has no bearing on the discussion (besides agreeing that all news outlets are biased) but it is very interesting. I think so at least.
Now after that tirade it might be novel to get back on subject.
Whether or not MW2 crosses the line with a level where you are a terrorist and slaughter innocents is an excellent question. It is worth mentioning that the question of whether or not children should be allowed to get their hands on the game (not before I am finish with it thats for sure) is not really in question. For some reason they throw it in there and the debate gets completely useless as a result.
Now are they going too far? My personal opinion is no. Personally I applaud Infinity Ward for making it. Such a level will nearly force the player to start thinking. They question what terrorism is and the motives of the terrorist and the "heroes" as well. And this has always been the true meaning of art. To provoke us into wondering and contemplating. The debate on whether the game went too far raises the same questions so such debates are a good idea. Just for gods sake leave the children to the parents to figure out.
/Jakob
Edit:
Longshot said:
Greg Tito said:
"There's no doubt there's a link between violent video games and kids."
Soooo... Violent video games makes women pregnant?
that was my first thought too.
