Fox & Friends Shoots at Modern Warfare 2

[scotth266]

Really? You guys are getting pissed off at FOX because the guy they got from Slashgamer wasn't smart enough to make his point?

When you're going to have a debate, isn't it somewhat logical to get someone with an intimate knowledge of the subject matter, and can actually speak well? And the entirety of the non-gamer guy's argument revolved around that kids are the audience for the game: THEY AREN'T. The game is made for 17+ years olds, it has a M on the front for a reason. And these kids are somehow supposed to be getting their hands on the game in the first place. Whose fault is that again?

These days, it's not the retailers selling M rated titles to kids that are the problem: hell, most retail chains have strict rules about that now. It all boils down to parents being irresponsible and getting their kids stuff without checking it's content.

Badly constructed "debate" is badly constructed. It's a hatchet job, plain and simple.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Dammit. Where's Geoff Keighley when you need him?

 

[robman1130]

meh. fox is just doing its job, RATEINGS. they dont care about gamers feelings, they are more interested in money. thats all this is

 

[robman1130]

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.

http://www.foxnews.com/fnctv/
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/

All of the major news channels have roughly the same programming. News mixed in with Op-Ed programming. So to say that FOX isn't really a news channel is absurd. Especially coming from a hack like John Stewart who makes a living misrepresenting the facts and using baseless statistics(the study you mentioned interviewed a whopping 1500 people. Not to mention the fact that correlation does not equal causation) taken completely out of context. Also saying that TV personalities like Hannity and O'Reilly represent the news aspects of FOX is like saying Campbell Brown and Larry King represent the news aspects of CNN. Apples and Oranges.

I do in fact listen to CNN and Fox News, I read MSNBC pretty much every day and I challenge anyone to do the same, then tell me who is and isn't reporting the facts? Are all media outlets biased? Of course, but anyone who actually watches/reads information from all three would be hard pressed to call FOX the worse of the bunch.

They had a story about Modern Warfare 2. And both The Escapist and the general dumbasses that post without reading(not referring to you), went on a rant about something they clearly have NO factual information about, FOX news. They ignored the content of the piece and went on a bunch of half assed rants with no basis in reality.

but this is the internet... dont we hate that which is not ours?

 

[CloggedDonkey]

It's rated M for a reason.
edit: after buying it, I understand why they where mad.

 

[Energylegzz]

Hah! Fox has no friends

 

[GonzoGamer]

My thoughts exactly

I stopped paying attention to this crap. Gamers don't care, and they can't really do anything about it. EA could probably buy out FOX in the decade if Sims expansion packs keep going on

As much as I would like to see that happen, it's not going to. Do you realize how big NewsCorp is? It could probably buy EA, Activision, and Take Two in one day if it wanted. Of course, if that happened, games would start to really suck.

Fortunately, fox news is about as close to news as Mad magazine... actually, Mad is a more reliable news source. They just exaggerate for the sake of humor not paranoia. So their... whatever you want to call it, was just a big advertisement for the game.

What I really don't understand is that this is the kind of paranoid delusions they usually accuse the liberals of having. I guess it's not surprising; since the Regan era, conservatives have been becoming less conservative: they waste more money than anyone else, they waste more resources than anyone else, they waste more lives than anyone else, and they waste more people's time than anyone else. They can't even protect us from predatory businesses anymore because they're in the pockets of several of them.
Do the conservatives even know what they're doing anymore?

 

[phoenix352]

hahaha man i love how stupid fox news is .... makes me laugh every time

"if some one brings the game in the house....essentially nothing is stopping the 8 year old from becoming a terrorist"

another great news report by fox on the bad bad video games!

 

[Woodsey]

In other news, the MP in Britain that totally kicked Keith Vaz in the balls has started a Pro-Gamer group on Facebook. Pro meaning in favour of, not guys too good for their own good.

Personally, it's music to my ears. Meanwhile America has to put up with the likes of Fox News.

 

[AceDiamond]

I would be outraged except Fox and Friends thought that putting the TARP bill in a deep fryer constituted as

A) News
B) Information
C) Entertainment

It was probably only the latter but only for how stupid it was.

My point being they aren't people we have to worry about.

 

[Chipperz]

...Wow. OK, I just watched that, and even I found myself agreeing with the "common sense" media guy.

Is that really the best spokesperson gaming can get?

 

[300lb. Samoan]

ugh, what a failed appearance

first of all, he should have addressed single-sentence the "of course correlation" between video games and violence - "there is no substantial research to establish a concrete correlation" would have done nicely.

second of all, he should have known he was going to be answering that question, there's no excuse to have answered it so stammeringly. he clearly wasn't properly prepared for this interview. it's simply not fair to put someone in his position without meeting with a strategic media coach who could have given him the skills to participate in a 'fair and balanced' debate.

probably would have helped as well if he had been given the question before hand, as it seems Jim was.

 

[Grayjack]

I want to punch the reporter and the guy from the CSM right in the face. They look so smug.

 

[Dimeinurear]

This is what depresses me about this time... So what if you get to play as a terrorist, does it explain HOW to do that? No! Violent video games will ALWAYS be around, and honestly, why would people say that this is such a big deal? It's for people 17+ which means that they're expecting that if you're playing this, you're mature enough to realize "Killing people is bad."

Adults playing this, unless they have fantasies of being a terrorist and killing people, won't really phase them, and as they said in the video "It's pixelated violence, it's NOT REAL. Video games are entirely for fun and you could do this in the original one, why was there no controversy THEN?

In the original, you storm "Generic Terror-Desertville" and no one cares, but the instant that you step foot on American soil and further a FICTIONAL story, it becomes an issue. Fox News is basically trying to be politically correct, and by "politically correct" I mean "Say killing people is bad when it happens every day." I'm personally looking to join the military when I come of age, and I think of these kinds of games as a gateway into showing me what their lives/jobs are like. It's showing you WHAT these people have done for us and WHAT they prevented (supposedly).

In short, nothing wrong with MW2 in terms of story, I just personally don't like the gameplay.

 

[theultimateend]

I hate when fox uses the "No evidence against what I'm about to say" instead of "Evidence for what I'm about to say".

After two years of university level psychology courses there was no positive link amongst easily dozens (if not over a hundred) case studies between video game violence and children.

The aggression displayed right after gaming was no different than that just after playing, watching a high paced film (even if it wasn't violent), or any other activity that raises chemical activity in the brain. Just like all those activities it ends up degrading quickly and having no long term effect.

In the reverse (and albeit still not truly related) violence amongst teens has been steadily dropping as games have gotten more violent.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

The dumbest thing about all of this:
You don't have to kill a single civilian to beat the level, though the NPC terrorists certainly will. Yeah, you have to kill airport cops, but it's really no worse than a GTA mission.

 

[AWC Viper]

Spoiler

we need to have a Gamer party. the pirates have one in germany so why not us

 

[delet]

Is anyone actually surprised? Really, the only reason I'm surprised is that they didn't start this day 1. Faux New, proving just how 'fair and balanced' they are is just one of their many talents.