"Games create rapists" lady gets pwned by wired.com's research

[WanderingFool]

She's probably very embarassed right now at the thousands of people calling her wrong.

Teaches you, don't mess with gamers, we're everywhere.

Forget just gamers, The lesson here is get your facts striaght before you present them to the public domain; cause if people can disprove you, they sure as fuck will. Hell, I learned that lesson in my first year of college (Pro tip: Dont rely on wikipedia alone...what? I was young and stupid then...)

 

[Amphoteric]

I am literally shocked, SHOCKED!

 

[dibblywibbles]

I want her job. that would be the best to spew false claims and not have to back them up. my claim would be watching fox news makes you stupid and lazy and not able to actually back up any claims you make. but there's countless studies proving it.

 

[Kuroneko97]

Clearly she is not one of us fine and WELL-INFORMED gamers. *Makes a smug face*

 

[maddawg IAJI]

It's amazing what people will say just to sell their books. I'm glad to see her get called out for her Lack of statistics

 

[Canid117]

So I assume that Universite de Louvain is the Devry of Belgium?

Defamation in form of libel. She is communicating a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give a business and product a negative image. Libel suits happen all of the time. If she is so clearly making implications this serious, that are unfounded my any major studies, but have been claimed to be factual, she is guilty of slander. EA should get their free advertisings worth, then sue the *****. Case closed

Stupider things have gone to court and won

Would not fly in a German court, pretty sure of that. If for no other reason, than because video games in general would not qualify as a "product" as such and as far as I know, she did not actually talked smack about Bulletstorm itself (at least not explicit enough).
But hey, if such things work in the US, EA should have at her.

It would fly in the US which is the jurisdiction where the statements were made but, I'm guessing thaat EA is just waiting for this to die like it always does. Legal action, while incredibly satisfying, would fuel the negative PR fire pretty badly and why do that when you can just watch the "Expert" who committed said libel be eviscerated in public like this? It is free and doesn't give you any negative PR.

 

[Sarpedon]

"Obviously I know what I'm talking about or I wouldn't be called upon to testify in front of Congress,"

I've heard politics can be very stressful... Maybe she was called upon to testify to they could all have a good laugh.


Also, I don't know about the rest of you, but I've never played a videogame that made me want to go out and rape someone...

 

[Ickorus]

When shown these figures, Lieberman said the ?statistics do not reflect all the rapes, since many go unreported and others relate to child abductions.? When asked for statistics showing an increase of rape in recent years, Lieberman said she did not have time to pull them up.

Im pretty sure she just called us all Paedophiles as well as rapists.

 

[MaVeN1337]

I laughed so hard at her comment:

?Obviously I know what I?m talking about or I wouldn?t be called upon to testify in front of Congress,? she said. ?I?ve been doing this research for over 20 years?. It?s all about violence, it all applies to rape. And it has been done on videogames less violent or less sexual than the current one that we?re talking about.?

Not knowing what the fuck you're talking about sounds like a great way to be called upon by congress LOL.

 

[Artina89]

I think it would be for the best if we ignore her. She will eventually go away. I haven't actually heard of her until this whole "Videogames causes rape" controversy happened. When I showed one of the articles to my dad he said "she is just an attention seeker wanting her 5 minutes of fame. It's best to ignore her and let her fade away" and I am inclined to agree with him. Then it came to light that she was just pushing her book that seems to be about sexually manipulating men, and became more convinced that it was a PR stunt.

Agreed,ignore her and she'll fade away.

P.s. i love your avatar

Thankyou it's always nice to see other Vincent D'Onofrio fans

 

[MaVeN1337]

When shown these figures, Lieberman said the ?statistics do not reflect all the rapes, since many go unreported and others relate to child abductions.? When asked for statistics showing an increase of rape in recent years, Lieberman said she did not have time to pull them up.

Im pretty sure she just called us all Paedophiles as well as rapists.

No that just means everyone who plays video-games is an "undercover" rapist. We strike at night when it cannot be remembered or recorded!

 

[MordinSolus]

Good thing is, everyone proves her theory wrong because she cites absolutely no sources. I wouldn't disagree that SOME video games invoke aggressive behavior (NOT violent), but that's why you wait till you're at least 14 before you hope onto Halo 2 or Resident Evil 4 (first mature games that came to mind). I was 12 when I first touched Halo 2 (1st mature game), and got aggressive-ish. But I had good friends; they told me I was doing things too aggressively, so I got in control of my emotions. If I wanted to hit something, I'd hit my punching bag (good for arm muscles).

But still, she'll either disappear, or get overpowered. Gamers are everywhere, and when games get attacked, we act (dang it! I hate rhyming).

 

[2733]

the truly sad thing about this is that these sorts of people will always have ammunition for this sort of argument, Why? because the stats will always show a connection. they constantly find very violent video games in the homes of people who commit violent crimes, which makes sense, what do you think rapists play, Mario Kart? as the media grows and becomes more accepted, having really good games that feature sex and violence will be as normal as having a good movie of similar ilk. Until then we must keep our heads high and never stoup to the level of our foes, we must fight this sort of nonsense with logic, sense, and a cool head. I know we love games and it feels like attacks on games are an attack on us, but calling her an idiot and posting bad reviews for her mostly unrelated book are not helping.

Keep a cool head folks, I have a feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better.

 

[Wheatley]

I'm suprised no one has compared this to the Mass Effect Sexbox "scandal".

 

[Thaluikhain]

See, one of the major problems with fanboys is that we tend to go on massive assaults against people who attack the things we like. The problem is, we're just as obnoxious, misguided, and uninformed as a community as the other side, and we also tend to be dismissive of the other side even when it has a reasonable point, then complain when the other side does the same thing, and whine about why there isn't any rational discourse on the subject.

That is very true, everyone with a vested interest in something is going to pick and choose the facts to use and the things to get outraged about.

Stripped to it's most basic level, the idea that culture has alot of influence in the amount of violence in society, and that, as games are a part of our culture, they probably have some effect is a quite reasonable one. But you try having a reasoned debate on it.

This is not to say that "she's right, gamers are rapists" but simply that she might be right about a rising incidence of rape in general, even if it's not linked to gaming, since there are people with a vested interest in the incidence of rape in the US being reported as either high or low. A lot of politicians have a vested interest in it being low numbers so they can say their time in office is making everyone safer. Other politicians whose power base relies on people feeling threatened, want it to be high, so people will flock to them for protection. Things like rape crisis centers have a big stake in this because the amount of rapes can directly influance their funding from both public and private sources. No rape victims and those nurses, doctors, and workers are out of a job, ditto for the companies that sell them supplies who as a result of lower funding make less money. It's kind of sick that an issue like rape comes down to this, but well... that's how our society is.

Well, that and the fact that mosts rapes go unreported, in part because the conviction rate is something like 10% for those that are and the best defense and one that is quite popular with many of the general public is to blame the victim, amongst other reasons.

 

[BoredDragon]

I totally get what this lady is saying. I've been playing video games all my life and I just committed my 3rd rape of the week like 10 minutes ago. Damn you video game developers, you made me this way!!!!! (joke)

Seriously though, has anyone noticed that anytime that the subject of "video games = violence" flares up towards the matter being truthful, that it is almost always exclusively on Fox News? I'm so glad they are so FAIR AND BALANCED!!!!

 

[Wheatley]

If she ever went to Japan and played a game there I think she would have a massive brain hemorhage.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Man, she was a perfect fit for Fox News. She seems to think that she can make statements without actually having to back them up. I especially love the part where she says "I obviously know what I'm talking about because I'm testifying in front of Congress.", when the entire article proves she's pretty much making it up. I'd really like to see her try to get away with stuff in front of Congress actually. Something tells me they'd be less accepting then Fox News.