Schwarzenegger: Video Games Are More Violent Than My New Movie

[MeChaNiZ3D]

To be fair, his new movie looks pretty weak on that front. They're torturing someone by hitting them with a baseball bat. That's got to be the least imaginative, least messy torture scene I've seen in quite a while.

However, a lot of videogames are less violent than that. A lot of FPSs seem about as violent - you shoot people, it isn't that messy or intimate, they die and the bodies sit there, it's all very dusty and not that bloody, and these are the favourite scape goats of the anti-game lobby. At least in GTA you commit actual crimes. Now if Schwarzenegger was the head of a drug cartel getting revenge on a SWAT team that busted one of his important rings, that would be cool.

And he thinks violent movies are only not the cause of violence in the world because video games are worse? Fuck that.

 

[PuckFuppet]

But really, can you blame me when almost every other day there is some person or organization somewhere trying to hold video games in a negative light, something I hold very dear to me and had since childhood?

Short answer, yes.

Not to get into any sort of "your actions build the world around you" new age nonsense but if the first place a person goes, upon any perceived slight, is retaliation without investigation then what makes them any different from the people they're retaliating against. In this specific instance, and in many others but certainly true here, one of the primary counter-arguments for a lot of this "negative light" bullshit is "You didn't do the research." which is almost always the case. So you choose to react/bash or whatever without doing the research yourself? Without considering the context, the source etc.?

The Daily Telegraph, and many other news rags like it, sell themselves on the basis of meaningless reactionary headlines like this designed to get people to view and respond because they know that if they aggravate you or tell you that you're wrong, when you damn well know you're not, that'll get them publicity in the form of comments etc. etc.

To a point the Escapist is _quickly_ falling into this kind of lowest common denominator journalism, the recent article about that lad who killed his grandmother or the whole Nick Searcy debacle stand out.

EDIT: Hell gamepolitics seems like barely more than a blog as it is and immediately takes a biased stance on the matter. Game journalism? "lol"

 

[fluxy100]

Okay so can anyone point out to me where Arnold said anything about the violence in games was bad? All he said was that games are more violent then movies. I'd agree with him, games are pretty violent but that doesn't make them bad or good. So why is everyone jumping to defend video games or bash Arnold? Are we this quick to jump to the side of defend video games at any perceived slight even when there aren't any?

I think we might have jumped the gun a little bit, but really I find that it's this quote here: "The video games our children play are much, much more violent than anything in this movie". To me, it seems like he's trying to divert attention from how violent his movie might be, by making video games seem more violent in comparison in an attempt to justify the violence in movies. It's sort of like how people who defend guns also divert people to video games, saying it's not owning a gun that's the problem, it's video games telling kids to use the gun.

But yes, I'll take blame personally for myself jumping to the conclusion that he was saying the violence was bad. But really, can you blame me when almost every other day there is some person or organization somewhere trying to hold video games in a negative light, something I hold very dear to me and had since childhood?

My intereptation of the statement was that it's stupid to criticize movies for violence when depictions of violence is common place nowadays. Reading the interview it seems he's defending that it's alright for movies to have brutal violence. He very well could be attempting to divert blame but with nothing other than a single statement it's a bit of a jump.

As for the whole blame thing. It's none of the posters' fault, the title of the article and the tone of it is intentionally made to get people riled up even when nothing bad was said.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Given that neither of the sourced articles sourced the goddamn interview in question, which is actually a travesty and speaks volumes about the calibre of writing involved here, I'm currently trawling through the massive array of interviews he did for this film, if I find the interview quoted I'll post the video/link and people can make up their own minds with some context instead of being spoonfed an opinion.

 

[josemlopes]

Are we this quick to jump to the side of defend video games at any perceived slight even when there aren't any?

Apparently yes. Maybe it was the tone of the article or just a set of assumptions made by the first poster and followed on from there.

Thank you. He didnt said anything about games being worse or anything, just that there are games more violent then this movie, something I bet he is right. That is all

 

[martyrdrebel27]

For the people not seeing the problem here, he started off the statement with a seemingly profound understanding that violent media isn't an ACTUAL problem, but then immediately sated all those who were unconvinced, covering his ass, implying that "well, its irrelevant anyways, cause our kids are playing worse."

he didn't need to mention games at all. This is the worst kind of attack, one that subconsciously assaults under the guise of agreement. Its political bullshit, the equivalent of having your cake and eating it too.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Attack? I don't see it as such and I doubt it was intended as such. The tone of this article and the sourced blog lean into it but neither give a source for the interview itself, what actual question lead to the statement or any preceding or following statements.

Even if it was intended as an attack it hardly rates as "news" beyond being a plug for Arnie's new flick, surely the better article would have been "Bias Against Video Games in US Politics" with this as a possible, but extremely intangible, example.

Went through about 20+ video interviews, including one in Spanish which was actually really funny, and searched for "video games" in a bunch of articles with no luck. I would actually like to see the real source for this.

 

[Neverhoodian]

The video games our children play are much, much more violent than anything in this movie

He has a point, you know. Ever keep track of the body count in a typical Kirby game? That little pink puffball's a killing machine.

In all seriousness, it astounds me how the general public STILL doesn't know (or worse, doesn't care) about video game age ratings. If a game is rated "M" or "PEGI 16/18," parents might want to think twice about letting little Johnny play it. People still seem to be stuck in the mindset that video games are "toys for kids" and don't bother educating themselves about the medium, which makes it all the easier for fear-mongering politicians, media moguls and celebrities to make absurd statements like these.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I was gonna say, when I was a child, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the most Violent thing on the planet.
How dare Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Slayer of the Predator, say jack shit about Violence in Media?
YOU are the FACE of a DECADE of violent media.

Apparently, Predator was an anti-gun movie.

That bit where they fire the minigun into the trees was to show the futility of guns.

(According to the director, but I'd like to think they were very drunk at the time)

 

[lacktheknack]

He's not wrong.

I mean, even the cute and cuddly Town of Salem regularly has 90% of its cast stabbed/shot to death in the space of twenty minutes.

Even most (non-disaster) action movies don't have a death rate quite that high.

 

[Metalrocks]

a typical "i want revenge" movies that is either amusing or just bad.

but seriously, games being violent is true but movies even back then are even more violent then now. robocop anyone?

 

[FalloutJack]

Oh, Arnold... When you hit the "Fuck it, we blew up the world and the survivors live in radioactive hell, competing for the last scraps of life left here" that is Fallout, it was already beyond your movies. (Bloody Mess perk, dude.)

 

[Sunrider]

I don't really see the implication here. He's not wrong, we have a fuckton of violent video games, and he's not specifically saying "violent video games are destroying our society and harming our children, but not movies!".
Give me a source where he condemns video games in the same way that US politicians usually do, and I'll happily admit my mistake.

I really think people are trying way too hard to feel offended, which seems to be par for the course on the Escapist.

 

[XMark]

Well, video games ARE more violent than movies, and that's been something I've noticed a lot more recently now that games look more realistic. By the time you've reached the end of an average action game you'll have killed somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand enemies, easily outnumbering the body count of even the most notoriously violent movies.

Of course, that's mostly due to limitations of the technology. It gets difficult to program interactions with enemies other than just gunning down wave after wave of dumb bad guys.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I am so sick of reading stuff like this. Why can't they just leave it ALONE already FFS?

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

they are better written too!

the guy clearly wants to slander the competition

 

[drakonz]

its good thing there isnt single movie where people body parts are slowly ripped apart and tortured to dead... except there is whole movie genre dedicated to that and games come nowhere near it.
lets face it people love violence thats why action games/movies are so popular regardess of how politics go that fact wont change.

 

[Madman123456]

Well, "Video games" can be more violent then any movie schwarzenegger ever made, some have more gore and others more kills. Others still are non-combat games and schwarzenegger never made a movie that is as "un-violent" as these.
There are videogames around that are more violent then Schwarzenegger movies. Not much new here...

 

[Dark Knifer]

That's bad somehow?

How does more violence equal to bad in the context of entertainment. If it's enjoyable then what does it matter.