The American media really hates video games huh

[cookyy2k]

Ok, so last week I had a business trip to San Francisco. This was my first time in America and so my first real exposure to American media.

One morning I picked up a USA today to read over breakfast since my hotel had them free for guests. The front page headline was about sexual assault in the military (female soldiers getting groped, males getting sodamised with various objects in hazing rituals and so forth). I read on until the section where 3 "experts" postulated on the reasons for this problem, two of them jumped right to the vidya games being the main reason these sexual assaults happened (no, really) while one made a very reasonable argument about women not been seen as equals due to being prevented from combat duty. Of course the rest of the article ignored the reasoned 3rd expert and carried on to blame CoD and battlefield in particular (as jim would say) because reasons.

And it didn't get any better, every other story in the paper and quite a few on the tv blamed the vidya games for various problems. In fact I very quickly noticed a running theme on American news of having to have someone or something to blame for everything.

I was quite taken aback in the UK we rarely see video games blamed for things, sure it happens but just not that much. If some police chief blames computer games for some crime it's rare that any news (other than the daily mail) reports it. Though I will say the video games companies (EA mostly) have a slight hand in this stiring up controversy in America with things like "the game your mother will hate" whereas in the UK we rarely if atall see game adverts on tv. I see very little blame the rock and roll/movies/video games here. Why do people think that is?

Do I just keep missing it here in the UK or is it largely seen as not the issue?

 

[cookyy2k]

The American Military being criticized is hard to do because of the 9/11 crap that is still around.

So any problem the Americans see must NOT be the military but an outside force.

Even if it is an internal force, and has been shown to be the culture in the military for years. Even instances where rapes are covered up by people in charge for reasons ranging from "the rapist is my friend" to "I don't want my leadership to look bad."

yeah, I did see that two of the guys being court marshaled for sexual assault were officers brought into bases to stop the sexual assault, yet apparently it's not a culture of abuse, just the odd deviant who plays games.

 

[Sir Christopher McFarlane]

Moral crusaders of all countries hate vidya games. The actual reason for the (unexistent) rise of crime, violence and melting of the Arctic is: video games, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, "we've moved away from god" and "the government is behind it all", usually coupled with aliens.

Basically it's a blame game. In the future, when video games become as widespread as film or close, it will move on to the next thing. Personally I like Alex Jones's theory of suicide pills and murder pills.

Spoiler

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

The American media hates everything other than children and puppies. If you can name it, they hate it.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Thinking about it, I do remember a QTE sequence in Battlefield 3, where I had to tap B repeatedly to sodomize my comrade with the butt of my rifle...

Only, wait! That didn't happen. -_-

 

[Zhukov]

Thinking about it, I do remember a QTE sequence in Battlefield 3, where I had to tap B repeatedly to sodomize my comrade with the butt of my rifle...

Wait... the butt of the rifle?

Would that even work? Surely you'd be better advised to use the barrel.

...

I'm just sayin', y'know, practical considerations.

 

[Thaluikhain]

yeah, I did see that two of the guys being court marshaled for sexual assault were officers brought into bases to stop the sexual assault, yet apparently it's not a culture of abuse, just the odd deviant who plays games.

Yeah, there's a few senior officers running anti-harassment programs being done for harassment.

Not unusual, though, the civilian police in the US has trouble with their harassment taskforces harassing female colleagues and victims, and "enjoying" some of the reports about the sex-crimes.

 

[Angie7F]

I just get the impression that americans hate everything.
On the other hand the British are cynical about everything...

 

[mitchell271]

In the future, when video games become as widespread as film or close, it will move on to the next thing. Personally I like Alex Jones's theory of suicide pills and murder pills.

Call of Duty, Madden and FIFA are the best selling forms of media in the world. It's considered strange if you at least don't know what Angry Birds is. This is about as widespread as it's going to get in first world countries.

OT: North Americans just like having something to blame that isn't themselves. And I say North Americans because Canadian news is just as bad. It's never someone being a bad parent, it's always violent, sex-laden games that you bought for your 7-year-old kid.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Another Brit here, and while I have yet to experience American media first-hand, I can say that we don't really say much about them here. The Sun has, on occasion, done something like that, and I'm fairly sure the Daily Mail says they cause cancer, but otherwise, not a lot.

 

[Terramax]

ON the contrary, I think the Media LOVE video games. It's an easy scapegoat that allows them the opportunity to blame some thing for the country's social ills, without having to explain any level of reasoning or use any common sense. Lord knows how much money the media has made through stories of how videos games forced some lunatic to shoot someone.

I say to the media "enjoy it whilst you can". More and more people are playing games, making it more more socially acceptable with every next generation. In 20 years time, it will be hard to blame video games for anything, when most people are playing them, and the majority of the population are knowledgeable and savvy enough to understand the idea of video games heavily influencing anyone, out of the completely deranged, to commit terrible acts is just moronic.

 

[Stoic raptor]

ON the contrary, I think the Media LOVE video games. It's an easy scapegoat that allows them the opportunity to blame some thing for the country's social ills, without having to explain any level of reasoning or use any common sense. Lord knows how much money the media has made through stories of how videos games forced some lunatic to shoot someone.

I remember watching a documentary about why Muslims are discriminated in the media, and many newscasters said that it was just easier to do. Say Arab or Muslim and you have a cause for some terrible action without having to explain the reasoning behind it. It seems that way for video games too.

 

[Daveman]

Trouble is they love their military a shitload in America and admitting any fault with it is sacrilege to them. These people are supposed to be treated as heroes without question just for signing up, basically so that mothers and fathers are proud that their kids died rather than pissed off, and saying that there may be some weird psychological issues with at least some of the people who have picked a career where they get trained how to kill people is not really a discussion anyone is comfortable having.

I'm not having a go at troops here. Some of them are bound to be a bit fucked up even though the vast majority are probably going to be lovely people who sincerely believe what they do is right. The automatic reverence for somebody because they are in the armed forces is silly though, especially in America where people regard government control with such suspicion and soldiers being, in essence, government-endorsed killers.

I say all this... but it's not even that different here in the UK.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

It's a simple case of distraction. People in America hate to place the blame on themselves over any one issue so they use scapegoats to make themselves comfortable. Let's use the Sandy Hook incident to illustrate this. The person in question was subjected to a harsh social order in high school, had a family that indirectly provided accesses to guns, and was not put under mental health care (which would not have been good enough given our lackluster system compared to other countries). All these reasons I provided would have involved massive overhauls to fix from total reform of high school culture to gun regulation to increased budget on health care. These apparently are too difficult for society to try to attempt so they go for video games as a fixture that will never change but can have stones thrown at it for a long time. It's sickening that people don't want to face challenges that cause problems and just retreat to their little hole.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Trouble is they love their military a shitload in America and admitting any fault with it is sacrilege to them. These people are supposed to be treated as heroes without question just for signing up, basically so that mothers and fathers are proud that their kids died rather than pissed off, and saying that there may be some weird psychological issues with at least some of the people who have picked a career where they get trained how to kill people is not really a discussion anyone is comfortable having.

I'm not having a go at troops here. Some of them are bound to be a bit fucked up even though the vast majority are probably going to be lovely people who sincerely believe what they do is right. The automatic reverence for somebody because they are in the armed forces is silly though, especially in America where people regard government control with such suspicion and soldiers being, in essence, government-endorsed killers.

I say all this... but it's not even that different here in the UK.

Military worship is going to backfire at some point. We are seeing increasing cynicism towards the actions of the military in what they do and ironically, games have been a recent form of showing the faults of it. Metal Gear Solid is the obvious contender showing a world where men merely fight for money and thrill and not any higher moral goals. Spec Ops the Line smashed the FPS protagonist by showing the mental damage that would actually happen as you fight on.

I wonder when we will start to think that maybe the era of militaries under the interests of nations will not be worth it and that we should start making militaries that would fight to combat moral infractions.

(perhaps i've seen too much Gundam if i'm starting to think like this)

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I just get the impression that americans hate everything.
On the other hand the British are cynical about everything...

I think it's more that Americans divert attention from big issues with scapegoats and that British make dark comedy around it
(please correct me if i'm wrong)

 

[Colt47]

The military in America has crossed the line on recruitment ethics a long time ago. Especially with some of the latest advertising they have now tieing into the new Superman movie, comparing the significance of a super hero outfit to that of a military one. Why don't they tell people about what they need to endure in boot camp?

This doesn't even get into the fact that a lot of people who joined up as a gut reaction to 9/11 ended up getting shipped to places they didn't intend to go to and got physically maimed, killed, and scarred fighting for things they themselves likely didn't believe in.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

The military in America has crossed the line on recruitment ethics a long time ago. Especially with some of the latest advertising they have now tieing into the new Superman movie, comparing the significance of a super hero outfit to that of a military one. Why don't they tell people about what they need to endure in boot camp?

This doesn't even get into the fact that a lot of people who joined up as a gut reaction to 9/11 ended up getting shipped to places they didn't intend to go to and got physically maimed, killed, and scarred fighting for things they themselves likely didn't believe in.

We keep playing up the hero worship and ignore the hardships that fighting takes on the mind and body for the sake of nationalism and pride. It will take something devastating to happen to all U.S. personal in order to reverse this trend and even then, nationalism will just keep making people want to fight.

Anyone think it's time for a change in the nation's ideology?

 

[Something Amyss]

yeah, I did see that two of the guys being court marshaled for sexual assault were officers brought into bases to stop the sexual assault, yet apparently it's not a culture of abuse, just the odd deviant who plays games.

And we have people in authority overturning the findings on sexual assault cases. Probably because no video games were involved.