Why does the mainstream media hate gamers so much?

[ZippyDSMlee]

I would say the mainstream press loves games because its a great way to to bring in viewers by whining about the hidden evils of the world.

They did it with books,music,film,tv its just what they do, its called sensationalism and today's news can not live without it.

On a side note sensationalism or "teh shocking" has gotten so bad in all US media I can;'t stand the stupidity anymore.... and gaming has gotten shallow and top heavy I am running out of hobbies to love 0-o

 

[XUnsafeNormalX]

Parents who can't parent blame games for the downfall of their children. Tis a sad world we live in.

 

[dirte]

Most post ive seen are,IMO. are missing the fact that if you buy a media story or disagree ,that sold you on something you bit/bought what thay are selling in one way or the other. you watched their show, that made them money by putting it on the air. i have found most media does not report the full truth,it never sounds as good as the a "story". ive done my homework on this and fox networks is my 50/50 believable new source .i think they are the most informed and forthcoming with info on hand. CNN is fun to watch but i cant believe anything said with confidence.

 

[Terramax]

I think they're just resentful that we'd rather play videogames rather than buy and read their lies.

 

[sumanoskae]

Seems like learned bench-wagon prejudice to me but other then that peoples ignorance never ceases to amaze me they constantly take one look at a new thing and assume that it has no more depth and there is nothing more to it and then what they have seen then they ***** about it and kids get their games taken away from the by ignorant and close-minded parents who blame their Childs issues on game instead of taking responsibly for their own faults as parents It seems that the scapegoat changes every decade or so but in the end people are just fucking retarded beyond belief

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Most post ive seen are,IMO. are missing the fact that if you buy a media story or disagree ,that sold you on something you bit/bought what thay are selling in one way or the other. you watched their show, that made them money by putting it on the air. i have found most media does not report the full truth,it never sounds as good as the a "story". ive done my homework on this and fox networks is my 50/50 believable new source .i think they are the most informed and forthcoming with info on hand. CNN is fun to watch but i cant believe anything said with confidence.

Of coarse not, hard news was a bit mreo balanced 10ish years ago but today there is no hard news much anymore its all News rag style where sensationalism drives viewership. The masses are dumb and don't really care if their news is fictional or not. The media dose the whole mob rule thing well.

 

[Worgen]

its because games arnt really under stood and still have the stigma of being seen as a kids toy despite the fact they arnt, in this country we love to seperate things into kid things and adult things, it takes time for things to get past that, its happening to comics now, whens the last time you heard comics were for kids?

 

[Twilight_guy]

This all makes me wonder what would happen if the white house's Wii had a copy of Madworld in it. Would it destigmatize violent games because everyone respects the Prez or would they call him a bad parent?

 

[Insomniaku]

The majority of the people who dish out the media have parents that refused to buy then an NES, Atari, or SEGA.. so they feel bitter?

 

[Altorin]

Because Republican Housewives want to protect their children from the "real world" and keep them "save" for as long as possible, refusing to let their babies "grow up" because of their own insecurities.

I'm going to point out that Tipper Gore, Hilary Clinton, and Joe Lieberman have clucked and scratched about gaming.. All Democratic representatives. So to say it's a republican issue is a little silly.

 

[DasHunterman]

This is why I say all Politicians are Pants-On-Head Retarded (TM Ben Croshaw)

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Basically, because it's already been through radio (30s), germans (40s), teenagers (50s), LSD/Dope (60s), video (70s), glue/heavy metal (80s), ecstasy/films (90s).

But game hating is still going strong...

 

[Hugo Artenis Rune]

Most people who don't like games (and therefore "gamers") are quite literally cack-handed morons with hands made entirely out of thumbs. I have a cousin who hates even Sonic the Hedgehog 1 because he couldn't work out the controls (left, right, jump and duck. Christ, I can play that by sellotaping down the LEFT key and presssing JUMP with my nose).

Anyway, they're just jealous because we're awesome and they're not.

Ok, entirely rubbish answer, but I couldn't be bothered thinking about it because basically I don't give a toss what the mainstream media thinks. Possibly because the mainstream media has been provably wrong about everything, ever, and are a bunch of mindless bandwagoning thickies.

*edit* - oh yeah - also the media isn't really allowed to hate groups like people of different sex/colour/religion/etc any more and gamers are a pretty easy target really. We're too busy shooting pixels to do anything about it.

 

[Fangface74]

What if they conclusively prove games ARE the result of everything bad in society, how silly will WE feel!

 

[Stewie Plisken]

It'll blow over. What was a cult hobby for a select few blew up to be a pop-culture phenomenon (thank you, PS1, for that) and they haven't come to terms with it yet. That and in the age of fear, pretty much everything that the majority can't dedicate thirty minutes to learn about is an easy target. FBI thinks GTA made the guy kill two people... Jesus, the hilarity of this will never go away.

For conspiracy theorists, the videogame industry gets a much bigger piece of the budget pie than it used to. Work on that and hand in your reports by this afternoon.

 

[Treblaine]

The thing is it seems that the conservative talk show circuit is actually pretty in favour of video games that are more "patriotic":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb8fw-81qHg&feature=channel_page

To summarise, Rush Libaugh (sp) and all those conservative radio show hosts have been pissy with Hollywood for a while for their "liberal bias" especially towards war films and soldiers, they gloat in how films like Stop-Loss completely tank in sales while games like Call of Duty that celebrate American (and sometimes Russian/British) military achievements are selling like hot cakes.

But the video goes into a bit more detail about how the far right are wrong (the left of the spectrum is damned similarly for their equal but opposite pre-misconceptions).

As far as violent war games, as long as it is a guy with an American accent is blowing up non-American accented people... well that is "patriotism" to them and they don't have a problem with it. Just don't fuck any blue alien babes.

Now that I think about Fox News' political stance and that whole "Fox Sex game Scandal" I wonder how much of it was to ridicule Cooper Lawrence? A rather left of the spectrum writer, maybe Fox was killing two birds with one stone. Going after what they think is smut in gaming and publicly shaming Lawrence by getting her to be a talking head on something she knows nothing about. I mean the Amazon stars vandalising, you think that hurt Fox? No, they won, the bastards won that round.

It is what Fox call the "liberal" media (CNN and err, everyone really) who get the most pissy about the violence in videogames though are more likely to let the sexy stuff slide.

I mean the media blame endless shootings on video games when psychiatrists have said over and over again the cause of these shootings is the sensationalist reporting. It *does* demonise the perpetrator but putting their face up, publicising the death figures, that is just where some psychos want their face and this breeds copycat killers. The sudden increase in the frequency in spree killings coincided with the sensationalist reporting of them, psychiatrists know this as evidence left behind by the perpetrators show they are obsessed with previous spree killers and seek to emulate their crimes and infamy.

I know, the news didn't *make* them do it, but these unstable minds are drawn to these stories, and copycat killing is a very common and accepted phenomena with mass murderers.

It is all here, courtesy of the BBC's news show Newswipe, certainly one of the most cutting programs I have seen on TV in years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4&feature=related


In summary, careful when you ***** about the media misrepresenting your games, you may just sound like a Fox news reporter. I personally think everyone is wrong except those who like the same type of games I do.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

About them having finished reporting on all the other things. They have more important things to be reporting on instead of us at the moment. How about peak oil? That's quite a topic.

 

[Dangerious P. Cats]

There's a tactic in marketing where you make something, be it a product or just an ad for said product, offensive to a loud and stupid but small segment of the population (usually the ultra loony right, o.k let's face it, nearly always the ultra loony right because they are the best to provoke) and they go on a campaign to ban the product raising media attention and therefore advertising the product. This was done to great effect by a shoe company not that long ago who ran a series of particularly lurid ads that got a conservative Christian group up n arms who. When the conservatives went to the media they got about a weeks worth of coverage and the shoe company got several thousand dollars worth of advertising free from the media reports.

The video games industry uses the same tactic. Having a news report about how violent games are corrupting children often serves to promote them. Half the reason why games oft have so much gore is a means of getting exposure. If the media rials about it then people will know about, go out and buy the game.

The game industry is large and financially powerful. There are ads for games on prime time T.V some nights. Do you think that a T.V channel would threaten its revenue from those ads by airing storys that game companies weren't supportive of? Games are a good hate figure for the media because the people who will play along aren't going to buy games while there is a whole potential market of people who will be exposed to the game and may buy it due to media reports. Most parents are sensible enough to know which games are child friendly and which aren't, and media reports about the corruption of children via games isn't going to sway them. Most adults who will buy games for themselves will not care.

 

[Rock Beefchest]

Of course the U.S.A. is the most restrictive when it comes to expressing sexuality even though we're supposed to be the 'land of the free'.
we gave up our freedom for lawyers... sad system.

I was with you until this. What do lawyers have to do with anything? We are a tool that people use no different then a plumber or a doctor, or even a wrench, we do a job we are hired to do.

Every client I have taken on has an opinion that I am advocating for, and every time there is someone on the other side who thinks i am evil for taking thier enemies position. I am tired of people personalizing my profession.

Now I personally would never advocate for censorship or against gaming interests, but do not blaim the lawyers that do, since they don't necessarily support the opinions of their client, but are forced to advocate for them because that is what we do.

For every "Lawyer" of the like that you mention, there are hundreds more who are just regular people that got into this profession to help others. That is my primary goal every day. People come to me with serious problems and I solve them. You talk about trading freedoms, without the lawyers throughout history you wouldn't even have those freedoms to trade.

END of lawyer rant.

Back on point, I would love to see an organized gamer's lobby to counteract anti-gaming propaganda that runs through the media and then affects legislation. The problem is we, as gamers, are too spread out and unorganized to create a coalition. Our opposition is well organized and well funded and most importantly LOUD. Until we can match their numbers and volume we will never be able to counteract the ignorant mainstream media opinions.