Support NeoGAF

[oni-link]

If anything gives people a “mean and scary view of the world” it's the fucking news, not video games.

Yeah this is what I mean, you literally have people radicalised by news and propaganda via social media, people who are really commenting violent acts in the real world

The news is more violent than ever, we see and hear about more violence than ever, it's something we're all exposed to more, and maybe, on a societal level that does have an impact on how we react to violence

But even if that's true, and as far as I can tell, there is little evidence to say it is, video games are a minor part of that

Religious texts being liberally interpreted by idiots have caused a lot more harm this week than video games have caused in the last 3 decades

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Doesn't Australia ban some of the more extremely violent games already? What else does he want?

Sort of. Up until a few years ago there wasn't an R18+ rating on video games, so anything that went above MA15+ was automatically banned, but with the rating's introduction its been possible for games that previously would have failed classification to get through.

What he wants is to address a perceived problem by tackling it at the creator end, even though the law should place the responsibility at the feet of consumers in this case even if there was evidence for his argument. That is the entire point of a ratings board; if customers ignore that then its not the developer's fault.

 

[amdb00mer]

What games reward rape?

The only one I can think of is Custer's Revenge, which was 34 years ago.

This is just an ignorant man blabbering off the perceived danger of something he knows absolutely nothing about.

Agreed. He is probably a puppet and putting out a statement for somebody else's political agenda. When will these ignorant politicians learn? They said the same thing about rock and roll 60 years ago. They then said it again in the 80's and 90's when rap music came about. They have always said it about movies and even some books.

Anybody that commits an act of violence and tries to blame it on a song, movie, book, or video game is just looking for an out. These individuals would have still committed said crime and just found another excuse for why they did it.

 

[CrankyKong]

Did we go back 10 years when I was sleeping

Yes, the story is from Australia

 

[RealityCheque]

I heard that guy who drove the truck through Nice once looked at super mario.

Just sayin'.

 

[OfTheOverflow]

Yep, welcome to Australia :/

 

[Novocaine]

Doesn't Australia ban some of the more extremely violent games already? What else does he want?

General violence doesn't seem to be a problem. Though Hotline Miami 2 was refused classification because of the rape scene at the start of the game. Saint's Row 4 had parts removed that involved "performance enhancing drugs". All of the anal probe stuff in South Park was removed as well as the vacuum cleaner abortion minigame.

 

[SomTervo]

She said it was frustrating that questions over the potential harms of violent video games were often oversimplified.

“The research of the impact on media violence tends to get boiled down to ‘is it going to make you a mass murderer’,” she said. “It’s much more complex.”

The effects were more likely to be “subtle but widespread”, such as less constructive interactions and relationships, and a “diminution of civility” in general.

wat?

 

[JonnyDBrit]

I had so much respect for Andrew Scipione. Today that changed.


Well there is this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxSmrb_O8Ng

Other than that, I don't know any game which can be purchased legally, in Australia, where you can rape someone and/or be rewarded for it.

Actually, GTA V was pulled from a large retail chain here in Australia because it encouraged players to rape prostitutes, or so the cult Collective Shout claimed, so maybe Skippy is using them as a source for his garbage.

You know that actually could well be it. Was suspicious that GTA would be involved anyway since that's the poster boy for criminal games, especially with how V absolutely blew up, but the particular context with which it was received in Australia would especially make sense of it. It'd be something he might hear of and, if not concerned by such rumours himself, people might have come to him about and so he's speaking based off that secondhand info.

 

[Spurs]

If only life rewarded hard work and good behaviour

 

[TeddyShardik]

Oh boy, I'm so glad this isn't an American Police Chief talking as I suspected when seeing the title.
Would have been an ugly thread.

Now I can gladly say it's just the typical old people talk. When we're in this we'll be complaining about young people doing all kinds of fucked up shit in their VR chambers.

 

[Dennis]

I remember a time when german TV station ZDF (which is usually among the more reputable TV stations here) showed footage of the Hot Coffee Mod in GTA SA, claimed you had to "Rape women to get points" and played Nirvana's "Rape Me" in the background. Those were the times.

lol

 

[Vincent Grayson]

wat?

Seems to me like that's saying "It might not make you a murderer, but it is contributing negatively to your life and society."

I'd like to say that's patently false, but I can see the argument that normalizing violence hasn't done us any favors, or that violent games bring out the worst in people in terms of interpersonal relations (like say, the way people often talk to each other in online games, most of which are built on violence being the only interaction).

 

[VibratingDonkey]

“When you see video games that reward behaviour, where somebody’s murdered, where somebody is abducted and raped and they get credits for that – what sort of messages are we sending our children?”

Ugh. If you're gonna be concerned about and criticize video games like this, then at least take the time to learn what video games are. If you don't care to do that, then how much do you really care?
Games where you get points for abducting and raping people, don't really exist, certainly not anywhere children go. So I guess we're not sending any message at all there?

“In reality there’s no reset button that can bring the player back to life. The real world is not a video game. Game over is game over.”

You don't say? This police chief seems to purely be spouting fluff.

“There’s very, very clear evidence that accessing violent media is a risk factor for aggressive attitudes and behaviours..."

The last I recall, they'd only tested short term aggression. And I'm not sure how they separated the cause for this aggression as being the violence rather than the competitive aspect.

“There’s very, very clear evidence that accessing violent media is a risk factor for [...] becoming desensitised to violence,”

This I just straight don't believe. Would like to see the "very, very clear evidence" behind that statement. Unless we're sadistic psychopaths, watching virtual violence which we know is not real, is enormously different from being exposed to real violence.

Rather than enacting the virtual violence in real life, Handsley said people who played violent video games more often developed a “mean and scary view of the world”, and assumed the worst of others’ intentions.

She said it was frustrating that questions over the potential harms of violent video games were often oversimplified.

“The research of the impact on media violence tends to get boiled down to ‘is it going to make you a mass murderer’,” she said. “It’s much more complex.”

The effects were more likely to be “subtle but widespread”, such as less constructive interactions and relationships, and a “diminution of civility” in general.

“If you have inherent distrust of people, or read aggressive intent into words and actions that might otherwise be quite innocent ... that’s going to have an impact at a societal level,” Handsley said.

This seems more fair...or interesting. But if the main negative thing playing violent video games contributes to is people developing a “mean and scary view of the world, and assuming the worst of others’ intentions", then I'm not sure if not playing violent video games would help much with that. Plenty of other causes for cynicism in this world.