) That was sunday night. I don''t really care if they unhook it during the school week because I need to focus on studying but I thought ahead to next Saturday and decided to take action.
We went to Applebee''s last night, and over dinner, I tried desperately to persuade my parents to give back the Playstation. As a last attempt, I used the "Video Games are forms of art" arguement that has sprung up recently because of the Newsweek article. (check out the post in response to this article. It should be in the GDNet Lounge forum.) Not considering the consequences, I used FF7 as an example. /* WARNING WARNING SPOILER COMIN UP */
"Mom," I said, "Aeris was an innocent, cheeful flower girl living in the slums of Midgar, but at the climax of the 1st disc, Sephiroth, a bad brotha with a big sword, stabs her through with his Masamune. Of all the people I know that have gotten through this part in the game, none haven''t gone to tears. You see, Mom, the story conveys emotions and...." But I soon realized my fault. She interrupts me, yelling at the top of her lungs, "SOMEONE IS KILLED WITH A BIG SWORD IN ONE OF THOSE GAMES!?!?!?" All conversation in the restaurant stops as the faces of every person in the place turns to face us.
10 long seconds later, normal talking gradually begins again. I think Mom got the wrong idea cuz she practically couldn''t speak the rest of the night. She must''ve thought Sephiroth was some devil incarnate or something. As you can guess, she still refuses to give the PSX back. And all because of one silly representation of video games by X-FILES!!! Has anyone else been affected by last week''s show or are my parents just weird?
Download Complete. "YESSSSSS! The DirectX 7 SDK is finally MINE!! After 3 days of waiting, I have finally successfully downloaded this huge file. Now, I'll just fire up Winzip and... Illegal Fault. CURSES, MICROSOFT, CURSES!"
🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
X-Files Misconception
Author
Heheh. This must be my 4th post today. First, I want you guys to know that I do have a life beyond Gamedev.net. Anyway, anyone see X-files last week? Being a 15 year old boy who''s psychologically connected to the gaming industry, I have to say that out of all the freaky episodes of X-files, that had to be the freakiest. This episode happened to be the first episode I watched with my parents, and they''re jaws were hanging open at the end. For those who missed it, it''s about a virtual reality video game (can''t remember the name) where people go in, but can''t come out till they die. And when you die, you really DIE. In my opinion, although it was really cool, it gave a sorta bad name to the gaming industry.
Needless to say, before going to bed, I had to delete every game on the computer, not just the FPS''s, and unhook my PSX. (they forgot about the N64 and Dreamcast under my bed ) That was sunday night. I don''t really care if they unhook it during the school week because I need to focus on studying but I thought ahead to next Saturday and decided to take action.
We went to Applebee''s last night, and over dinner, I tried desperately to persuade my parents to give back the Playstation. As a last attempt, I used the "Video Games are forms of art" arguement that has sprung up recently because of the Newsweek article. (check out the post in response to this article. It should be in the GDNet Lounge forum.) Not considering the consequences, I used FF7 as an example. /* WARNING WARNING SPOILER COMIN UP */
"Mom," I said, "Aeris was an innocent, cheeful flower girl living in the slums of Midgar, but at the climax of the 1st disc, Sephiroth, a bad brotha with a big sword, stabs her through with his Masamune. Of all the people I know that have gotten through this part in the game, none haven''t gone to tears. You see, Mom, the story conveys emotions and...." But I soon realized my fault. She interrupts me, yelling at the top of her lungs, "SOMEONE IS KILLED WITH A BIG SWORD IN ONE OF THOSE GAMES!?!?!?" All conversation in the restaurant stops as the faces of every person in the place turns to face us.
10 long seconds later, normal talking gradually begins again. I think Mom got the wrong idea cuz she practically couldn''t speak the rest of the night. She must''ve thought Sephiroth was some devil incarnate or something. As you can guess, she still refuses to give the PSX back. And all because of one silly representation of video games by X-FILES!!! Has anyone else been affected by last week''s show or are my parents just weird?
Download Complete. "YESSSSSS! The DirectX 7 SDK is finally MINE!! After 3 days of waiting, I have finally successfully downloaded this huge file. Now, I'll just fire up Winzip and... Illegal Fault. CURSES, MICROSOFT, CURSES!"
) That was sunday night. I don''t really care if they unhook it during the school week because I need to focus on studying but I thought ahead to next Saturday and decided to take action.
We went to Applebee''s last night, and over dinner, I tried desperately to persuade my parents to give back the Playstation. As a last attempt, I used the "Video Games are forms of art" arguement that has sprung up recently because of the Newsweek article. (check out the post in response to this article. It should be in the GDNet Lounge forum.) Not considering the consequences, I used FF7 as an example. /* WARNING WARNING SPOILER COMIN UP */
"Mom," I said, "Aeris was an innocent, cheeful flower girl living in the slums of Midgar, but at the climax of the 1st disc, Sephiroth, a bad brotha with a big sword, stabs her through with his Masamune. Of all the people I know that have gotten through this part in the game, none haven''t gone to tears. You see, Mom, the story conveys emotions and...." But I soon realized my fault. She interrupts me, yelling at the top of her lungs, "SOMEONE IS KILLED WITH A BIG SWORD IN ONE OF THOSE GAMES!?!?!?" All conversation in the restaurant stops as the faces of every person in the place turns to face us.
10 long seconds later, normal talking gradually begins again. I think Mom got the wrong idea cuz she practically couldn''t speak the rest of the night. She must''ve thought Sephiroth was some devil incarnate or something. As you can guess, she still refuses to give the PSX back. And all because of one silly representation of video games by X-FILES!!! Has anyone else been affected by last week''s show or are my parents just weird?
Download Complete. "YESSSSSS! The DirectX 7 SDK is finally MINE!! After 3 days of waiting, I have finally successfully downloaded this huge file. Now, I'll just fire up Winzip and... Illegal Fault. CURSES, MICROSOFT, CURSES!"
Maybe you should shoot your goddamn parents. That''ll teach them to take away your violent video games.
Well, first off, the anonymous poster above me can just go to hell. We don''t need your shit here.
Second, this topic really does strike something in me. Its more about music for me, but i get it with the computer games too.
About this time last year, in April, a very unfortunate thing happened in a small colorado school, which literally shocked the nation. This is where it began for me. You see, everyone in the nation wanted so desperately to blame this event on something. So of course, they rounded up the usual suspects; Music, Video Games, Clothing... basically anything that they happened to like that wasn''t ''Mainstream'' or ''normal''.
The thing about this is, I happened to have led a life very similar to those two kids. In fact, I even liked some of the same music they did (KMFDM mostly, for those interested). And now these things get blamed (not the parents, not society, not the kids who were so closed minded that they mocked the killers for being different, they blamed music, video games, and clothes). Why do they get blamed? I don''t know, perhaps its just some strange psychological thing that makes humans inherently fear what they do not understand, or know much about (all fear is rooted in ignorance), but I found myself suddenly being called a nazi and a hater just because of the similar musical tastes I had with the killers. This really sparked a nerve in me, however, I have always been a benevolent person.
Therefore I took the mocking, not doing anything about it. From then on, I have become a very pessimistic person, not actually believing that so many people could be so ignorant. Ever since then (I know, this seems kind of silly, and perhaps even a little ignorant itself), I have intentionally stayed away from ''mainstream'' culture, fearing that I may lose my individuality.
It makes me a loner, an outsider, but when I look at the pettiness of society, it makes me wonder, "Do I really want to be part of this?"
Its a sad world we live in, and its sad that your parents believe everything they hear on the television.
I''ve played video games all my life, and I can assure you, I am not a lunatic. I have never earnestly thought about killing someone before, ever (who hasnt had the idle thought at one time or another though?) and I do honestly believe that killing is wrong.
To be honest, playing Doom when I was in high school may have been a factor that kept me from ever erupting in rage, because I let it all out playing a simple game.
However, they are your parents, and you need to follow their rules.
Don''t despair, for life will always go on.
===============================================
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped. I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said, You can never -- "
"You lie," he cried, And ran on.
Second, this topic really does strike something in me. Its more about music for me, but i get it with the computer games too.
About this time last year, in April, a very unfortunate thing happened in a small colorado school, which literally shocked the nation. This is where it began for me. You see, everyone in the nation wanted so desperately to blame this event on something. So of course, they rounded up the usual suspects; Music, Video Games, Clothing... basically anything that they happened to like that wasn''t ''Mainstream'' or ''normal''.
The thing about this is, I happened to have led a life very similar to those two kids. In fact, I even liked some of the same music they did (KMFDM mostly, for those interested). And now these things get blamed (not the parents, not society, not the kids who were so closed minded that they mocked the killers for being different, they blamed music, video games, and clothes). Why do they get blamed? I don''t know, perhaps its just some strange psychological thing that makes humans inherently fear what they do not understand, or know much about (all fear is rooted in ignorance), but I found myself suddenly being called a nazi and a hater just because of the similar musical tastes I had with the killers. This really sparked a nerve in me, however, I have always been a benevolent person.
Therefore I took the mocking, not doing anything about it. From then on, I have become a very pessimistic person, not actually believing that so many people could be so ignorant. Ever since then (I know, this seems kind of silly, and perhaps even a little ignorant itself), I have intentionally stayed away from ''mainstream'' culture, fearing that I may lose my individuality.
It makes me a loner, an outsider, but when I look at the pettiness of society, it makes me wonder, "Do I really want to be part of this?"
Its a sad world we live in, and its sad that your parents believe everything they hear on the television.
I''ve played video games all my life, and I can assure you, I am not a lunatic. I have never earnestly thought about killing someone before, ever (who hasnt had the idle thought at one time or another though?) and I do honestly believe that killing is wrong.
To be honest, playing Doom when I was in high school may have been a factor that kept me from ever erupting in rage, because I let it all out playing a simple game.
However, they are your parents, and you need to follow their rules.
Don''t despair, for life will always go on.
===============================================
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped. I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said, You can never -- "
"You lie," he cried, And ran on.
You are right on Mithrandir. If anything, video games get out the aggression that you could use to kill people. My parents are the same way about music, but only music. Not television, movies, or games. And about that x-files episode, I''ve seen a lot of x-files and that was a very bad one. They gave absolutely no explanation as to how it was actually killing these people. So what if that girl jumped computers(even if that could happend), how would she kill people in real life. The only good thing was the action parts within the game, but the x-files the week before was the best one ever.
*** Triality ***
*** Triality ***
Mithrandir, nice one.
It's about time people stopped blaming art (music, video games, movies) for these incidents, especially the way they target things like heavy metal and films which contain violence. It was disgusting to see Oliver Stone go to court over NBK - sure it was violent but I thought it worthwhile that people see how the media exploit murderers (and people's curiousity about them), to make money.
Anyway, getting back to the subject...instead of trying to look at aspects of society which might be to blame - like the way kids band together in school (like wolves hunting in a pack) and bully others who don't fit in (and I wonder what physical, verbal, and in some cases sexual abuse does to a person day after day, month after month, year after year...certainly not create any resentment?), they target....well it doesn't matter what....as long as they don't have to have a long hard look at what their children, their friends, or even they themselves contribute to the problem. They make other people feel estranged and then wonder why those people hate them so much - take a social creature and make them feel like they don't belong anywhere, and then maybe ask in the aftermath of a shooting or whatever in a tearful cry....WHY....why does this happen to "innocent" people???
What especially gets on my nerves is those stupid politicians in the US that always jump up and down about violent games and music, and the gullible folks that vote for them. The politicians give long speeches about how these "extreme" forms of art are destroying the country JUST TO GET VOTES, and then people vote for them because they supposedly have the same good ol' family values. Well I'm sorry but I say those people are suckers, and the politicians know they are and take advantage of the fact.
That reminds me of a news story than ran here in Australia where they gave a bunch of 8YO kids some classified 15+ games to play and then kicked up a fuss when they went outside and started hitting each other. They know their audiences believe this BS because the people that watch the show belong to what the PM calls "middle-Australia" (see: mainstream) - the sort of people who cover their eyes when shown anything thought-provoking, anything that might make them question things that happen in the world around them. So they tailor their stories to prey on people's emotions and induce the knee-jerk reactions that people have when they are threatened, or angered, in order to make them identify and thus increase the show's ratings.
BTW, It seems that rather than making sure the classification system is enforced by anyone (parents are one good example) they just take the approach that mature material will fall into under-age hands so we'd better just ban all "challenging" forms of art.
Well, that's my first rant....hope you liked it, and apologies to all those people who wanted to read about the X-files.
Paulcoz.
Edited by - paulcoz on 3/10/00 2:34:47 AM
It's about time people stopped blaming art (music, video games, movies) for these incidents, especially the way they target things like heavy metal and films which contain violence. It was disgusting to see Oliver Stone go to court over NBK - sure it was violent but I thought it worthwhile that people see how the media exploit murderers (and people's curiousity about them), to make money.
Anyway, getting back to the subject...instead of trying to look at aspects of society which might be to blame - like the way kids band together in school (like wolves hunting in a pack) and bully others who don't fit in (and I wonder what physical, verbal, and in some cases sexual abuse does to a person day after day, month after month, year after year...certainly not create any resentment?), they target....well it doesn't matter what....as long as they don't have to have a long hard look at what their children, their friends, or even they themselves contribute to the problem. They make other people feel estranged and then wonder why those people hate them so much - take a social creature and make them feel like they don't belong anywhere, and then maybe ask in the aftermath of a shooting or whatever in a tearful cry....WHY....why does this happen to "innocent" people???
What especially gets on my nerves is those stupid politicians in the US that always jump up and down about violent games and music, and the gullible folks that vote for them. The politicians give long speeches about how these "extreme" forms of art are destroying the country JUST TO GET VOTES, and then people vote for them because they supposedly have the same good ol' family values. Well I'm sorry but I say those people are suckers, and the politicians know they are and take advantage of the fact.
That reminds me of a news story than ran here in Australia where they gave a bunch of 8YO kids some classified 15+ games to play and then kicked up a fuss when they went outside and started hitting each other. They know their audiences believe this BS because the people that watch the show belong to what the PM calls "middle-Australia" (see: mainstream) - the sort of people who cover their eyes when shown anything thought-provoking, anything that might make them question things that happen in the world around them. So they tailor their stories to prey on people's emotions and induce the knee-jerk reactions that people have when they are threatened, or angered, in order to make them identify and thus increase the show's ratings.
BTW, It seems that rather than making sure the classification system is enforced by anyone (parents are one good example) they just take the approach that mature material will fall into under-age hands so we'd better just ban all "challenging" forms of art.
Well, that's my first rant....hope you liked it, and apologies to all those people who wanted to read about the X-files.
Paulcoz.
Edited by - paulcoz on 3/10/00 2:34:47 AM
I didn't even watch the episode, I knew it was just going to be rediculous.
Anyway, an old Axiom comes to mind with this situation:
Art Imitates Life
pretty profound, isn't it? Actually, there's something I forgot to put in my previous post about KMFDM.
When the media was b;aming the bands they listened to, they quoted some lyrics, from a song called 'Son Of A Gun'.
They tried to imply that even the title was evil, because it had the word 'gun' in it. Anyway, the song's point is that glorified violence and destruction is damn stupid, but somehow the media twisted it around to make the song look like a nazi-anthem.
I have since stopped trusting *ANY* corporation based news service. Have we actually reverted back to the 'Yellow Journalism' of 100 years ago? It seems so, and it sickens me.
===============================================
"Tell brave deeds of war."
Then they recounted tales, -- "There were stern stands And bitter runs for glory."
Ah, I think there were braver deeds.
Edited by - Mithrandir on 3/10/00 9:47:18 AM
Anyway, an old Axiom comes to mind with this situation:
Art Imitates Life
pretty profound, isn't it? Actually, there's something I forgot to put in my previous post about KMFDM.
When the media was b;aming the bands they listened to, they quoted some lyrics, from a song called 'Son Of A Gun'.
They tried to imply that even the title was evil, because it had the word 'gun' in it. Anyway, the song's point is that glorified violence and destruction is damn stupid, but somehow the media twisted it around to make the song look like a nazi-anthem.
I have since stopped trusting *ANY* corporation based news service. Have we actually reverted back to the 'Yellow Journalism' of 100 years ago? It seems so, and it sickens me.
===============================================
"Tell brave deeds of war."
Then they recounted tales, -- "There were stern stands And bitter runs for glory."
Ah, I think there were braver deeds.
Edited by - Mithrandir on 3/10/00 9:47:18 AM
I watched that episode. From an intelligent, computer knowledgeable point of view, it was the most bogus, peice of crap, public-fear inspiring, pile of honkey horse sh*t episode i've ever seen. None of it was remotely accurate, realistic, or thoughtful. It served the masses who don't know better and tried to inspire fear. Not fear of the unknown, but fear of the KNOWN; technology and games. Two minutes after it started, I knew it would cause some ill-informed parents to think that they should "protect" their kids from senslessly violent videogames.
The trend today is to overhype juvenile violence, and point fingers. Nobody's responsible. Its all because of those evil games, those evil movies, that loud music, and the teachers at school didn't do a good enough job keeping the kids in line.
These things aren't new. voilence has been a part of our society ever since its inception, and voilence isn't something that just recently began happening with kids. The difference is, responsibility has moved away from the parents, and the media has put the public magnifying glass on the issue.
Both my mother's brothers, and my father were far more violent in their youth than any of the kids in my, or my friends families. When done shooting the birds and squirrels with bb guns, they'd dress up with thick clothes and shoot each other. "No fair shooting in the face".
I wouldn't DREAM of shooting any creature with anything more painful than a rubber band. Yet I play the most violent videogames, watch the most violent movies, listen to loud music, ignore religion, and actively participate in violent, fantastical roleplaying games. The only people I have any desire to hurt are the propogators of pathetic propoganda (media) and producers such as chris carter (of X-Files fame). Even then, all I want to do is get them all in a room and shout at them till their ears fall off.
The X-Files episode would have been "cool" if it didn't incite fear and paranoia in the populace.
*oof*
The PERSON is smart, but people are dumb, stupid, panicky animals and you know it!
Edited by - Oofnish on 3/10/00 10:11:40 AM
The trend today is to overhype juvenile violence, and point fingers. Nobody's responsible. Its all because of those evil games, those evil movies, that loud music, and the teachers at school didn't do a good enough job keeping the kids in line.
These things aren't new. voilence has been a part of our society ever since its inception, and voilence isn't something that just recently began happening with kids. The difference is, responsibility has moved away from the parents, and the media has put the public magnifying glass on the issue.
Both my mother's brothers, and my father were far more violent in their youth than any of the kids in my, or my friends families. When done shooting the birds and squirrels with bb guns, they'd dress up with thick clothes and shoot each other. "No fair shooting in the face".
I wouldn't DREAM of shooting any creature with anything more painful than a rubber band. Yet I play the most violent videogames, watch the most violent movies, listen to loud music, ignore religion, and actively participate in violent, fantastical roleplaying games. The only people I have any desire to hurt are the propogators of pathetic propoganda (media) and producers such as chris carter (of X-Files fame). Even then, all I want to do is get them all in a room and shout at them till their ears fall off.
The X-Files episode would have been "cool" if it didn't incite fear and paranoia in the populace.
*oof*
The PERSON is smart, but people are dumb, stupid, panicky animals and you know it!
Edited by - Oofnish on 3/10/00 10:11:40 AM
The funniest thing is, its a fact that shool shootings and youth related violent crimes have been on the decline for the past 6 years.
its just another ''hot topic'' for the world to latch on to.
pah.
===============================================
"Tell brave deeds of war."
Then they recounted tales, -- "There were stern stands And bitter runs for glory."
Ah, I think there were braver deeds.
its just another ''hot topic'' for the world to latch on to.
pah.
===============================================
"Tell brave deeds of war."
Then they recounted tales, -- "There were stern stands And bitter runs for glory."
Ah, I think there were braver deeds.
That people could take that episode literally...I tend to be pessimistic about the average intelligence in the populace, but this is a new low. If anything, I''ve seen somewhat of an inverse proportionality to violence and game playing. The most violent people I know are generally the ones that just hang out on the street (or cruise) all day, talking about who pisses them off, getting drunk and breaking shit, not exactly the type that sits on their ass and pushes buttons on a keyboard/controller. It doesn''t surprise me much that video games are taking a disproportionate amount of heat for this though. In an interview with George Lucas, he said something along the lines of "The music industry, the television industry, the movie industry, they''ve all got the big money behind them, so just watch, video games are the next target of blame." (not anywhere near an exact quote, just a rough paraphrasing). The same kinds of things that happened with the "Son of a Gun" song happen with video games in the press. On some local newscast about violent games, they showed a modified Half-Life map that a room with a red floor. The narrator, of course, had to make a comment on that fact that "The floor was literally covered with blood." Video games are a great target, too, because far less people play games than listen to music or see movies. Looks like the media''s finally found a scapegoat that doesn''t alienate the mainstream. Great.
Oh well, no matter how stupid things get, I can always hope that something went wrong at Microsoft today.
Oh well, no matter how stupid things get, I can always hope that something went wrong at Microsoft today.
As a student doing the ''hard'' siences and maths subjects for year 11 in australia, I find the x-files a load of crap
I''m very pessimistic about how much people know. I am have been a ''loner'' most of my life. However I DONT what to be consided mainstream. As with mainstream RealLife, most people ARE stupid or ignorant. The ignorant people are by FAR the worst.
PS - The Nazis copied the US''s method of ''dealing'' with the retards and beggers in the 1940''s. And the Nazis copied ''Fasism'' from Italy. (I''m doing History as a subject)
I''m very pessimistic about how much people know. I am have been a ''loner'' most of my life. However I DONT what to be consided mainstream. As with mainstream RealLife, most people ARE stupid or ignorant. The ignorant people are by FAR the worst.
PS - The Nazis copied the US''s method of ''dealing'' with the retards and beggers in the 1940''s. And the Nazis copied ''Fasism'' from Italy. (I''m doing History as a subject)
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
