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PTC Spanks Game Industry, Praises GameStop, Best Buy in Secret Shopper Report -

Game Politics]

Wow, seriously? How often are you folks at the PTC going to do this? Why "spank the industry" for what the retailers do? For that matter, why chastise the retailers when it's the parents that don't pay attention to what games are played by their children?

As the first commenter at Game Politics points out, Consoles have parental controls. It doesn't matter which games your kids buy if you use the functionality the game industry has already put into parents' hands.

Seriously, this is like what? Decade 3 of this claptrap? Parents, how many of your kids are at home, right now, watching the Saw movies? Or any slasher flick? How many of them are reading Stephen King, Clive Barker, Piers Anthony or any other author that is either graphically violent or pornographic in their narrative? Sure, I get it; Games are expensive for you buy and they're very popular and kids do sit in front of a display of some sort to play them... but isn't that also true of movies where they watch the screen or books where they sit and stare at printed pages?

New != Bad (!= means not equal, in case you didn't know).

Honestly, with the possible (And let me stress that word possible) exception of DVDs, no other form of media gives you parents as much control over what their children can and can't see or experience, as modern games do. It wouldn't matter if your kid got a hold of GTA IV, if you'd bother to turn on the console's content controls.

If you'd bother to parent your children, at all.

It's not our job to raise your kids, or protect them. That's your job. The games industry does A LOT to make sure that you can make informed choices and enforce your choices even when you're not there at the console with your children. Why do we also have to take the blame for you when you fail to avail yourself of all the help we've given you?

Do you think we feel good when you let your kids play GTA IV? I cringe inside at the thought, to be honest, but you know what? It's not my choice to make. I don't get to decide for anyone what games are good for them, or their children. I have to leave that choice up to the parents. Just like they need to leave the choice of what games we make up to us and we all have to leave the choice of what games are sold up to the retailers. That's what freedom is about, isn't it? Making choices for yourself and accepting the consequences?

I just wish parents would make a choice, instead of doing nothing and then blaming the industry when things go wrong for them.

- Snipehunter Read more»

Watchdog Group Deletes Misinformation About GTA IV From Parental Alert -

Here's something you don't see very often: a media watchdog group actually scaling back  the Grand Theft Auto IV fear factor in the interest of presenting more accurate information.

Huh. Maybe people are listening to gamers. Now, if only they'd believe us...

- Snipehunter Read more»

Parents Television Council Issues Video Alert on "Sick" GTA IV -

Watchdog group the Parents Television Council has issued a "entertainment alert" condemning Grand Theft Auto IV as well as the CBS TV series Swingtown.

*sigh*

At what point will honesty come into play in the video game violence debate? I'm tired of this witch hunt and of the PTC, in particular. They're the real menace and I shudder at the thought of the number of people in the world who - either willingly or inadvertently - allow themselves to be manipulated by people like this -- people who have an agenda and wish to pursue it with deliberate mischaracterizations and outright lies.

For the last time: there are no damned points in GTA, nor is there any active encouragement to run down pedestrians or sleep with prostitutes. Yes, people can choose to do both, but that's the key right there -- it's a choice. Why should the PTC, or anyone, be allowed to strip adults of their choices? Because children play GTA? If you accept that as true -- and honestly, I'm not willing to -- then the question becomes: How do children get to play GTA?

Could it be, perhaps, because their parents allow them to? And isn't that the parent's choice, informed or otherwise? Even if the store sells the game to a child, at the end of the day, that child is playing that game in someone's home, right? Someone who, I dunno, maybe ought to be watching and - god fordid - parenting those same children? When will we finally admit that the failing here isn't the system that allows these games to be made, or the people who make them, but the parents who allow children access to games clearly marked as inappropriate for them?

Of course, all of that supposes that kids can easily buy these games and I think that the characterization that children can easily buy GTA has no basis in fact, just like the outright lies the PTC pedals about the content within GTA. Don't buy the hype, and if you have it, take the time to tell both the PTC and your local government representatives how you feel about this issue. Just remember to be civil and polite. Just because the PTC feels the need to lie and mischaracterize does not mean we need to stoop to that level by being impolite, or insulting.

- Snipehunter Read more»

Columnist: GTA IV “Stimulates Dark Impulses” -

In the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, columnist Katherine Kersten has a lengthy whine about Grand Theft Auto IV:

So... I happen to be 32, at least for a few more weeks... I also happen to be fairly average, at least in terms of a game consumer...

So, is it a surprise to any of you that I don't think of the GTA game world in that way, at all? I certainly don't fantasize about murdering passersby or roughing up strippers in my free hours... even when I'm playing GTA IV. So, who is she talking about, again?

I don't think someone with such dark thoughts is average, at all. Nor do I think that GTAIV generates those dark thoughts -- I think mental disorder causes those dark thoughts. At best - and I use that word with a wince on my face - GTA IV is a catalyst, and to that I can only say, "If it's true the same must also be said of books, television and movies -- violence is pervasive and part of the culture. You can't fix the problem by pointing at one specific form of media."

We need to grow up, we need to look at this stuff seriously and stop painting with such broad strokes. Games are not the issue; if an issue exists at all, we need to recognize that it's much, much larger than that and we need to act accordingly.

For my own part, I don't really think there is a problem. I think it's a clever device used by people who would like us to remain scared and paranoid because it makes things easier for them. No tin-foil hat stuff here, just some pragmatic politics. Complacent people don't want things to change, but scared people will allow any change that seems to assuage their fears. A LOT has changed in America in the last 8 years, and it's hard to deny that fear is the primary reason.

I think the way to deal with the "problem" of violent media is to admit that we're a violent people. The statistics on violent crime are sort of interesting in that regard. Generally speaking, we grow less violent every year. Who's to say that isn't because we're expressing our violence in non-harmful ways, such as through entertainment media? I won't and can't say either way, but I'm sure someone could make that argument.

Unlike our ancestors, we live in an age where we can be violent and no one has to be hurt as a result, surely that's better for the species than the alternative, right? I mean, the fact that we still fight wars at all suggests we're not done being violent beings, but we're further along the path away from violence than we were 32 years ago, when I was born. Aren't we?

I haven't seen a race riot once, in my life. They still happen - but none have happened in my vicinity the entire time I've been alive... can the generations that weathered 1969 say the same? Maybe video games had a part in that remarkable difference.

Realistically, probably not, but can you honestly say they've made us worse people? The numbers don't back up the claim, so why do people still insist on making it?

I guess, as a species, we still have a long, long way to go.

- Snipehunter Read more»

I saw this on Jake Simpson's Blog this morning:
Do's and Don'ts for Cinematics - Thinking more about what Bruce Evriss touched on the other day regarding cinematics, I put together a list of do's and don'ts for their implementation...

I won't reprint the whole thing - instead, I encourage you to read Jake's point on the matter. While Jake's points are golden, they aren't specifically what I wanted to discuss. Instead, I wanted to ask a more fundamental question:

What's the point? Read more»