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Amazon intervenes as Mass Effect critic suffers review backlash
By Stevie Smith Jan 24, 2008, 8:24 GMT
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Older Talkback
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This article makes a glaring fallacy. This whole thing was immature as soon as that women opened her mouth. Her demeanor was tactless and the fact that she laughs (yes laughs) when Geoff asks,'Have you played the game?', a valid question, and replies with a smug no. She was supposed to be having a debate and offered nothing constructive.
Studies show children don't know what's real and not real, the game is pornographic?
What goes around comes around, next time she should do some research and not judge based on her own prejudices (which isn't gonna happen and thus she's dug her own grave)
PROTIP: Children would know what's real and what's not if PARENTS TOLD THEM. And ME is for 17+ year olds. Would you let a 10 year old watch a Rated R film? Or a show like Sex in The City? Then why let them play Mass Effect?
She was making baseless inflammatory statements. I bet FOX scripted her to say sh*t like that. The news channels should be held responsible for comments made on their stations. This kind of unmoderated, uninformed nonsense is the same as the MSG scare, the Satanic School scare and other ratings grabbing nonsense.
Anyone who believes this nonsense should be educated, since they clearly are not.
Wow, how stupid can people get...
You had this coming, how do you give your opinion based off 'rumors' you heard. Well, lets see how u like it; Your book is terrible because you can;t write books and its not for younger readers because they won't understand.
SHEESH!
The sad irony is that of all the games they could be singling out as bad influences on children, Mass Effect is truly among those that clearly SHOULD NOT be in the discourse. The game is a (if not THE) shining example of everything that gaming can and should accomplish -- you play a character with real moral choices that pop up about every 3 minutes in the game, and how you deal with people develops a reputation that can and does follow you and influences larger events.
This game is the sort of mature storytelling breakthrough that the gaming industry, Bioware, and Microsoft can be extremely proud of. Mass Effect really lights the way for future models of storytelling in videogames and has singlehandedly advanced the genre, artistically, by at least half a decade.
It strikes me as patently baseless and unfair that a game which really values and honors morality and philosophical thinking the be bearing the brunt of a Fox News swift-boating, and I hope that the publisher's, the public's, the developers' and MS's response continues to be heard.
The woman does not even have a PHD
Also with respect to Cooper's so-called expert report, she fails to realize that if children wanted a sexual experience while their parents weren't home, they wouldn't play through a 30+ hour game to get a three minute sex scene. They might use something a little bit more immediate. Like, I don't know, the Internet.
Make that 30+ hours to see a sex scene that is roughly 30 seconds. I've seen racier content during CBS primetime.
30 seconds? How about 2 seconds of the profile of a female torso. That is it! We don't see them having sex, for all we know they could just be making out.
Mass Effect did not deserve to roasted the way it did on Fox. That was unfair and just uncalled for.
When I first saw the video I was pacing with annoyance. Seeing that other gamers were also upset by it and the ensuing fallout has been wonderful.
The bigger problem this stems from is with news networks use of paid consultants, on call 'experts' to come in and take a side of an argument they often have no real experience or expertise in. But that doesn't stop them from weighing in with broad exaggerated statements as a supposed expert on the subject. This takes the news agency (in this case Fox) off the hook because it wasn't them making the statement, it was just the paid hack. (watch the film outfoxed for great examples of this.)
This is no secret and isn't going to be stopped anytime soon. The media companies have already shown themselves to care less about the ethics and honorable journalism of this tactic. Don't expect FOX to apologize to EA. They haven't apologized in the past for much more blatant discretions.
The real way this can be fought is to go after the media whores that are so willing to wave a phd around while talking out their butt. If the credibility of someone like Cooper Lawrence can be shown in full light to be nothing more than a paid shill causing her books and radio show to tank, other 'experts' will be far less willing to spout out subjects they know nothing about.
I hope her live call in radio show is also flooded with gamers who wont stand for this. All gamers should be relentless towards her until she issues a full apology on her website.
EA should sue if there is no apology.
Seriously, how can you judge a game based apon things other people like you have said, based upon rumors they have heard. i'm a 26 year old man who occasionally plays games, and i have finished mass effect. I did not come across the famous 'sex' scene at all. (tho im not saying it isn't in there)
Not only that, but why is this such a big deal. American movies show pure violence all the way through, even the harry potter series, or lord of the rings, which is immensely popular contains violence, yet nobody seems to be bothered by that. Yet something people do every day (the sexual act) all over the world. which is completely natural, and executed by normal people everyday is the thing that makes you American hypocrites (seeing that America is still the country with the largest porn industry in the world) go nuts about. (its not even the violence in the game your worried about, how twisted are you Americans)
Ah yes, it is of course much easier to just blame a game instead of monitoring what games your kids play, its easier to blame someone else for your bad parenting, coz the problem is never with yourself.
If you would invest half the time you spent writing silly books based upon bogus research (that is not even based upon personal expierence), and use it 2 research the games your kids want to play before purchasing them for them (or let them purchase), your fragile little kids wont be exposed to the 'filth' you and your husband (hopefully) do a couple of times a week, just portrait in a video game.
You wont go crying to a movie studio that brings out a mature content film (with nudity) if your kids watch it behind your back would you, its not their fault they watched it. its yours. same goes for video games.
You say that the gaming community acted immaturely? You have yourselves just fallen into the 'No proper research' category by doing that.
If you read a large proportion of the reviews they say something along the lines of 'well, Cooper didn't play Mass Effect and condemned it, so likewise I won't read her book and condemn it.'
Ms. Lawrence brought this on herself by being stupid enough to be a mouthpiece/talking heads on a subject she knew nothing about. To have actually not played the game and then go and publicly rip it apart makes her out to be nothing less than a hack, a bad one at that.
Amazon should leave this alone, unless Fox does a public aplology first.
This isn't just a problem with one guest but with Fox News as a whole. The fact that they are still allowed to call themselves a 'news' channel is a disgrace to journalists everywhere. Furthemore, the continuing assault on video games always boils down to protecting children. What child can afford a $60 video game? I know my 5 year old doesn't have that type of disposable (or any) income burning a hole in his pocket. Only two true statements came from that entire story: It's the parent's responsibility to monitor their kids (yeah, I know plopping them down in front of a video game keeps them out of your hair, but that doesn't excuse you from being a parent), and the government doesn't need (or have the right) to censor video games (or movies, television, music, books, etc...). The Xbox 360 does have a way to block games based on rating, though they are in no way obligated to be your child's babysitter. Technology will never replace proper parenting. If you want better protection against graphic content then be a better parent.
Fact is video games are no longer just a childhood activity. Those kids that played 'pacman on pinball' grew up to become adults and their games evolved to include adult related content and themes. Just as not all television shows are for kids neither are all video games.
@Kevin
I would be careful about generalizing if I were you. I'm an American and I whole heartedly agree with your statements, but pushing me in with the hypocrisy shown by the Fox News cast would do well to damage whatever valid points your comments make.
While it is true that American movies do have an ample amount of violence and nudity, most of us here in the U.S.A. are well aware of what we are getting into and have made preparations to ensure that we have control over what we feel is appropriate for our children to watch and absorb. There are a select few who try to push their agenda on the rest of us and there are also those who don't wish to pay attention, and I can promise you that we're none too happy about it. Hence, the outrage portrayed by many American gamers over this controversy.
There are those of us that are responsible enough to make the decisions about whether or not our children are ready to understand what sex is and have the education to deal with it. For the most part, that is a vast majority of Americans. However, these sort of so called 'news networks' feel that they need to stir the pot to get their agendas noticed. It's sickening, but true.
As much as I can appreciate your anger and frustration regarding this issue, I don't think that the statements you made regarding Americans in general are fair to those of us who actually take the time to parent. Please be careful in the future for your comments. Thanks.
It gets under my skin, especially how smug she tries to look when asked if she had even played ME. What a joke, does she think she's a person because she can base inaccurate theories off of something she doesn't even understand?
I know she has apologized, but a woman who makes such bold groundless statements on a public scale is a fool that can't be taken seriously.
I can only say fair is fair. She tried to judge a game she's never played. People should be allowed to judge her book regardless of whether they've read it or not.
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