On his Sessler's Soapbox segment, G4's Adam Sessler discusses video game violence.
Apparently the issue surfaced around the G4 offices after Sessler ran some video from the upcoming Madworld which depicted a character being killed by having a burning tire placed over its head.
Such killings were at one time common during apartheid-related violence in South Africa.
Cecil475: @PHX Corp - The dude's a moron who wouldn't know crap if it came up and kicked him.05/19/2013 - 6:36am
|
PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/ea-sports-developer-calls-wii-u-crap-and-nintendo-wa-508481261 EA Sports Canada Moron calls Wii U 'Crap' and Nintendo 'Walking Dead'05/18/2013 - 11:42am
|
E. Zachary Knight: If the videos are of sufficient quality that people subscribe and watch regularly, then those let's players are providing a service that people want. That is the heart of capitalism. That is not something that should be shamed.05/17/2013 - 8:06am
|
E. Zachary Knight: I have no idea who either of those people are. However, I still don't see why making a business out of creating let's play videos is somehow evil or wrong.05/17/2013 - 8:04am
|
MaskedPixelante: It sure is if you're just doing it for the money. See Tobuscus and/or Pewdiepie for what happens when people get into it just for the money.05/17/2013 - 7:30am
|
E. Zachary Knight: Why is it wrong to make money doing LPs? Why should that be something that should be shamed?05/17/2013 - 6:20am
|
MaskedPixelante: https://twitter.com/PsychedelicSA/status/335183893214924801 Now here's an interesting, glass half full thought about the Nintendo LP thing. It outs the people who are just doing LPs to make money.05/17/2013 - 5:56am
|
E. Zachary Knight: I responded in writing to all this "let's play" stuff Nintendo Started. No need for my permission, I won't give it. It's not mine to give. http://divineknightgaming.com/?p=29205/16/2013 - 2:21pm
|
E. Zachary Knight: Lars Doucet of Levelup Labs has a Reddit going on game companies that allow monetization of Let's Play videos. http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1egayn/lets_build_a_list_of_game_studios_that_allow/05/16/2013 - 1:04pm
|
Sleaker: @Imautobot - yah I wouldn't use an emulator as a good first run test of how stable the console is, haha.05/16/2013 - 11:47am
|
E. Zachary Knight: The 50th person to jump off a bridge is just as dumb if not dumber than the 1st.05/16/2013 - 10:03am
|
MaskedPixelante: Yeah, let's all jump on Nintendo for doing this, even though they're hardly the first company to do this...05/16/2013 - 9:47am
|
E. Zachary Knight: Wow Nintendo, this is wrong. http://kotaku.com/nintendo-forcing-ads-on-some-youtube-lets-play-video-50709238305/16/2013 - 8:44am
|
Imautobot: @Sleaker, further gameplay has revealed that the controller button do stick under the faceplate. Also, The NES emulator (Emuya)keeps crashing on me, though I think a bad ROM is causing it.05/16/2013 - 7:10am
|
Papa Midnight: AE: I wonder if any other publishers will follow suit.05/15/2013 - 8:12pm
|
Andrew Eisen: EA is ditching Online Pass. http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial-online-pass-program/05/15/2013 - 7:20pm
|
Avalongod: @Zach and quicnkold...I've read the bill and the intent of it is to fear-monger. It's not a balanced message. I don't recall the ESRB being mentioned at all. It's more "keeps your kids away from these movies/games or they'll become violent"05/15/2013 - 4:35pm
|
E. Zachary Knight: quiknkold, The big problem with that legislation is the amount of misinformation out there. Who is going to ensure that the information in the pamphlet is accurate?05/15/2013 - 3:25pm
|
quiknkold: REBeardogg : I'm on the fence about this. on one side, I want parents to be aware of the ESRB, and even Movie Ratings. On the other hand, I feel this will be used for nothing but Propaganda. The ESRB does a good job.05/15/2013 - 3:07pm
|
IanC: Frostbite is coming out on iOS devices. Yet the Wii U cant handle it? *coughbullshitcough*05/15/2013 - 2:31pm
|
Comments
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
I know that Adam Sessler knows this, and we all know this... but the news media will never admit it and they unfortunately control public opinion.
I know from my mom that she recalls the reserch that happens on the news, and this is because people like her don't know any different.
I have explained my side of the violence in videogames debate allot and I think that my dad only takes a even sided approach and that is better than just going for one side of the debate.
But no matter what we do, we can never fight against public opinion and it is that public opinion that is way against us.
Lucky that not all people believe what happens on the news and those who are more informed we are lucky that they can listen without forming opinions.
We need more people in high profile society to support videogames because they know more than those who do the reserch against videogames.
Grand Theft Childhood and the Byron Review were positive steeps, but sadly even they can't fight public opinion.
Thankfully the Florida Bar that gave 'you know who' perminant disbarrment...
Society is not used to something that makes them feel uncomfortable and I think that the only change in public opinion can only come with time and the next generation of people to come into more influential power.
Things that were out of our own control has done nothing for us, but we are also not responsible for the things that minority people have done, so we have nothing to be ashamed of.
All we can do is to become better people from this experience of what we face in life.
And enjoy videogaming.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Whenever I need to convince people that the media loves a good panic more than accurate reporting I send them this link.
It's a good read either way.
www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp
----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
That was an extremely good point. I wish I could watch G4 on cable tv : |
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
You don't really get stuff like this on G4, though. Sure you get XPlay and Attack of the Show (the latter I could do without to be honest), but it is buried underneath a ton of crappy movies, reruns of COPS, Ninja Warrior, and other such shows. It is rarely about games when you turn on the tube anymore.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Fictional Violence is a mode of story telling, violence is part of humanity, "violence" is a "infuryateing" sound bite to tantelate the mindless sheep with to distrube wool and gain vewiership IE it sthe parents job to grow adults not children into older children, violence like anything else is part of the real world.
instead of focusing on it with new age drivel that says everything hurts children or minorities why not let parents parent by doing a better job at slotting ranteings?
Heres a simple answer to the outcry over "reality" the more corrupt and safe the upper classes become the more "dangerous" free society becomes becuse the supposed masters of said society can not maintain secrets and hierarchy.
=================================
Pirates,Shearers,Lenders and downloaders are not a market that can be taped by the mainstream.
---------------------------------
I is fuzzy brained mew =^^=
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
---
http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Lots of good points as always.
To the guy who said torture is ok because it's enemy combatants. Every time we say "It's ok in this situation because..." we're just taking one step further and giving ourselves that much more reason to say it's ok in the next situation. Torture is never ok. If we resort to tactics like torture to try and protect ourselves we're no better then the people attacking us, in fact we're worse because we claim to be moral ones while doing it.
As for violence in videogames. I've studied this a LOT, as much info as I can find, and I think Sess nailed it. People are uncomfortable with the way the world is, and as human beings we don't like complex answers. We like simple answers that are easy to fix or change so we can sleep better at night. We've seen this happen with comics, movies, radio, music and a host of other media, videogames are just the new kid on the playground. Will it ever change? I think very slowly over significant periods of time, like say when I'm 80 (21 right now). I say this because people will always be uncomfortable with what they don't understand, and my generation is really the first generation to be fully immersed in games.
No offense to anyone older, just if you're older then your mid to early 20's and a gamer you're still a minority in this country. Not to say older people don't make up a significant part of the game market, quite the contrary, but the game market is still a minority in the country.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
" If we resort to tactics like torture to try and protect ourselves we're no better then the people attacking us, in fact we're worse because we claim to be moral ones while doing it."
technically, the people attacking most likely do claim to be the moral ones... People don't do these things kinds of things because they are evil, but because they are under the delusion that what they are doing is "right"... the difference would not be that we claim to be the moral ones, but that we are better at maintaining the illusion that we are moral... so we are not much worse
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
If I got to take a dremel tool to the teeth of some S.O.B. to find out the location of where he stashed some C4 in a public building full of innocents, I will do so. I don't really care if the tactic is moral or ethical, so long as it saves the lives of innocents.
"To fight a devil, you must be a devil yourself." - Old Japanese Proverb.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
If I got to take a dremel tool to the teeth of some S.O.B. to find out the location of where he stashed some C4 in a public building full of innocents, I will do so. I don't really care if the tactic is moral or ethical, so long as it saves the lives of innocents.
"To fight a devil, you must be a devil yourself." - Old Japanese Proverb.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Assuming you have person that knows the truth, they will more then likely feed you false information to stop you from torturing them and sending you on a wild goose chase... it takes a long time to realize that he fed you a lie, you wind up wasting time and then, by this point, the C4 has probably already exploded: mission failed
And if you have the wrong person... well he'll keep saying "i don't know" and you'll keep torturing them until they can take no more and then make up somekind of lie just to get you to stop, essentially saying anything and trying to tell you what you WANT to hear... you end up going on a wild goose chase, find out he lied, assume he still knows but lie like the person i described before and you treat him as such... in the end, the C4 explodes and all you succeeding in doing is torturing someone who didn't know anything to begin with... go justice!
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
It makes me wonder if the person who objected to the violence in Mad World wasn't conflicted himself in this: while those who wanted to end apartheid in South Africa were obviously in the right, the fact that they resorted to such horrific violence as burning a tire over a man's head is a moral stain on the movement. That's of course assuming the objector even knew about that historical detail, which Adam didn't really make clear.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Adam Sessler.....a beacon of light in the dimming (%^% box that is G4.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Not too bad. Says it like it is.
However, I disagree with him on one point. Enemy combatants are not covered under the geneva convention and therefore we can do whatever the hell we want to them. Especially if it involves getting vital information from a terrorist who wants nothing more to see us dead. Its us against them people. Look at what happens to any people we have that get captured by them.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Just because it's technically legal (loopholes and such) does not mean it is "right"
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Torture is a very very unreliable way to get any viable information from someone. Read up on the Salem Witch Trials sometime. If you torture someone enough they will admit to riding around on broomsticks and dancing naked with the devil, even if its total baloney.
-Ultimately what will do in mankind is a person's fear of their own freedom-
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Or a more relevant example:
"How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq" by Mattew Alexander and John Bruning
This guy was there and talks about what works and what does not, belive it or not there are books on these kinds of things, not just conjecture.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
We violate the convention when we torture them. They violate the convention when they target civilians.
Don't you get it?
Has anyone mentioned that torture is not a viable way to extract information from someone? It's what a true idiot thinks when they realize they have no idea how to get what they want from someone, so they get sadistic about it. These people don't belong in government, they belong in jail.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
You do realise that the Geneva convention was set up specifically to prevent what you're spouting there do you? IT IS NEVER OK to torture someone, the convention was set up to protect soldiers from both sides in an armed conflict, wether they're terrorists or not, the convention still applies. That's what it's there for, you are simply dismissing and devaluing a very important treaty for the treatment of prisoners of war.
I know you're just trying to find way to legitimize what the US military did in it's supposed quest to protect it's people, but torture is going way beyond reasonable.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
designed to protect SOLDIERS from both sides in an armed conflict.
Terrorists are not soldiers.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
"soldiers from both sides in an armed conflict, wether they're terrorists or not"
See, this is the problem I got right here. These guys are not soldiers. They do not serve their goverment, their people, or any other such cause. These 'soldier' are people that are killing anything that is different from them in their own land and the surrounding lands. They show no mercy and openly murder innocents willingly and joyously because they are not one of them.
These people are not soldiers, they are not patriots, and they are not martyrs. They are a collection of religious bigots and thugs that were shoving their will and firepower down the throats of innocents. There is no honor in their actions, no morality, no humanity.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
I will have to evoke godwin on this one... how are they different from loyal nazi's soldiers and other soldiers like them? no mercy, openly murder innocents, killing anyone who is different from them in their own land and the surrounding lands... and i don't think i would claim what the nazi's did as having any honor, morality, or humanity to it... Only difference is that instead of serving their government they are serving the will of their "god"... They believe themselves to be martyrs in ending their own lives and follow their "gods" will with a passion as great as any patriot. Hell an enemy soldier could take on the same actions that terrorists take on, and in this day and age the Geneva convention would protect them.
the very principle of the part of the Geneva Convention was that "torture is not right"... claiming that terrorists are not soldiers is really just ignoring that principle and making an excuse for a loophole due to the fact that the framers of the convention did not foresee this kind of shit happening...
Hell by that logic, it would also be alright to torture rebels who try to start a revolution because they feel as though they are being oppressed by their government, as they are also "not soldiers representing any government"... Really the difference between a "terrorist" and a "revolutionary/rebel" is very small; if the term existed centuries ago, those who participated in the Boston Tea party would have been labeled "terrorists" by the british (even when innocents are not targeted, such destruction can be viewed as an act of terrorism)... it's really just a matter of point of view; we say "terrorists" they say "divine servant"
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
I see where you want to go with this argument, but a) it is too polarzing (granted so was Sessler's superfluous quasi-elucidation) and b) it will get no play here, and its christmas, we can have a conversation with out demagoguery that goes for the Sess as well.
I've been saying for years that gamers neeed to shy away from the "but "x" is way worse", however this will fall on deaf ears
As for the underlining message that Sessler but forward it is good, but we've heard it all before.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
He nailed it right on the head. Discomfort with the real world problems has people looking for scapegoats rather than looking for a solid solution. I am going to join in that slow clap Pirce.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. Edward R. Murrow
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Breaking news: Gamer defends games in his show for gamers. Gamers the world over agree with him.
-------------------------------------------------
I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
This just in! President-Elect Obama weighs his options on whether or not to publicly denounce Jack Thompson! More at 11pm.
Just kidding, though that would be kickass.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon
"A Chrono Trigger is anything that unleashes its will or desire to change history!" -Gaspar
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
This just in...JT now hated by Homosexuals everywhere:
http://nationalgaynews.com/content/view/4338/173/
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
JT's been hated by HETRO-sexuals everywhere for years, why should they be any different?
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
He'll be forgotten by them in a couple weeks, I bet. Considering that he has no real power to speak of and his discipline problems are a large stain on his credibility.
He'll remain a gamer bad guy for a long time before he becomes a signficant target of the gay community.
----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
*Starts a slow clap* Ah Mr. Sessler, always nice to hear a voice of reason in the world.
Eggy Weggs
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
Seconded....my thoughts exactly
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
How Adam does it is beyond me but he ALWAYS manages to speak the truth, and only in 3 minutes flat! Though I have to wonder who will be the first to say that those who assaulted the areas in India trained on "Counter-Strike". Everyone else and I both know there is SOMEONE out there in the world, like Adam said, who is looking to blame this all on video games like wars never happened over 5000 years ago.
----
Papa Midnight
http://www.otakutimes.com
http://www.thesupersoldiers.com
----
Papa Midnight
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
I wonder if the madworld creators even knew that. Their game seems to focus more on over the top violence, not gritty realistic violence. Not the kind of game I'd picture mimicking past crimes against humanity. Manhunt... maybe.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
And in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia.
Re: G4's Adam Sessler Weighs In on Video Game Violence
And in the rest of Africa, really. There are some pretty gruesome methods of killing people that have been seen in Africa in recent years. That's why its always funny to me that they get to take part in the UN, with all the blatant human rights violations in their respective countries.