Morality Group Calls Constitution ‘Suicide Pact’

Don’t ya just love the expression ‘Watchdog Group?’

It has the connotation of a group that looks out for the community, to protect it from invading nasty things. In reality, most of the time these days, it’s referring to a group of busybodies who want to control their own environment by exercising power over others who don’t think the same way they do. 

Morality in Media is just such a Watchdog Group. It’s their mission to watch media and make sure it’s all nice and clean for the rest of us. But there’s this pesky thing called a Constitution that is making it hard for them to keep all that nasty media out of our innocent and naive hands.

Game Politics is reporting that Morality in Media is using the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy to blame the massacre on the perpetrator’s use of violent media — btw, didn’t the violent game link get disproved mere days after the event?

The press release from MiM essentially blamed modern media’s (as opposed to medieval media I guess) blind adherence to modernistic (as opposed to anachronistic) Supreme Court decisions that have made it impossible to hold entertainment companies responsible for the effects of their violent media.

I guess these are the same decisions that refuse to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the misuse of their products as well.

Personally, I hold the person who does the crime responsible for his actions, not the guy who made the gun, or the alcohol, or the video game.

I like the US Constitution. It’s one of those great little documents that limits the governments power over the individual. The government can’t tell you what you can or cannot say or think, as long as it’s truthful. If the government can’t stop you thinking or speaking for yourself, neither can any other group like Morality in Media.

And they don’t like that.

I reckon it’s great that Morality in Media can use the same provisions in the constitution that protect the free expression of game developers and other media producers to say what they like. The First Amendment allows game developers to express themselves through their games. Fortunately for Morality in Media, the First Amendment exists, or they might not be allowed to have their say either.

Fortunately for us, the First Amendment exists, or watchdog groups like Morality in Media would be free to censor us as much as they’d like.

Someone, anyone, please save us from watchdog groups.

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Defending the Interactive Whorehouse

A couple of days ago I posted the story, Activist Gamers are Massively Effective. It covered the reaction of the gamer community to the beat up by Fox News on Mass Effect. Fox managed to find an author who hadn’t played Mass Effect but had heard bad things about it, and got her to denounce the game publicly.

This had the effect of annoyed gamers heading to Amazon and voting her latest book all the way down. Ah, much fun and hilarity ensued. The author, Cooper Lawrence, then retracted her Fox News statements, saying that now she had seen the game, and any sex in it was no big deal.

Why the recap?

Ten Ton Hammer have linked to a web site called Loading Ready Run. These guys spend their spare time making videos, and have just released their own commentary on their site in the form of video satire. The video is called Max Effect, and it’s well worth watching.

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson.

"It’s funny because it’s true."

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Pot Meet Kettle

I just saw a news item up on Blues News that has given me a little chuckle. This article from the MCVUK website reports on the latest comments from the head of MacDonalds UK.

To quote:

Steve Easterbrook told The Times that the food and drinks industry shared responsibility for the issue with individuals and Government.

But he made special mention of the popularity of games – and said they have reduced the amount of time young people spend outdoors “burning off energy”.

And he’s right. To an extent.

But you know what?

Back a few years ago, there were the same comments about TV reducing outside activity and causing obesity. Now it appears games are the culprit.

MacDonalds advertises during children’s television viewing hours. MacDonalds attempts to convince parents that they are healthy. And a few years ago they had the stated aim of having a MacDonalds store in EVERY Australian suburb. (I don’t know if that is still the case.)

Hey Pot… meet Kettle.

Sure if you game all day and all night and never get any exercise; that’s bad for you. The human body needs at least 30 minutes of cardio exercise every day. But don’t forget, eating Maccas one or twice a week is also bad for you. Buns loaded with sugar to increase appetite so you’ll buy more food. Salt in the soda to keep you thirsty so you’ll buy more drink. Fries that are deeeeep fried and loaded with preservatives. Nasty stuff indeed.

But. When all is said and done. Who bears responsibility for childhood obesity; Who should be limiting the intake of junk food; and who should be making sure their kids don’t spend all day in front of the computer, xbox, or television?

I don’t believe it’s Steve Easterbrook’s responsibility. I don’t believe it’s Blizzards responsibility.

Maybe it’s the parents.

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Fox News Spreads MMOG FUD

Sometimes it’s easy to get me wound up.

I was just minding my business, browsing online and came across a Fox News article referenced by MMORPG.com that despite the softish title Online Game Meetings Sometimes End Tragically, but Phenomenon Remains Rare, is pretty hardline anti game.

After softening the reader up with a short list of neer-do-wells, who also just happen to play MMOGs, in the opening paragraphs of the article, we are given the following paragraph.

Massively multiplayer online games — or MMOGs, as they’re called — can foster more vulnerability than there might be on other virtual meeting spaces such as dating and social networking sites, where participants are inclined to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior from the start.

Here we see that Fox News is suggesting that Massively Multiplayer Online Games are more vulnerable to online predatory behaviour than dating sites or social networks. Social networks like Myspace perhaps. Funny. I seem to remember a whole slew of news stories over the last few years about how Myspace was a haven for pedophiles and cyberstalkers. Aside from a mention about that poor girl who suicided after being cyber stalked by an adult neighbour on Myspace, there wasn’t terribly much in this article on the Myspace pedophile connection.

Hmmm. Isn’t Myspace owned by News Corporation? And doesn’t News Corporation own Fox News?

Must be just a coincidence.

As an aside: You know I read so often the laments by critics of the new media, which includes blogs and other forms of citizen journalism, that it isn’t valid because of it’s inherent biases. These critics include mainstream journalists who work for organisations like Fox News. Even though there is truth in these criticisms, in light of this Fox News article, I’d recommend that these self appointed guardians of journalistic integrity take a good long hard look at themselves and their ‘old media’ industries. Maybe they should get their own houses in order before they point their fingers at others faults.

Of course there are some quotes from the usual ‘concerned citizens group’. In this case the group is called WHOA. It’s one of these wonderful acronyms where the acronym is created before the wording, and means Working to Halt Online Abuse. It could just as easily mean Whinging to Harm Others Activities.

WHOA is headed by someone who was a victim of cyber-stalking. Without attempting to minimise the harm that real cyber-stalking does, it’s clear that anyone who had been the victim of some form of crime or assault begins to see that offence happening everywhere. Even when it isn’t, or is only happening minimally. I feel bad for people who are victims of crime, noone deserves to be a victim. It’s often traumatic, but doesn’t really make for a clear perspective on the issues.

Another quote from the article from a University of Baltimore Criminologist:

Still, the majority of close encounters of the gaming kind don’t end badly, according to criminologists.

“The issue of suicide and murder is an anomaly,” Ross said. “Yes, there are people on these games who have evil intent. … But it’s highly unusual. That’s what makes it so fascinating.”

So… there’s this whole article talking about how much worse MMOGs are than social networks, yet it’s highly unusual for real evil deeds to occur.

Maybe that’s because we online gamers actually know there are bad guys in the games we play. Have you ever been ganked, ninja’d, or otherwise griefed by another player?

Has your account been hacked and had all your gear sold off, or have you known it to happen to another player?

Have you ever really read the official forums?

It’s pretty easy to tell there are jerks online. Maybe. Just maybe, online games are safer than social networks like Myspace because they show you the real nature of people early and often. Maybe doing an instance or running a raid with the same people week after week gives you a little insight into their character. A persons true colours usually come out under stress, and there’s not a lot more stressful to some players than a high level raid going wrong.

It’s actually pretty obvious that some of the so called experts quoted in this article haven’t ever spent a substantial amount of time playing these games and interacting with other players.

Articles like this Fox News article love to pull facts out of their backsides in order to spread a little fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Make people afraid, it’s how the modern news media operates. If people are scared they come back and that gives higher ratings or whatever. The fact that the FUD is about games is a bonus.

In anycase, it’s why I’ve given up watching the nightly news. If I want opinion, I’ll read a blog. At least blogs are generally honest about their commentary being opinion.

Now having worked myself up, I’ll wipe the foam from my mouth and quickly look at the other side of the equation.

There are bad people in the world. In fact there are very bad people in the world. So bad in fact, that their activities cross the border into criminal.

There are doctors, lawyers, politicians, dentists, computer programmers, kindergarten teachers, school crossing guards, and people in every other occupation under the sun, whom if you really knew you’d cross the street if you saw them coming. In some cases you’d run screaming from the area. Some of these bad people play Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Some set up profiles on Myspace.

The fact is everywhere you go, you may run into someone who doesn’t have your welfare in mind. That’s life. It’s been the way of things since the dawn of time, which I think was a few years before the invention of the internet.

The key is to be careful and use common sense in all our relationships.

Does that make sense?

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Tyra’s World of Warcraft Addiction Hoax

I guess I’m a little cynical these days. I take a lot of what I read in newspapers with a grain of salt. I don’t believe much of what I see on television news and current affairs. So much so that I’ve pretty much stopped watching Australian free to air news.

I’m also cynical enough, that when I see reality TV, or those TV chat shows like the Tyra Banks show, not to believe what I see on them. So when I saw the YouTube footage (part 1) (part 2)of the Tyra Banks show episode with the guy that what so addicted to World of Warcraft I was able to suspend disbelief enough to see the signs that it was a hoax.

First of all, a definition. Dictionary.com lists the following definition:

hoax (hoks)
n.

1. An act intended to deceive or trick.
2. Something that has been established or accepted by fraudulent means.

Now by definition, much of what we see on TV and in the movies, much of the fiction we read is intended to deceive us. We’re entertained by stories that enable our imaginations to suspend disbelief. Special effects are designed to convince our minds of the reality of the effect. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s entertainment.

Shows like Springer, Tyra Banks, and the like are also entertainment. They are trying to convince us of the reality of the situations that they are portraying. This entertainment isn’t designed to stimulate our imaginations as much as to tickle the gossip-center of our brains. You know, the bit of our brain that makes us cluck our tongues and tut tut. There’s also nothing wrong with that if you accept that it is not real, but is designed to sell advertising.

So when I watched some of the segment on YouTube, I noticed a few things that convinced me that this segment was made up.

Sean’s behaviour didn’t add up

The guy was so addicted to World of Warcraft that he completely ignored his partner for the game, but still went to work each day. He was unable to remove himself from the computer to attend to his daughter in front of the cameras, but still able to go to the studio to film the show. If he was so addicted to WoW how was he capable of:

1. going to work each day, and
2. dragging himself to the studio for the show?

Here’s another definition from Dictionary.com.

ad·dic·tion

–noun

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

Sean certainly looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, but he didn’t look traumatized. Perhaps the shock set in after he left the studio.

It’s one of my beefs at the moment. There’s a lot of bandying about the term Addiction when it really doesn’t apply. But that’s a subject for a future post.

The Discussion was One Sided

Did you notice on these videos how one sided the discussion was?

The first half of the segment was designed to get sympathy for Autumn.

She was asked to describe how her fiance was ignoring her and their child for the sake of a video game. Tyra Banks very early on drew the analogy of World of Warcraft being the other woman. Tyra did a great job of looking shocked and dismayed at Seans callous behaviour. Especially leaving the hospital to go play the game. (No. He left during a long delivery to go home and have a shower, and also spent some time also playing WoW. He was there for the birth remember?)

So after all this. The shocked looks and audience stirring. The barbed comments by the show’s shrink. They finally bring Sean on.

Sean was not prepared by the producers. That is also pretty obvious. He was behind the scenes watching what was being said about him, but when he was finally asked about his behaviour, he made a lame reply about SIDS. The show’s resident quack was quick to dismiss the excuse, inflaming an already hostile audience. It’s no wonder, being outnumbered and outgunned, a single guy facing an audience of hostile women who had already made up their minds that he was the spawn of Satan, that he caved for the rest of the segment.

This Relationship is in Trouble

With or without World of Warcraft, Sean and Autumn’s relationship is in serious trouble.

There is a lot more going on here than addiction to a video game. Addiction in the first place is not a root cause. It’s often the result of other issues in the addicts life. Having said that, I don’t think this guy was addicted to WoW in the first place. It appears he was using it as an escape from his home life. Don’t forget he was capable of going to work, and capable of going on the Tyra Banks show. He just didn’t want to do things with Autumn.Case in point. Sean slept on the couch. Well no guy does that unless he has serious issues with the person he is sleeping with (I’m talking about sleep here, not sex.) A bit of weight gain doesn’t stop a guy catching some Zs next to his partner if he loves her. There is more here than Tyra would have us believe.

What Sean and Autumn need is a professional qualified counsellor, not the pop-psychiatry of a TV chat show. A professional counsellor will help them do the hard work of mending their relationship, and listen to both of them. He won’t demonise either party like the Tyra Banks show did.

Was Tyra perpetrating a Hoax?

That’s the question I’ll leave you with.

Don’t forget that a hoax is defined as act intended to trick or deceive. It certainly looks like the producers of the Tyra Banks show intended to trick or deceive their audience into thinking that Sean was addicted to World of Warcraft. It looked like they attempted to show that World of Warcraft was responsible for this couples relationship problems. It looked like the camera work in the Sean and Autumns home made it look like Sean was hopelessly glued to the computer even with such an invasion going on.

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