posted
This just makes me physically ill. I guess before too long we'll see 'WTC: The Game' where you get to pilot a plane into the WTC & score extra points for every firefighter & police officer you kill.
Morgaine
-------------------- I cannot live without books-Thomas Jefferson *~* A child educated only at school is an uneducated child - George Santayana I'm going to pummel you with such zeal, Buddha will explode! *~* Never miss a good chance to shut up - Will Rogers Posts: 6585 | From: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
It's a lot like the JFK assasination videogame, I guess - causes a lot of controversy but not much you can do about it, or should we even try to stop things like this?
-------------------- om mani padme hum Posts: 2306 | From: tennessee | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Pretty much the best way to protest things like this is ignore them.
If you mount a grand sit-in, or get the story on 60 minutes or 20/20 (even if the story is slanted heavily towards how vile the game is), you'll only increase awareness of it and the sales of the games will increase a hundred-fold.
Let's all stop talking about it now and it will go away, quietly and largely unheard of...
Posts: 127 | From: Over the hill and through the woods... | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I do wonder, though, aside from obvious exploitation of violence (games like GTA or Postal) for the gamers' prurient pleasures, how much are games like this fueled by a kind of basic curiosity?
One good question: How many people who owned Microsoft Flight Simulator, loaded it up on or shortly after 9/11 and flew (or attempted to fly, or even just considered flying) a jet into the digital representations of the World Trade Center? I can't answer for myself, not being a Flight Sim owner, but I suspect the actual numbers would be really surprising, and probably encompasses plenty of people who would not even play the violent-crime games. The impulse to play out the action of the terrorists for oneself is not fundamentally psychotic or sadistic or shows a lack of empathy. But, I also wouldn't think many who did run this exercise did it for the joy of doing so -- again, it fulfills a different kind of psychological need than pleasure.
Not that this is a defense of this particular game, but I think this type of issue calls up some lamentable knee-jerk generalizations.
Also, I have no data, obviously, for the above other than my own gut sense. Anyone have anecdotes about the Flight Sim-9/11 connection?
-------------------- "If Men were Wise, the Most arbitrary Princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the Freest Government is compelld to be a Tyranny."
posted
I did the Flightsim 9/11 "thing" when I got back from work that day, but I certainly did not derive any "joy" from doing so!
The reason that I was compelled to attempt the simulation of the attack was one of curiosity, to see how easy such an act was. It was within about 5 hours of the real event happening when the news reports were still very confused.
And it was easy.
IIRC the Daily Mail ran a two page article about the FS 2000 vs 9/11 accuracy a few days after and was "Shocked and Stunned" as to how easily available such computer simulations were!
I mean WTF???
(Bloody Daily Mail I know!)
-------------------- "British English speakers point to Americans adding more syllables so that they can make even more noise without actually saying anything." Llewtrah
Posts: 2235 | From: Sussex , UK | Registered: May 2004
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posted
I find the game in the OP to be in much poorer taste than GTA. Violence in video games doesn't bother me. I enjoy games like GTA. I couldn't see playing a game like Oklahoma City Escapade though. I really can't see marketing or profiting from a game like that either. The real-life basis of the game makes it far more disgusting to me.
posted
My reference to GTA was the point that giving it negative attention would help it sell (is it for sale, or do you play online?). I agree that this game is in far poorer taste.
I would consider playing GTA, but I'll pass on the bombing game.
Posts: 885 | From: Florida | Registered: May 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Morgaine La FuzzyValentine: This just makes me physically ill. I guess before too long we'll see 'WTC: The Game' where you get to pilot a plane into the WTC & score extra points for every firefighter & police officer you kill.
-------------------- I like to go down to the playground and watch the kids run and jump and scream, because they don't know I'm only using blanks. Posts: 942 | From: Illinois | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Just to play devils advocate, would a WTC/Oklahoma game be different to making trashy films about Pearl Harbour or the Titanic?
Or, at least, will it be as acceptable when an equal amount of time has passed since the events?
Posts: 1710 | From: Newcastle, UK | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by moonfall86: My reference to GTA was the point that giving it negative attention would help it sell (is it for sale, or do you play online?). I agree that this game is in far poorer taste.
I would consider playing GTA, but I'll pass on the bombing game.
It's a perfectly valid point too. I wasn't directly responding to that. I just meant that I could see how someone would see hypocrisy in my statement so I wanted to clarify.
Unfortunately you're right any sort of action against this game will just make it more money probably. Damned if you do and damned if you don't...protest this game that is.
quote:Originally posted by BlueStar: Just to play devils advocate, would a WTC/Oklahoma game be different to making trashy films about Pearl Harbour or the Titanic?
Or, at least, will it be as acceptable when an equal amount of time has passed since the events?
I don't view it as the same thing at all. I find it more disgusting that a game would be made where the player mimics the actions of someone like McVeigh or the 9-11 terrorists. OTOH, even if these kind of movies add their trashy Hollywood sub-plots it's more in the interest of telling the story of that event. I don't find that as offensive.
Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Logoboros said: One good question: How many people who owned Microsoft Flight Simulator, loaded it up on or shortly after 9/11 and flew (or attempted to fly, or even just considered flying) a jet into the digital representations of the World Trade Center?
They even did this on the BBC news, while the presenter (as far as I remember it was Jon Snow) talked through it.
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
There have been plenty of games where one could represent Germany in WWII or the USSR in a theoretical nuclear War. While I agree the U.S. might have been getting too callous toward violence in the past, the new super-sensativity toward anything remotely resembling a terrorist attack also annoys me. We've only suffered a handful of attacks in our entire history as a nation. I think we need to look around the world, get a better perspective and then ignore forms of entertainment we find offensive.
As others have already pointed out, the market will decide. If a substantial portion of the population finds this game to be in poor taste, in will die a quiet death, but outrage, rather feigned or genuine, is sure to give the game more exposure and increased demand.
-------------------- "If I didn't see it and didn't know it was a real news report, I wouldn't believe it. I mean, how nutty can you get?"-Pat Robertson Oct 26, 2006. Posts: 2936 | From: Mean Streets of West Virginia | Registered: Feb 2003
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Locnar
The Red and the Green Stamps
posted
That is pretty sad but not surprising. There are a lot of people that lack empathy. I can understand having a dark sense of humor. Sometimes it comes down to laugh or cry. There is however a growing sub culture that finds others tragedies as entertainment and something to giggle over.
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