Groups Protest Cannibalism in Video Games (Lieberman fighting zombies)

[Democat]

Video games glamorizing guns and violence have long drawn the ire of media watchdog groups. This holiday season, they say they have found a bloody new wrinkle to hate: cannibalism.

In "Stubbs the Zombie," the lead character eats the brains of humans as blood splatters across the screen.

"It's just the worst kind of message to kids," said Sen. Joe Lieberman

"It's not appropriate for kids and it is clearly labeled that way," said Halpin. "There are R-rated movies and DVDs."

Yahoo

This article says that right wingers, including Joe Lieberman, who probably strongly support the real Iraq war, want video games with zombies in them off the shelves.

Someone should arrest George Romero! :)

[ixion]

1. ah yes, but real carnage (like the illegal war in Iraq) that's okay,

right, LIEberman?

Please, convert to the GOP and give it a rest.

[Greeby]

2. I dunno

Right-wingers must've been what George had in mind when he created his zombies :crazy:

[Name removed]

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[bowens43]

3. Shut the f*ck up Lieberman.

You support the war and you support taking away more of our rights. You are the enemy.

[Spinzonner]

4. This is really eating them up, isn't it ?

[seemunkee]

5. It's only cannibalism if zombies eat zombies

[jsamuel]

6. but is it ok for a zombie dog to eat a zombie human?

[jsamuel]

7. just leave out the 20 zombie movies from last year

they don't count
:sarcasm:

This is so stupid.
:mad:

[MrBenchley]

8. Jeeze, nothing speaks to progressive values like

flabby white kids pretending to be cannibals...

Unless its flabby white kids pretending to kill black people....

[EFerrari]

13. There's a dissertation here, Mr. Benchley, and I'll spare you :)

Doug used to play the Reno Hilton when there was a comedy club there. There's a huge arcade downstairs and one off night, we went there with a couple who had a little girl. Anyway, we split up and Doug went right to the machine where you could pick up a gun and shoot. Neither of us had seen these games for years.

The targets were all people, pretty well rendered, and it was as revolting as possible. Because older than dirt, I remember when the targets were not people and not every well done graphically. The two elements seems to go together. By the time we get good graphics, players have been slaughtering their fellow men for years and are quite inured to it.

I miss Zork and Happy Trails -- although in Happy Trails, if you didn't lay the road right, you did "kill" the little cowboy guy.

[MrBenchley]

16. I'm surprised

that Vegas doesn't actually let high rollers kill people for a thrill....

Meanwhile, I do wonder who thinks any of this racist, ultra-violent crap is "progressive" in any way? Or who thinks having kids "play" this crap for hours at a time is a good idea in any way?

Amusingly, yesterday I had a joystick twiddler actually try to defend these games by pointing out they were just like cigarettes, booze and porn.

[EFerrari]

18. Now, that's funny!

And they probably do that in Vegas -- just not actually inside the Hilton. :9

[MrBenchley]

19. Hunter Thompson said something like

Vegas is a town where Charlie Manson would be welcome--as long as he was a big tipper.

By the way, from the video game industry's own website, here's some of the fun that kiddies can have with video games:

"* Alcohol Reference - Reference to and/or images of alcoholic beverages
* Animated Blood - Discolored and/or unrealistic depictions of blood
* Blood - Depictions of blood
* Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts...
* Drug Reference - Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs
* Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death
* Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity
* Partial Nudity - Brief and/or mild depictions of nudity
* Real Gambling - Player can gamble, including betting or wagering real cash or currency
* Sexual Themes - Mild to moderate sexual references and/or depictions. May include partial nudity
* Sexual Violence - Depictions of rape or other sexual acts
* Simulated Gambling - Player can gamble without betting or wagering real cash or currency
* Strong Sexual Content - Graphic references to and/or depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
* Suggestive Themes - Mild provocative references or materials
* Tobacco Reference - Reference to and/or images of tobacco products
* Use of Drugs - The consumption or use of illegal drugs
* Use of Alcohol - The consumption of alcoholic beverages
* Use of Tobacco - The consumption of tobacco products
* Violence - Scenes involving aggressive conflict"

Sounds like Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett and Ted Bundy out on a bender together, doesn't it?

[AngryAmish]

27. What games are racist?

Just wondering.

[jsamuel]

28. I think they are specifically talking about Rockstar games

[AngryAmish]

30. I have not played those games

How are they racist?

edited for punc.

[jsamuel]

31. I have not played them either

So it is hard for me to say, but they do (from some of the screen shots) make "typical black gang" members the center focus of the game. As for the extent to exactly how it is racist I am not sure because I don't play those games.

[AngryAmish]

33. Well I have seen the movie "The Warriors"

Did you know that it is based on "The Anabasis" by Xenophon?

Anyway if a game depicts "typical black gang members" that in and of itself does not make a game racist anymore than rap music is racist.
However, I have not played these games so I can't comment.

Has anyone who has actually played those games say if they are racist?

[Name removed]

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[AngryAmish]

37. Don't call me names

I have not called you names. I do play games but not those ones. Just so we are clear I disagree with your feelings about gov't control of gaming.

[jsamuel]

41. I can see you are in favor of people making uninformed judgements on

others.

Look, we haven't played the games, ok. I don't like to be uninformed when I judge something, unlike some other people here.

[MrBenchley]

46. Nothing like an informed discussion, is there?

Sure as shit wish we were having one.

"I don't like to be uninformed when I judge something"
Says the guy who spent umpty-ump posts up above trying to spin away the racism in the game he has no idea about whatsoever.

[jsamuel]

60. "umpty-ump posts up above trying to spin away the racism in the game"

You keep attacking me with that, but show me where I said that racism in any game is ok. We did not talk about any specific games, instead we were discussing video games in general or "racist video games". I oppose "racist video games" but am not opposed to video games in general, in fact I support video games in general. Whether or not I have played the exact game that you think is racist, but never post which games you are saying racist, doesn't change the fact that I am against racist games just like any other racist media. I am plenty informed on that.

You can't because I didn't. So stop with the bullshit.

[Occulus]

48. Usually, in such games,

the killing is loosely tied toether by an extreme plot that makes the killing necessary.

An example of this is the Doom series. In that series, a marine as part of a security force stationed on a base on Mars (this is Doom3). The base, owned by the United Aerospace Corporation, is performing... experiments. With the ability to pursue research outside the normal ethical and legal boundaries (direct quote from the opening, by the way; they are on Mars, after all), UAC is in posession of the most advanced technology known to man.

It all gets out of hand when hell breaks loose- literally. Through the telepotation gateway they built (to hell), demonic creatures of all sorts pour out and either kill off most of the staff or transform them; the Marines (I'll call them that, even though in the game they aren't; it's just easier to type) are getting decimated. When the action begins, there are already few Marines left alive.

Your job is to get to them and team up with them, blasting at whatever creatures cross your path as you go. There's an important point I need to make here: you can't kill what you shouldn't. The bullets just go right through them, unlike other games such as Splinter Cell and such. The game is very dark; even before the accident, this was a base on Mars, and as such, energy is at a premium. After, the base is darker yet, with a lot of black shadows things can pop out of.

At one point in the game, your character actually goes to hell itself. The creatures become a bit different from their "Earthly" form and they're tougher and faster as well. The imagry is simply not to be believed until you've seen it.

Apart from the game, the technology that drives it is one of the best gaming engines ever made. Using a technique known as normal mapping, lights bounce off flat surfaces that are drawn with a curved texture applied to them as if they were coming off a curve, as they might in reality. Precalculated lighting from all points based on the normal of each face (imagine a vertical line coming off the center of a face on a digital object) allows for realistic lighting on all objects, which render at speed in the game engine because it's all precalulated. Realtime physics ensures that objects bouce off walls and the ground plane properly, bodies fall using proper, "ragdoll" physics, and it is all done at a speed (on a fast machine) that's really astounding to see.

This is why I love this stuff- it allows anyone to make anything they want in a digital environment. Apparently, to some people (on this thread!), even that much freedom- in a space not real- is a threat to someone, somewhere.

[Name removed]

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[ChrisK]

10. "Eat there own?"

Poor Jo, must be feeling a bit uncomfortable as other Democrats are seeing the light and calling the President out on his intentional mistake called Iraq.

If only Jo worried about a real problem he might not look so "brain-dead" :)

[EFerrari]

11. "It's just the worst kind of message to kids," said Sen. Joe Lieberman

Why are video games more real than life to Joe Lieberman?

:crazy:

[Canuckistanian]

26. We wouldn't want kids to start eating brains, now, would we?

And that's exactly what they'll do after they play the game.:sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

29. Lol!

[Enraged_Ape]

12. I, for one, agree with Joe. Cannibal zombies are poor role models.

What a fucking dumbass. 2,100 dead American soldiers and untold thousands of innocent women and children with their arms, legs, and heads blown off, and this is what is occupying his tiny mind. It would almost be funny if it weren't just absolutely pathetic.

I really, really, really hate this guy. I cannot believe that someone as intelligent as Al Gore picked this useless skin job to be his running mate in 2000.

[Democat]

14. Gay Marriage is no longer the hot issue - it's all about zombies in 2006!

Whichever party can take the strongest position on zombies in 2006 is guaranteed to win. Joe is just getting a head start on the Republicans. :)

I agree with you. How could Gore have picked him?

[bicentennial_baby]

15. oh jesus fucking christ on a cracker...

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Loonman]

17. Zombies don't exist, Lieberman

Except for the Republican neo-con Nazi fucks you threw your lot in with.

[Name removed]

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[Loonman]

21. Society is a shitpile, anyway

The Romans had violent videogames, too, except it was real guys killing each other in a stadium while refreshments were served, and they were the most advanced civilization, ever, for centuries.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Occulus]

42. The first one was debated here, I believe, quite some time ago.

A man was arrested as a pedophile because he had pictures of children on his PC. The pictures, it turned out, were digitally constructed in a modeling program, but the prosecutor saw child pornography anyway and charged the guy. In spite of the fact that no actual person was ever harmed by his producing or posessing the "porn", I think he did get convicted, or took a plea.

And kids actually are killed by cars on the road to no purpose but to be used, and kids really do grow up seeing their parents drink like a fish and sometimes they drink too much at school and actually die as a result.

There was nothing silly about what I wrote. You were being silly for calling it such.

[MrBenchley]

43. Be sure and dredge it up for us....

I'll wait right here...(snicker)

[MrBenchley]

44. Be sure and dredge it up for us....

I'll wait right here...(snicker)

[Connie_Corleone]

23. God forbid if kids start a new craze of eating the brains of people.

[MrBenchley]

24. I'm sure we'll have joystick twiddlers leap to deny

that their games had anything to do with it....

[Occulus]

39. I dare you to, from memory, now (no cheating by using Google),

name ANY FIVE games released in the last two years. It doesn't count if you have to go to a gaming site.

ANY FIVE. Go ahead, name a few. If you can.

[MrBenchley]

40. Double dog dare me, why doncha?

(snicker)

[Name removed]

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[MrBenchley]

51. Hahahaha....

So you want to alert because on DemocraticUnderground, somebody dares to stick up for a prominent elected Democrat....

[Name removed]

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[MrBenchley]

57. Says the guy bitching about a Democrat on DemocraticUnderground

because they dared to speak up about mindless violence and corruption.

[Name removed]

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[corporatemedia]

25. "Night of the Living Brain-Dead" starring Joe Lieberman! eom

[MetaTrope]

35. How did they overlook World of Warcraft?

With its "Cannibalism" powerup for the Undead character class? Is it because WoW has over 2 million subscribers each paying $15/month for the privilege of chomping on brains?

Never mind that (lightly in the case of WoW, and all-out in the case of Stubbs) the zombie diet is presented in a farcical manner.

[Bonobo]

45. Army video game -fuck them!

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0923-11.htm

"Your kids can download the "America's Army'' video game for free. Well, it is free for them. You have already paid for it with your tax dollars. In the game, kids get to kill people with cool weapons that look and respond like the real things. They get to ambush terrorists and, when caught in a firefight, they can hear bullets whistle past their ears and even hear the shell casings from their M-16s clatter onto the concrete floor.

The only thing better would be an actual war with actual weapons!

Which is pretty much how the Army hopes your kids will respond.

"America's Army'' is one of the U.S. Army's most popular and effective recruiting tools -- conceived, designed and distributed free to reach the 13- to 21-year-old crowd. It is a brilliant marketing tactic. Unlike 30-second TV ads, the game is what the ad industry calls "sticky'' advertising: Consumers are engaged for much longer periods than with traditional commercials and ads."

[MrBenchley]

47. Why, that's just harmless fun!

And after all, if you read this thread, society is shit, and kids get killed and run over and molested every day. So why not encourage them to throw their lives away increasing Halliburton's profits? </sarcasm>

[Bonobo]

50. I disagree with your underlying premise that games influence culture.

Games are a part of this sick culture we are in, as is discussing things like children on a bulletin board.
To pretend that games, movies, novels are some external force that influences our culture and by extension our children is foolish. The games exist as they are because of the culture we are in.
But if you want to complain. complain about our tax money being spent on these games which are being used to brainwash kids to join the armed forces and then being sold back to us. The fucking nerve of them.

As for zombies and cannibalism, only a madman would think that that could influence children to follow those acts.

[MrBenchley]

53. Funny, the Army sure seems to agree with me....

or else they wouldn't have put out THEIR game....

And it's hilarious to read "To pretend that games, movies, novels are some external force that influences our culture and by extension our children is foolish" AND "these games which are being used to brainwash kids" within three lines of each other....

[Occulus]

56. Does or does not

the act of running through, as a team member, in a VR space, a map with dangers, give a soldier a potential advantage in training?

They've been doing this since the days of the original Doom. If you knew what you were talking about, you would know that.

[MrBenchley]

59. So is it brainwashing kids or not?

Your new chum wants to have it both ways, for some dreary reason knownst only to himself.

[Occulus]

54. Don't bother with logic

He won't respond to it.

That Army game isn't even worth stealing. It's just... bad.

FarCry, on the other hand.... that's a great game.

[MrBenchley]

58. Don't worry...he didn't bother with logic

On the one hand the game is brainwashing kids, and on the other hand it has no effect, according to our new chum. All within the same paragraph, too.

[MetaTrope]

61. The lovely thing about America's Army

is that players are separated into two sides...but each side sees the other as the "terrorists".

[DS1]

55. Joe is just jealous, the zombies starved when they broke into his home

/obvious

[maddezmom]

63. locking

This discussion has ceased to be productive