Victoria Times Colonist: Anti Gaming article
A sensationalist article authored by the Victoria Times Colonist named 3 games I do not recognize. Keep in mind, I scour the Internet daily for gaming news, get Google alerts and use news feeds to get the latest information.
Later in the article, the author points to brain wave controllers. Exactly which games are going to use this technology in the near future? Something that will blow up the universe with an errant thought? Nope. Pong.
I looked up the first one named, Flatout: Ultimate Carnage. Guess what it is? A racing game. The second one named? Suicide Bomber is a flash game. Naughty America? A Sims type dating MMO in which the player designs an anatomically correct character.
Video games are fast replacing television as the leading form of entertainment for children, a development that troubles child psychologists. Industry critics have no shortage of ammunition.
Products like Ultimate Carnage, Suicide Bomber and Naughty America have unleashed a barrage of violence, sex and mayhem on young people. And those are just the titles we can print.
Later in the article, the author points to brain wave controllers. Exactly which games are going to use this technology in the near future? Something that will blow up the universe with an errant thought? Nope. Pong.
The consequences?The video game industry sees its future in this technology. Early prototypes are already on the market, and more are coming.
One example is Mindball, produced by a Swedish firm called Interactive Productline. Two players stare at a screen and try to manipulate a soccer ball across their opponent's goal-line.
I don't understand why the author brought the Virginia Tech shootings into the mix. The shooter's roommate said he had never seen him play any. Instead, he searched the internet for more primitive violent art.One thing seems probable. Those are questions video game producers will not trouble to ask themselves. Industry leaders have opposed every effort to reduce violence in their products, even as senseless acts of brutality, like the Virginia Tech shootings, increase.
A week later, it's clear that Cho not only wasn't playing video games at Virginia Tech but also that he was spending his time on that computer pursuing two of the oldest outlets for violent minds: poetry and playwriting. An inventory of Cho's room revealed nothing related to video games; the only early evidence that Cho had played a violent game appeared in a Washington Post article -- and that reference later disappeared from the story.Gamers: send letters to the editor here. Tell them exactly what you think.
