[PandaX52]

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?game

here is the the "games do not equal death" petition:

To: Congress
We the gamers of the World are upset with the linking of violent death with video games. Millions including the under signed signatures all agree that the games we play in no way make us hostile or more likely to kill. If anything the games we play are a release for us. Such statements implying the opposite come constantly from Joseph Liberman and John Ashcroft. This petition is for all the gamers of the world who feel that such statements are false. This is our way to prove to the world that we are not the violent bloodthirsty creatures that some politicians make us out to be. The undersigned gamers all feel and know by experience that the video games we play do not lead us to kill or commit other violent acts.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

almost 20,000 people have signed already!

go GO GO!

[wayfinder]

SIGN THSI OR I KILL YUO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


-> YOU
^^

[ May 05, 2001: Message edited by: wayfinder ]

[Freddio]

why bother..

congress arent gonna ban games..

[gLitterbug]

Found the link yesterday, on another page and immediatley signed!

[MrPumpernickel]

Signed...

[Brainswitch]

Actually Fred, a bill that will restrict games being sold to minors or being sold at all is going through congress right now and it looks like it will pass because of a lack of opposition.

I think that video games just became the scapegoat for the wave of school shootings and such. But look at how the media practicaly turned the two columbine shooters into TV stars. I think that had a much larger effect on the following waves of shootings then video games.

[KrassOtti]

Brainswitch: That's a good thing. If that really gets enforced then it's up to the parents to decide if their kids can handle games.

But yeah, videogames is the scape goat to blame everything on. It has an effect on mentally unstable people, people who get shit on all the time, who get picked on at school, who's dad rapes them, etc...

But us "normal" people it does not effect :P


btw, those shootings are totally blown out of proportion. People just think this shit now happens everyday since Columbine got 24/7 covered on TV for months :P

[ May 05, 2001: Message edited by: KrassOtti ]

[KrassOtti]

Impaler: Thanks for your kind response, but maybe you are the fuckwit for not understanding what I meant. What happened at Columbine is terrible. No doubt about that, but that is 14 out of millions and the media made it look like kids get shot daily at school. Then the shootings are connected to video games as the source of all evil, making them responsible for every little thing that happens these days [which will get at least a month TV coverage]

Looks blown out of proportion to me.

[Affected]

...What's with the "gamers of the world" fetish, when this is a US affair?

[J Bradford]

Put your paranoia back in your nerd backpack and get over it. Video games aren't going anywhere, and even if it was a serious issue, im not going think of signing a stupid petition so kids can continue going on killing rampages.

[PandaX52]

stop taking things so seriously...it's just a "stupid petition", It's not like the effects of having the document successfully accepted/acknowledged by congress will change some worldly treaty ensuring the safty of humankind.

Affected: A US affair? Probably, but that doesn't mean you can't help...not everyone here is impulsive culture consuming fools.

I personaly think it is not about the saftey of video/computer games, but pointing the finger to targets of agression and making unjust scapegoats of unrelated parties.

If I could live on my own utopian desert island I would...

Also, I resent being called a nerd Bradford.

[ May 05, 2001: Message edited by: PandaX52 ]

[J Bradford]

Sorry, can't help it. I think this is a disgrace to the term 'random musings'.

[PandaX52]

you're free to your own opinion...

by "random musings" I'd assume anything is tolerated.

[Freddio]

Why would I care what congress does..


Do you think everyone on this board is American...?

[PandaX52]

ggrrrrrrrrrrr......


screw this....

[Impaler]

Krassotti- School shootings blown out of proportion? 14 people died at Columbine. 14. AT A SCHOOL. That many people don't get killed a dayin war-riddled areas like the Gaza Strip. 14 people, you fuckwit. Kids aren't supposed to get shot at a fucking school. Your ignorance and lack of grammar makes me think that you're on of the "abnormals" that you prescribed.

The murderers may have fantasized about Doom and running through halls blowing up things, but so has every other 14 year old, Hollywood producer, novelist, and every other testosterone-soaked male out there.

However, the video games are not the thing that caused them to snap, to aberrate the line between reality and not. It was a mental defect, from a psychological standpoint. They were not fit, mentally. Whose ever fault that was, it was not a video game's.

Video games are probably the only thing that keep a lot of kids from going out and robbing convenience stores and smacking the forearm. Compare the 80's to the 90's. Video games rock! z0r!

[ May 05, 2001: Message edited by: Impaler ]

[Loki]

It's simple: The parents are not taking care of their kids anymore. Especially in America. The kids are being educated by Nickolodeon and the Coartoon Network, once they get older it's movies and video games.

BUT - it's the parent's fault and NOBODY ELSE'S for not taking care of their little ones. Once the kids are beginning to be weird, they take them to a therapist and are diagnosed with ADD - and put on drugs ...
If it still doesn't get better the kid is, instead of taken care of by the parents, with love and time, taken to another freakin therapist, because the old one didn't do the job right, yadda yadda.

And nobody is taking the blame around here - if something goes wrong, it's the media, the games, the bad lunch at school, the sun spots or whatever ...

IT'S THE PARENTS!!!!!!!

This really get's me upset ... people totally unwilling to stand up for something ... grrrr ...

[Ian]

B�h! I have to spend most of my college life in the states. What the hell would I do if they outlawed games?

[Frost]

"To: Congress
We the gamers of the World are upset with the linking of violent death with video games. Now stop your bitching and whining or we'll KILL YOU ALL!!!"

[Visigothan]

I don't think computer games should be regulated like Sen. Leiberman/etc. wish, because all it does is give parents another excuse NOT to monitor what their children purchase. The only reason this will go through, is because irresponsible parents the country over think "If the store won't sell the game to my son, I don't have to watch what he buys anymore!"
...It's the parents and the senators that are fuckwits. Any parent that doesn't take an active part in their child's upbringing (I'm not talking gestapo control...Just healthy parenting) should be taken out and shot. =P Just my two cents...

[Chris]

You think we need to do anything? These billion dollar making gaming companies aren't going to let government put them all out of business. I wouldn't worry about it.

There isn't enough crime related to games (if any) to use as evidence against it anyway.

[J Bradford]

The truth is gaming companies will win every time in the courts. This has happened in the past with death metal bands before violent games emerged. And the bands win every time.

[edible snowman]

sen. lieberman will die withing three years. he's a walking cadaver that wants to ruin things for other people because his idea of fun is mixing his afternoon pills with his midafternoon pills and then taking a nap an hour early.

[Darklighter]

"I'm too chickenshit and lazy to think for myself..... i want my kids to have that comfort too."

even though i think it's a stupidass petition, the reason it was created was even more retarded, so it has to be signed..... the religious right freaks need to be fuckin'stoppped with their bullshit, cause at the rate their shit is going, we're soon gonna wake up and wonder where all our fuckin'freedoms went....

anyway, i'm getting my ass back to europe soon, this country is fuckin'crazy cause too many just care about money, partying, and getting laid and don't give a shit about what their government is doing with their money.... even though i was surprised about the WTO protests in Seattle, it's slowly going upward. but too slow....

"What? The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy...." -- Rage against the Machine

[ May 07, 2001: Message edited by: Darklighter ]

[gLitterbug]

Where in Europe will you go, Darklighter?

[Darklighter]

heh, back to vienna, austria where i was born....
auch ein oesterreicher? gruessigott

[eureka]

If a cartoon camel can make a kid smoke then couldn't a video game make a kid murder?

My personal belief is that in a free society you have to tolerate people saying things, or making games, that you may not like.

[Chris]

no...cause i grew up with that camel and i have never smoked, and i started playing doom when i was 13 and i have never murdered anyone (not that i know of anyway)

frogs can't make me drink either, cause i have never had beer or alcohol

so that won't hold up...

[Jezebel]

You are so right on Loki.

I'm so tired of parents using the television as a babysitter. I know someone that plops her kid down in front of the tv for however many hours a day while she talks on the phone, naps, does errands etc. I've known her to let him watch horror films, violent action films, he's been known to kick and beat their dog without being punished... yet one day she brought him over while I was playing Quake and started getting onto ME - in my own home - about how repulsive it was to play those types of games in front of a child. I didn't even have blood turned on, yeesh. I'm tired of all the hypocrisy that walks hand in hand with this debate. It's always the same thing. "I don't take care of my kid, I subject my kid to media violence and when my kid hits my dog over the head with a remote control car it's because he saw 17 seconds of Quake footage at my friend's house." Yeah right.

And personally I have to agree with the Columbine issue being over "advertised". It was horrible, I can't even begin to imagine the pain that the families, friends, students, teachers... everyone went through. I won't even try to pretend I can start to understand because there is no way I can comprehend it. But the media has to draw a line. I'm a pretty firm believer that most of the school shootings since Columbine have been a result of the media making celebrities out of the killers. There are lots of kids out there who are mentally unstable, looking for a way to get some attention because they don't get it at home... they are teased at school, beat up and bullied - they are fed up. They just want some way to get noticed and then they turn on the channel 8 news and see what these other kids just like them did. And look at all the attention they get!

I played violent games and watched horror films at my friends' houses. I've seen the 6 o'clock news coverage of all the horrible things that happen. I've read the newspaper headlines. Watched the action flicks.

Have I ever killed anyone? Nope. I've never been in any fights, I never bullied people, I never did drugs, never smoked, I was always home by curfew... you know why? My parents were always there growing up. Yeah, they both worked, they even had their hobbies but they were always there. I'm just disgusted with people that believe they can do whatever they want, ignore their children and then blame entertainment (that THEY let them watch!!) because their kid does something inappropriate.

I could go on all day... this is a long message. Sorry

*crawls under her desk*

[InDepth]

Hey guys,

I have seen this topic come up in many forums lately and usually I just read the posts and carry on but for some reason I felt like replying this time.

I agree with most of what you say about it being the parents responsibility to ensure that their kids are brought up with a sense of right and wrong. But, I do have to say that it is alot harder in todays society (at least in the US) and it's NOT because both parents have to work or any of that... it's because kids are given too many 'rights' nowadays. I am not sure what the general age consensus here is but I remember when I was growing up that parents were allowed to dicipline their kids how they saw fit. I have known people personally who have had their kids taken from them by social services because they spanked them... not BEAT them... but spanked them. I even have one friend who had her teenager taken from her (and charges brought upon her) because her kid decided to make up some little lies and tell the school councelor. All of this stemmed from a verbal argument they recently had. It took about a years worth of court battles for her to get her child back.

What does this mean? It means that as parents we are responsible and held accountable for our kids actions... yet we are not able to take the necessary disciplinary actions to ensure that our children respect us without fear of being arrested or having our kids taken away from us. And please don't think I advocate ABUSE of a child... but a healthy pop on the ass is sometimes the only thing to do the trick. I'm not going to pretend to know which of you has kids or not but I think it is VERY easy for those of you without kids to heap the blame on the parents... and I will agree that a certain amount of blame does belong on the parents. But I also believe that some of the blame goes out to the media for making idols out of villians and to the government for the control it is taking away from the parents.

Video games? Maybe. Movies? Maybe. Music? Maybe. The truth is that we live in a morally bankrupt society. People just don't care anymore (at least a growing majority don't) I am afraid of the perils that lay ahead of me and my wife trying to raise two daughters in tomorrow's society as it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I am afraid of what kind of society my girls will spend their lives in.

Well I guess I have rambled on long enough. I can always see both sides to an issue and I believe there are good points made in this thread. I just sometimes take offense to all parents being lumped into a group of non-caring adults who let the media raise their children. Some of us do try our very best.

Eric

[ May 08, 2001: Message edited by: InDepth ]