To those who have not followed the story:
This, is, I swear, the most complete **** in regards to slandering video games I have ever seen in my entire life. I have underlined all the innacuracies in a quote below from a blog (in red) that generated a huge wave of parents that thought this was true, as well as other people who were wondering "what the world was coming to," and sparked a national contreversy.
This is the lowdown on Mass Effect:
At the end of 20+ hours of gameplay, if you chose to pursue a relationship with a crew member, if you treated them nicely and were sensitive to them, if you and the crew member consented, there was a brief, 8 second cutscene that showed brief, partial side nudity.
The scene: (Ashley version)
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?ne...%3DFRjoOniZUUQ
The other version with Liara is exactly the same, but substituted Ashely with Liara.
Now...
The following (in red) is a quote from Kevin McCullough's blog that initially started the contreversy.
(I underlined all the innaccuracies)
It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players - universally male no doubt - to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.
The objections to such filth should be simple to understand.
Starting with the disgusting idea that one can "create" their own versions of what people look like, removing warts, moles, and bald spots while enhancing - shall we say - the extended features of the game's characters tends to objectify women, sex, and human relationships. Right? We can all agree on this?
Then there's the dishonesty behind the game' title. "Mass Effect" sounds like a war game with a deadly virus that is spreading unless the GI-Joes are able to defeat the evil and deadly substance and it's covert war plan. (Vance's Note: Re-read the sentence and notice how he is referring to a viruses "covert and dealy war plan") By it's design, kids could ask for it, or for their parents' Best Buy Card (Vance's Note: You need Photo ID to purchase an M rated game) to go purchase it with nary a raised eye-brow. Generic, non-descriptive, and relatively harmless.
And because of the digital chip age in which we live - "Mass Effect" can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.
With it's "over the net" capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away. -Kevin McCullough
Complete Article: http://boards.1up.com/zd/board/messa...read.id=551350 (It was posted on a forum as the original was later censored by his own host and deleted off his blog)
Obviously, the guy never played the game, and also has NO CLUE as to what it is about. So, from this point on, non-gamers think the game is a game where you create digital characters and have sex with everyone. And I suppose the name "Mass Effect" refers to the effect on your mass. And they probably have no idea why the title trailer shows a spaceship and an eclipse, either. Parents were pouring in emails to BioWare (the company who created the game) and organized protests against the MPAA rating system, as well as joining parent communities dedicated to stopping this.
Gamers, however, most likely wanted this person dead. If you gave a gun with one shot to someone who played this game and asked who to use it on, it would probably be on this Kevin McCullough, or the next two contestants.
PS: This guy is a joke, but the next 2 are seriously pissing me off. (Cooper & FOX)
THE CONTREVERSY ESCALATES:
If the first guy was (apparently) believeable, but a joke nonetheless, these people are worse. This is where I wanted to smash faces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kdm...eature=related
Notice how Fox News cut off the gamer, gave the "psychiatrists" extended time, and in general, was an ***. But this is what is worse: EA (BioWare's big brother that co-produced the game) later wanted to air on the show to set the record straight, but Fox denied them. Parents were in an uproar and wanted to "shut down" video games. The funny thing is they had no clue that the game was a Sci-Fi, shooter/rpg, but of course, the only people who played the game were gamers, and "gamers" were "biased." Lawrence Cooper (the brunette woman) was using this to try to jump start her book, and the anchorwoman (the blonde woman) was probably fed lines by Fox. When Cooper was later questioned as to whether or not Fox had briefed her before the show to be negative, she had no comment. In addition, when questioned as to what "study" at the University of Maryland, she did not respond either.
My favorite comments from the interview:
Have you ever played Mass Effect?
"No!" (In a "you silly goose" tone)
"First of all the board that rates this has to have their head examined" (I wouldn't talk **** about them... Your list of potential friends in the video game industry is growing very thin... And it's funny you pick on Mass Effect when there are games like Playboy: The Mansion and Leisure Suit Larry in stores with an M rating. PS: What do you mean "their" head?)
"I'm gonna play my dad's video game" (It is so easy to block games with parental controls, but you cut all the brains out of the interview)
"...with full digital nudity" (Have you even watched the video?)
"OH and the young boy is not gonna choose to have sex, that's what they'll do" (Boys can't get ahold of this in the first place!)
"I wanna buy the game where Lauren fights Chuck Norris" (What the hell?)
"What happened to Atari and Pinball and Pac-Man?" (Where have you been?)
"Let me at 'im, Martha" (If you only knew how many people want you dead, Cooper...)
I really hate their condescending attitude toward Keighley and their quick to laugh, brush off posture on gamers, as well as their discussion later acting like they were mocking someone and trying to establish themselves.
Adam Sessler's (X-Play Game Reviewer) comments on the situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mcf6qht81g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRy3PYu-wHg
EA stated in a letter to Fox:
"The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards. As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness.
Do you watch the Fox Network? Do you watch Family Guy? Have you ever seen The OC? Do you think the sexual situations in Mass Effect are any more graphic than scenes routinely aired on those shows? Do you honestly believe that young people have more exposure to Mass Effect than to those prime time shows?
This isn't a legal threat; it's an appeal to your sense of fairness. We're asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect."
Sincerely,
Jeff Brown
Vice President of Communications
Electronic Arts, Inc.
Obviously, Fox brushed them off and squeezed every last mile out of the controversy before people started to catch on. But the damage had been done, many people still believe what was said was true, and resent video games even more, and still are "not letting Mass Effect into our house."
Now gamer payback starts to happen. When Cooper finally released her book, masses of gamers put in negative reviews on book review sites (as well as Amazon) saying that the book was a waste of time, made no sense, and made bad impressions (Like what she said about Mass Effect) The thing is, the book review sites could not tell whether these people had read the book and formed an opinion, or were gamers, so all the reviews that pretended to be actual readers stayed on (which were about 90% of them) In addition, gamers simply logged on to the review sites (as well as Amazon) and just gave it a one star out of five. Her book rating plummeted, and people who would have otherwise have bought the book read the horribly negative "reviews," looked at the one star rating and didn't give it a second thought. As a result of that, her book sales went down drastically too, and the entire book was a complete loss of money, effort and time. She tried to apologize and stated that "I recognize that I misspoke," but she was obviously only saying that to try and save her book sales, which, to her surprise, did not make the gamers feel any better, and her book sales continued to drop. Also, Fox completely lost EA's support and was the subject of much criticism after people who did their research started to catch on to what they were trying to pull, and suffered loss of viewers.
Summing it up nicely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04nbv...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixt1eu11LXk&NR=1
I do feel that what happened to her book was drastic and most likely extremely frustrating for her, and I do have compassion, but gamers now have no right to hold anything against her, at least. However, I am not completely sorry for her, as she was probably briefed by Fox, knew what she was getting into, hijacked a game as a scapegoat, insulted the gaming community and biased thousands and thousands of non-gamers, all to try and boost sales, not to mention most likely directly lying about the supposed "study" at the UOM. Video games are increasingly becoming a vehicle to moral, conservative popularity by authors and politicians alike. However, I DO hold this against Fox, and I swear, I would shut them down for this among other sensationalization cases, in addition to their cheap tactics at attracting viewers.
Any of my fellow gamers who have played Mass Effect were probably shocked to hear this. Personally, it was the best game I have ever played in my life, bar none.
And please don't flame me her book reviews, it was immature, but it is over, and I do feel bad for her. (And no, I did not participate in that)
MASS EFFECT
:bowdown:
