Ralph Nader: Game companies are 'electronic child molesters'

[Mr Khan]

Kantor said:

Mr Khan said:

wfz said:
Actually, I believe he called the games "electronic child molestors," not the developers. Developers aren't electronic, and the wording leans more towards the games, not the developers.

Anyways, I do agree with Khan that our overall love of violence in our culture is interesting. It's just part of human nature, I think. We are very violent by nature (generally speaking), so it's not really *that* off. It could be argued that violence is a part of our nature that we should not try to glorify, though. I don't think banning, limiting expression, or any of that is the correct choice, however.

Right; encourage the good (and/or ridicule the bad) instead of outright banning the bad. Even moronic and damaging speech has some value, for we can only make the right decisions by knowing the whole story.

Well, what do you mean by the bad?

I'm happy to ridicule Duke Nukem Forever because that is a tasteless and generally poor game.

But God of War, for example, is considerably more visceral and violent, but those things are there for a reason and the game just wouldn't be the same without them. It would probably top Nader's list of child-molesting games if he actually knew the first thing about the game industry, which he probably doesn't because he's an outdated dinosaur who apparently has the worldview of somebody from the 1950s with regard to media, despite supposedly being a radical leftist.

I think it goes to show that fear of change does not only exist in conservatives.

God of War is actually one of the examples i was talking about: it shows that violence is a bad thing (Kratos' treatment by the Gods being portrayed as very cruel and ultimately rather thankless, and he doesn't really earn anything through his escapades but more destruction), but still gladly sells itself on the violence. The fix comes in pressing more awareness against parents and trying to teach good parenting (which is where "ridicule") comes in. The kid shouldn't be able to play God of War until he or she is mature enough to realize that Kratos is fundamentally a miserable person, because of what he does.

Discouraging things need not take the form of publicly demonizing them. That works for some things (like fighting racism), but we need to encourage responsibility in a proactive way.

Edit: and yes, a lot of things in politics are as much gender-gap as they are ideological. The war on drugs and alarmist attitudes towards violent media are just things that come across in old people, and due to politics' proclivity towards gerontocracy (plus the graying of developed and developing countries) make them bigger issues than they otherwise would be.