Moral Kombat Screened at USC Conference
Moral Kombat Screened at USC Conference
September 28, 2007
Moral Kombat, a documentary about the game violence debate, was screened for the first time last night at the University of Southern California.The film was produced and directed by filmmaker Spencer Halpin (shown at left during production) and was shown as part of USC's Business of Gaming conference.
GP had a chance to view the movie earlier this week and was quite impressed. Both sides of the issue are fairly represented.
Critics like Sen. Joe Lieberman, Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media & Family, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and, of course, Jack Thompson get to have their say.
Industry types appearing in the film include former ESA boss Doug Lowenstein, game designer Lorne Lanning (Oddworld series), IGDA head Jason Della Rocca, EA founder Trip Hawkins and others.
Also featured are reporter Dean Takahashi of the San Jose Mercury-News (who has a very personal perspective - I won't give it away) and Prof. Henry Jenkins of MIT.
Anyone with an interest in the topic should enjoy the film. No news on distribution plans yet, but GP will keep you posted.
FULL DISCLOSURE DEPT: Spencer Halpin is the brother of ECA president Hal Halpin. The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
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Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
The trailer is meant to be as sensationalist as possible on purpose.
Isn't that the point of any trailer? :) To generate interest.
BTW Dennis, good job leaving the Full Disclosure there.
"I wish we could more from the European academics, I think they can provide a completely different perspective on video games. like the people at the IT university of Copenhagen."
I agree, would be refreshing.
The trailer is meant to be as sensationalist as possible on purpose. It's the only way to get people from BOTH sides of the argument to show an interest to the movie.
Once they get the audience they needed, all they needed to do was show the actual documentary, which (unlike the trailer) is actually fair and balanced.
It's an old trick used by Newspapers. Sensationalist headline, but fair balanced article.
I think with that kind of confusion, they might want to watch out for Midway's lawyers. Or maybe I need to get more coffee in the morning :/
Does this movie take any measures to openly debunk some of their claims?
~Otaku-Man
Also, if they’ve fixed the inaccuracies in the trailer (bullet holes in Myst IV, etc.)
After hearing about this, I checked out the trailer again. And holy crap, there is is. A clip from Myst IV, showing a view out of a typical transport, and suddenly the glass is overlayed with bullet holes, something that didn't happen in-game. the 0:56-0:58 mark.
I sincerely hope that was done purely for shock value in the trailer alone, and that in the actual documentary such shooping is not present...
Likely to snag those willfully ignorant people that wouldn't watch this if it painted games and gamers in ANY positive light
Lucky for you, this is a country in which you can choose to see both - or neither.
I've been in touch with Spencer and thus I saw Moral Kombat a few months ago on DVD and was very impressed. It is an aesthetically beautiful, engaging, and driven work. It offers many perspectives but, in the end, is clearly pro-game (people like David Walsh aren't really anti-game, they just want GTA out of the hands of their children). Certainly worth viewing.
Spencer's film focuses almost exclusively on the issue of videogame violence and is also representative only of the mainstream industry - retailers, developers, etc. In my documentary ('Playing Columbine'), I pay special attention to the independent developers who I argue are pushing the real innovation in the medium - and of course focus much more on the nature of school shootings. Certainly there is some overlap, as well; Spencer and I each interviewed Doug Lowenstein, Hal Halpin, Jason Della Rocca, and the indispensable lawyer from Miami.
Certainly this is a subject big enough for more than one movie. ;)