British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

November 4, 2008

British tabloid the Daily Star gets itself worked into a tizzy over an amateur online offering, The Suicide Bomber Game.

The free online game, which can easily be accessed by children, shows graphic images of body parts being splattered across the town. Yesterday, it was branded “sick, callous and upsetting” by the Bali Bombing Victims Group, who want it removed from the internet.

One member, Susanna Miller, who lost her brother Dan in the 2002 attacks which killed 202 people, said: “It’s callous, inappropriate, irresponsible and deeply offensive. I find it disturbing... I appeal to any sites featuring this game to remove it. It’s completely sick."

While Ms. Miller's sentiments are completely understandable, it's cheap journalism to call up someone who lost a relative to a suicide bomb and then ask them how they feel about a suicide bombing game. Apparently, that's how the Daily Star rolls.

Kudos to Conservative MP John Whitting­dale (left) who keeps things in perspective. It would have been very easy for Whittingdale to turn the Daily Sun's question about this obscure little title into a highly-publicized whinge encompassing video games in general. Whittingdale told the tabloid:

I find this game tasteless but I don’t think it will necessarily start turning people into suicide bombers. But those whose lives have been affected by suicide bombings I imagine would find it upsetting.

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Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

How dare he say something so close minded as... wait what?!
*rereads*
Wow. I'm actually quite impressed.

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

“...sick, callous and upsetting” by the Bali Bombing Victims Group, who want it removed from the internet."

Yeah. Just remove it from the internet. That's not a big deal, right? While you're at it, you should sue the internet. You might be able to get the Church of Scientology to help you with that one.

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective
...and, of course, the game's been there since 2002.
Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective
Another thing: The button at the bottom of the article reads:

More "news" here

That's right, even the Daily Star doesn't think the Daily Star is a newspaper.
Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

Oh wow haha this game is OLD. I remember playing this game years ago.

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

There are many offensive videos on YouTube which are also made by amateurs, but they don't receive any press (even though it is from the soft-porn paper the Daily Star). It irks me when the press try to make these games sound like that they were made by a big games company in an attempt to pervert a child's mind. Anti-games campaigners will use this as an example of why computer games should be banned and it would be akin to me saying that an offensive video on YouTube means that all movies should be banned.

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

The reason they pull shit like that is because they can't find anything on the legitimate market to top GTA. Which just goes to show how strong our position truly is.

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

At least the politician is keeping things in perspective. If governments started censoring all the Internet content that someone found offensive, the Internet would cease to exist. Everything offends somebody.

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

Agreed. Hell, I bet Chrono Trigger had someone saying that time travel is offensive b/c it's possible these guys just want to change their own histories without any regard to the histories of others. If that actually happened, all I can say is "FacePalm"

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"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

Slow news day for the Star?

Re: British MP Keeps Amateur Suicide Bombing Game in Perspective

No, the young ladies tits were a little too small, and the guy who normally does the photoshopping was on holiday.

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GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 03/18/10 at 12:07pm
JDKJ: No, I did you the favor and said it for you.
Posted 03/18/10 at 12:06pm
Valdearg: What I said was while I may have implied long term accuraccy, and that might have been incorrect, my greater point that the CBO report calculated reduced deficits, expanded coverage, and lower costs is still 100% accurate. :D
Posted 03/18/10 at 12:06pm
Valdearg: Like any good politician, I don't believe I said "I was incorrect." :P
Posted 03/18/10 at 12:02pm
JDKJ: If you'd said "I was incorrect" 10 shouts ago, I'd have quit twisting your arm to get you see the obvious 10 shouts ago.
Posted 03/18/10 at 12:00pm
JDKJ: You were they one assuming 100% accuracy. In all caps, no less.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:59am
Valdearg: Yes, my implication that the long term estimates were facts was incorrect, but the short term calculations are absolutely facts, and even the long term estimates are still useful in attempting to determine exactly what will happen with the bill.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:58am
Valdearg: I do. The Short term costs are actually calculated facts. The long term estimates aren't necessarily 100% accurate, but to assume that they can't possibly be accurate because someone said they might not be 100% accurate is also wrong.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:57am
JDKJ: When someone says, "I could be wrong but, as best as I can tell, X," X ain't a fact.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:53am
JDKJ: It's too early in the morning for you to be deaf, blind, and dumb drunk. A "my best guestimate" can't be a fact. Don't you understand the difference between the two?
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:41am
Valdearg: By how much depends on variables that can't necessarily be predicted at this point in time. And yes, those Facts are accurate only so far into the future, but those estimates can certainly be used to support this measure.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:40am
Valdearg: And I'm saying, as far as the CBO report goes, the facts that it does put forward are deficit reduction, reducing costs, and expanding costs. Those ARE facts.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:30am
JDKJ: You were the one championing a qualified estimate as an indisputable fact. I'm merely pointing out that it's far from indisputable. So says the estimator.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:27am
Valdearg: Or are you only breaking that argument out because the CBO says that this bill is a good thing for our deficit?
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:27am
JDKJ: The CBO says that, to the extent it is possible to accurately predict defict reduction over the long term, it is likely to reduce the deficit. That's your idea of "a fact that don't lie?"
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:26am
Valdearg: Would you be singing the same tune if the CBO came back saying that the bill will likely double the deficit in 20 years??
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:26am
Valdearg: @JDKJ: Just because there is a margin of error doesn't mean that the numbers aren't at least psudo-accurate.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:25am
Valdearg: The point is that the bill reduces costs, expands coverage, and reduces the deficit.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:24am
JDKJ: So why are you off and running with "facts and numbers don't lie" when the very author of the facts and numbers is acknowledging that their facts and numbers could quite easily be wrong?
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:23am
Valdearg: @JDKJ: Indeed, but the 10 year is also showing a deficit reduction, and that's more accurate.
Posted 03/18/10 at 11:19am
JDKJ: Val': Isn't the CBO saying at the same time that predicting the long term deficit reduction effect isn't anywhere near an exact science? And that its prediction should be taken with that understanding?
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