Washington Times Culture Columnist Marybeth Hicks’ latest column calls on Americans to reject violent videogames.
“Tuesday was one of those days when the news can confuse us,” the columnist writes, imparting her take on the release date of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 falling on the same day that a memorial service for the victims of the Fort Hood tragedy aired on television.
MW2 is poised to become the largest media launch in entertainment history, to which Hicks says, “We ought not be surprised, but we ought to be concerned.” She calls the title, “Another immersive first-person game offering players the chance to vicariously participate in acts of violence for the sole purpose of ... entertainment.”
Depictions of “senseless” violence can be found in many forms of American media, writes Hicks, including television and movies, but “worst of all” in videogames, which enable “a realistic experience of ‘the thrill of the kill.’”
She finishes:
It's not maturity that's needed to play these games. It's maturity that rejects them as barbaric and harmful to the psyche of anyone who would play them.
According to Hicks’ bio, she began her career as a writer of special correspondence and talking points for President Reagan. In addition to her columnist duties she is a motivational speaker and the author of several books, including Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid’s Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World.
GP: Oops, Washington Times, not Washington Post. Thanks Jack!
Comments
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
She's saying we can't these games no matter how old we are? This is further proof that the far right is hell-bent on controlling the lives of other people and hypocritically will resort to violence when they can't. BTW, does the Washington Time site have a comments section?
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
It does, but you'd have to register to comment.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Hornets, Jack Thompson can geaux chase a chupacabra.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Pelicans. Solidarity for the Saints = No retreat, no surrender. 2013 = Saints' revenge on the NFL. Even through the darkest days, this fire burns always.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
She needs to get laid, then maybe she would have a diff. opinion on it. AHHH!!!!! Feels so good! Mmmmm.......
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Her statement about the maturity levels never made sense to me......She sounds like another hoot. She is right about maturity rejecting them like parents that don't care about their child(ren). But other than that we are all adults here (I would hope so), & we know what games to play & not play.....That is common sense & our own decisions to play them or not.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
So let me get this straight. As long as I reject these games for being barbaric...I can play them?
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
I would like to propose a solution. We switch back to games of earlier times!
The Fisherman’s Joust from the Egyptians! That ballgame played by Mayans! Venatio! Naumachia!
Then, when the sheer gore and human sacrifice is too much for them, we switch back to violent video games! Of course, those sports may be too horrifically awesome that they become popular again.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Do you think this dumb bitch is a member of the parent trash cult?
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
She is possibly a member of the parents spew garbage Cult(Parents Trash cult) Given her endorsement of said group
Watching JT on GP is just like watching an episode of Jerry springer only as funny as the fights
America has just became its own version of the Jerry Springer Show after a bizarre moment in Florida involving a carnival worker.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
When did she endorse the PTC?
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Watch here : http://www.marybethhicks.com/blog/tabid/207/articleType/ArticleView/arti...
Back to her column, I've read it, and frankly, it's not the worst thing I've ever seen on the subject of "violent" video games. Just another mediocre and robotic statement about the "3500 studies" and "harmful influence" and blah, blah, blah. Nothing to worry about.
Note that I don't mock her disgust of "violent" games, nor their appeal to reject them : it's her opinion and her right. The problem is that I've already read gazillions of columns saying the same thing and parrotting the same sources exactly the same way. This is what I call "mediocre and robotic".
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
"Barbaric" would be a word I'd use to describe real-life slaughter of real people in cold blood. With a video game all you're doing is sitting in a chair manipulating a bunch of 1s and 0s and indulging a bit of escapism. People really ought to choose their words more intelligently.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Who reads the washington Times anymore, no one that's who
I already know That it was created by Sun myang moon(The Unification Church)
Watching JT on GP is just like watching an episode of Jerry springer only as funny as the fights
America has just became its own version of the Jerry Springer Show after a bizarre moment in Florida involving a carnival worker.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
So people who enjoy violent games are bad, but all other media is off the hook? People like violent media. People have enjoyed violent media since there has been media. Do you think that Beowulf or The Odyssey would have been as interesting if they were sitting in a lily garden eating biscuits? Sorry, no.
-Ultimately what will do in mankind is a person's fear of their own freedom-
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
I can see you saying that to the news people & politics & anyone else opposing violent games. lol. Kudos to you man.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
"Imparting her take on the release date of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 falling on the same day that a memorial service for the victims of the Fort Hood tragedy aired on television."
No just no, don't even freaking try to imply that this is anything more than a coincidence. The accusation this was planned would be a truly disgusting mark on the accuser.
----------------------------------------------------
Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Times Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Well said, though you forgot to add Jazz music, any pouplar music, etc etc etc to the list.
I just have to wonder if this "moral" crusaiding gets old to them too.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
And so the cycle continues...
Eventually this fear mongering will die down just like it did with rock and roll, D&D, comics, etc. It's a war of attrition that we will eventually win.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Not only that, but once this game has faded & people are still playing it, there will be another game that people will complain about that is just as much or more violent than MW2 & other games that are violent. Then they will bring back how bad MW2 was & compare it w/the "new" violent game.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
So apparently, only Governments and Media are allowed to be obsessed with War and Fear and Terrorism... Lord knows what effect it's having on them.
It's kind of like saying that 'Dambusters' made people destroy large dams in Germany, it's putting the cart before the horse.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Just another retarded blogger/columnist trying to get attention talking about something they obviously know little to nothing about....
On a side note: I'm surprised JT hasn't made a comment on the article...
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
He, at least hopefully, gave up posting here after getting banned so much, but ya, he would take that as a confirmation of him being right. TO people liek them oen person agreeign with you means you're right, but a thousand people disagreeing with you is a conspiracy agaisnt you.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Yet another person stuck in a time warp that keeps her in 1992. I'll assume the last video game she saw was SUper Mario World on the SNEs and assumes video game palying is a sign of being an immature manchild, since she likely also assume NO females game.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Thank you.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Sigh, if only people would learn the difference between fantasy and reality. If you can't tell the difference you shouldn'd be playing those games, but that should not stop those who can differentiate from playing. Killing something imaginary is completely different than killing something real.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
She seems to be insinuating that gamers don't have the potential to be mature and that we also only seem to like violence. WE ARE NOT PSYCHOPATHS! I'm a gamer who plays games such as Modern Warfare 2 and I personally don't believe it the death penalty, am Pro-Life, and I never have approved of torture by the government. I was horrified by the airport scene like anyone would be. This woman only seems to get her "facts" of gamers from sterotypes of us. Further proof of this is when she says "But the fact is young people — specifically young men and boys". She seems to assume that women don't play these games when in fact they do. Her own article shows her own intolerant and sterotypical views.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Yeah I am a girl gamer & love playing violent games too! SO shoot me b****! But anyways, since she said only young men & boys play it, she has not done her research on the topic of games! Times are changing, yeah young men & boys played them, now older men are playing them. Now yougn girls & women are playing them. She is still living in the old days.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
The question is, has she even seen significant amounts of the gameplay, or has she just seen the trailers then makes judgements based off of just them like every other anti-videogame "activist".
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
More than likely her being an anti-videogame activist. I would hate to be her child(ren).
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: "Violent" Games "Barbaric" and "Harmful"
Another brain-dead idiot whining. How pathetic.
"What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Hornets, Jack Thompson can geaux chase a chupacabra.
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Pelicans. Solidarity for the Saints = No retreat, no surrender. 2013 = Saints' revenge on the NFL. Even through the darkest days, this fire burns always.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Just a correction - it's the Washington Times, not the Washington Post. There's a big difference between the two.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
There's something alarming about the internet age, in which people seem to confuse expert opinion for any old opinion, give that it's loud enough. We have academic studies which have shown that games do not cause harm, and that they do not influence a persons behavior more than any other media. We have american crime statistics which seem to suggest a corrolation between the popularization of videogames and a decrease in violent crime. And we have an enormous population of normal people who all play various videogames.
And yet, we see people associating violent crimes with video games over and over. Doom with Collumbine, GTA with Virginia Tech -- it almost seems like they're waiting to link Call of Duty to this Fort Hood shooting. But we know that the Collumbine kids were otherwise disturbed, and that the Virginia Tech shooter didn't even play games -- you'd think the bleating would stop, but the loud opinions have presupposed that violent games are responsible for violent crimes, despite the empty void that is their evidence.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Yeah you have a point. I have never heard any point a finger at games to true crime that happens all the time & in the past as you explained. I think all the columnist is saying that it could happen. But has it? No. The Fort Hood Shooting happened b/c the Maj. Hasan guy snapped. He couldn't take it & him being processed to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. So sad. :( Oh well, another psycho behind bars soon!
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
It isn't anything specific to the internet age, which if anything has ameliorated things a bit by making it easier to fact-check claims. Before most people had even heard of the internet, millions of people have believed all sorts of nonsense: Dungeons and Dragons encourages real occultism, Satanism, and suicide, masturbation causes epilepsy, marijuana is a sexual stimulant that drives black men to assault white women, Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in religious ceremonies. The anti-game hysteria is largely fueled by politcians and large mainstream media outlets, neither of which need the internet to do their thing.
Whenever a new form of entertainment or communication becomes known enough, it becomes the new Horrible Scourge That Will Destroy Us All, and the purveyors of older forms often lead the charge against it. It used to be television, before that it was movies, and before that it was novels. Now it's games and the internet.
Check out my video game humor and commentary blog, Pointless Side Quest!
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Visiting her website, www. marybethhicks.com, reveals that she has worked as a talking-points writer for Captain Teflon, as a communications specialist (a.k.a. spin doctor) for several large corporations, and is an author and columnist. With these qualifications, you DARE to doubt the appropriateness, importance, and expertise of her commentary?
Unfortunately many of the world's citizens would rather be told how to think than actually think for themselves. Even more unfortunately, it seems that a majority of those non-thinkers also tend to listen to snakes like Hicks. She's not an idiot, or dumb. She's very smart, and has used her intelligence to twist the thinking of the non-thinkers so that they hang on her every word, pointing to her image and yelling, "Hallelujah! She speaks the truth, for she is on the Internet where no lies are told, and her opinion agrees with mine!" It's sad, really.
***Homicide-free video gaming since 1972!***
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
That's how these people are coming out of the woodwork, of course I won't play Call of duty Modern warfare 2(because the prequel Sucked)
Watching JT on GP is just like watching an episode of Jerry springer only as funny as the fights
America has just became its own version of the Jerry Springer Show after a bizarre moment in Florida involving a carnival worker.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
The article is stupid and controversial to begin with
Watching JT on GP is just like watching an episode of Jerry springer only as funny as the fights
America has just became its own version of the Jerry Springer Show after a bizarre moment in Florida involving a carnival worker.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Remember, shooting virtual people for entertainment is horrifying, but signing up for a job which involves shooting actual people is the noblest thing you can do.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
The difference is that soldiers never go on shooting rampages that kill many innocent people...
...too soon?
http://www.deathvanquished.com
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Well actually you spoke too soon! The Fort Hood Massacre that happened last Thursday.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Well, I figure that 144 years is enough to get over John Wilkes Booth, if you ask me. But we could be talking about the 46 years since Lee Harvey Oswald, in which case I still think its long enough. Or are we talking about the 43 years since Charles Whitman? Or maybe even about John Allen Muhammad? Because I think 7 years and him being put to death last night are pretty close to good enough.
Yes, I realize that you were talking about the Fort Hood shooting but in case your sarcasm meter didn't go off I felt the need to put this line in.
And in case you don't know the names mentioned - 1. Lincoln's assassin and a Confederate soldier, 2. JFK's assassin and former Marine, 3. University of Texas clocktower sniper and former Marine, 4. D.C. Metro area sniper and former Sgt. in the US Army.
Much respect to the men and women who serve honorably, even if they do follow a wayward path later in life.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
While I am guessing you are correct in what event was suggested, my mind actually jumped to a differnt place when I read that.
The examples I thought of were more along the lines of the many cases of soldiers under pressure taking it out on civilian targets when they can not find the actual targets, or how group think and fear can turn even well trained soldiers into monsters if they do not have clear and strong leadership stopping them.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
We need soemone to bitch about people sensationalizing sht and pandering to fear.....
Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy! Stop supporting big media and furthering the criminalization of consumers!! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
---
http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
I think her next book should be called "Being a Cunt: How to Turn Your Kids Into Social Pariahs by the Age of 10."
http://www.deathvanquished.com
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Or at minimal, 'How to warp and repress your kids by failing to provide them with healthy outlets for natural play thus preventing them from developing valuable skills for dealing with thier own emotions and conflict resolution.'
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Yeah I agree w/you.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Yeah, the title of the book makes it sound like she hates kids. I wouldn't trust her to raise a hamster let alone a kid.
"That's not ironic. That's justice."
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/04/19/
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
The term "barbaric" is thrown around quite a bit lately all over the political spectrum. Now playing videogames is considered barbaric. In college, I got shit from (liberals) for practicing martial arts and eating hamburgers because it was "barbaric". Stupidity all around, and it dilutes what true barbarism is.
True Barbarism applies to things like legally stoning people to death, cerimonial genital mutilation, torture, genocide etc. Situations where real people actually hurt/kill other people for no good reason (and there are very few good reasons) is barbarism.
Seriously, the term is being diluted and overused in the same way "nazi" or "racist" is being overused.
Re: Post Columnist: Violent Games Barbaric and Harmful
Well, if you want to be technical, 'true' barbarism is an ethnic slur that was later expaned to encompas other people who acted like the perceived group. So its altered usage has a much longer history then its dilution today.