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I know we've got quite a few gamers here...so I bring this to you.

Anyone who saw author Cooper Lawrence's appearance on Fox News, during which she bashed Mass Effect, could have predicted some kind of reaction from the gaming crowd, but their retaliation has taken a particularly creative turn.



Rather than simply post angry messages on a forum somewhere, incensed gamers decided to use Amazon's Customer Image, Tagging, and User Reviews to tweak the listing for Lawrence's book, The Cult of Perfection.

The top ten tags for the self-help volume now included terms like "junk," "hack," "bigot," and "hypocrite." More than 500 user reviews were added in the past few days, universally panning the book and bringing its rating down to a lowly single star.

Many of the reviews mimic Lawrence's opinions on Mass Effect, with lines like "It has full on sex and nudity, explicitly describes sexual situations, and is the posterchild of what is wrong with books today. Of course I never read a single page of this book, but that shouldn't matter."

The Customer Images are an assortment of Mass Effect artwork, macros, commentary on Lawrence's credibility, and a suggestion that you might want to pick up the Mass Effect novel instead.

YouTube link to the Fox News broadcast mentioned.
Source of article. I got the YouTube video from...YouTube.

I found this particularly humorous and figured I'd share with you fine folks. Enjoy. ^^

of FOX news when will they learn, if they keep pushing shite down our throats we're just going to have to start shoving shite down theres....

Lol she should be shot dead on the spot. and i dont even play the game lol

its fox news so tbh i was kinda expecting something much worse than this

Hasn't this been done before?

....rofl, when will people learn not to fight gamers unless they have an e-penis big enough to take on millions of gamers. I think she has probably looked up the meaning of "pwned" on wiki (probably had that article on there too...).


Oh lol.... I couldn't stop laughing when I was watching that broadcast. A bunch of people that have never played video games saying how bad it is for kids to play them... They don't even consider the fact that it improves reflexes, individuality, problem solving skills, etc etc. Are people this oblivious? I've seen 5 year olds curse better than 20 year olds, and I am pretty sure they didn't learn all those colourful words from a video game *cough*parentsfighting*cough*

"Have you ever played Mass Effect?"

"No of course not."

End of subject.

lol @ people being butthurt about videogames and not being responsible parents enough to take responsibility for what their kids do.

Although I think she has no right to criticize on gamer's rights to enjoy themselves and relax especially if she has not played video games. It is preposterous for you to suggest gaming improves reflexes, individuality, problem solving skills. Maybe improved reflexes at some levels.

Firstly, individuality are you kidding me? It is not a build up of individuality when everyone says lol/pwnd/ownd and the whole everyone must achieve same objectives by leveling in MMORPGs, must say theres a hell of a lot of role playing in that isn't there. The limited genres, WW2 FPS is popular, so thousands of the same thing are created, MOH, BF, COD just to name a few big ones. There is no individuality but there is a conditioning of thousands to make them pay for game subscriptions.

More absurdly, problem solving skills? Apparently video game culture has only one solution to solving problems, violence. Just all the school shoot outs, how much of that has happened before video games? Not to mention the negative albeit unintentional messages from games, Counterstrike, spend hours trying to shoot others. GTA, being a thug and shooting people you don't like is cool. MMORPGs(Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.), hack through thousands and millions so you can "own" others in a virtual world. These themes can't improve a persons problem solving skills.

What's just absolutely ridiculous is, five year old cursing, blame it on parents arguing? Parents arguing has been around for thousands of years in fact domestic violence has been around for thousands of years; recent years this has decreased because of laws passed. Go back 50 years, do kids know anywhere NEAR as many curses they do now? Yet You still blame it on the arguing? Although this cannot be wholly blamed on video games, internet must take great responsibility, however the internet has definitely brought many advantages, although I won't get into that since that is not what this is about.

In a health perspective, there are many negative health effects you get from sitting down and staring a screen for hours. No doubt, myopia, weight gain, diabetes has come to mind. What makes this worse is, there is absolutely NO positive health effects from gaming, at least not noticeable ones.

If you had thought clearly at all, you would not have thought that gaming has so many positive sides. The only realistic positives in gaming is social, keeps kids out of the street, and enjoying themselves but I would confidently declare that the negatives out number the positives. I hope people who do think alike to you, wake up and see reality.

edited for grammar mistakes.

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/15 ... ewpoints=1

I'm having a ball reading this. Great find!

LOL

XuChu you would do well to research positive effects on gaming before replying so passionately. And kids didn't just start swearing a few years ago because of video games either, you can blame that on their environment. There are plenty of games out there that haven't got a stitch of violence in them.

You can't blame the creators for parents' mistakes. You don't let kids watch rated R movies, so don't let them play violent video games. And exceptions to the rule always happen though, but whose fault is that?

Before anything, good on you for actually being bothered reading such a long post albeit not as thoroughly as I had hoped.

I have said there no positive effects of gaming, at least none noticeable. Now if the positive effect is at all significant,it would not take a passionate gamer to research to know.
I didn't say they kid did not swear few years ago, just no where as much. In addition to that I do not blame games wholly as the cause of kids swearing, I agree you must blame a huge portion of it on their environment, the internet.
Sure games of not a stitch of violence in there? We both know, no one plays those.



I do agree that we can't blame creators, and in my defense, I do not blame the creators they bring employment. My previous post was not about how people should not play games, or it's all the games fault kids are like what they are now. But instead I was trying to prove the advantages of gaming that torinchibi has stated are invalid

Acutally, some games to teach you those things. Reflexes in FPS, helps the skill a lot. Problem solving, theres a lot in games, not in stupid games like SR but still. RTS takes a lot of thought to...but then again most here play CS and Halo so wtf am i saying.

There is a game for everyone. It just so happens that alot of people like driving, shooting, and blowing sh*t up. That was before video games came along though video games just allowed you do do it without hurting anyone. Try playing a game thats takes more depth than the average MMO or FPS like say Phantom Dust for the Xbox. It's an arena combat game where players build decks using over 400 skills separated into 5 types and battle online. Though the community is small i've never seen someone with the same deck as me, i've never seen someone that plays like i do. Im allowed to create a complete individual and unique character for myself and play it the way i think ts best played. Whats more individual than that. Phantom Dust is just one example but once you get away from mainstream gaming you'll find alot of games that promote individuality, Mass Effect is a good choice too with about 6 class to choose from and tons and tons of dialogue you really create an individual experience for yourself each time you play it.


Have you ever played a Wii. How about picked up a Nintendo DS. Played Spyro the dragon, Psychonauts, Mario....Tetris.....Portal? There are a wealth of games out there that promote critical thinking and problem solving and just as many that promote cartoon and unrealistic violence instead of blood and guts and they are still enjoy for people of all ages. One of the first video games i ever played was a learning computer game called Logical Journey of the Zoombinis and that was back when i was afraid to play Sonic because it looked hard.

There were assholes who were hacking long b4 MMO's came along. I don't see you complaining about Organized Sports which promotes the same kind of "owning" mentality and you see parents bring there children to the ball park or the area all the time to watch there favorite team crush some other team, only its not fictional its actually happening.


Different ages. Back then kids didn't curse so openly because they knew if anyone heard them they'd call there parents up and tell them. Nowadays people don't communicate like they used to. Blame society for the lax morals not video games. I guarantee that kids cursed just as much as they do now when they alone and just around other kids. The first time my little brother said a cursed word my dad pulled out the belt. In my family we don't curse inside the house, we don't curse around family but i learned my first curse words from hearing my dad yell at my mom. So yes BLAME THE PARENTS. Its natural for kids to pick up what they hear and think its ok. Its the PARENTS JOB to set the limits. If you see your kid cursing or swearing make him understand its not ok, don't blame it on video games and consider job done.


MODERATION. All things are bad if used/done excessively. I love playing 360 but i only play it about 6-12 hours a week. When i was playing SRO i'd play for 3 hours a day max and eventually that got cut down because i do have a life outside the grind. You get diabetes from gaining weight, you gain weight from poor diet, video games DO NOT CAUSE POOR DIET. If you are too lazy to get off your ass and cook a good meal then you deserve to gain weight but do not blame video games from someones bad choice in health. I am about 6'2 or 6'3 by now and i weigh 145, i spend most of my days in class or in front of a screen of some kind. I have good vision and hearing and have a great head of hair. I am an avid video game enthusiast. There is nothing wrong with me.

Furthermore studies have been dome that show that video games promote hand eye coordination and are capable to keeping people attention longer than most normal teacher or exercise so they can easily be used to speed up various kinds of physical therapy and promote learning. So yeah im not saying video games will save your life but i know people who've lost 30-50 pounds playing DDR alot. Taken in moderation a good video game isn't bad for you.



Your attention to detail is what impressed me the most. You should be a fox news reporter....seriously.....VIDEO GAMES CAN LEAD TO DIABETES!!!!.....gimme a break

God fox news is so, so fuc*king bad...

Xemnas, you beat me to defending myself....

I didn't just mean individuality as in character. I also meant becoming independent. For example. A lot of 40 year olds that have never really played video games would have trouble making critical desicions, picking up concepts quickly, ...I will even go as far as saying they learn slower.

My backup? Schools system keeps congesting class plans because kids find stuff like spending all of grade 1 learning addition and all of grade 2 learning multiplication boring. It's just too easy. Canadian school system just recently reduced from grade 13 to grade 12 for high school diploma. I was part of the first few classes that had to stuff 2 years into 1 and sure it was harder in grade 11 and 12, but I knew more than my dad's first year in university 20 years before that. How many times have your parents asked you what to do? Because my parents relied on me more than they relied on each other, when I was 15. Ever taught your parents something about computers? I could dismantle my computer and rebuild it when I was 16, format and reinstall os when i was 13, all because I wanted my games to work better. I am poisitive you can find statistics that say kids now learn much faster than their parents did 20 years ago, and games where learning curve is exponential in the first 5 hours greatly contribute to that.

1 of my friends did a presentation for gr 11 on positive side effects of games, and he had to cite every source, so it wasn't just BS out of his ass. Here is a little fact you didn't know: young surgeons that play video games have higher mobility and accuracy than those who haven't. In fact, a game performed an operation with one of those joystick surgery machines with no experience/training on the machine (on a pig, not human), with the doctor telling him what to do. He did it almost as fast as the surgeon himself. I don't have the sources, and not about to spend time looking for them, but my friend had legitimate studies done by researchers.

Let's not even talk about problem solving skills, since that comes up everywhere, even in FPS. Should I use gun 1 or 2, which one is better, which, where is the best place to camp, how do I avoid getting killed. What problem solving was there 50 years ago? I would die from lack of brain stimulus if I had to go 50 years back in time.

You think swearing didn't exist 50 years ago? Sure did. Maybe some of the more colourful insults didn't, but I am sure if you asked your father what <insurt hard core swear word> means he would whoop your ass. Kids swear more because they have more rights now, and parents are getting scared of getting child services called on them. Maybe in a country where people still beat their kids, they wouldn't swear as much, but I wouldn't swear either if I had to get spanked for saying something.

You can say video games cause violence, but I can say video games provide an outlet for violence. I would rather have my kid shoot pixels than blow a fuse and grab my gun (not that I have a kid or a gun) and decide to kill those bullies in school.

12 year olds have sex nowadays, and it's not like it's not on TV. A kid can play your porno vids easier than your video game. It only takes 1 button to play a video...unlike a video game, so a 2 year old can watch a porno, and if they can play San Andreas, then the kid deserves credit for being smart enough to do it.

Either way, I don't see a bunch of kids walking around with guns, because thats what the parents are for. Let your kid play the appropriate games, and teach them what's not possible. (Not leave them alone with an axe, with Lineage 2 on and see if they kill their brother in 1 shot or 15 like in the game....true story.)

I hate video games...They're the cause of my laziness and procrastination.. If I never started playing video games I would have a 3.9 GPA instead of a 3.4.

I;ve quit video games and moved up to the next worst thing....SRF

The study out of Maryland is total BS. Young kids such as 13 and under will learn things about life such as sexuality through video games but by the time you actually have a relationship with someone those ideals then change. The critics assume that once someone at that age has learned something then it can not be changed. Bottom line is: the critics are wrong.

Like you said your game is more depth than the average game, but because the community is small the influence is small. You can’t bring out this game and use it represent the influence of video games. What games influences more people your game or World of Warcraft?



Sure there are ‘a wealth’ of games out there that promote critical thinking. But the number of people they influence can’t compare with games like counter strike etc. I could say things about Organized Sports; however that is not what the thread is about.


Because the 12 yrs olds that don’t curse because they don’t want mommy to find out and everybody is so mature that they don’t flame back when others flame them, and get into the habit of it. I learnt all my curse words when I played text based MMO’s when I was smaller, sure parents are responsible but is every parent wise enough to know before it was too late that the innocent looking orange fox curling up on a blue ball opens up to a world of assholes? Blame society, but just who is society made up of? Their environments, and a gamer’s environment is their online friends.





Moderation just how many play by moderation now a days, who encourages moderation, how many games have a huge piece of text saying PLAY WITH MODERATION like cigarette packets do, how would kid know of moderation, you ask to much of your average Joe. Hand eye co-ordination, just what that does for you in the long run, in comparison to good eye site and time? Attention longer, please tell me more I’d be intrigued into knowing how many more minutes people’s attention span could increase by playing years of game, obviously because nothing else more healthy could do it. Wow you actually know people who lose weight playing DDR, but I’ll bet to you I know more people who gain weight than you know that lose weight.




My attention to detail? Please check your own writing before you criticize other people’s attention to detail.

Funny that we always get “help I with girl” “how do I do <insert FAQ here>” topics on SRF even though most of us are avid gamers, and apparently ‘pick up concepts quicker and make more critical decisions and learn faster’.



My god you’re using modern day’s improved education system as your ‘backup’ to why gaming help you? I assure you in the days of your parent’s computers were a lot less accessible and they used type writers and libraries. Sure kids know more than their parents now, but they no doubt know more than your grand parents and your grand parents know more than your great grand parents. Just like the Stone Age lasted a lot longer than Iron Age. It is because humans with help of our accessible technologies improve faster and faster, I’m surprised your teachers never taught you that, or were you too ‘busy’ to take notice.


I won’t doubt the legitimacy of your post, your example is almost worthless it’s like the story with the guy who saved others playing the medic tutorial for AA. It’s effect is barely noticeable and those simulation machines I would argue, are not video games.







Yes because it is that hard finding the damage set on the differentdifferent guns. It is just that important to know where to camp and because by hopping around like a retard you can dodge bullets in real life and avoid getting killed. P


Because domestic violence is just that rare, parents are now living in a reign of fear of their kids calling child services. LMAO just that thought made me laugh.


From what I know school shoot outs did not exist before violent video games. Violent games and your ‘shooting pixels is alright’ ethic cause ambiguity in growing kid’s minds. One day they bring a gone and shoot half their class.


2 year old watching porno, seriously what’s wrong with you? That’s just disgusting even hypothetically.


You’ve obviously never had children, if everyone kid listens to their parents every words so strictly we would have a much more perfect society. Moreover your stance on this topic is becoming unclear.

edit

Dam that was a lot of replies lol

You're not the only one, there are a lot of people. But only few realise, and fewer change.

When have I blamed the developers? In fact I thanked the developers for bringing employment, and you are bringing in a lot of 'learning video games.' They are completely beside the point of the disadvantages in playing video games. You don't see Jack Thompson filing a lawsuit against 'Bob the builder's maths game.'
My intention are not to 'blame' games for the damage they cause. But just to say their disadvantages are clear and advantages are unnoticeable.

And, I'm glad you share your opinions of disagreement with me without flaming.
But you don't know me, in fact chances are you don't even know how old I am. So stop trying to say I have problems, and your subtle personal attacks.

I think their advantages are there but the media blows up their disadvantages more so thats why they're more noticeable. If Jack Thompson didn't hate video games no one on this forum would know who he was and he wouldn't be getting paid nearly as much for what he does.

People like Jack Thompson and FOX news prey on peoples insecurities and need to not feel guilty for how things are the way they are. They exploit the isolated incidents that occur within various fields and then outrageously and baselessly link them to other problems with society so people feel better about having something to blame. They can say "its not my fault im fat its video games" and "Its not my fault im angry and violent, its video games"

It just gets annoying seeing people buy into those kinds of things and really threw me for a loop when you tried to link video games to diabetes....you couldn't have been serious if you thought through. But i bet FOX news will come out with a story and the public will eat it up messing up the image of video games even more so that when people think video games their minds don't automatically go to the good things they go straight to school shootings and fat kids.

srry bout the personal attacks...>>

Np, the reason I feel the way I feel about video games is because since I was 3 my dad put me on his lap and show me his games. Because of that I'm myopic since 7. Sorry if I made you mad with the diabetes thing, it's just I thought it'd be what people would normally think about when they picture fat gamers.

XuChu, don't take this the wrong way, but do you have so little confidence in your ability to distinguish games from reality, right from wrong, excessive from moderate? I don't see how you can make an argument about games being bad for you when you said you played them when you were young. You are pretty much bashing yourself by saying kids have no self control. If you did, why wouldn't others. Why wouldn't they learn and think for themselves rather than follow whatever is suggested in the game. Kill, steal, beat, all those normal occurrences in video games just don't seem to be causing masses of children to go on murder sprees with the nearby kitchen knife.

You seem to give kids and people's parenting abilities less credit than they deserve. I was never treated as a pet when I was a child, I was treated as someone who needs to learn some basic values and principles. I had my fair share of mistakes, but I was taught how to avoid them, and I can tell you I turned out just fine, even though I've been playing "violent" video games since I was 7. I've always avoided violence because I was taught it's not the answer to everything, sure I got into a fight or two, and maybe I almost burned down a building while playing with matches, but I am not walking around angry at everything that passes and thinking I have to kill all my enemies.


I would reply all those replies on my last post, but I don't think I need to.

The good thing about being myopic is that as you grow old your sight starts going towards far sightedness, so myopics end up with a pretty good vision when they are 70. BTW, when you were 3, the quality was probably so horrible (of the screens and the pixel graphics) that it strained your eyes way more than it does so with today's LCD displays and plasma screens. I've played games for over 10 years, and my vision is almost perfect...and people in my family aren't known for great vision.

I'm myopic since i was 4 because of video games... But i dont see myself hating them or stopping to play them anytime soon >_>

Well put it this way, would you rather kids blowing the hell out of a digital person's head or a real person's head? As simple as that, alot of people use games as a way to relax, or a way to "get away" from things that are happening in real life.

Also, through online games, you can find friends, and they can be very close ones too, they don't have to be sitting right next to you to still be a friend.

And to whoever said that 50 years ago, kids weren't cursing as much as they are now, and its partly because of video games, well 50 years ago there was 1/100 the amount of divorce's there are now, parent's weren't fighting, screaming, swearing, etc. back then either.

Shootout's exist because of ignorance, and wars, and the freaking news. If the news didn't make such a big deal about it, kids probably wouldn't want to as much. Some teenager see's a guy on tv for 6 months because the media doesn't just show what happened, but they almost glorify it the way they show it. So the teenager goes, oh look, I wanna be on tv too. Bam bam, dead people(lmao). Fighting is human nature, its going to happen. Yes, people shoot each other, but its been that way for hundreds and hundreds of years. And before that they hit each other with rocks to death. How many kids play video games...millions, how many go shoot people...you see, what, like maybe 2-3 shootings a year? 2-3 out of millions of people. Yeah...thats so bad. There's not a person on earth who can say that shootings happen because and ONLY because of video games, there ALWAYS another reason. And nobody can prove otherwise.

People have their right to opinions, but when people go around blaming things that happen because of games. They don't know that, they just want to blame someone( or thing in otherwords) instead of themselves. (I'm not saying anyone on this forum is doing that, I just mean people in general.)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15623754
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopic

The top link is a study showing myopia is probably not caused by near work (computer games, reading)

The bottom link is the wikipedia article on it and this opinion is expressed in the theories section.....

from the sounds of it whether you played video games or not you were going to end up near sighted...