Hey look, Jack Thompson has an Intern!

[Volourn]

I call that a non apology apology. The guy lied (so much for morals), and continues to spin them. *shrug*

[Nick_i_am]

Actually, that's a pretty mature apology. It takes a lot more guts to admit you are misinformed than it does to just throw up defensive walls. We would get a lot more done if both sides of an argument were willing to listen and try to compromise, and it seems as if this guy is attempting to do so.

 

Agreed, he might have been misinformed and knee-jerking, but he actually took the time to treat 'gamers' as real people, which is all too rare among those of the JT mind-set that games are just murder simulators.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

is he also claiming that theres gay sex? I mean gay gay, not lesbian gay.

 

That was my understanding, although I am almost positive that the game does not allow that -I have not played it yet, no 360, but I have also not heard of that option mentioned in any player reviews-.

[Tale]

I've heard the lack of that option specifically mentioned by players.

[Calax]

Note: my previous two statements were entirly sarcastic and meant to poke holes in the guys arguement.

 

There is no way to change Shep's bust size in the character creation, nor is there any gay sex (nor techncially lesbian given that one of the romance options is of a nongendered race that is pigonholed into female because of boobies and child bearing activities)

[~Di]

After reading this article, I want to run out and get an X-Box to play this clearly pornographic and morals-dessicating game. What?... He lied on every point? Mass Effect is simply a well-made, story-driven, sci-fi role playing game with a few seconds of romance to culminate hours of dedicated wooing? Er... I can't make my PC with a size 40-DD and hump everything that moves? Well... damn. Cancel my X-box order immediately.

 

*sigh*

 

I hate election years...

[thepixiesrock]

Yeah, the male sex scene with that alien chick was a colossal dissapointment. What the crap, I wasted like an hour starting a new game to do it.

[aries101]

I've read about this on the Bioware forums and on other places on the net, too. I also read his apology. I still don't think he gets it, though. As others have pointed out, both here and on his blog, there are several factual flaws in his blog about Mass Effect.

 

The first thing, of course, being that you can customize the size of female Shepard's breasts. You can't. In his apology

 

http://kevinmccullough.townhall.com/blog/g...e#commentAnchor

 

he mentions that he has seen lots of different breast sizes for women in the game in some videos on youtube. Apparently, he doesn't know that you can only customize your own character e.g. the main character and not any other character in the game. If he hung out (like I do ) over athe Bioware forums, he will learn that a lot of people would like to have a romance with Tali as they her as the epitome of mystery.

 

I don't know where he get that Mass Effect primarily are targeted towards the 15-18 year olds. Bioware has clearly stated from the start that they wanted to a Mature game for Mature players. And so they did. As far as I can tell from hearing about the game, the game's main story is one of the best ever written for a videogame so far - on par with the best writing for any movie.

 

He also seems to have failed to understand that there's isn't any state or federal laws (in the US) that prohibits the sale of M-rated games to people under tage age of 17. The ESRB ratings are voluntary, and any restriction about to whom stores sell M-rated games are made by the stores themselves and the parents of a 15year old say young adult. I agree with http://www.gamerdad.com that parents need to become involved in their kids lives when it comes to gaming. They also need to monitor and decide on what games they let their 15 year old kids play. It is the parents that know their kids to best. Hence, we can have one family that allows a 15 year old to play Mass Effect, and another that won't allow their 15 year old kid to play it. This is how the modern world functions. Deal with it. The point is that 15 year olds still can get hold of M-rated games, if and when their parents decide it's OK for them to play it. And that's how it ought to be (and should be, imo).

 

He still doesn't seem to get that the romances and the following (mild) sexscene are entirely optional. In fact, I have seen more skin & nudity in some sex scenes in a romantic Danielle Steel movie. I don't object to sex scenes etc. in games, if they are done in manner so they fit well into the story and are not used for gratuitous sex - just to sell the game. Unfortunately, I'm no fan of how the Bioware marketing team decided to sell Mass Effect as it seems as if they, too, thought that most gamers today are still 18-22 year old college boys, when evidence clearly points out that the average gamer today is about 35 years or even older while women now are about 50% of the gamer population. I agree with him (and others, too) that young children from about 10-14 should not play Mass Effect, but again, the decions must be left up tp the parents, not the state.

 

On the whole sexual act thing, it seems (again) to me that he's been misinformed or just misunderstood something. The Asari (the blue chicks) are not lesbians. They are asexual, or at least they reproduce asexually, but I think the developers (bioware) has classified them as female. (in our sense of the word, at least). Mr. McCollough's point is that Bioware should not even have put the sex scenes in the game at all which, of course, is a valid point, but then he needs to argue why he think it should be so, not just say 'god did not intend it that way'.

 

And no, Mass Effect is contrary to what someone thinks not about sex in space, it's about the human race fighting for its survival with your character doing the best they can to save the human race from -ehm- oblivion.

 

/aries101

[Tigranes]

*shrug* the thing is, all he's done is seen a lot of videos and other secondary evidence regarding Mass Effect; some of which stirred a complaint with society that he has already harboured for a long time. Once activated, he let this build up to a furore, and Mass Effect as an item is no longer his point, at all; Mass Effect is simply one of the many components he has shaped in his mind, consciously and unconsciously, to suit a pre-made anger against the sexuality of our society.

 

Now, I wouldn't say that 'anger' is absolutely unjustified. There is something curious about the scientia sexualis of our times, which insists on killing sex, never talking about sex, but ends up doing so anyway in various roundabout ways, and we have ended up with a Western / Westernised society that is overloaded on particular aspects of sexuality for no real good purpose. But he hurts his cause by accusing things without a basis in reality; he hurts his own ability to understand our society by allowing evidence to support his logic, not his logic to analyse his evidence.

 

His apology - apart from the misunderstanding of the ESRB system which aries pointed out - is generally well-made, I think, and he has made a genuine effort to address some of his uncontrolled energy. The problem is that he has done this while still being unaware of the way in which he has built up this 'instinctive' fear and rejection of media sexuality, and he doesn't clearly understand what exactly is bad about it all - he just knows it's bad. And he will maintain this despite anything a gamer will tell him, because it is so deep-seated now in him (and many of us), it is 'natural'.

[Sand]

Looks like the ignorant asses of Fox News are getting in on this.

 

http://kotaku.com/tag/mass-effect/

 

I really hate conservatives.

[Meshugger]

Looks like the ignorant asses of Fox News are getting in on this.

 

http://kotaku.com/tag/mass-effect/

 

I really hate conservatives.

 

I think that Oscar Wilde said something in the vein of: "People judge others on matters that they hate the most about themselves"

 

Basically, these guys are raving sodomites and they are craving to fuel their perverse fantasies They see what they want to see in Mass Effect.

Edited January 22, 2008 by Meshugger

[Sand]

According to Wilde then I am a conservative.

 

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[samm]

And Jesus was a complete narcissist, loving everything and everyone equally? Strange definition of identity

I sometimes wonder wether stupid people are more likely to become conservative politicians, or if conservative politicians are actually intelligent enough to be betting on the support of the less intelligent part of the population.

Edited January 23, 2008 by samm

[Hurlshort]

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/01/22/1993/

 

The Mass Effect attacks continue. What amazes me is that nobody is actually doing any research or checking their sources on this. If they saw the 3 minute clip on youtube there would be no story here. It's ridiculous, and nobody even seems to care that the game is rated MA. The whole story is "it's a sex game created for kids!" I would really like to see Bioware seek legal recourse, this is basically slander, and it happens too often with video games. It's getting more ridiculous every year.

[Tigranes]

It's depressing, but it's not surprising, *at all*. Not one of it.

 

By the way, I love the names of those date books the psych "expert" has put out.

[Magister Lajciak]

The guy appologized and did so in a decent manner. I think this calls for a cessation of the high minded rhetoric against him.

[Magister Lajciak]

I really hate conservatives.

 

I am a conservative!

[Sand]

Good for you. Now tell your conservative friends such as Cooper Lawrence, Cathy Ruse, Fox News, Kevin McCollough, Jack Thompson, and the rest of the buggers to get a clue about computer and console gaming before they spew forth their misinformed opinions. Conservatives always cry out for small government, a government that shouldn't intrude on private lives and private business then they pull this crap, demanding that the government to censor products, to interfere in the private lives of consumers. Stop the bloody hipocrisy already! I don't want an apologies from these buggers. I want them to do the research before they spew off crap they don't know about.

Edited January 24, 2008 by Sand

[thepixiesrock]

Hey guys, we need to get together and do something about these sex scenes in Mass Effect. I think we should all sign a petition calling for some action to be taken, and for them to rectify the situtation. The sex scenes in Mass Effect just aren't graphic enough. I demand better sex scenes!

[Magister Lajciak]

Good for you. Now tell your conservative friends such as Cooper Lawrence, Cathy Ruse, Fox News, Kevin McCollough, Jack Thompson, and the rest of the buggers to get a clue about computer and console gaming before they spew forth their misinformed opinions. Conservatives always cry out for small government, a government that shouldn't intrude on private lives and private business then they pull this crap, demanding that the government to censor products, to interfere in the private lives of consumers. Stop the bloody hipocrisy already! I don't want an apologies from these buggers. I want them to do the research before they spew off crap they don't know about.

 

 

I don't want to derail this thread or even get it locked, so let me confine my response to this: There are many different types of conservatives. The term is very broad and means different things to different people. I will leave it at that.

[Hurlshort]

The guy appologized and did so in a decent manner. I think this calls for a cessation of the high minded rhetoric against him.

 

What does this have to do with the Fox News story? I agree, the guy apologized and that's great, but the story is still hitting major news stations despite huge inaccuracies. I don't care if it's a liberal or a conservative, it's ridiculous that gaming is blamed for so many of societies woes, and it's insulting that they air these stories without a shred of evidence or research.

[Nick_i_am]

Well, this basically all comes back down to people expecting the media to do their parenting for them.

[Sand]

And that is lazy assed parenting.

[Calax]

The guy appologized and did so in a decent manner. I think this calls for a cessation of the high minded rhetoric against him.

 

What does this have to do with the Fox News story? I agree, the guy apologized and that's great, but the story is still hitting major news stations despite huge inaccuracies. I don't care if it's a liberal or a conservative, it's ridiculous that gaming is blamed for so many of societies woes, and it's insulting that they air these stories without a shred of evidence or research.

well supposedly EA (I think) finially sent a nasty letter to Fox News requesting that Fox retract their story and state the facts.

 

uhh... Full board post from bioboards http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewt...0&forum=104

[Hurlshort]

That's awesome news. I don't know if it will come to fruition, but at least EA is taking some action.