Tag Archive for 'Virginia Tech'

New York State Senator Lanza continues to milk the Virginia Tech tragedy for political gain

The anti-video game bill championed by New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and New York State Senator Andrew Lanza has been passed by the New York State Senate in four days after getting introduced. Looks like the debate over the bill was thorough and comprehensive. Not.

Andrew Lanza continues his blatant exploitation of the Virginia Tech tragedy to promote his misguided attempts to save the kids from these awful video games. His press release about the passing of the bill says:

“The recent release of ‘V-Tech Massacre,’ a sick game which exploits the Virginia Tech University tragedy, is a painful reminder of the culture of violence which has severe consequences on our youth and society”

Wow. That’s wrong in so many levels it boggles the mind and begs questions as to Andrew Lanza’s ability to effectively legislate the video gaming industry since is blatantly obvious he knows nothing about it.

First of all, the game was created by an Australian, so it’s rather interesting why it has any bearing on “our” society. He could’ve pulled out all the guns and dug up some Islamist game as well, but that would require him to actually have some knowledge of video games. Instead, he clings onto a sensationalist, headline gathering soundbyte to camouflage his bill as something that could’ve prevented the Virginia Tech tragedy. That’s kinda interesting as well, because the shooter did not play video games. Instead he wrote poems and plays. Let’s ban those next, eh?

Secondly, the game was created by a hobbyist and is not commercially available, so it wouldn’t be subjected by the very bill Lanza is marketing for…even if the game was made by an US citizen. Again, Lanza demonstrates shocking lack of knowledge about the subject matter he’s drafting bills for. Or he knows this and is blatantly exploiting the fact other people know even less about video games than he does. Either way, he’s unfit to legislate the video game industry either as a clueless dumbass or an unscrupulous manipulative liar.

That being said, his bill does have some redeeming qualities. It contains some elements that would increase consumer awareness and accuracy of the video game ratings present in every commercially available video game in the country. The number one problem with the video game rating system in the United States is that parents are either unaware of them or completely ignore them. The bill is doing something to address that, which is good

However, as GamePolitics.com reports, since the bill also goes on to criminalize the sale of mature rated video games to minors, it will be struck down as unconstitutional by the courts. Lanza and Spitzer must’ve been aware of this before the bill was introduced, I have absolutely no doubt about it. As such, they would’ve known it would be fruitless to introduce and pass the bill as far as making it a law goes. Therefore they must’ve had other reasons for introducing the bill. I wonder when Lanza is up for re-election again…

Anyway, as a New York State resident, I will foot the legal bills, and indirectly fund Senator Lanza’s re-election campaign. Make no mistake about it, that’s what this bill is all about. Hugging babies and saving the children have always been a popular campaigning tricks. I’m just hoping Senator Lanza would use his own money to campaign for office, instead of mine. I consider what he’s doing to be fraud.

-TPP

Design a video game mod – get arrested for being a terrorist

A 17-year-old high school student was arrested, his home was raided, and he was transferred to a special-ed school when the school board found out he had created a Counterstrike map of his high school. The police was called in to investigate terroristic threats against the school. There was no explicit threat. The student hadn’t written a threatening email or letter, he hadn’t talked about attacking the school, he had no weapons, nor morbid interest in anything violent. All he did was design a 3D representation of his high school in a video game.

Counterstrike is a first-person shooter (FPS) video game where you play either a terrorist (robbers) or a counter-terrorist agent (cops). It allows users to create maps over which the game can be played. Its popularity is directly related to the high number of user generated maps (or mods, as they’re called). If it wasn’t for these mods, the game would’ve long been forgotten.

What makes the story even more “interesting” is that the student is Chinese. Oh, man! Double-whammy! An Asian kid playing video games. He MUST be a mass murderer in training just like that other Asian kid, right?

But the story just keeps on getting better. When the police raided his home, apparently they found a weapon. The weapon was promptly confiscated so that it couldn’t be used against the students at the high school. The student, after all, is a suspected mass murderer. His weapon of choice? A hammer. Yes, a hammer. At someone’s home. I am not making this shit up.

Poor kid. He’s obviously gifted in computers and architecture to have been able to create the map in the first place, but instead of being encouraged to develop his talents, he’s being transported to a special-ed school. The whole thing is complete insanity.

Creating mods for the games has been popular ever since Doom first allowed it years ago. It has long been a vehicle for amateur video game designers to showcase their talents and in some cases to actually become professional video game designers. Several of the more popular mods have been commercial blockbusters making their creators rich. Creating a good mod takes considerable talent in multiple disciplines; computer graphics, 3D modeling, video game design and general computing skills. Before the Virginia Tech shooting some schools actually encouraged their students to make mods for school projects. Students were even recognized for such accomplishments.

And now that the issue has boiled over and become public, the school board is bickering about the board members’ motivations to clear this kid’s name. Some of the school board members are accusing the members who called a meeting to resolve the issue for pandering to the Chinese community in the district to buy their votes. What utter bullshit. I hope to God these assholes don’t get their kids in trouble with the school board, cause it seems it’s impossible to get them to do shit.

-TPP

New York State Senator exploiting the Virginia Tech tragedy to promote an anti video game bill

New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer is working on a anti video game bill. He’s going on an media blitz this week shopping his bill.

GamePolitics.com reports State Senator Andrew Lanza has been appointed to head a legislative task force on video game issues.

Apparently the Virginia Tech tragedy is a driving force behind this new efforts. Says Senator Lanza:

“The Virginia Tech massacre is a painful reminder of the culture of violence which has severe and tragic consequences on our youth and for our society,”

Well, I’ll be damned. A politician blatantly exploiting a horrendous tragedy for his own agenda. What else is new. Nice going Andrew.

Senator Lanza should really do some research on these issues, if he’s to head a task force on it. If he did, he would find out that the Virginia Tech shooter was insane, and did not, I repeat not, play video games. But let’s not get the facts get in the way, we must protect the children from these evil video games, eh?

I knew Eliot Spitzer was a bit of an opportunist, but I figured being an attorney he would’ve done his legal research, including an assessment of the First Amendment issues, before going public with plans to introduce a bill that’s 100% certain to get overturned by the courts as unconstitutional, just like in every other state where similar laws have been enacted.

Raising the Virginia Tech tragedy to promote the bill is disgusting, especially since it’s a lie, but there’s also the fact that various US states have been forced to pay legal fees after they’ve lost lawsuits against their anti video game bills. Here’re a few examples of the costs:

Illinois: $510,528.64
Louisiana: $157,548.00
Michigan: $182,349.00

Who’s going to be accountable in the New York State Senate when their anti video game law suffers the same fate? Eliot Spitzer must know he’s on this path, he didn’t become a high profile white collar crime hunter by being ignorant of the facts. It appears, however, in this case he’s willingly ignoring them to do some political pandering.

Let’s hope the Senator and the Governor get some sense in their heads and drop this vote shopping expedition before it is really going to cost New York State tax payers any serious money. And Mr. Lanza, stop being a dispecable piece of shit.

Here’re the contact information for the two gentlemen in case you wish to express your opinions on their money wasting and attention whoring ways:

http://www.ny.gov/governor/contact/index.html

Eliot Spitzer
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

518-474-8390

http://www.nyssenate24.com/contact_info.asp

Senator Andrew J. Lanza

Albany Office
947 LOB
Albany, NY 12247
(518) 455-3215
(518) 426-6852 (Fax)

District Office
3845 Richmond Ave.
Suite 2A
Staten Island, NY 10312
(718) 984-4073

-TPP

Jack Thompson lies on national TV

Kotaku.com editor Brian Crecente has posted the video of Jack Thompsons appearance on Fox News yesterday just hours after the shooting at Virginia Tech.

He goes one step further than just posting the video though. He completely and utterly destroys all “arguments” Jack Thompson made during the appearance. There wasn’t a word of truth to anything he said on TV yesterday.

Facts can be a bitch, right Jackhole?

One would hope, however, that the mass media outlets would at least once actually get someone who’s not a habitual, self-serving liar to comment with or instead of Jack Thompson. How about it Fox News?

-TPP

Dr. Phil claims video games cause mass shootings

Looks like the professional douchebags are coming out of the woodwork everywhere to crucify video games for a few soundbytes and appearance fees.

Dr. Phil made an appearance on Larry King and basically said video games are a ticking time bomb on the hands of unstable people and are the cause of mass shootings.

Tonight on Nancy Gray: Burn Video Games To Save The World?

-TPP

Jack Thompson blames video games for Virginia Tech shooting

Jack Thompson, the ambulance chaser extraordinaire, has done it again.

Gaming blog Kotaku.com reports that hours after the Virginia Tech shooting that left 30+ students dead, Jack Thompson somehow has managed to search the shooter’s apartment, talk to his friends or just plain old see the future. All this before the police even had the identity of the shooter figured out, mind you. And all this before anything about the shooter has appeared on the news.

He’s claiming on Fox News (who else) the shooting was caused by video games. Nice work scumbag. Just as nice work from Fox News. Whatever are you going to air next? Maybe David Duke commenting on the significance of Jackie Robinson to American history?

Those of us who are familiar with Jack Thompson’s modus operandi saw this coming the minute the news about the shooting hit the news. Jack Thompson is just playing a pretty standard number’s game. He’s really a statistician at heart.

He’s made a career out of blaming popular culture for all the evils of today’s world. But he doesn’t pick his targets at random, he works quite methodologically and definitely has studied the famous S-curve phenomenom. He’s always chasing it, and always, always attacks something that’s just made it into the mainstream and is repeatedly in the news. He’s just maximizing his profits. It’s a smart move from an ego-whore like himself.

In the 80s it was about rap music. When that became passe he picked another target, video games. When it becomes old, he’ll pick something else. It’s guaranteed.

By picking targets popular enough he knows at any given time a certain percentage of Americans are enjoying doing whatever he’s attacking. The more popular, the better his chances of capitalizing on blaming his target for anything under the sun. Think about it. What young adult these days has never played video games? The number is fast approaching zero. And Jack Thompson knows it.

What surprises me is how none of the massmedia outlets haven’t caught up to his game yet. It’s so obvious even a moron should get it.

Video games did it. Sure.

-TPP