Gen Con is full of rampaging, violent video-gamers


Gamer Life General Discussion

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I would say "you can't make this stuff up," but you can make this stuff up, apparently.

Local view: Video-gaming convention not a good idea for Duluth

I LOL'd. Enjoy!

-Skeld

Silver Crusade

Welcome to the upper Midwest.
Anything out of the major cities... :(

Someone needs to remind Duluth the economy sucks and gamers spend. ;)


That was made even more surreal by the ad for The Hobbit in cinemas just to the right of the article.

Silver Crusade

It seemed to focus on violent video game rpgs. Now while I haven't played any of the listed titles, are any of them RPGs?

And while video games are discussed at Gen Con, that's not really the focus. At least not while I'm there it isn't. I guess I d bring a PSP with me.

And Duluth is closer than Indy to me. Plus I know someone there.


The author lost my interest when he wrote "accompanied with".

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I found the article so slanted even a carpenter couldn't fix it, even for an editorial. My biggest problem isn't the fact that the author is throwing "facts" around that don't pertain to the subject at hand or his complete lack of knowledge of the subject he's writing on, but the fact that there will be someone who reads it and uses this to make up their mind about conventions and games in general.

Silver Crusade

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Oh awesome. Games apparently don't have protagonists, they have "main perpetrators".

This article is like reading a treatise on hip-hop from one's racist grandpa. If he were from Mars. Of the Bizarro Universe.

Gencon violence? Can't say I've ever heard of any pen to eye assault at Gencon.


Now, ask any scientist who's done research on the subject (all of them who aren't Norwegian anyway) and they'll tell you that video games actually REDUCE violent urges by providing an outlet for them in a no-harm setting.


I noticed there was a lack of "facts" about how the violent crimes rate spikes every year in cities hosting other 'con' events during the time they are being held. This article reminds me of others from the 70's and 80's and the witch hunt mentality of D&D. Now it's "violent video games" instead of RPG's. Sadly, some people will read this not knowing better and believe it.

-Flea


Why are people so ignorant.


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I don't know. >_>

Silver Crusade

If I explain it, doctor_wu, will it make you feel better? Or simply lose more faith in humanity? ;)


I have none to lose! Lay it on me.


What a clown.

Silver Crusade

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He should "go home and be a family man."


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I find myself curious if anyone's ever done a credible study of any "casual link" between violent behavior and full-contact sports like Boxing and Football, etc...?

Because I can just imagine the kinds of responses a "Ban Football!" editorial would garner in Duluth....

The Exchange

Jmacq1 wrote:

I find myself curious if anyone's ever done a credible study of any "casual link" between violent behavior and full-contact sports like Boxing and Football, etc...?

Because I can just imagine the kinds of responses a "Ban Football!" editorial would garner in Duluth....

don't be silly, sport could never ever lead to violance...


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Difference being, Sports is a bigger moneymaker. From grade-school little league teams, college, all the way to the majors. There'll never be a ban on sports of any kinds as long as it brings in revenue.

When I was in high school, our art department was an embarrassing shamble, but we had shiny new LED scoreboards for the football team, despite having one of the worst teams in our region.


Sadly Josh is correct. Sports are simply too good at making money and too ingrained in our culture to ever be revoked at that level.

The worst you'll likely ever see is the punishment of the offending individual. And more often than not, coaches, parents, and/or fans will go out of their way to cover for them, make excuses, or otherwise weasel out of any punishment or limitations if they can.


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I must say, I much prefer people cheering at people kicking a ball into a goal than killing each other for sport. Panem et spectatem is an ancient truth, the difference is what kind of spectatem a culture has.

Also, if given the choice, I would also prefer it if RPGs and related interests remained the no-money underdog and not grew to replace sports. Can you imagine the anti-doping regulations? The accusations? The speculations about RPG clubs and their leaderships? The discussions of why a season was good for a certain player?

Take a look at the rules forums here. Imagine if every issue there was backed by billion-dollar interests both ways. Imagine if accusing someone of being a bad GM was a career-altering situation for that person? Lawsuits over such claims? For the love of all that is unholy, can you imagine the carnage of Edition War II?

Meh. They can keep it.


Sissyl wrote:
Also, if given the choice, I would also prefer it if RPGs and related interests remained the no-money underdog and not grew to replace sports. Can you imagine the anti-doping regulations?

What do you mean, I can't have my Mountain Dew?!


Not if you want to play....


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Sissyl wrote:
Not if you want to play....

Now that would be truly unholy. Can you also picture how out-of-control LARP'ing could get? We could just use XCrawl as a template.


Quick notes:

- The writer is badly out of touch.

- Someone should tell him Gencon is mostly about pen and paper games, card games, board games, and miniatures.

- Also, the video games he listed weren't even played last year (as far as I can tell).

- I've not seen any violence in 4 years of Gencons. There's more violence from fans watching the average <insert sport> game. Especially if you live in PHI, heh.

- If people of Duluth are that stupid, it's better not to host there anyway.


I...wasn't seriously proposing banning sports.

More just noting that it's likely just as big a "cause" of violence as video and role-playing games (probably even bigger, I'll grant, but in all cases not nearly so much of a "cause" as people like to scapegoat things as).

Bottom line is that just about anything can incite violent behavior under the right circumstances. I'm just sick of idiots (and particularly idiot politicians) trying to turn hobbies that millions of perfectly normal, generally non-violent and mentally balanced people enjoy into scapegoats because they're too afraid to talk about what the REAL problems are (poverty, lack of adequate mental health services, etc...).

It's easier to restrict video games than to do something that would *gasp* require spending more money, in other words.


Skeld wrote:
Local view: Video-gaming convention not a good idea for Duluth

I'm willing to put down real cash on the wager that the author is in fact a fourteen-foot, green-skinned humanoid with a severe underbite.

The article decries "aggressive behavior" with a level of willful ignorance that only serves to incite rage. If she (Cooley) was a bit more honest, the title would read something along the lines of "Stay Away from My Children You Fat, Smelly Bastards"--not to insinuate that Cooley stereotypes gamers or anything. Is this trail of insanity that common in the Mid-West? I really don't have a rational response for this sort of absurdity...humanity really needs a sort of evasive, invertebrate predator to cull the herd.


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Successful Troll think Successful Troll know writer from Troll University.


Bwuh!?!?


Skeld wrote:

I would say "you can't make this stuff up," but you can make this stuff up, apparently.

<snip>
-Skeld

It's super easy.


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Not sure if its a typo or not but I find this quote particularly funny...

“exposure to violent video games is casually[sic] linked to increased aggressive behavior

Well if the link is only casual than there is nothing to worry about is there...

a causal link however might be something to worry about.


Yeah, you aggressively kill the enemies in game, chill out and then do what you have to do (with no-one taking a d12 greataxe to the face irl), job, study, family and otherwise.


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"Thog power attack for 1d12 + 520 points of damage!"
"Boy, I sure hope he rolls a 1!"


Oh my God! People are playing games called DEMON'S souls, dark souls PREPARE TO DIE and SOUL SACRIFICE (long anticipated? Have any of you even heard of this game?)!?

The only way they could shock a stupid audience even further was if they could find a game called GORE DEATH MURDER and its popular sequal GORE DEATH MURDER 2: DEMON KILL!

I loved how they followed up the section referring to demon's souls and dark souls with the guy talking about gun violence in video games. Yeah, cause I'm strolling in boletaria dual wielding pistols and shotguns with Dante.


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The sad part for these "casual link" people is that violent crime statistics go up when the movies do not show violent movies, and conversely, go down when they start doing so. If what they are doing wasn't so damaging, they would make a fun laughing stock.


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Jmacq1 wrote:

I find myself curious if anyone's ever done a credible study of any "casual link" between violent behavior and full-contact sports like Boxing and Football, etc...?

Because I can just imagine the kinds of responses a "Ban Football!" editorial would garner in Duluth....

You could point out the truth that no violence happens at Game Cons... while several sporting events are followed by full out riots filled with burning and looting, even in an otherwise peaceful Canadian city after a hockey game to name one recent example.


Sissyl wrote:

"Thog power attack for 1d12 + 520 points of damage!"

"Boy, I sure hope he rolls a 1!"

Not sure I have ever seen the +520, buuut, I guess I don't play such high level games.


Aranna wrote:
Jmacq1 wrote:

I find myself curious if anyone's ever done a credible study of any "casual link" between violent behavior and full-contact sports like Boxing and Football, etc...?

Because I can just imagine the kinds of responses a "Ban Football!" editorial would garner in Duluth....

You could point out the truth that no violence happens at Game Cons... while several sporting events are followed by full out riots filled with burning and looting, even in an otherwise peaceful Canadian city after a hockey game to name one recent example.

Reminds me of the talk show guys predicting "violent protesters" during the ramp up to the Iraq war. There wasn't any violence, but when sports fans go on a rampage, we're supposed to look the other way.

My experience at cons has been incredibly positive, with the only violence occurring in imaginary games. The folks are as friendly as could be.


3.5 Loyalist wrote:
Sissyl wrote:

"Thog power attack for 1d12 + 520 points of damage!"

"Boy, I sure hope he rolls a 1!"
Not sure I have ever seen the +520, buuut, I guess I don't play such high level games.

I'm guessing you don't read Order of the Stick. ;)


OotS rewls. Also, me love Thog.


thog likes puppies.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Aranna wrote:
Jmacq1 wrote:

I find myself curious if anyone's ever done a credible study of any "casual link" between violent behavior and full-contact sports like Boxing and Football, etc...?

Because I can just imagine the kinds of responses a "Ban Football!" editorial would garner in Duluth....

You could point out the truth that no violence happens at Game Cons... while several sporting events are followed by full out riots filled with burning and looting, even in an otherwise peaceful Canadian city after a hockey game to name one recent example.

You must be going to different cons than I do.. Just kidding.

It does remind me of what I could only describe as a strategically amazing coincidence or a strategically amazing genius of business acumen that one of the nan desu kan anime conventions in colorado a few years back was being held on the exact same weekend in the exact same hotel as a tattoo convention. Good times were had by all.

You create the window of opportunity to combine the forces of two groups, for whom the attitudes of 'laisses faire' and 'let the good times roll' is more of a mantra than a suggestion and you end up with a real 'beauty of the human experience' moment.

I'm not gonna say it was the woodstock of color and blood and pain, but it was definitely a scenario that became greater than the sum of its parts and was a pretty awesome weekend.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber
Sissyl wrote:
OotS rewls. Also, me love Thog.

No matter how many people he kills, the audience still thinks he's lovable.


TriOmegaZero wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
OotS rewls. Also, me love Thog.
No matter how many people he kills, the audience still thinks he's lovable.

He's like a puppy like that. He might be a ravenous killer, but he's so childishly happy the whole time and unwaveringly, slavishly loyal that it gets lost in all the "d'awwwwww".


Orthos wrote:
3.5 Loyalist wrote:
Sissyl wrote:

"Thog power attack for 1d12 + 520 points of damage!"

"Boy, I sure hope he rolls a 1!"
Not sure I have ever seen the +520, buuut, I guess I don't play such high level games.
I'm guessing you don't read Order of the Stick. ;)

I did for a time, it got pretty boring after a while. Contracted filleritis and blandaflu. The halfling was the most fun, but the jokes around him also got old and often-repeated.

What happens in game is so much funnier and more memorable than stick; although oglaf is pretty good, but episodic so it dries up slower.

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