@ptown58 @Cyber_Skaarj From the poor? The people who get fined are the ones who are behind the counter, selling the game to people that should not be buying it. For one, that's illegal, so they *should* be punished, and also, they are hardly poor, considering most people with jobs like that manage to afford big TVs, multiple consoles, internet connections, iphones, etc, etc.
@skelly1331 @SingletreeAve Because it's an easy bandwagon to join that gets them lots of votes. Politicians don't care in any way about any of the controversial topics they so adamantly support, all they care about is their high paying jobs, and they'll pretend to have all sorts of sympathy for a cause if it means getting ticks in their boxes come election time. Those that do actually have a passion for the causes they support are few and very much the exception rather than the rule.
"Bill H.R. 287--known as the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act--is currently being debated in Congress. If it passes, retailers who sell AO- or M-rated games to minors would be punished by a costly fine."
Wow, I didn't realise that the U.S. was so behind the times. We've had that law of fining for selling to minors here in Britain since... oh, just about when games started having age ratings on them.
Seriously, what was the point of putting age ratings on games in the U.S. if they were never going to enforce them?
Depends on which part of the gaming scene you're looking at, but most gamers are of high-school or college age when you look at the hardcore gaming scene. I suspect the "facts" in the article you linked to were taken from gaming as a whole, rather than just specific sections of it.
No it is not ill-informed. Enjoyment of gaming does *not* directly translate into an interest in entering the industry. I have also seen many documentaries that show, directly or indirectly, with supporting facts, figures and interviews, the lack of interest in girls in schools of pursuing an education in things like the traditional sciences or computer sciences. Their interests mostly tend towards en education in social or media based subjects.
And yes, aspirations for the future *are* hardwired into our genetics. Men are genetically predisposed to compete for better living, where women are genetically predisposed to trying to ensure their family is cared for. This isn't something that society has come to define for us, it's what evolution has dictated that humanity's roles are.
That's not to say this isn't changing, we are as a species evolving to adapt to the modern environment, meaning that women are becoming more willing to compete for better lives. But as it is at the moment, most women are still content to just get a job that will support their interests in life and not go any further, or if they are competitive to go for the high profile jobs only in the areas of life that are of interest to them. Of which gaming is not one.
Also, while this article does point out that half the people who play games are women, it fails to point out that, like many people have already commented, the majority of those "gaming" women are casual gamers who play things like simple IOS games or Wii games. When it comes to the more hardcore side of the gaming community, a very large percentage of that is male. Very few of those that play games like Tribes or Planetside, for example, are female.
No, the reason women are sexualized in games *isn't* because of sexism. It's because, just like in every other media based industry, the games industry knows that sex sells games, so they cater for the sexual urges of the highest common demographic that uses their products, which for the hardcore gaming scene is teenaged to early twenties males.
Like all other industries, people are quick to blame sexism for lack of either women in the business or women in positions of power. They always fail to realise the simple fact is that the vast majority of women just simply have no interest in that type of work in the first place.
It's just a simple fact of life that men and women have vastly different interests and aspirations for their futures. It's not something that can be overcome since it is biologically hardwired into our brains. So instead of trying to create interest in the female gender where there is none, they should be focusing on encouraging and giving support to those women who *do* have an interest in these areas of industry or rising through the ranks.
Really Gamespot? You list everything the Gods & Kings expansion adds to the base game *except* for the religion mechanic, the very thing that was it's selling point? I'd say I was disappointed, but that would be assuming I had much in the way of expectations with articles on this site in the first place...
As for the new expansion, I'm hoping this is a sign that Firaxis is going back to doing the big, quality expansion packs that it used to be known for, rather than the stupidly expensive DLC that adds almost nothing to the game.
This comes as zero surprise. Do they really expect PC Gamers to have any interest in Halo when we got both 1 & 2 well after the console releases, AND have yet to see any sign of Halo 3? If 343/MS had any love for the PC version, as they claim to have had, they would have actually bothered to put some effort into *giving* us the games.
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