why are games always the scapegoat?? first it was for intelligence levels dropping in kids, then it was for anti-social behaviour and declining moral values, now for mass-shootings? what next? wars? are the older - out of touch - political class just blaming everything on games because they are ignorant to the fact that 99.9% of gamers can differentiate reality from games or are they just stupid? the NRA should be ashamed for dodging the firing line by pushing games into it.
fucking ridiculous, the sound of a desperate man trying to create a scapegoat to cover his own ass. millions of people play violent video games with no problems. the only group people should point fingers at are the ones committing these mass shootings.
It's because of bad business ethics so aptly demonstrated by Kotick and his cronies that the western world is in the dire position it is in today... Need i say more?
@Slash_out actually, Bioware have every right to refuse these 'people' any future service. granted they would be losing sales, but that doesnt detract from the fact that they can (and for some of the more serious culprits i hope they do) refuse business to them. An analogy: If i owned a resturant, and a customer was severely abusing one of my members of staff, saying similar stuff as the people involved in the hepler abuse case above said (stuff like she should go kill herself (direct quotes from twitter; "isnt the fat c**t dead yet?", "you stupid b***h", "you're worse than Hitler etc.) i would not hesitate to bar them from the resturant as a result. quotes like that are disgusting beyond belief, if someone disagrees with her statement and voices it in a mature way then thats fine, but the hepler scenario is vile. I do hope the worst offenders get IP banned from future EA/Bioware games.
I honestly cannot believe how disgusting some people (who, as a gamer, im ashamed to call 'peers') are. These attacks make me sick to my stomach and somewhat embarrased to be a gamer. Its immature to the extreme, not to mention being both morally and legally wrong. I would honestly cheer her on if she decided to take legal action against some of the more offensive commentators. The attacks arent helped by the fact that some ignorant immature pricks feel immortal behind a keyboard, that kind of abuse rarely happens in person, not without a massive backlash anyways... some people need to grow up, or learn some basic human decency before touching a keyboard...
@Sniper: True a few years down the line they will be bargains (well CoD is still almost full price (over here in the UK my local retailer still lists MW2 as a £40 game new, which is damn greedy!)) But, the majority of people dont want to wait an additional 2 years to buy the game... that with the added pressure of wanting to join in with friends leads people to purchase anyway. ofc this doesnt apply to single player games so much but for most people the hype is enough to persuade. Luckily everyone i game with have given up CoD for good and moved to battlefield, so i dont have to shell out double price for a fully featured game :D
As depressing as this sounds but there are literally millions of gamers out there who will shell out \$15 for a couple of extra maps without complaint. And until those people wake up and realise they are being screwed over this trend will not change. Some DLC i am ok with, for example, genuine expansions (for example; Medieval 2: total war: britannia campaign or, as a more recent example, mass effect 2's lair of the shadow broker), these were reasonable as they added a significant amount of content at reasonable prices. Activision in my eyes are by far the worst culprits, as it stands a full version of black ops with all the maps will cost \$120, twice the original price for the game... conversley with battlefield bad company 2 i bought the core game and all additional maps were free if you bought a copy new (bar ofc vietnam), which in my eyes is a great method to implement for game companies.
Yes i hope that nothing comes of this believe me, but im merely expressing that sony have a lot to answer for, by allowing a breach this huge and failing to inform us of what has been taken for a full week... im sure the hackers out there could have done a great deal of damage to many peoples lives in the time it took sony to inform us of the theft... granted thus far there seems to have been no severe identity fraud reported (not saying it hasnt happened, merely that it hasnt been reported) so we can be thankful of that. And yes the dangers are fairly mild, but the threat is still there, and lets face it, these guys hacked into sony for pete's sake, im sure they would have no trouble having some fun with our personal details. The threat to the individual is small but im prepared to put a stake that at least a few people will have their lives ruined from this, and that a few games as a freebie isnt exactly adequate compensation (the south park episodes of BP come to mind from this debacle... "We're sorry!!")
@IndianaPwns39 True no website is unbiased, as websites are a reflection of the personal bias by which the person writing the article has, but from viewing multiple sites one can cut through the BS and reach the facts. And i can understand your analogy of the shooting but in this matter it is not so, when companies handle personal information they have a duty of care by which they owe us, the consumers, to keep (to the best of their ability) that information confidential unless we specifically state otherwise, if said company fails to do so (within reason) then they are liable for damages to us. Sony's handling of the situation by having out of date security and failing to inform us of the breach for a full week is not what the reasonable person regards as upholding the duty of care they owe us. At least thats the very abridged version of the law, cant be bothered going into detail lol... now im not writing this to defend web articles constantly going on about it, merely stating that sony are to blame and that a free years monitoring and a couple of free game downloads is not enough to make amends for our personal information being readily available by hackers to the highest bidder... i honestly cant fathom how some people are saying this isnt a big deal!
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