@The_Dragon_Born @GrumpyMcNasty Not true. If you read the terms and conditions of a game you will see that you are paying for the licence to use a game, not the licence to resell it. It is the core of the 'previously owned' argument. That is why your get a licence key. There is no licence key with a DVD for example so the studios are hapy for you to resell it as they weigh their profits at the box office.
If Microsoft block second hand games then Sony will do it too and it's right. Intellectual property needs to be protected if we are to get top class entertainment. Look at it this way, if you go and watch a movie are you allowed to take your ticket to your mate outside, sell it to him and then he goes in without paying the theatre? No. Why should two people be allowed to benefit for a single price while the makers get stiffed?
As for the permanent internet connection, get over it. PC's, TV's, games consoles etc. all have internet connections now so what's the issue? As long as it's only for verification purposes when you start a game then it's no big deal. If it kicks you out of a game when you lose connection that's a problem but I don't see that happening.
@Sythion They are open to influences but simply watching or performing a violent act in a video game would not drive a normal, rational person to copy that violence. Only a person who had some underlying issue would see a violent act and believe it was ok to copy it. It is up to parents and trained educators to raise children properly so that this never happens, not the video game or movie industries.
This is just another example of people in modern society trying to shift the blame for its ills onto anyone but themselves. The problem is not violence in video games, movies, the news, books or any other medium.
The problem lies with the laziness and wickedness of parents and educators who do not do their jobs properly or who abuse children and create people who are looking for a way to punish the world for their own mistreatment. Rather than stiffening laws on the abuse of children and ensuring that all children receive proper care and education so as not to be raised with these violent feelings inside the government wastes money on legislating the violence to which people are exposed in the media.
The most important violence that needs to be curtailed is that against the children who become angry enough to see something in a video game and believe that they would feel empowered if they were able to do the same. Gun crimes, assaults, rape and murder will never be stopped by restricting the amount of violence that appears in the media. If the people who commit these crimes do not have a template from a movie or a game to follow then their own imaginations will produce something far more heinous and they will commit the acts anway. This is a well written article, intelligent article but it only plays into the hands of the lawmakers who believe it is wiser to treat the symptoms, not the disease.
@ObeseChipmunk And I'm pretty sure that he author got his information from Wikipedia which also has him wrongly listed as English. And watch the 'old' comments, they can be hurtful you know. :)
Actually, he called South Africa his homeland and its landscape and culture inspired much of the description in the books, it is history that has decided he is English. You know the old story, if you do well you're British, if not then you're South Africa, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, whatever.
What would Tolkien think? Tolkien would think "Who's this idiot author who didn't research his own article? Did nobody tell him before publication that I'm not English, I'm South African? I was born in Bloemfontein, and lived there until I was three. That makes me South African, no matter where my parents were from or where I was educated. I'm not going to bother reading the rest of this drivel if he can't even get the basics right."
Or maybe he'd like the idea of Lego trivialising his life's work. I dunno, what do you think?
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