Yet more evidence the "OMG! Filth in Media!" folk have no clue what they're talking about...

[missroserose]

W. T. F.

Look, I've spent a bit of time playing Mass Effect, and I've spent a lot more time watching it being played. Now, a lot of media attention has descended on it because there is, apparently, one sex scene involved, but I'm told "you only get to see, like, one second of bare arse anyway". I haven't seen the scene in question myself, but I have seen many, many other parts of the game in question, and while the characters do wear fairly form-fitting body armor, there's no actual sex (or even nudity) involved in any part of it.

Now, somewhere, somehow, the author of the above-linked article went from:

...one scene with one second of bare arse

to

One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.

Now, I'm certain that this all makes sense in twisted and labyrinthine corridors of the author's mind, but frankly, I can't wrap my head around it. I can't even get mad - this man is so very obviously out of touch with anything resembling reality that his article isn't worth getting angry over. He's just sad and pathetic, like a cat who's so totally certain that it's going to catch that bird this time, that it dashes across the living room only to go WHAM right into the glass door.

Please tell me nobody takes this man seriously. Please? Somebody?

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't worry. Dude's projecting so much I'm surprised his initials aren't DLP.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

*laughs* No shit. (Also, I've got to remember that one.)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Or we could get together a fund to send the guy some H-games. Or maybe he just has a brain conditions in which he interprets everything as H-games. I hate to imagine how he perceives Tetris.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

...That should not have made me giggle anywhere near as much as it did. =D

Also, "H-games"? I don't think I'm familiar with that term.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Eroge, redirected from H-game. Unfortunately uses the word "portmanteau," which makes me nauseated, for some reason, even more than the oft-tentacular action nature of the games.

Somewhere I've got the best picture for this. Oh, I have to find it and post it now....

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Okay, here we go. Safe for work and sanity, but still needs an apology from me.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

It's Town Hall. Their motto is, I'm certain, "Semper mendacis".

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

"Always fault"? (That's what the first hit on Google for "Latin to English translator" is giving me.)

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

"Always lying". "Mendare" means "to lie".

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Heh. Judging by the (few) other articles I clicked through, I'd say you're right. However, the writing is so incredibly slanted that I can't say it bothers me - the only people who would give it any credence are the hardcore right-wing nuts, and they're beyond any hope of seeing reason anyway. Anyone with basic critical-thinking skills, however, be they liberal or conservative, would have some pretty serious questions after reading about three sentences. =)

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Yes, but people with basic critical-thinking skills do not generally become right-wingers. Unless they're very rich.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Nor do they become hardcore left-wingers, unless they're very cause-oriented. Usually they end up somewhere in the middle. Which probably says something about how our political system works, nu?

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

It says more, I think, about the limitations of the "left-center-right" spectrum as a description of our political scene.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Well, that's kind of what I mean. One of the things Obama talks about in The Audacity of Hope (which is an excellent read, btw) is how the era of sound-byte debates and infotainment media has done a lot of damage in terms of oversimplifying every cause to fit into the left/right dichotomy, and encouraging trench warfare between the two for the sake of sales. As opposed to fighting over it but eventually hashing out a compromise based on the mutual desires of each side. But late-night compromise sessions don't make for interesting stories, so.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I'm becoming more and more convinced that we need a complete overhaul of the media.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Unfortunately, "freedom of the press" combined with "free market" seems to equal "Scandal! Corruption! Conflict!" far more than it equals "The truth is rather complicated..."

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

But we don't have a free media market. We have an oligopoly in which the vast majority of the media are owned by a very small number of people.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what I mean. Free market = bigger companies absorbing smaller ones and turning into gigantic corporations so that almost everything is owned by one or two groups. It's where the "free market" model breaks down, since a healthy free market depends on competition between groups to keep quality up and prices down.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Larger companies are free to absorb or force out of business the smaller ones. Sounds Free to me.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

It's part of why "free market" is, I think, a scam.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Well, it's like any behavior model involving people - it works ideally when you're talking about small groups. However, once more and more folk become involved, it breaks down because people don't do well in large groups. It's just how we're wired.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the idealized free market has NEVER worked, and it only exists as a model because it sounds good until you think about it. It only works if all players start off with a level playing field, and don't use illicit means to gain an advantage. In other words, conditions that have never existed in human history, and probably never will.

[tinydoctortim.livejournal.com]

I, for one. don't take this kind of commentary seriously, except to the extent that all would-be censors are dangerous, perhaps in direct proportion to their ignorance. Several years ago a friend of mine told me of an interview she heard on NPR with a woman who was very alarmed about porn on the internet. She might have had valid observations to make on the subject, but if she did they were undermined by her ridiculous statement that the .gif filename extension stood for "Girl Image Frontal."

So every GIF file I've ever emailed was porn? I feel terribly dirty.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

I feel certain that there's a moral to be found here, but frankly I'm laughing so hard I'm having a hard time thinking of it. =D

[tinydoctortim.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I was able to amuse. :)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

And Kotaku has their inimitable take on the issue. As ever, the comments are golden.