Popular psychologist Carol[e] Lieberman has gone on Fox News and said that the entertainment industry was “in large part” directly responsible for acts of sexual violence, pointing out Bulletstorm as a prime example of the phenomena. This can’t be good for EA and People Can Fly, as Fox News is one of the most popular cable networks in the U.S.
Without ever offering a miniscule amount of evidence, Lieberman said “the increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.”
The psychologist’s judgement came in a piece on the network examining the mature themes found in Bulletstorm. But that’s just the start: the title of the piece is… wait for it… “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?”
Fox news claims that the worst part of the game (which might just be the worst game in the world) is the game’s reward system – Killshots.
According to the piece, Bullestorm “ties the ugly, graphic violence into explicit sex acts, [where] ‘topless’ means cutting a player in half, while a ‘gang bang’ means killing multiple enemies”.
It goes on: “And with kids as young as 9 playing such games, the experts FoxNews.com spoke with were nearly universally worried that video game violence may be reaching a fever pitch.”
They were hitting the game hard today, with Dr. Jerry Weichman, a clinical psychologist at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute in Southern California, telling Fox: “If a younger kid experiences Bulletstorm’s explicit language and violence, the damage could be significant… Violent video games like Bulletstorm have the potential to send the message that violence and insults with sexual innuendos are the way to handle disputes and problems.”
Yep. Bad day for Bulletstorm. Silly argument by those against the industry as usual.
Thanks, CVG.
lol at people always wanting to bring down games. Excuse me Mr. and Mrs. people at Fox News, and Mrs. Lieberman, who are buying these games for 9 year old kids? Under law, stores are not aloud to sell these games to children under 17 because of the ESRB rating of Mature. That means parents are buying these games for kids and letting them play them. So, instead of trying to blame this on the companies making the games, why don’t you have a stern talking to all of those parents out there, who are purchasing these games for the kids. Also, you have not played the game, so how would you know so much about it, and i would like some evidence to back up your statements. I never hear one word when movies do this, only games. It is idiots like these who need to get off their hight horse, and think about the hypocrisy in their accusations. If you are going to do this to games, then you better do it to movies and all other forms of internment as well. Nothing is valid until you give me real research that I can go over and see if you manipulated in any way to make it fix your expectations.
Ernice here is EA’s rebuttal. They are handling this well.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/02/08/ea-responds-to-foxnews-39-bulletstorm-slam.aspx#comments
Checking it out now…
oh lord here we go again!
these people love making themselves look like clueless morons dont they?
I’m telling you… Most ridiculous thing of heard all year.
most ridiculous thing i have heard all my life!