Letters to the Editor

In Too Deep

My first take on the topic is that this is just how capitalism works. If people are racist, it is inevitable that consumer-driven media will be racist as well. And if a richer group of people are racist, then it's inevitable that more racist media will be produced for them than for poorer groups. There's simply more money to be made.

What most people want is to be constantly patted on the back. To be cheered on, and to not be criticised in any way. It's the nature of the entertainment industry. Games may be "interactive", but few are interactive in a way that, say, a political science classroom might be at a university. But games aren't there to make people better citizens, more moral or ethical. They're there to entertain you. In a way, games are similar to prostitutes. You pay it money, it pleases you without question.

- shihku7

In Response to "You Got Your Race in My Video Game" from The Escapist Forum: Ignorance is bliss and we - as gamers - like to ignore issues of race in games so that we might blissfully enjoy the game itself, free of such concerns.

- theCardinal

In Response to "iMob" from The Escapist Forum: My big worry is that people will start forming iMobs for offenses not done. This kind of vigilantism is all very empowering, but it's problematic when innocents are being harassed because some 12 year old is good at feigning crying foul to the right people.

- geldonyetich

In Response to "Live Disruption" from The Escapist Forum: I have a relevant, but totally anecdotal observation to add to this, Dean. I noticed it immediately upon picking up the Xbox 360 on launch day and logging on to Xbox live. Perhaps it was the pure joy of unleashing the power of a new system, or some kind of honeymoon period of Xbox Live Love, but whatever the cause, the effect was a kind of eerie calm. Players were actually nice to each other. Common practice in Project Gotham Racing was to warn your opponents if you were pulling out of a draft maneuver to pass them or (gasp) even apologize if you bumped their car into a spin on the way by. On two occasions I even got into real conversations with other players I'd never met before.

When did this strange calm period end? When did Project Gotham players start slamming you into a wall and cursing your mother on the way by? Why December 25th of course, when hundreds of thousands of pounds of teenagers ripped the wrappings off their shiny new 360's and joined the fray. Perhaps the solution is as simple as requiring a mandatory verified birthday entry somewhere in the signup process, and allowing players the option to filter out their matchmaking by age. I know I yearn for those days of the 360 launch when, "hey, passing on your left, man" was much more common than, "bleep your bleeping mom on the wall bleep!"

- Jacob.pederson