“purely for reference”
Controversy is a son of a bitch. I hate whenever a game that I am interested in gets controversy. The controversy makes me feel as though I should not play the game in question because everyone is going to play it then give me a break down of single controversial thing in thus ruining the game for me.
We live in a world of no surprises. In my social circle video games are commonplace, we all grew up on them. My father gives me tips in Call Of Duty for god sakes. So I finished the single player in Bulletstorm the other day and wanted to talk about it. The problem is no one in my group had played it yet. My PS3 friends are playing Killzone 3 and my Xbox friends are playing Halo and Black Ops. So I'm stuck in an odd situation. So controversy in the media builded up for Bulletstorm and what was nice for a change was that no one in the real world actually cared. In my mind, the controversy started simply because it happened on a slow news day for Mr. Fox News. So lets break it down, with Wikipedia.
“On February 20, 2011, the game came under scrutiny by Fox News. The game was targeted because of its profanity, crude behavior (examples of which including the game's skill-shot system, which has a move that rewards players for shooting at an enemy's genitals), and sexual innuendo. Alongside the panel of Fox News anchors was a psychiatrist by the name of Carole Lieberman, who remarked: "Video games have increasingly, and more brazenly, connected sex and violence in images, actions and words. This has the psychological impact of doubling the excitement, stimulation and incitement to copycat acts. The increase in rapes can be attributed, in large part, to the playing out of such scenes in video games.”
So of course EA got involved posting the follow statement.
"As you know, Bulletstorm is a work of entertainment fiction that takes place in the 26th century on the abandoned fictitious paradise planet Stygia, where our heroes fight mutants, monsters, flesh-eating plants and gigantic dinosaurs. , Epic, People Can Fly and EA are avid supporters of the ESA and believe in the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating system. We believe in and abide by the policies put in place by the ESRB.
Bulletstorm is rated M for Mature for blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity, sexual themes, strong language and use of alcohol. The game and its marketing adhere to all guidelines set forth by the ESRB; both are designed for people 17+. Never is the game marketed to children.
Epic, People Can Fly and EA support the right of artists to create works of entertainment fiction for consumers of all ages, including adults who enjoy action adventures like Bulletstorm. Much like Tarantino's Kill Bill or Rodriguez's Sin City, this game is an expression of creative entertainment for adults."
- Tammy Schachter, vice president of public relations for EA
At the end of the day no one actually cared. Fox News built a story out of very little and got people who do not like video games as a whole to make a statement to build web traffic. If you piss the nerds off, expect the page views. Fox News loves pissing off nerds because in their mind, nerds are weird and spend a lot of time bitching on the internet. Which is fine because Fox News is the “real” world and they keep it fair and balance. We nerds sit around and tinker in our mother's basement all day and we are not the real world. The sad fact of things is, we are taking over and they know it. From the unhappy forums people, to the people who like to tinker with computers, the world is changing quickly. The nerd is holding focus and were messing with taste in a way no one would have ever thought.
Fox News, just deal with it.
