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Jerry Lawton Ridicules Adult Gamers

The video game genre is undergoing a phase change right now with the exploding popularity of "social games" like the Facebook stuff, Farmville, Cafe World, et al. Women make up the majority of players and the % of women who represent themselves as game players is trending upward. My 60+ yr-old mother is a gamer, playing Farmville and Bejeweled with a passion. While FPSs are male-dominated the overall field of gaming is becoming an "everybody does it" activity. I suspect the percentages will hit a balanced middle ground in the next few years and pretty much stay there as a societal trend. The only major changes will be on the game types themselves as demographics shift to account for the female players.

I would also point out that The Sims--the #1 selling PC game of all time--is played predominantly by women.
 
^Which only reinforces my point - male-interest games aren't indicative of the industry needing to 'grow up'.
 
I'm just surprised he'd be using Facebook. Hell, I'm old fogiesh enough not use Facebook. That's a kid's game, that.
 
The image exists. Whether we choose to give it a negative connotation is up to us. Comics suffer just as much as games here, they're seen as a male-interest art form and male-interest = bad.

Comics wish they were a male-interest. In truth their audience is far more limited than 'men', and that's not the basis for their ridicule.

We chose to write off everything that men contribute to society as being replaceable

At this point in time it's probably true. :lol:

In any case I wouldn't want to be kept around because I'm 'irreplaceable'.

and everything that men enjoy and women don't as being 'wrong'.

I disagree entirely. There are many male-dominated fields, activities and genres that aren't ridiculed by those who don't engage in them: from sport to chess to climbing Mt. Everest.

Equally, there are female-dominated genres and activities that are. Twilight is a current high-profile example, but certainly romance fiction more broadly.

If only we'd look at the things women enjoy that exclude men and hold them up to the same scrutiny we'd find that those things speak worse of men than the things we men enjoy do of women.

Let it never be said that women are in any way morally superior to men.

The only major changes will be on the game types themselves as demographics shift to account for the female players.

.... which is what we've been talking about.
 
Except that's kind of the crux of your argument.

No it isn't. I don't believe we (as a society) should ever be blase about violence as entertainment. As moral beings, violence and murder should be abhorrent to us; and by extension fiction depicting such should be unappealing.

And yet we are also biological constructs, subject to a variety of primal urges which are entirely amoral in nature. Violent entertainment (sports, films, games) is not of itself problematic, it has therapeutic value and allows us to relieve stress and indulge our base nature as predators in a way that is generally harmless. The specifics, however, do matter: relative and absolute quantity, context, degree of abstraction, etc. In my time as a gamer, I've probably killed millions of virtual people and yet I do not hesitate to describe Manhunt as filth. Violence is not a male phenomenon; females are violent, and appreciate violence. The fundamental nature of the beast is the same, the differences are merely biochemical, to which it makes no sense to ascribe any particular moral value.

My earlier comment about males being replaceable is that, well, they don't bring anything to the table that the species couldn't do without (and, indeed, be better off without) at this point. The most significant negative impact would be a reduction in the pace of 'advancement', technological or otherwise. Males tend to push the frontiers, an extension of their greater aggression. But I don't rate 'the progress of the species' very highly, it's the happiness of the ~7 billion bubbles of consciousness that matters, not whether or not they've achieved nuclear fusion. And there's never been any significant correlation observed between material progress and happiness. I'm not quite sure how folks survived before film myself, but evidently they did. :lol:

The real question is whether women could survive without men. We've seen what happens in reverse: we call it 'the army', and it is perhaps the most terrible of all human inventions.
 
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^I'm not going to go around and around with you on this.

Suffice to say that if all the men on Earth disappeared today the loss of construction and engineering skills alone would place the future of the now all-female human race in jeopardy, and that's ignoring their inability to reproduce.
 
^I'm not going to go around and around with you on this.

I didn't realise we had been. :confused:

Suffice to say that if all the men on Earth disappeared today the loss of construction and engineering skills alone would place the future of the now all-female human race in jeopardy

I wouldn't want to hang the fate of the sex on skills that could be recovered within a generation or two myself. Or are we taking all the books as well? :D
 
^The sort of skills I'm talking about have traditionally be passed on through apprenticeships, not by learning out of books. Since these are very much male-dominated fields the number of people with the ability to pass them on would be decimated.

This is besides the point of this thread, however. Attempting to eliminate violent human impulses is a fools errand. The only sensible thing to do is to give people a safe outlet and video games provide that.
 
Rii, you're talking utter bollocks. You're basically picking one aspect of gaming and focusing on it to try and validate your point. With the advent of the Wii and the DS, gaming has become waaaay more mainstream, and is an acceptable activity amongst males and females alike. I have 6 female friends on Xbox Live (all of which I know in real life, too), and they play games ranging from Arcade titles, through puzzle games, all the way up to Call of Duty, Dead Space and GTA. Lets not even get started on the amount of women in Manchester who can be seen playing a DS on their lunch break, or the number of women who own and use a Wii.

The problem with you, Rii, is that your posts indicate that you think there should be one level of gaming for all, and that there's something wrong with certain people being more into violent games than others. That's just fucking ridiculous, and the problems only occur when opinions like this are perpetuated.
 
Rii, you're talking utter bollocks. You're basically picking one aspect of gaming and focusing on it to try and validate your point. With the advent of the Wii and the DS, gaming has become waaaay more mainstream, and is an acceptable activity amongst males and females alike. I have 6 female friends on Xbox Live (all of which I know in real life, too), and they play games ranging from Arcade titles, through puzzle games, all the way up to Call of Duty, Dead Space and GTA. Lets not even get started on the amount of women in Manchester who can be seen playing a DS on their lunch break, or the number of women who own and use a Wii.

The problem with you, Rii, is that your posts indicate that you think there should be one level of gaming for all, and that there's something wrong with certain people being more into violent games than others. That's just fucking ridiculous, and the problems only occur when opinions like this are perpetuated.

Well said. I don't know where people get the idea that video games are all Halo, GTA, and Call of Duty. They aren't.

And just to throw some facts in here, from the Entertainment Software Association (basically, the video game industry's lobbying group):

According to data compiled by the NPD Group, a global market research company, and released by the ESA in January 2009, computer and video game companies posted records sales in 2008. The industry sold 297.6 million units, leading to an astounding $11.7 billion in revenue. Of these sales:

* Game console software sales totaled $8.9 billion with 189.0 million units sold;
* Computer games sales were $701.4 million with 29.1 million units sold; and,
* There was a record $2.1 billion in portable software sales with 79.5 million units sold.

The most popular game genre once again was "Family Entertainment," which accounted for 19 percent of all games sold in 2008, up from 9.1 percent in 2006. In addition, of the games sold in 2008, 57 percent were rated "Everyone (E)" or "Everyone 10+ (E10+)." The NPD Group's data also indicates that only 16 percent of games sold last year were rated "Mature (M)."

Sauce
 
Rii, you're talking utter bollocks. You're basically picking one aspect of gaming and focusing on it to try and validate your point. With the advent of the Wii and the DS, gaming has become waaaay more mainstream, and is an acceptable activity amongst males and females alike. I have 6 female friends on Xbox Live (all of which I know in real life, too), and they play games ranging from Arcade titles, through puzzle games, all the way up to Call of Duty, Dead Space and GTA. Lets not even get started on the amount of women in Manchester who can be seen playing a DS on their lunch break, or the number of women who own and use a Wii.

The problem with you, Rii, is that your posts indicate that you think there should be one level of gaming for all, and that there's something wrong with certain people being more into violent games than others. That's just fucking ridiculous, and the problems only occur when opinions like this are perpetuated.

Absolutely. It's complete and utter bollocks. As is the entire argument. Placing a judgement on the entire industry, whether Music, videogames, films or publishing is just blinding yourself to what's good just to back up your own biased view point.
Yes there's a lot of shit on TV, in Books, in Music and in films but that's mostly the high profile, lowest common denominator shite that fills the shelves at supermarkets and doesn't take in to account the fantastic stuff being made that doesn't sell 10 million copies yet has a solid fan base.
 
Rii, you're talking utter bollocks. You're basically picking one aspect of gaming and focusing on it to try and validate your point. With the advent of the Wii and the DS, gaming has become waaaay more mainstream, and is an acceptable activity amongst males and females alike. I have 6 female friends on Xbox Live (all of which I know in real life, too), and they play games ranging from Arcade titles, through puzzle games, all the way up to Call of Duty, Dead Space and GTA. Lets not even get started on the amount of women in Manchester who can be seen playing a DS on their lunch break, or the number of women who own and use a Wii.

The problem with you, Rii, is that your posts indicate that you think there should be one level of gaming for all, and that there's something wrong with certain people being more into violent games than others. That's just fucking ridiculous, and the problems only occur when opinions like this are perpetuated.

I think I hear the whine of a CoD/GTA player.
 
Rii, you're talking utter bollocks. You're basically picking one aspect of gaming and focusing on it to try and validate your point. With the advent of the Wii and the DS, gaming has become waaaay more mainstream, and is an acceptable activity amongst males and females alike. I have 6 female friends on Xbox Live (all of which I know in real life, too), and they play games ranging from Arcade titles, through puzzle games, all the way up to Call of Duty, Dead Space and GTA. Lets not even get started on the amount of women in Manchester who can be seen playing a DS on their lunch break, or the number of women who own and use a Wii.

The problem with you, Rii, is that your posts indicate that you think there should be one level of gaming for all, and that there's something wrong with certain people being more into violent games than others. That's just fucking ridiculous, and the problems only occur when opinions like this are perpetuated.

I think I hear the whine of a CoD/GTA player.

So, basically, you've staked out your position and are not interested in discussing or adjusting it, even in the face of contrary facts.

Good to know. :techman:
 
Rii, you're talking utter bollocks. You're basically picking one aspect of gaming and focusing on it to try and validate your point. With the advent of the Wii and the DS, gaming has become waaaay more mainstream, and is an acceptable activity amongst males and females alike. I have 6 female friends on Xbox Live (all of which I know in real life, too), and they play games ranging from Arcade titles, through puzzle games, all the way up to Call of Duty, Dead Space and GTA. Lets not even get started on the amount of women in Manchester who can be seen playing a DS on their lunch break, or the number of women who own and use a Wii.

The problem with you, Rii, is that your posts indicate that you think there should be one level of gaming for all, and that there's something wrong with certain people being more into violent games than others. That's just fucking ridiculous, and the problems only occur when opinions like this are perpetuated.

I think I hear the whine of a CoD/GTA player.

So, basically, you've staked out your position and are not interested in discussing or adjusting it, even in the face of contrary facts.

Good to know. :techman:

Nah, it's just that my patience has limits. I'll deal with folks like Hermiod though. :techman:
 
I think I hear the whine of a CoD/GTA player.

You know what, I'm actually starting to become convinced that the real reason you don't like these games, or the people who play them, is because you're shit at them. You're not that YouTube kid who punched a wall cause he sucked at MW2, are you? :lol:

Nah, it's just that my patience has limits. I'll deal with folks like Hermiod though. :techman:

Translation; you're a cheap troll, who falls back on baiting when your point is proved wrong. You initiated the dialogue with me, and then you abandoned it after your pissy little rant was shot down in flames. Now, as usual, you've moved on to baiting and name calling. How long til you stop pussyfooting around and actually call me an arsehole?
 
Somewhere along the line we all agreed like good little sheep that the feminine was good and the masculine was bad. We chose to write off everything that men contribute to society as being replaceable and unnecessary and everything that men enjoy and women don't as being 'wrong'.

Who agreed to that? I certainly didn't.

If only we'd look at the things women enjoy that exclude men and hold them up to the same scrutiny we'd find that those things speak worse of men than the things we men enjoy do of women.

You're talking about the Lifetime Movie Network, aren't you? Don't pretend you don't enjoy your subscription to it.
 
I think I hear the whine of a CoD/GTA player.

You know what, I'm actually starting to become convinced that the real reason you don't like these games, or the people who play them, is because you're shit at them. You're not that YouTube kid who punched a wall cause he sucked at MW2, are you? :lol:

Naw, it's probably something to with the Military Industrial Complex or other such Noncesense.
 
Who agreed to that? I certainly didn't.

You all did. A few of us don't agree but still the whole sugar and spice thing persists.

You're talking about the Lifetime Movie Network, aren't you? Don't pretend you don't enjoy your subscription to it.

Don't get that over here, thankfully.
 
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