The Seperation of Church and Gamers!
Posted on January 16, 2008 by Brian under Games, Life, News, Web.
For those of you that are not up to date on issues in the gaming world, there is a war on for gamer’s rights. That’s correct, a war! Currently there are several religious factions that feel that they need to have a hand in the business of everyone else in the world, and since the government is not doing the things they want, they are just going to try to take over the government.
Currently Kevin McCullough, an uber religious zealot in my opinion, is leading a political campaign to BAN all video games that HE feels is inappropriate for ANYONE. In an article on Town Hall.com he attacks a very popular video game called Mass Effect created by the company Bioware. In this game you are a character of your own creation that works their way through a 40+ hour long story line. In this story there are a few events that you have the ability to have sexual relations with another character. Kevin McCullough states in his interview with Town Hall and directed apparently to the Presidential Candidates.
“I know that they all probably assume they have better, much more important, urgent, timely, things to campaign on, but I sure would like to get their individual takes on the new video game that one company is marketing to fifteen year old boys.
It’s called “Mass Effect” and it allows its players – universally male no doubt – to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. 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.”
First I would like to address the issue of the game being targeted to 15 year old boys. I want to know where his research came from for this claim. If you look at the package and on the website itself as well as anyplace that sells games online, you can clearly see that the game holds an ESRB rating of M for MATURE. That means that no one under the age of 17 is allowed to buy this game. So unless the parents ignore the rating on the package (or just don’t care) and buy the game without doing the research to find out what the content is like (this is not a surprise, we read stories of this every day) then a 15 year old child should not be purchasing this game at all. All of the stores that I have been to card even me a 30+ year old gamer before purchasing a mature rated game. If you are a parent and you did purchase the game without doing the research first, shame on you and don’t bitch. It’s your own fault that you didn’t do the research before buying the game for your kid.
Second, where is the statistics showing that all gamers are Male? He makes the comment ” universally male no doubt “. When did religion become so sexist? I play a lot of different games ranging from Console to PC games and if you look online the numbers are about even when it comes to Male/Female players. He should really get out more often and get some new statistics; I think he is still using reports from the “Super Mario” days of gaming.
Next we have the claim that every 15 year old gamer has a big screen HD-LCD in their room. As he talks about the ability to create these characters he goes on to say that the kids can then watch these sex acts in “crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity”. Like every 15 year old gamer has a 54 in LCD in their room, for that matter he makes it sound like EVERY gamer has a 54 in LCD in their room. Well let me tell you that some of us are not so lucky to afford the nice 54 in LCD TV. Some of us still play on conventional TV’s. To assume that everyone can afford luxuries such as this is ridiculous. You should have chosen your words a little more carefully Kevin McCullough!
And let’s not forget the comment he makes in the very beginning when he starts out by stating “I know that they all probably assume they have better, much more important, urgent, timely, things to campaign on”. Sure, lets all drop our platforms of Medical Reform, Economics, Immigration Rights, School and Education Decline, and Tax Reform. Sure, let’s drop the topics that drive this nation, the topics that need to be addressed before they bring this nation to its knees. Let’s drop all of that and focus on this one man’s RELIGIOUS crusade to ban a video game because it has sex in it. Does he really wake up in the morning and look at himself in the mirror and say “today is going to be the day”. How disappointed he must be!
To me Kevin McCullough is a religious socialist. He is upset not just because there is sex in a video game but in the article he focuses on the fact that you can change your image. He states in the article “Starting with the disgusting idea that one can “create” their own versions of what people look like, removing warts, moles, and bald spots while enhancing – shall we say – the extended features of the game’s characters tends to objectify women, sex, and human relationships”. Has this man not seen late night TV? I can buy products that do the same thing. I mean, come on. Gamers have had the ability to create or modify themselves within a game for years; this is not a new concept.
What kind of a person, other than a socialist, gets upset because you have the ability to change your appearance? It’s not even a real life change, it’s a video game! It has no bearing on your real life, other than a few people may get really wrapped up in the game and forget to pee or something. McCullough makes it sound like the world is going to come to a screeching halt because these video games exist, like the gates of hell are going to open because these video games were created.
McCullough needs to brush up on his law a little before asking the Presidential candidates to take on a platform based on his religious beliefs. Anyone that knows the law knows that there is this thing called “The Separation of Church and State“. The first amendment to the US Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. So what this is simply trying to say, if you read the whole thing, is that no one can create a law based on their religious beliefs. This means, Kevin McCullough can not ask the Presidential campaigners to drop what they are doing and enforce this law. This is something that he is trying to enforce based solely on his religious beliefs. Using his religious presence to try it fight his case is clearly not wise if he wanted this game to be removed from the market.
He picks on several congress people and even says that he knows that they will tell him “Government has no business censoring freedom of expression.” This is correct and it just goes to show you that he is somewhat aware that he has no platform to stand on, The government recognizes that his argument to remove the game is not because its a danger to the social, economic, or moral development of the world. But instead, because of his own religious beliefs and is own fears of what he obviously does not understand. If you go on and read the whole article you will see that he even tries to tie video game sex and violence to the creation of serial killers and rapist. He evidently has so little faith in humanity that he feels he needs to take it upon him self to ban anything that he feels is a danger to us, like we are all children and he is the father of us all.
I could go on for days on how I despise this man and people like him and how I disagree with anything that comes out of his mouth. I would love to be on a debate panel with him and break him down on national TV. Not only would it be fun, but I think it would wake the world up to just how crazy this guy really is and how people like him can be an even greater danger to the world then a video game. You don’t see video games jumping off shelves and bombing churches or subways in the real world in the name of religion now do you!
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Replies to "The Seperation of Church and Gamers!"
Claim Blog » Blog Archive » Comment on The Seperation of Church and Gamers! by Claim Blog … on January 16, 2008
[…] Claim Blog » Blog Archive » The Seperation of Church and Gamers! wrote an interesting post today on Comment on The Seperation of Church and Gamers! by Claim Blog …Here’s a quick excerptThe FAA Follies wrote an interesting post today on The Seperation of Church and Gamers!Here’sa quick excerptI want to know where his research came from for this claim. If you look at the package and on the website itself as well as … […]
Jennifer on January 17, 2008
wow. I have to agree with you flip! The target for ’15’ year old boys has a HUGE stigma attached to it. It’s targeted at 15 year old boys with no parental control. Ultimately it IS up to the parents to control what gets into their children’s hands. It seems like the “uber religious zealot” didn’t take TOO much offense to the game if he could desribe it with enough detail basically indicating he played it, more than just a few seconds, and it evoked some type of response from him. There are much more valuable things he can do with his time, no doubt, like check himself into a s*xaholic clinic because clearly his ‘war’ is a cry for personal help 🙂 I agree with you. Between mature adults, there’s nothing wrong with some spice! Mature parents, also, pay close attention to what their kids are doing.
The Seperation of Church and Gamers! on January 17, 2008
[…] The Seperation of Church and Gamers! Effect” and it allows its players – universally male no doubt – to … He evidently has so little faith in humanity that he feels he needs to… […]
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Claim Blog » Blog Archive » The Seperation of Church and Gamers! on January 16, 2008
[…] The FAA Follies wrote an interesting post today on The Seperation of Church and Gamers!Here’s a quick excerptI want to know where his research came from for this claim. If you look at the package and on the website itself as well as anyplace that sells… […]