Comments on: Mass Effect Misinformation

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:27:49 +0000

it’s actually a mix between Third Person Shooter and Role Playing Game. and i think this game has a good tool to teach kids the consequences of their words and actions. you say something good or promise to help someone in a bind and you get Paragon points (good-guy points.) On the other hand, if you say something mean or hateful or choose wrong choices, you receive Renegade points.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:07:30 +0000

Well I’m just not happy with love scenes in game, movies, TV shows, etc. no matter how brief or undetailed it is. Especially in a video game! I mean instead of wasting your time and energy putting a scene like that in a video game they could’ve focused their time on fixing bugs and texture pop-ups.
You can argue with me and say that there’s nothing wrong with sex and that it’s a natural thing, and I’m not going to argue with you because it is a natural thing (if you’re married of course). But like the many natural things of like such as: pooping, urinating, puking, and so on, they need to be done in private and not infront of cameras…

By: Leah Duvall

Leah Duvall — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:32:27 +0000

NY Times article on it too. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/arts/television/26mass.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mass+effect&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Great article Colleen, it’s good to know GD.com and GWC are giving parents accurate information.

By: Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:06:08 +0000

Apparently EA has shot back at FOX over this misinformation:

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/682323/EA_Slaps_Fox_News.html

By: Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:15:26 +0000

That is the amazing stuff … and they even had someone trying to tell the truth and they steamrolled him …

By: Colleen Hannon

Colleen Hannon — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:02:36 +0000

Yeah, I saw it. It’s kind of disheartening. The original writer has since apologized (sort of) for what he said and they’ve removed that article, But Fox still went with this.

By: Bob M

Bob M — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:25:05 +0000

You see that Fox news picked this up now? “Se”xbox. It’s the worst “journalism” I’ve ever heard of. 15 minutes of research would show that the whole thing is BS about a 2 minute scene, which Fox news pretty much showed completely, but paused at the end, implying there was more. They KNOW it’s BS and ran with it anyway.

Kinda makes you wonder what else is completely crap.

By: Karsten

Karsten — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:05:38 +0000

One of the (many) things that bug me the most about mr. McCollough’s comments on Mass Effects is that he doesn’t seem to get that the ESRB-ratings are voluntary. As such they are not legally binding at any state or federal level in the US.

Any restrictions to which persons that can buy M-rated games in the US are made by the stores themselves e.g. Walmart. As such parents do need to take both more and a greater responsibility as to what games their children play. (or to what tv-series they watch, the children, not the parents…).

My own view of Mass Effect is that it is OK for young adults from 15-16 years to play, but I totally understand why some other parents would say that this game isn’t fit to be played for anyone that’s not 18+ or older. But again, it ought, must, should and need to be so that the parents decide what games their children play.

By: GamerDad

GamerDad — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:50:04 +0000

D, Budgell:
Correction! Good on me for publishing this. Momgamer wrote it.

One of the things I do is talk to parents. Casual parents at PTA meetings and hardcore at places like the PennyArcade Expo. What I’ve learned is that there are 3 basic types:

1. Videogames are something I don’t understand and I’m kind of worried about them.
2. Videogames are what my kid wants and since seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre at 10 didn’t screw me up, I’m not worried.
3. Videogames are bad, but I’m keeping an open mind.
4. I HATE THEM!

Aside from people like McCullough and Thompson (#4) they’re actually kinda rare. Most parents today are #1, 2 or #3. I always write for 1,2,3. Why? Someone like McCullough will never have an intelligent discussion. It’s worthless to try. He just wants attention for himself and frankly, that’s the easy route.

Sometimes it strikes me that if I turned evil and started railing against the biz – I’d be rich. But I kinda like living with myself….

Thanks guys, for reading. Please spread the word about us. This blog will get pretty active soon I think.

By: D. Budgell

D. Budgell — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:12:41 +0000

I never played Mass Effect, don’t own any of the XBoxes, but still through the magical medium of experience and knowledge of how Bioware runs it’s stories I could tell from the get-go what this game was going to be about and how it would play. McCullough is a frightful trend of uninformed, or facetious self-proclaimed moral crusaders who jump up on the soap box and peddle fear and loathing to a similarly uninformed and/or uninvolved group of parents…

Good on you GD for writing this, although I think McCullough will ignore your clear-headed commentary in favor of more sensationalistic garbage comments, perhaps taken out of context… Still, it’s a battle of truth versus lies, and in conflicts such as those you must voice the truth, no matter if it’s ignored..