Fox News Calls MMOs a "Breeding Ground for Criminal Minds"
Be careful-- you never know when a guildie might show up at your house with a butcher knife.
In a highly sensationalized article about MMOGs, Fox News follows a few isolated stories about game-related crimes with a number of unsupported claims which link online gaming to anti-social and violent behavior.
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Massively multiplayer online games — or MMOGs, as they're called — can foster more vulnerability than there might be on other virtual meeting spaces such as dating and social networking sites, where participants are inclined to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior from the start.
"When you're in a social situation like that — playing a game, having fun — you're comfortable with the people you're playing with," said cyber-stalking victim Jayne Hitchcock, president of Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA). "People are just not very careful. They lose all sense of reality and themselves."
One should always be wary in any dealings in the online environment, but these sort of sensationalist articles remind me of back in the 80's when I was branded a devil worshiper for playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Btw, Annatar, you still have my knife for flaying infants.
I am now officially too scared to meet Ralsu in real life. You must now, and forever, remain a figment of my online imagination. :holiday_wink:
But seriously, over the past ten years I have met....well...interacted some awesome people online, people from all over the world. Some I would like to have been able to meet in real life, some i have been content to just having 'known'.
On the flip side, I think I have met a proportionate amount of frickin nutjobs that have some serious social and/or psychological issues. And these are the sort of people that end up being either the predators or prey in the online world.
I am now officially too scared to meet Ralsu in real life. You must now, and forever, remain a figment of my online imagination. :holiday_wink:
Who says he isn't a figment of all our imaginations? Who says he even exists at all? Scary...
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But seriously, over the past ten years I have met....well...interacted some awesome people online, people from all over the world. Some I would like to have been able to meet in real life, some i have been content to just having 'known'.
On the flip side, I think I have met a proportionate amount of frickin nutjobs that have some serious social and/or psychological issues. And these are the sort of people that end up being either the predators or prey in the online world.
My experience has been pretty similar. My best friend is someone I got to know first online, although we try to get together in real life at least once a year to hang out. She's from Hawaii (and now spends half her time in London). There's little chance we would have ever met, let alone hit it off like we have, were it not for the magic of the Interwebz.
I've met people I've gamed with, too. Again, good experiences all. But that doesn't mean I'm naive about the Internet and the potential for exploitation. You mix up a ginormous social stew like the one that exists on the Web and you're sure to come across a few bits of mystery meat.
I just don't see why the thinking on this has to be so black and white. It's neither all bad or all good. A balanced article would make a sincere attempt to balance the positive and the negative.
__________________
Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg
Public Relations & Resident Forum Goddess (All your posts are belong to me!)
"I fell asleep watching Jeopardy, and I snored in the form of a question "
~ Christoper Moore
Be careful-- you never know when a guildie might show up at your house with a butcher knife.
In a highly sensationalized article about MMOGs, Fox News follows a few isolated stories about game-related crimes with a number of unsupported claims which link online gaming to anti-social and violent behavior.
This coming from a news agency that argued intentional distortion of the news was ok. I put very little faith in ANYTHING that comes out of Fox news. People honestly kill me with this kind of stuff. Do they think we migrate to a server and begin plotting world domination? Well ok I do, but that's beside the point.
I am left to boggle on a few things they point out that are absolutely irrelevant.
Quote:
A 2-year-old girl nicknamed "Baby Grace" by detectives was found dead in October in a locked box in Texas — allegedly the victim of a beating murder at the hands of her stepfather and teenaged mother, who met playing the online fantasy game "World of Warcraft."
Relates to the case how?
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A 31-year-old Australian woman named Tamara Broome was nabbed in June when she traveled to North Carolina to lure a 16-year-old boy she encountered playing the same popular Internet game.
Is more likely to occur in schools nowadays rather than on the web.
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Twenty-six-year-old Florida resident Daniel Lenz is also under investigation for allegedly coaxing a 15-year-old girl he played "World of Warcraft" with to run away with him.
Is the games fault how?
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In China, a "Legend of Mir III" player is spending the rest of his life behind bars for fatally stabbing another for the "theft" of a virtual sword.
I know a guy who once shot his best friend for not returning his lawn mower. Should we outlaw Lawn mowers since reading this article I have now determined it was clearly the mowers fault?
Quote:
"When you're in a social situation like that — playing a game, having fun — you're comfortable with the people you're playing with," said cyber-stalking victim Jayne Hitchcock, president of Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA). "People are just not very careful. They lose all sense of reality and themselves."
Yes, you people need to get off the net and physically stalk your victims. /sarcasm off.
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Ross said that because defenses are down, people can be more susceptible to the advances of predators or those who are mentally unstable.
Seriously, who is buying this?
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The common goal of annihilating the foe can bring out a belligerence that sometimes spills over into real-world interactions, especially within those who become addicted to what they're playing, said Robert McCrie, a professor in the law and police science department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Who here has ever slain an orc and wanted to do it in real life? Be honest? We can dress Boomjack in an Orc suit and bludgeon him aside the road? Seriously. Who are these people? /More sarcasm off (And just kidding Boomjack you know we love you.)
Quote:
"You observe people playing these games — it draws out a kind of aggressiveness and competitiveness in their behavior," he said. "There is a concern for people who become obsessively involved with cyber gaming."
So does watching Football, and that usually involves ~gasp~ Alcohol consumption. We must stop this growing aspect of violence. ~cringe~ /Seriously Running low on Sarcasm off
I will stop my sarcasmic rant here.
__________________ The Tuk
Ten Ton Hammer Main Site Writer
Fox News Calls MMOs a "Breeding Ground for Criminal Minds"
Seriously. Who are these people? /More sarcasm off (And just kidding Boomjack you know we love you.)
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