TotalBiscuits "Tragedy and Video Game Violence" [Video]

I won't say much, but I appreciated this video to such a great extent, and after realizing that not everyone subscribes to him (which is understandable), I decided I had to share it with you all.This video showcases something the community of gamers needs to rally behind, so to take a stand against the ridicule that we often receive after every mass shooting or tragedy.

Huh. I've never listened to anything from Totalbiscuit. And yes, I do agree.

I was literally just about to make a topic for this exact thing. John Bain echoes something that I've been unable to intelligent words for years now. I don't always (or even often) agree with what he has to say about gaming, but this video is intelligent and so well put together. Everyone should give it a watch, share it, and get the word out. Hopefully it will knock some sense to the foolish who still watch the news networks.

@believer258 said:

Huh. I've never listened to anything from Totalbiscuit. And yes, I do agree.

He can be aggravatingly opinionated sometimes [all the time], but his analysis is often greatly appreciated.

The Charlie Brooker Newswipe bit video he mentions -

@RazielCuts said:

The Charlie Brooker Newswipe bit video he mentions -

nice, watched the whole thing. thanks!

@drewmaw said:

@believer258 said:

Huh. I've never listened to anything from Totalbiscuit. And yes, I do agree.

He can be aggravatingly opinionated sometimes [all the time], but his analysis is often greatly appreciated.

He's a member of GB too. Posted in a few topics a while ago.

Oliver Stone's movie Natural Born Killers is a great example of the subjects this youtube video fails at touching. But maybe TB informs the uninformed? Maybe... Kinda? But not really since these are things people growing into adults come to realize on their own, eventually.

TB really enjoys hearing himself talk/rant. The video is less informative and more rallying for a movement of some sort. Like an angry citizen ranting in the street about taxes being to high, just saying what we're all thinking. Normal, everyday, mild-mannered people know what the media does and how to derive fact from fiction. They understand rhetoric and hype. It's why people watch the local news for the weather and sports and mute everything in-between.

But the video comes from a good place. TB has heart and it shows. He is a good person, who means well. But I don't think this helps the situation much, just adds to it.

"You become the thing you hate the most."

The whole back third of that video seemed to go into weird conspiracy theory land.

@SoothsayerGB: It would be lovely if most people actually did mute it or not watch it or understand that it's garbage, but I can tell you that most of the folks I've met definitely do none of those things.

Funny enough, the gaming center I work at as well as a couple of other people (my boss and my girlfriend namely) were interviewed on the local news about video game violence. Specifically, they did a piece to help debunk the myth that video game violence relates to real life violence.

Ignore the part where I am poorly playing Black Ops 2 while knife-running for Bloodthirsty medals.

I agree with everything the video says except for the end bit. Saying that the news is attacking video games because it wants to take them down, because the news is in direct competition with video games, is kind of alarmist. I would say they're doing it to make money sure but to take down video games? That's a bit of a stretch. Didn't the news attack DnD gets a lot of bad press? And that's no way at all that DnD is in competition with the news. "I wonder what's happening in the world today. Let me just grab my monster manual..."

I'd say they're attacking video games because they see it as an easy target and will cause controversy. Controversy sells news papers.

I like the way he tries to tell people that the message should focus on the victims and how to prevent this in the future, yet most of the video he's talking about "victimized" videogamers.....

I watched this earlier because I do subscribe to his channel. I found the part about the media "facilitating" or being an accomplice especially interesting. In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, it really is poorly advised to cover stories like this nonstop. The whole anti-hero bit makes sense. The news coverage is making the perpetrators of these acts infamous. I don't mean to say that we should minimize the suffering of those affected, but it is kind of gross to incessantly cover this stuff.

Don't give the criminals their extended moment of infamy. Cover it and move on. Let the locals perhaps deal with extended coverage because it is pertinent to them. The rest of us don't enjoy seeing it every day for weeks. It's depressing and it isn't fixing anything.

@IzzyGraze said:

I agree with everything the video says except for the end bit. Saying that the news is attacking video games because it wants to take them down, because the news is in direct competition with video games, is kind of alarmist. I would say they're doing it to make money sure but to take down video games? That's a bit of a stretch.

While I certainly believe TB is giving too much credit to the people that run the televised News Networks, he is right in the sense that they're competing businesses that are feeling the pressure, television is dying, and no one with a sense of what the future brings can deny that the very first victims of that change are the newspapers and channels like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

So, while it may be a bit much to say the networks are grabbing pitchforks and torches against videogames, it doesn't mean that discrediting videogames as a growing medium is outside their interests, it's precisely that reason why they could feel more willingly to support the idea that videogames cause violent behavior, even when faced with absolutely no proof to that statement.

@drewmaw said:

not everyone subscribes to him

The guy has 864, 893 subscribers. For all you know, tons of people could be subbed to him. Technically speaking.

@drewmaw said:

@RazielCuts said:

The Charlie Brooker Newswipe bit video he mentions -

nice, watched the whole thing. thanks!

The forensic psychologist at 1:54 is fucking brilliant and I'm not being sarcastic. He's right a billion times, yet these media twats continue to do what they do. I love that man

TotalBiscuit can be a TotalAsshole, but he's a smart dude and totally right. The back third does a get conspiracy-ish, but it's an interesting opinion none the less.

Yeah I saw this earlier. It's a well put together video that is informative, even if you don't agree with the ending about the media attacking video games. It was cool of TB to do this.

Also his mic sound extremely good.

@drewmaw said:

@RazielCuts said:

The Charlie Brooker Newswipe bit video he mentions -

nice, watched the whole thing. thanks!

The forensic psychologist at 1:54 is fucking brilliant and I'm not being sarcastic. He's right a billion times, yet these media twats continue to do what they do. I love that man

TB echoes the same feelings Roger Ebert had in the coverage of shootings. You can read that here.

It was an interesting video, and he makes great points about misinformed the media can get in blaming games.

@GJSmitty said:

Also his mic sound extremely good.

That's cause he now uses an RE20. Gah! So jealous!

@GJSmitty said:

Also his mic sound extremely good.

That's cause he now uses an RE20. Gah! So jealous!

@ZeForgotten said:

@D_W said:

@GJSmitty said:

Also his mic sound extremely good.

That's cause he now uses an RE20. Gah! So jealous!

Get one, go buy one! nooow! Join us on the RE20 side!

jesus, $450! What do you use yours for?

@SoothsayerGB said:

Oliver Stone's movie Natural Born Killers is a great example of the subjects this youtube video fails at touching. But maybe TB informs the uninformed? Maybe... Kinda? But not really since these are things people growing into adults come to realize on their own, eventually.

TB really enjoys hearing himself talk/rant. The video is less informative and more rallying for a movement of some sort. Like an angry citizen ranting in the street about taxes being to high, just saying what we're all thinking. Normal, everyday, mild-mannered people know what the media does and how to derive fact from fiction. They understand rhetoric and hype. It's why people watch the local news for the weather and sports and mute everything in-between.

But the video comes from a good place. TB has heart and it shows. He is a good person, who means well. But I don't think this helps the situation much, just adds to it.

@ZeForgotten said:

@D_W said:

@GJSmitty said:

Also his mic sound extremely good.

That's cause he now uses an RE20. Gah! So jealous!

Get one, go buy one! nooow! Join us on the RE20 side!

jesus, $450! What do you use yours for?

@OGred: 450 is super inexpensive when it comes to microphones especially ones that are an industry standard. Of course once you factor in the bells and whistles (the shock mount, etc) its more like a $650 mic. Which again is pretty reasonable.

Politics. The sooner gamers understand politics, the better off gaming well be in the future. Gamers have to engage in the ugly process of the 'give and take' of politics. Being "right" and being "sensible" is no shield against fear or perception of action. Gaming needs to engage the power structure of politics in order to secure its rights, but we have to do so with a very keen political eye that does not make enemies.

At this point politics has its focus on guns and psychiatric health care, but they won't get very far with either of those issues. However, down the list of things to blame will be movies, tv, and games. The least organized group is games - we are the 'push over' medium. A congressional or senate hearing on Video Games Violence will steamroll anyone in this climate of fear. Games are a easy non-health care related target that has zero political power base - it a bipartisan target as well. People demanding something be done might not be entirely satisfied with just gaming regulations, but they will take the victory as a start.

Its all sounds so sinister and planned, but it isn't. It is politics, and it not personal. To most legislators just slapping some regulation to show SOMETHING being done is a win/win - the best part is it could be a show case of Democrats and Republicans crossing the aisle to agree. Tighter regulations on games will just be a pieces to a puzzle that is not about games at all but about how quickly 'something' can get done in Washington.

@Grimluck343 said:

The whole back third of that video seemed to go into weird conspiracy theory land.

How? It's just an explanation of the psychology behind it all. Where is the actual conspiracy being theorised here?

@ErEl said:

@Grimluck343 said:

The whole back third of that video seemed to go into weird conspiracy theory land.

How? It's just an explanation of the psychology behind it all. Where is the actual conspiracy being theorised here?

That the old traditional media needs to demonize video games because kids like video games and don't like cable news, that way kids will stop playing video games and buy newspapers instead.

I think @SoothsayerGB has the gist of it. Personally I think it's disingenuous for him to claim that he does not profit off of his content, as it does add to his popularity, and would then increase his chance of profiting through other ventures (assumption here is that he makes money being a personality on stuff like the PS2 content he did with SOE). I don't know if he is a Youtube partner but I do know that some uploaders receive a cut based on views (don't know if this applies to him).

It's weird for him to put forward an "us vs. them" argument with regards to how old-guard media is talking about the Newtown massacre. Even Time-Warner, the example he gives, has its own internal developer studios. And the new generation which he purports to be abandoning old-guard media is just shifting to new media owned by these old guard companies (Giantbomb/Gamespot and CBS, Joystiq/Engadget/HuffPo and AOL).

I do think that we have to have a conversation about violence in video games though. Regardless of it's effects on the mind, it feels like it's a crutch when it comes to game design these days, and is affecting how the industry is perceived (something that should be worried about). How many AAA games are non-violent these days?

@finnith said:

I think @SoothsayerGB has the gist of it. Personally I think it's disingenuous for him to claim that he does not profit off of his content, as it does add to his popularity, and would then increase his chance of profiting through other ventures (assumption here is that he makes money being a personality on stuff like the PS2 content he did with SOE). I don't know if he is a Youtube partner but I do know that some uploaders receive a cut based on views (don't know if this applies to him).

Let me just stop you there. TB is a youtube partner and I can tell you as one as well that youtube partners can choose whether they want to monetize a video or not on an individual level. He choose not to have ads on this particular video. Whether or not he'll get additional subscribers and therefore more views on monetized videos is irrelevant.

@finnith said:

I don't know if he is a Youtube partner but I do know that some uploaders receive a cut based on views (don't know if this applies to him).

I think that's only on pre-roll ads, otherwise they don't get any money unless people click on ads on the rest of the page.

But you're right, I doubt having a video get passed around so much can hurt his popularity so he might profit in the long run. I don't think that was the main aim of the video though.

I liked that Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe episode, I think someone linked it last week or something.
 
This video's 90% just this Lets Play guy going over that, and one-by-one highlighting all the parts where tabloids don't know about videogames. I think everyone who this video would reach HAS ALREADY DECIDED The Mirror and CNN and FOX News are all stupid years ago, why would he spend so much time preaching to the choir? You and everyone in your comments think videogames are good? No shit!
This 20 minutes is just a rallying cry to say "up with games, down with the news, look how wrong you are about Mass Effect". It's kind of depressing that his pretense is to honour the lives of dead people.

I thought it was better said the first time, in the 2 minute Screenwipe clip. At least that gave most of its' time to a psychologist.
Don't edit chanting music behind this, man, come on- you're not giving a sermon here, you're calling out CNN for not knowing about Starcraft :/

He's right. It's on us to make rational, reasoned arguments to those people who would sacrifice our 1st amendment rights to make themselves feel better. We've essentially already lost our 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th amendment rights. The first amendment, our most precious right, must be defended rationally and if we don't defend it then who will?

@Grimluck343 said:

@ErEl said:

@Grimluck343 said:

The whole back third of that video seemed to go into weird conspiracy theory land.

How? It's just an explanation of the psychology behind it all. Where is the actual conspiracy being theorised here?

That the old traditional media needs to demonize video games because kids like video games and don't like cable news, that way kids will stop playing video games and buy newspapers instead.

That's not a conspiracy theory. He's not saying that they have some radical plan where they've all come together like a cartel to mastermind such a conspiracy. I happen to disagree very much with that particular point of his, but he's just highlighting the conflict of interest with these so-called gamers (who are apparently all kids according to them) and traditional news media, and where their own vested interest would generally lie as a result.

@Grimluck343 said:

@ErEl said:

@Grimluck343 said:

The whole back third of that video seemed to go into weird conspiracy theory land.

How? It's just an explanation of the psychology behind it all. Where is the actual conspiracy being theorised here?

That the old traditional media needs to demonize video games because kids like video games and don't like cable news, that way kids will stop playing video games and buy newspapers instead.

Next you'll be telling me FOX news didn't actually try to take over the country by using Petreus as a puppet.

@Terramagi:Crazy right