Secondly, it's a picture thread, so shut the hell up with the arguing and post some damn pictures. If you all actually bothered to post something instead of constantly moaning (for either side) maybe we'd have something funny in this thread.
My mom was nice enough to throw out every single game I had while I was at the uni, and have my dad wipe our PC's hard drive, so I lost my copy of RBR. Anyone know where I could get a (non-pirated) download link of it that isn't Gamesplanet.com (screw their region locking)?
I'm not going to lie, it was the most American Christmas ever.
It was also a good learning experience though. Yea, it's fun to shoot those kinds of guns but it's also a bit of a wake up when you think of how powerful they are and that practically anyone can get their hands on one.
The axe is really the perfect zombie killer. 1 hit and perfectly silent. Not so good against people though, which are what you should really be afraid of.
I just saw an article where Senator Joe Manchin (pro-firearms) blames Grand theft Auto for the shootings.
I guess the reason that video games have gotten and will get so much flak is because it's an easy target for either side of the gun control argument. Those against gun control know that it is a good diversion from actual progress against gun violence, while those for gun control just want to get rid of anything that might have possible contributed to such an incident.
Racer X, I know you want to believe in conspiracies and all that, but does everything have to be a conspiracy? As DeadWolfBones said, witnesses report all kinds of crazy shit when they are right in the moment, then their words have to be misinterpreted and misreported before we can even hear them.
Now, my rant...
The whole event is bad enough that even someone as pro-gun as myself will agree that the United States needs to better regulate firearms. I'm eager to hear what the NRA has to say about this because, so far, I feel like they've only skirted around the whole incident so far. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the federal government ends up doing nothing. It's going to take forever to get Congress to approve some legislation. I wouldn't be surprised if something else comes up (fiscal cliff) and ends up taking priority over the weapon legislation. Best case scenario, I see a ban on assault weapons for 10, maybe 20 years. Then it'll be right back to today's laws.
As for the video games, they can try to censor virtual violence, but the Supreme Court will not allow it. We're very protective of our 1st amendment rights (rightfully, unlike our greedy over entitlement to the 2nd). If you can watch people get shot up and brutalized in movies, you'll be able to do it in video games.
Now, the media. It's horrible, but I can't really feel sympathy or compassion for the victims of the incident because the mainstream news sources (CNN, NBC, FOX) are so infuriatingly bad at covering it. They are so desperate to get anything out of anyone that they turn the whole event into a circus. You know, 'experts' are brought on air, then they make a few statements that are pure conjecture (because there's very little to actually report or its already been covered, thanks 24h news cycle), then the news stations eat up that bullshit and run it for the next 6 hours straight. Thinking they are doing some great justice to us by harassing relatives of the victims and those close to the tragedy, then providing a misguided spin on the situation and throwing it at us. Yesterday, I even heard themselves patting themselves on the back, saying they were backing away from the story to pay respect to the families, when really they are just taking off to go rape and pillage whatever their next big story is.
The only good coverage I've seen so far came from ESPN of all places. They did a short, respectful bit on Victor Cruz's trip to Newtown. One of the families wanted a signed jersey to bury their son (a diehard fan) in. He went to the funeral and spent a few hours with some of the other kids who survived, just to get their minds off what happened. Really heart-wrenching stuff, the only time I've felt bad about what happened.