The Fox News Debates: Cooper Lawrence admits wrongdoing towards Mass Effect

Well we finally have some kind of apology. If you hadn't heard, Monday on the Fox News television show “The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum,” author Cooper Lawrence outraged the gaming world by making comments towards the game Mass Effect such as:
“Here’s how they’re seeing women: They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these, you know, hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.”
To top her comments off, GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley asked Mrs. Lawrence if she had ever played Mass Effect, to which she replied "No" and laughed.

Well you don't just hit the gaming community and get away with it. As Mrs. Lawrence found out, the gaming community will hit back. Lawrence's book site on Amazon.com as well as Barnesandnoble.com received quite a lashing. Review scores plummeted and angry posts flooded the page.

EA (parent company of Mass Effect's developer BioWare) called out the Fox News program and called for the record to be set straight, which led to Fox News claiming they had invited EA onto the "Live Desk" program with no response. Finally after all of this, Mrs. Lawrence has come out and admitted her comments were wrong.

"I recognize that I misspoke,” she said. “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke. Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”

Let this be a lesson to all media. Do your research before opening you mouth.

Grand Theft Auto IV dated April 29th

Rockstar Games and Take 2 have announced that one of this years' mega-hits, Grand Theft Auto IV will be releasing April 29th. The game should be the best in the series thus far, and cleans up every issue the past GTA games have had. IGN and Gamespot, among others, have extensive previews of the game for your viewing pleasure!

APRIL 29th

Fox News gets an earful from EA

Following the story posted a few days ago with a video of a Fox news report about how Mass Effect was apparently showing "Full digital nudity" and how it was letting players engage in full "graphic sex," Bioware parent company EA shot back with a rebuttal of their own. The following are a few excerpts from the letter sent by Jeff Brown, Vice President of communications at EA, to Teri VanHorn, producer of the Live Desk with Martha MacCallum show.

(From Gaming Today)

"'As the parent company of BioWare, the studio which created the game, EA would like you to set the record straight on a number of errors and misstatements which incorrectly characterize the story and character interactions in Mass Effect.”

“Your headline above the televised story read: “New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex.” Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots - a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows. It’s also worth noting that the game requires players to develop complex relationships before characters can become intimate and players can chose to avoid the love scenes altogether.

FNC voice-over reporter says: “You’ll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex.”
Fact: Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time.

FNC reporter says: “Critics say Mass Effect is being marketed to kids and teenagers.”
Fact: That is flat out false. Mass Effect and all related marketing has been reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and rated Mature - appropriate for players 17-years and older. ESRB routinely counsels retailers on requesting proof of age in selling M-rated titles and the system has been lauded by members of Congress and the Federal Trade Commission. In practical terms, the ratings work as well or better than those used for warning viewers about television content.”

[Concerning the panel in the discussion] “They have had zero experience with Mass Effect and are largely ignorant about videogames, the people who play them, and the ESRB system that governs their ratings and sales.”

“The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards. As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness.

Do you watch the Fox Network? Do you watch Family Guy? Have you ever seen The OC? Do you think the sexual situations in Mass Effect are any more graphic than scenes routinely aired on those shows? Do you honestly believe that young people have more exposure to Mass Effect than to those prime time shows?

This isn’t a legal threat; it’s an appeal to your sense of fairness. We’re asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect.'"

New Far Cry 2 trailer hits the web...

Enjoy the new trailer for the PC/360/PS3 game Far Cry 2. The trailer showcases Ubisoft's new Dunia engine.

Fox News shows ignorance about gaming once again

Take a look at this news piece Fox News did about Mass Effect.

This news piece infuriates me. "Full Nudity?" Where in the game is that exactly? I have gone through every love scene and the most you see is the side of a breast or the butt of a character.

The news media is so ignorant to the gaming world that it makes me sick. If you have not played through the game in question you should get very little say. The fact that one of the latter guys said the game was "Luke Skywalker meets Debbie does Dallas" makes me wonder if I should even trust the news anymore.

Geoff did the best he could in his 30 seconds of time to defend it, and mention that it's not just "let's go have *** with as many people as possible," and that it is really a love story in the game that leads to it. This game is more like a movie than anything, but there you go, why all of the sudden are video games the hot topic? Do kids not have access to "R" rated movies in their home? I would bet that more households have "R" rated movies than have "M" rated video games.

The ignorance of news-media today really upsets me. Mass Effect is an entire epic story and people need to play it before calling it out to be blasphemy.

What do you think?

Win: Rez HD for free!

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Far Cry 2 Coming to 360

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"More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry 2 immerses players in an entirely new kind of gaming experience, featuring a custom-made video game engine built from the ground up. Players will discover a true open world gameplay set in one of the most beautiful environments in the world, Africa, brought to life by high-definition next-gen technology. Far Cry 2 is scheduled to ship fiscal 2008–2009."

Official Statement

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Escapist Magazine