Kevin McCullough vs. Mass Effect (Xbox Game)

[xepherys]

Who IS this douchebag anyhow?

LINK

He blogged the following:

I know that they all probably assume they have better, much more important, urgent, timely, things to campaign on, but I sure would like to get their individual takes on the new video game that one company is marketing to fifteen year old boys.

It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players - universally male no doubt - to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.

The objections to such filth should be simple to understand.

Starting with the disgusting idea that one can "create" their own versions of what people look like, removing warts, moles, and bald spots while enhancing - shall we say - the extended features of the game's characters tends to objectify women, sex, and human relationships. Right? We can all agree on this?

Then there's the dishonesty behind the game' title. "Mass Effect" sounds like a war game with a deadly virus that is spreading unless the GI-Joes are able to defeat the evil and deadly substance and it's covert war plan. By it's design, kids could ask for it, or for their parents' Best Buy Card to go purchase it with nary a raised eye-brow. Generic, non-descriptive, and relatively harmless.

But it IS marketed for the X-Box 360, perhaps the most visually stimulating gaming system ever made. The software for such allows the blending of DVD video, component graphics, and the manipulation of actual pictures so that an alternate reality engulfs the fifteen year old boy playing it without much objection.

Now if I have trouble with my son taking his James Bond 007 games a little too emotionally, imagine the powerful effect that hormones add to the mix when the player's own character is copulating like jack rabbits with super-models, actresses, and anyone else they can spend the patience to create, name, and "put into play."

I hear the libertarian Ron Paul's answer already, "Government has no business censoring freedom of expression." Figures, he's a libertarian.

In the race for President there has been a lot of discussion about faith and it's impact on the lives of the individual candidate. Some pretty inane ones like Carl Cameron's less lucid moment this past week when he posed the inquiry about marital submission to Governor Mike Huckabee.

Yet here's a question that deserves to be asked, and in all likelihood will not be: "How much moral judgement should the President push into legislative issues that are likely to severely damage our children's innocence, function, and capability?"

I hear the nay-sayers claiming I'm being the wild and crazed Bible thumper I've always been - but its a worthwhile question isn't it?

If a pre-teen, teen, young adult, or adult male plays such a game in which the women DO submit without choice, are made to appear as Barbie streetwalkers, and perform whatever act can be imagined, what's to stop that same male from assuming that the women in his "other world" shouldn't be forced to do the same.

We now know because of the lengthy track record of serial killer after another that addictive use of pornography was prevalent in case after case - long before the switch got flipped and what their masturbatory imaginations have given into became what they were forcing real live human beings to do.

And because of the digital chip age in which we live - "Mass Effect" can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

With it's "over the net" capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away.

Yes there will be many snickers that I decided to bring this issue up in the Presidential cycle of 2008 but how refreshing would it be for a President to prove to the nation that his own manhood was not in question and put his pen and signature to a bill that dealt with such simulated sex excess in a way that was punitive to its creators to such a degree that they would never recover from it?

As technology continues to push the limits of imagination and interaction more and more the brain, the emotions, the feelings will integrate with physical responses in reality. And while the makers of such trash seem to be pushing our next generation of young men through the gates of hell as fast as is humanly possible, it needn't be that way.

Here's hoping that as the next President will be forced to deal with this continual emerging reality - and enemy that has set its site to our destruction from within - that we will have elected a man of such character that he will have precision in the clarity of his response.

How would that be for a bold and uncompromising "Mass Effect?"

a) This guy has obviously never played, seen or seen somebody play Mass Effect.

b) This guy is why political pundits annoy the fuck out of me

c) Sadly, someone out there read this and found a brand new soapbox about something they are equally ignorant about.

So, let's see. First of all, the sex scene in Mass Effect is rated about as maturely as a Snow White kiss. It's pretty tastefully done, especially since the game is rated 'M' for Mature.

How exactly is the game's name a misnomer? I think it's pretty specific to the story of the game. His spiel about a War against Bioterrorism seems a stretch of the imagination. Obviously the guy is not a gamer.

With it's "over the net" capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away.

WTF does this even mean? Virtual Orgasmic Rape sounds like a feature of a 21st century Leisure Suit Larry game. No, even LSL isn't that explicit. Maybe some Japanese Teledildonics game? Virtual Orgasmic Rape... VOR! I just really don't even have anything constructive to say against this point. It's so utterly senseless as to just frustrate my very core.

Man, this is the kind of guy I wish I could just see on a street corner, walk up to him and say, "Mr. McCullogh?", "Yes...", *sucker punch* I hate idiots. I exceptionally hate idiots on a soapbox. I detest soapboxing idiots that haven't the faintest clue what they are arguing for or against.

Can BioWare sue for libel? *grumble*

Update: This is the email I sent him from the link on his page:

Wow! I submitted a comment, but felt I had to actually extend my feelings to you personally. I pray you get this, and hope seriously to hear a response from you.

As you can see from your comments area on this blog posting, the people are against your viewpoint here. You've overstepped your knowledge base considerably for this article.

First of all, Mass Effect has a small "love scene" that is hardly rated PG-13, and since the game is rated M (Mature), children under 17 should not even be playing it. Shame on the parents who do not monitor their children's gaming habits.

Second, You cannot customize whores to your very liking. The only customization in game is the character you play, and you can customize the face... somewhat. The "love interests" in the game are static and cannot be changed. The romantic aspect is very much a proper courting. You talk to either of the two females that you can develop a relationship with about their families. You develop something mutual. You don't just haul random chicks off to the back of your spaceship for a quick shagging. This is NOT Grand Theft Auto.

What is this "Virtual Orgasmic Rape" crap anyhow? There is no rape. You do not force any women to do ANYTHING sexual in this game. Also there is no multiplayer, online or otherwise. The only internet connectivity the game has is for updated content (such as patches to fix glitches and the like). Virtual Orgasmic Rape? I believe you are trying to sensationalize the matter a considerable bit.

"One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of."

You cannot customize the other characters. And you cannot hump in any format except a very mild, tasteful, sheet-covered love making session between what is, in the game, two consenting adults.

Gah! I just haven't the words to truly express to you how horrified I am that there may be someone out there who read this and found a brand new soapbox to be ignorant about.

As a soldier serving overseas in a combat zone, I pray to God Almighty that no president ever gets into office that would so widely try to stop freedom of creativity and expression, especially over something as tame as Mass Effect, a game that you know absolutely nothing about. you want to complain about killing hookers in GTA? Fine. I don't terribly care that such a game exists. My son will certainly not be allowed to play it. But this? Seriously?

[LoganSnake]

The scene in question:

http://www.thebitbag.com/index.php/2...ease-stand-up/


The guy's a douche.

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[Jinn]

IS HE FUCKING KIDDING ME? THAT GOD DAMN SCENE IS SO BLAND ITS NOT EVEN NSFW. I CAN FIND HARDER SHIT IN A GOOGLE SEARCH THAN I CAN IN AN ENTIRE PLAY THROUGH OF MASS EFFECT.

UGGH.

.. what a fucker.

[xepherys]

After trolling through the comments on that posting, I found his rebuttal against the people telling him he was an idiot.

LINK

...lesbian, alien, hetero...take your pick...

The Gamer-Nerd universe exploded in anger over the tone and a couple of the specifics of my most recent column, "The 'Sex Box' Race for President."

If the few who wrote me are indicative of the rest of the gaming universe, we know at least they have passion - for their toy-boxes...

Repeatedly they challenged me, called me names, and used some of the most stimulating intellect I've seen to date to point out my error on a point of substance/possibly two...

Here's a sample of the Gamer-Nerds at their finest (directed at me...):

I hope someone hits you over the head with a dictionary, putting you into a coma. The financial strain on your family would eventually force your son to sell his video games. Your son would have to go several years without a father figure in his life, giving him a handful of psychological and emotional complexes.

Then, years later when you wake up from your coma, you find your son to be a full-blown adult. He lives far away now. You track him down to let him know that youre back. You meet up with his lovely friend Jim, whom he must blow for drug money. You try to change his ways, but he wont budge.

It all comes to a climax when he bludgeons you to death in a particularly heated argument. He then empties your pockets, strips you naked, sodomizes your corpse and uses his connections in the rough part of town to have your body dumped, leading Police to believe you picked up a tranny, were robbed, and then killed.

More than one who wrote me claimed that because he loves gaming so much that I had somehow permanently impaired his world because of the assertions I made in the dangers that sexually explicit games present to the whole of society (not merely the fruit of the loom droopy drawers living in the basement.)

To a person (after being hyped a bit by gamer-nerd-blogs) and no doubt instructed to flood my inbox with response, the gist of these responses went something along these lines, "YOU LIED, YOU LIED, YOU LIED." Some called me a yellow journalist, some just typed the "F" word something like 27 times, and signed it, "have a good day."

But what was it I was supposed to have lied about? That my friend is the compelling part of this highly emotional drama - if only to one niche of people attached to their X-Boxes.

1. "The most realistic sex acts..." - from the YouTube footage I saw, I still concur, to me these acts are the most realistic put in video games - that I have seen. In the lesbian version one woman's hand appears to stimulate the crotch of the other passing between the legs. Today many of the more perv-oriented gamer-nerds took delight in describing for me the detailed description of games they claim are MORE realistic... Ok fine, I'll take them at their word, but for me the statement stands...

2. "One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images..." Evidently the only thing I got wrong on this was the breast size, though I would like someone to explain to me how the female characters end up having different sizes again on the YouTube footage I witnessed with my own eyes... But the rest of it was true. race, hair style, color - etc.

3. "...the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of." Again true (not that there are that many combinations of human sexuality to begin with.) But since the makers of Mass Effect decided to throw in a little alien booty both hetero and homo it seems to me that they covered the range. Would these gamer-nerds have preferred that the game included bestiality? Later in the column I make a reference to being able to perform sex acts, homo and hetero, with whomever... Ok - you can't have sex with every single character in the game... But between copulating with Aliens, girl on girl, guy on girl, and according to my gamer-nerd friends who I checked with - it does not take a great deal of manipulation to add a few extra "kinks" to the mix for those who know a little bit about such things.

4. They (the gamer-nerds) also took outrageous umbrage to the claims I made in the column that the game is marketed to teen-age boys. (Though many of those giving me feedback happened to be under the age of 17/18.) The common argument is that because the game is marked "M" that means that no kid under 17/18 (depending on your state) would be allowed access to it. Asinine thinking through and through though. Simply like the fact that movie theaters are this night allowing children underage to purchase tickets, refusing to ask for ID, these games are being sold over the counter by the major chain stores with no enforcement of the age limit suggestions posted on the games themselves. The Gamer-Nerds act as though the packaging itself is all the responsibility that needs to be taken. Of course they themselves probably started hiding their collection of Hustler Magazine under their beds when they were eleven and have thus a good idea of how the "letter of the law" differs from the "intent." Thus the explanation of why they were so sore with me for pointing out the obvious. The silly "M" label stands for, and accomplishes precious little.

5. The major criticism the Gamer-Nerds had for me in their reaction was this challenge: "Unless you've spent the 20 hours of game time it takes to get to the explicit scenes, keep your fat mouth shut!" Many challenges stated that unless I played it myself then I had no business pointing out its objectionably content. Would they say the same of a strip club at the end of their block or hookers knocking at their door? (Well maybe sexually repressed gamer-nerds would...) Normal people would not. There is an innate instinct that tells us right from wrong, it's called a conscience. Did I play the game? No. Did I talk to some gamers who had and who knew the possibilities of the game. Yes! Does it make the lesbian, alien, hetero, homo sex that a player arrives at in the game a proper thing for teenagers to be tantalized by? Absolutely not!

Midway through the column I turn to a vision of where such games will lead to in the future, more games using sex as an enticement, more vivid graphics, more, more, more... That is what gamers ascribe to right? Alternate universes where they can escape this world and become caught up in the pursuit of whatever...

The over-arching point of the entire piece, was not even to encourage censorship - though we ARE allowed to censor smut in this nation, and it has been defined already by the Supreme Court. (Thus why we are not Europe with our "blue" channel running on broadcast television nightly.) The real point of the piece was however to say that in the election coming up the next President will preside over a society that does more to push the envelope than any that have come before it.

That society does so at our peril.

Look, if the Gamer-Nerds need their pervy outlets to find true release and inner peace - then make them drive to the outskirts of town and be forced to frequent those places that no one wants in the community to get them. By properly removing sexually explicit material from Best Buy, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart we take a step (one that did not need to be explained only a few years ago) in pushing back against the tidal wave of trashy cheap sex that society has ruled harmless, and thus meaningless.

God didn't design it that way, and no matter how many gamer-nerds spam my inbox with profane dreams of seeing my dead corpse sodimized...

I'm not moving!

Man, calling him a douchebag is a disservice to the douchebag community at large.

[filtherton]

Wow.

That's pretty funny, except for the fact that some people will actually take the things this guy says at face value.

[xepherys]

LoganSnake, I'm pretty sure that's not the scene he was talking about. There IS a love making scene... but it's not terribly explicit

[ObieX]

i think he meant this scene for the sex:



you still don't see anything.

And the game is RATED M. Therefore no 15 year olds will be palying this game unless their parents buy it for/with them. As an employee at a certain video game store i can tell you that by law we can not just sell rated M games to minors without parental permission after reading to them the rating and whyit is rated something.

[biznatch]

Originally Posted by ObieX

And the game is RATED M. Therefore no 15 year olds will be palying this game unless their parents buy it for/with them. As an employee at a certain video game store i can tell you that by law we can not just sell rated M games to minors without parental permission after reading to them the rating and whyit is rated something.

Um, while I do agree that the game is not even softcore, kids can buy M rated games. Most stores won't stop them, or even care.

[BadNick]

The game seems kind of interesting. It reminds me a little of watching one of the movies where the android finds out it's not really human and then I feel sorry for it. Plus I'm glad you brought my attention to Mass Effect so I'm a little ahead of where I would be when my kids ask for it ...boys 11 & 12yo. And yes, I'd say the guy in question is an asshole idiot.

[ObieX]

Originally Posted by biznatch

Um, while I do agree that the game is not even softcore, kids can buy M rated games. Most stores won't stop them, or even care.

Do you know that for a fact? because if you try that in one of my stores and your boss finds out you're gonna be in deep shit. There are secret shoppers looking specifically for it and you're pretty much fired right away if spotted. It is more enforced than people want to think it is.