And the laughter. Don't forget the laughter.

As the parent of three still bright, wide-eyed-at-the-world decks of cards, I was highly distressed to see a 'game' freely packaged with every single copy of Microsoft Windows that rewards the player, after dismembering and spreading out over the playing field children much like my own, by flipping those body parts carelessly all over the screen. Last time I watched that I almost cried. I can't bear seeing it again. I definitely didn't find it, as one heartless observer noted: "Ace".

The America's Army solution to this problem is widely unknown and elegantly solves the problem without any media attention.

The EA way has them as a big story on Fox and talked about on high traffic nerd sites like, well, this one.

Yeah, I'm a bit amazed too.

To appease/incite Fox, EA should have brought up Alien vs Child Predator. That would have given them weeks of content.

Whoa whoa whoa. BMX XXX had actual video of strippers as rewards. Stripping and everything. Bewbs. And one of them was smoking hot.

And to be perfectly honest, the game actually wasn't that bad. I even err ... tested the theory by using a cheat to unlock all the stripper videos, and found myself still compelled to actually play the game properly, even though the 'rewards' were already ... 'revealed'. /rimshot

You know, it kinda does. A real world analogy to your bucket story: there was an incident in Australia where an inattentive couple lost a daughter in their pool because they either left a gate open or had a crappy gate, I forget which. They immediately started a crusade to demand the government begin mandatory pool gate monitoring by a government agency. The fact that it was their own lapse in whatever (responsibility, attention, take your pick) that caused their own personal tragedy was apparently lost on them. Their initial grief caused them to act in a way that would, externally, appear irrational, and also, quite frankly, in a way that would imply an attempt to remove the guilt resulting from the fact that they were responsible. I have no idea what they're like now; this was a couple of years ago I think.

These people have lost a child. And yes, it's a different kind of loss because of the fact that it was to a war, and a child that might have volunteered for it. But regardless of circumstance, it would stil have to be a heartbreaking experience. Unfortunately, as you say, it doesn't grant them any greater influence or control of the right to develop this game. The problem is though, again, exactly as you say even if you don't appreciate it, for now at least they have lost the capacity to think rationally, and just like the person stuck in the middle of a cyclone who thinks this could be the end of the world when a couple dozen miles in any direction someone is admiring the bright sunny day, it's a personal experience and one which greatly and undeniably affects the mindset of the one in the middle of it.

It just makes it hard because while it can be understood that they are obviously struggling, at the same time we can't simply pander to their demands simply because they are in an emotional state. Although I would presume that it would be difficultly to politely get the point across. If that's you're style, at least. To be honest I'm personally of the mind to put forward the arguments raised right at the beginning of the posting; that it's not just Americans that are dying. How many heartbroken parents in Germany have been upset at the long list of Medal of Honor games up until this point that have been purely about slaughtering the sons of German mothers and fathers. I can't remember when their voices were ever heard. Not on the other side of the pond from them, at least.

Problem is, these people can't be ignored, because there are plenty of people like Fox News who will be willing to listen and paint the soft devs or publishers as the bad guys who aren't taking the considerations of the suffering into account. But they can't be conceeded to because, well ...we're talking video games here, and we need to look at this realistically. You mourn the dead, you fight for the rights of the living. Unless we're talking about rights that would endanger said living people, but again, we're talking video games. But Fox will paint the picture using their skewed brush, and sadly enough the completely valid point that EA make about someone having to be the bad guy etc will fall of deaf ears of the "video games are evil" brigade. And at the end of the day, how was that ever not going to be the case. As always, we're on a hiding to nothing.

This is exactly it.

Paraphrasing to make it fit, from Footfall...

"Everything exploded from nothing? Doesn't that violate the laws of physics?" / "I'm sure the universe is doing everything right. We just don't understand it yet."

Even then, the crash itself was a rumor that lasted for so long purely because everyone refused to believe that anyone would still be running a copy of Windows ME.

Phew. Up until now I wasn't sure how I fit into all this.

Pfft, just wait until the Facebook page starts up.

Paganritual likes 'Abolishing Software Patents'.

A million random idiots clicking like to something they don't even understand will be enough to make things happen, surely.

(I also like 'bewbs')

Oh is that how it works? Once you're part of a group, you have complete knowledge of all facets of that group. Sweet.

As someone that uses commas, (^citation) I can assure you that you have no idea what you're talking about. Hey, that does work!

Maybe it is. This is a compelling argument we're having here. You're really good at making points requiring deep and involved refutation.

I would but they were all too busy chasing their next sexual encounter to answer the question.

I still claim that the cat jumping up on the bed in the middle of it can technically count in a pinch.

You failed to read to the end of that study where they qualified it with the fact that the sex was with someone other than the person they were married with. You know, while we're merely claiming the existence of supporting evidence.

No danger here; I know exactly where your sister and mother have been. Dear diary, jackpot.

You're Christian. A lot of us don't take you seriously. Also, we figured that lumping you altogether was the only way that threesome was ever going to happen.

I don't know, this could provide untold employment oppourtunities. Just have a bunch of people tasked with standing either side of this fatty walkway, with sticks, pushing them along like the human tyres that they are.

Of course, what you meant to say was that every time humanity, moving forward, implements a new strategic initiative with a long term strategy focus towards the develeopment of an idiot-proof contraption ...

I got crumbs from my Hurtz Donut in my Hellahertz computer keyboard, this is ... really crappy.

You can't own property, man.