Submission + - Next Gen:News Media Hurts Itself with Game-Bashing (next-gen.biz) 1
iocat writes: "Colin Campbell (editor-in-chief of Next Gen Online ), has delivered a thought-provoling editorial related to the Mass Effect Affair — Fox New's denounciation of Mass Effect under the headline "SE-Xbox," which attempted to portray the game as depraved, interactive, hard-core porn. (A semi-retraction followed, in which the reporter had to admit she hadn't played the game).
Campbell makes the point that:
Campbell makes the point that:
The rest of the editorial deals with the damage that the mainstream media is doing to itself by continuing to try and foist "antiqudated opinions" on an audience more tech- and media-savvy than its own reporters."[The Media] seem to be stuck in a weird time warp; one where consumers find videogames strange and threatening; one where games are the province of young men, prone to anti-social behavior and potential violence.... This is, in fact, a failure on their part because it's not normal NOT to play games. Playing games is the thing regular people do. So when the networks start blustering about how it's "interactivity" or "gore" or "porn" in games that does the damage, they look like idiots. And not just to some hardcore fraternity of die-hard gamers, but to millions of their viewers.
