This is why I hate Fox news.

[Pritcher]

It is a bit infuriating because the people that are arguing against the game simply refuse be reasonable about it. I was talking about this subject elsewhere so I'll just lazily paste my thoughts on it:

I read the original article that jackass wrote on townhall.com that kicked this whole ridiculous thing off and it was obvious he did absolutely no research on the subject of the article. He quite literally made up a bunch of sensationalistic bull in order to cause a stir and he succeeded beautifully there. He's an internet troll in a suit to put it simply.

That article was widely discredited and even the strict conservatives of that site began to turn on him. His "apology", so far as I read, amounted to little more than manipulating lines of his original article to make it seem like he lied less, (and he even screwed that up), followed by ending the whole thing with childish and petty name-calling to insult gamers.

I haven't played the game, but I know people that have and I've read all the stuff and I've seen all the sex scenes in the game, which amount to about what you get on nightly network television. I'm also familiar with BioWare's other work and I'm pretty sure Mass Effect is a very well told, story driven RPG of epic scope just like their Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel. Reducing the work to what they have is insulting to the creators. If it was a movie it probably wouldn't even go beyond a PG-13 rating and if it did get R it would be for violence and not sex. Yet these people say it should be rated A which would be equivalent to an X rating in a movie and that's just absurd.

Now it's gone beyond that little man and these people are still fighting a fight that was started under false pretenses and they simply refuse to listen to the plain and simple facts of the matter. They still argue under the assumption that the original article's information was true when it has been proven almost entirely false. They have not and will play the game themselves and they won't listen when people tell them the truth about the game because the truth doesn't support their arguments against it. They just keep repeating the lies as fact. It's essentially slander.

The whole thing is asinine. It's like saying that the movie Titanic was a porno flick because it had a sex scene in it. A sex scene which was probably more graphic than the ones in Mass Effect.

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So yeah, that's how I felt on the whole Mass Effect = Pure evil sex deviant thing. I don't mind people not wanting sex and violence in the games and being against it all, blah blah blah. Well, I do mind since my opinions differ, but I can accept that as their opinion which they're entitled to. I think they're too uptight and they think I'm wrong. It's nothing new; it's an old fight. Fine we can discuss it as long as it's a fair and honest debate. Now though, they're fighting the same old fight, but using outright, proven lies to back their opinions and I don't even want to bother with that fight. If their side has been reduced to that then I think my side is winning anyway.

As for some people not being able to differentiate from game and reality. That's an issue for the person(s) in question. Almost anything can be taken to an unhealthy extreme and if you take it that far, or if you allow your children to take it that far, then the blame is squarely on you. I'm not saying don't help these affected people if they need it, I do have sympathy for anyone that needs help, but don't shift the blame to the gaming industry because you can't control yourself.

One would think that the reporters, at least, have a responsibility to try to find and present honest information, but I guess that's just being naive and idealistic. I hate that I can't trust the news sources,(and it's not just FOX NEWS, though they maybe particularly partisan), but it's all I have to inform me without digging through various alternative media sources. What is or isn't true begins to lose out to what is believed and people tend to believe what they hear. It's that or get comfortable with not knowing. People don't like not knowing so even if they don't really believe the news they'll accept it as truth in order to get simple closure on whatever the matter is at the time.

This whole Mass Effect thing is pretty low on the totem pole of important matters of the world, but if they can't even be trusted to report the truth on something like this why should people believe them on other more important things?

Sorry, I know that was really long and a bit ranting in spots, but this all touched on a couple of things that actually make me angry. Sad situation. It pisses me off I'm that I've become so cynical at such a young age and it pisses me off that I've become so pissed off in general.