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When Fox News asked the question "Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?" they did more than just pull one of their patented "plant an idea by asking the question" bait and switch jobs. They also helped to sell the game.
As anyone with half a brain-cell would know, any publicity is good publicity and Epic Games' president Mike Capps certainly agrees. Speaking to Game Politics about his feelings concerning the Fox story he said "There are two ways to answer the question. The first is what it does for Bulletstorm and the second is what it does for the industry. For what it did for Bulletstorm... yes, there were people who were very excited about any attention at all. For a game that's over-the-top, they probably helped sell more units than they convinced people to pick at us," he said. "What was most exciting about it for me [was the reaction from the media in the industry defending us]. Every journalist said this Fox report is junk... It's wonderful to see a media that's defending free speech."
"We got a reorder on day one from one of the big U.S. retailers that focuses on games," said Capps. "So that was a pretty good feeling."
But Fox News went much farther than just calling Bulletstorm out on it's comical violence. They also brought on an "expert" who attempted to make a correlation between video games and rape:
Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist and book author, told FoxNews.com that sexual situations and acts in video games -- highlighted so well in Bulletstorm -- have led to real-world sexual violence.
“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” she said.
Which, in turn, led gamers to take their revenge by finding Carole Lieberman's book on Amazon and ripping it to shreds in the customer reviews. To this day the book has a 1.5/5 star rating.
As comical as that all is, Mike Capps still reiterates that the continual use of video games as a punching bag at all paints a scene where they are still not looked at with any amount of respect. "As for what it does for the industry as a whole I think it's terrible,” he noted. “There are people who really respect Fox News' opinions and look at that and are [convinced that video games are bad]."
Personally, I disagree with the pretense that anyone who "respects" the opinion of Fox News makes up a segment of the population that I think we need to capture. And part of me thinks that he should be glad for the publicity; perhaps even send Fox News a thank you letter for the boost in sales their reporting surely provided. Ultimately, however, they were looking for nothing more than hits and viewers within that 24hr period. After which I'm sure they had no problem moving onto screaming like a bleeding harpy over the next thing they are trying to convince suburban families to be afraid of.
But on the whole he is correct. Its been a long time since people have seriously blamed cinema for the "degradation of our children" even though the video game industry holds itself to the very same rules and regulations for minors that the film industry does. And before people blame the very essence of Bulletstorm itself (the foul language and toilet humor) for the disrespect, I'll remind them that cinema also comes in all colors and flavors. You don't blame all of cinema when a new Jackass is produced. The third Naked Gun movie didn't take away from Werner Herzogs' masterpieces. And the same should be said of video games as well. Plus, I'm sure Jackass was much, much cheaper to produce than Bulletstorm.
[Source: Game Politics]
Comments
13 years, 8 months ago
Videogames are destroying are children innocence. All games should be banned and then set on fire infront of a cross, so Jesus can protect us from their evil wicked fumes...
Long live Beck!
Beck-thulhu fhtagn!
Beck-thulhu fhtagn!
13 years, 8 months ago
Your an idiot old white republican, jesus and or "God" isint real so come back from fantasy land how bout u just die so u can go to jesus sooner
13 years, 8 months ago
Wow, this is so fucking similar to the mass effect controversy its almost mindblowing.
The exact same thing happened to that "experts" book. Do they not learn??
13 years, 8 months ago
Uhh, best first two comments ever, Y/Y?
I'm just here for the picture, tbh.
13 years, 8 months ago
Oh faux news, when will you learn?
13 years, 8 months ago
If it is not the worst video game ever made than I shall return this as swiftly as possible because FOX NEVER LIES.
13 years, 8 months ago
HAHA THIS IS JUST TO PATHETIC first off they mention nine year olds.....this is insanely pathetic what fucked up parent would let there kid play such a game? Parents are getting more and more retarded, its called DONT LET YOUR KID PLAY THE GAME ITS NOT THAT HARD! on top of that they have to blame the game for doing what its suppose to do. Entertain. my god the massive amount of patheticness and fail is just blowing my mind right now. To think people are THIS stupid. Almost to laughable. people need to grow up and see that violence will be around forever, its to late to censor anything.
Thanks for posting this 4pp i have another little article to pass around to the idiot soccer moms that thinks that when a kid eats candy its as bad as doing drugs and having sex with a hooker at the same time. Also sorry if i rage quitted, im just to pissed off at people these days.
13 years, 8 months ago
Half surprised. I knew the story was BS and everything but I suspected Bulletstorm sales to stay the same, not actually increase I guess.
This psychiatrist is also an idiot. Making a book about women steeping to lower levels to get up in the world and then talking about video games causing rape. And then when confronted by others with facts like rape has gone down 60% since 90s or something she says I'm too busy to find the information to counteract your evidence. Sad FOX News. Sad.
Also wtf 2 first comments.
13 years, 8 months ago
oh...forgot to mention im raging on the first link you click up there and read what the contents say. First sentence of this, cant miss it.
13 years, 8 months ago
Unintelligent shit like this just make me want to rage so hard i flip to the other end of the fuckwad spectrum.
*deep breath*
*exhale*
smh...
13 years, 8 months ago
Must be a slow news day.
It makes me wonder why anyone still thinks that all video games are for children. What person looks at games like Leisure Suit Larry and says "oh, this game has scantily clad attractive women, it may be sexual. But they're cartoons, so it must be for kids!"? Bulletstorm doesn't even have a deceiving cover. It just screams overkill. But it's a video game so it must be appropriate for an 8 year old.
Then again there was all that hubub about Beevis and Butthead/The Simpsons/Family Guy/etc when people (re)discovered that cartoons aren't always for kids.
Good old Fox, preying on the fears of idiots since 1996. At least it's useful for boosting sales.
13 years, 8 months ago
Ha! What an ironic twist of fate.
13 years, 8 months ago
Called it. Day one. Fox News helped Bulletstorm sell more copies than it would have by giving it this awesome publicity, with the ridiculous intention of doing the exact opposite and getting people to not buy the game.
Ah, funny stuff.
13 years, 8 months ago
I wonder what will happen when all those old nursing home hillbillies that watch Fox die off...
I'm guessing it will die to
13 years, 8 months ago
Weird...I posted this article in the forums when it came out a few months back and got a different response from the 4pp community...
But anyway, we should all listen to Fox News. Because Fox News is in no way a biased, misinformed, unbalanced, and right wing news channel.
FOX NEWS CARES. (t.m)
13 years, 8 months ago
I don't like how everyone just read the first paragraph of the article and bashed Fox because they're Fox. If you read the whole thing, it says 9 year olds play it because they're parents are dumb. Fox acknowledges how parents are mostly to blame and that this is an M rated game. It's the hodgpodge of random conservative uneducated quotes they threw in that brought the article down.
13 years, 8 months ago
I love this stuff it is funnier to me than the onion news network!
13 years, 8 months ago
I'm British, but even I know that getting your information from Fox News is like relying on the Daily Sport for it's biting journalism
13 years, 8 months ago
Well Joseph I don't think what they meant was that people who respect Fox News are in the category that plays games *although I do know a few* merely that people who respect fox news hear these reports and believe the bogus stories even thought they don't know anything about video games.
13 years, 8 months ago
Bulletstorm = rape
Fox News ohyou.jpg
13 years, 8 months ago
Yeah Fox News is awful I like the unbiased views of MSNBC & CNN. LOL all news stations suck balls.
13 years, 8 months ago
I don't even trust Fox's weather reports. 50% chance of rain? You mother fuckers, that doesn't mean a goddamn thing.
13 years, 8 months ago
its all entertainment lol just like their rants lol homefront is coming soon so you know what that means. more controversy coming out of their assholes. the smell of bullshit is in the air. :P
13 years, 8 months ago
Ah Fox News, you're totally right, as always.
Playing Bulletstorm makes me want to just, go out and rape my neighbors.
*Facepalm*
13 years, 8 months ago
I don't know what you guys are talking about. GTA has made me pay for services from and kill hookers ever since I hit puberty. Everybody knows gamers have a hard time distinguishing reality and gaming, right? Another bad report by faux news. All American news stations can go to hell.