Colonel Lai, my pal, has updated his Colonel's Barracks column. This time he does some ranting about the Herald Sun's recent If Your Kid Plays HL HAVE HIM ARRESTED OH JESUS HE'S A THREAT TO US ALL article. Here's a tidbit:
Any how, get your ass into the rant or I'll chase you down with a broken alarm clock.
While there should be regrets in this recent abortion clinic related killing, the point that really angers me is that both the ASIA and the Herald Sun both attributed this killing to the publication of Half Life: Blue Shift. The Herald Sun claims that Blue Shift "... rewards players for killing security guards and stealing their guns is being sold in Victoria... can also make scientists at a research institute plead for their lives before shooting them dead and mutilating their bodies." The Association goes as far as to say that Blue Shift is a "disgrace" and "... want it pulled from the shelves amid fears it may encourage more attacks on guards".Though I usually don't bash the media or an official when they says something like "games are violent, booo!!", but the Aussie at the Herald Sun got his facts wrong. We only get rewarded for killing the army, you stupid head! Regardless, his article told us more than "the boys played Blue Shift", which is all his job permitted him to do.. You know, be a journalist and not an opinion making machine.
I almost blew a vein reading this so-called "reporting journalism". While Blue Shift is undoubtedly violent, nobody can conclusive say that Blue Shift is the exclusive cause of this killing, or any killing. The Herald Sun undoubtedly has NEVER played Blue Shift to qualify it from commenting on this situation because Blue Shift actually casts a security guard as the hero of the game, and the objective was to actually save other security guards and scientists from the besieged compound. The ASIA is so blatantly going on a witch-hunt to lay blame for the recent killing by using typical stereotypes and the convenient publishing of a game that uses security guards as the central gaming figure for their ammunition. Both the ASIA and the Herald Sun should actually sit down and play the game, instead of reading the box cover art and the descriptions on the back.
Any how, get your ass into the rant or I'll chase you down with a broken alarm clock.