Burnout advert branded "irresponsible" by ASA Comments by Games Industry.biz

@Arcadian

Allow me to repeat my previous post.

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@bigo

Oh ffs. Its not that bloody straight forward. It never is. Why whenever this issue comes up do somepeople try and reduce it to "watching TV does not make me a murderer". No one is bloody suggesting it does!

Every. Cocking. Time.
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Grmmle, bloody internet, etc.

No, it's not quite as simple as i put it, but at the same time there are people out there who do blame games for exactly that.

The woman in the UK who blamed her sons murder on Manhunt.

The woman in the US who blamed her sons murder on Grand Theft Auto III.

That Jack Thompson guy who blames ... well everything, on games.

Of course there isn't an easy answer to it all, but questions about other media need to be asked, to at least find some general consesus on what should be banned and what shouldn't. An educated review, rather than ignorant assumptions. It seems the only people who are affected by these adverts etc, are the people attempting to ban them.

"but at the same time there are people out there who do blame games for exactly that."

And those people are either bonkers, or just driven by understandable grief and a need for an answer. That doesn't mean that there aren't also valid reasons for wanting a degree of censorship in some situations (such as controlling the use of, if not actually banning, the advert in question).

"An educated review, rather than ignorant assumptions."

It sounds like we actually agree overall to be honest.

I hope you can see, based on my previous response to bigo's post, why I jumped on you though (aside from the fact that I'm a grumpy sod sometimes). Making "games don't make me a murderer" type comments (or context relative variants) don't quite fit into the category of educated review that we both appear to desire. :)

Edit: JESUS, so many typos.

Advertising => wankiness. Game ads => general public thinking gamers are wankers. Anyone remember those desperate Battlecruiser 3000 ads with Jo Guest holding the game box over her crotch, tag line "She Really Wants It"?

/shakes head in despair of industry ever growing up

I recall seeing an advert 20 feet wide on the side of a bus. Something to do with need for speed. Its tag line was an oh so amusing reference to "skid marks".

I nearly quit my job and went to grow lettuce somewhere.

I only just heard about this ad and it made me want to run people over and crash my car. Thank heaven I never actually saw it, who knows what atrocities I might have committed.

Just for the fact there are so fucked up people out there that they might get influenced by videogames like Manhunt, Burnout, GTA etc we can't enjoy things like this. It's not the games and their adds they should be banning. It's those fuckin' kids that should be banned. They should lock them up somewhere. Being so easilly affected makes them sick anyways and dangerous for the rest. So all this thing is pointless.

It would help if 'imbecile adolescent pricks' wasn't regarded by shameless publishers as such a high priority category for targeted marketing.

Here you go...

http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A858E...

@ExplodingClown
"Anyone remember those desperate Battlecruiser 3000 ads with Jo Guest holding the game box over her crotch, tag line "She Really Wants It"?"

I do I do!!!

What do I get?

"It's those fuckin' kids that should be banned. They should lock them up somewhere. Being so easilly affected makes them sick anyways and dangerous for the rest."

Right! Next step would be to lock up the fanboys...

I'm not getting this. I find most ads offensive, in that they patronise and take me for a fool, as I imagine most people do. Yet the problem is not that I'm being patronised by the ad, it's that I'm being patronised by the ASA instead. They argue that this still image condones bad driving, while no-one apparently has the slightest problem with the game itself, which is actively condoning this same behaviour by its fundamental design; that's pure hypocrisy.

Either Burnout is by its nature somehow harmful to people, in which case, fine, ban the ads, the games, and all other games for that matter, or it's not, in which case the complainants are clearly overreacting (not to mention setting up strawman arguments) and should learn to cope with the idea that not everyone's idea of entertainment is the same as theirs, and shut the hell up.

I also find it difficult to accept that it being judged "offensive" by 37 random people's arbitrary standards is sufficient to have it reprimanded or whatever the hell the ASA actually did, when so many adverts are equally easy to interpret in just as harmful a manner. Then again, maybe I just don't hear about other ads, since I don't frequent insurance and margarine and high street fashion websites.

Also, how the hell are you supposed to publicise a game like this, centred as it is around relieving your stress by repeatedly causing immense traffic accidents, without doing something like this?