Spencer Halpin's Moral Kombat - Trailer

Published 3 December, 2007 Duration 2:40

Spencer Haplin's film, featuring the likes of 'moral guardian' Jack Thompson, was always going to be controversial. Sensible caution or wild flame fanning?

Comments (17) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • guernican #1 4 years ago

    The analogy of the 9/11 pilots sitting down to learn how to fly a plane into a building, and 9-year-olds playing a shooter, is one of the most cynical things I've ever heard.

  • Danbojones Verified Senior Staff Writer, GamesIndustry.biz #2 4 years ago

    Also, they use a sequence from Myst IV (surely not a great example of game violence) then add bullet holes to the screen where there are none in the game. Pretty God damn weak.

  • bionutz #3 4 years ago

    what about starting with banning firearms in US, like in the civilized world over here?
    what about providing affordable healthcare and education to all layers of the society?
    Games are cinematic... that's partly because they're inspired from the movies - so what about rating a movie based on violence and not on sex?

  • Schiraman #4 4 years ago

    The idea that anyone learns anything about shooting a real world gun from playing an FPS just illustrates the position of total ignorance from which most anti-game arguments are made.

    If you're really so worried about people learning to fire guns then perhaps you should be worrying about shooting ranges or the army, because it sure as hell isn't games that are training people in skills like that.

  • riz23 #5 4 years ago

    "We are what we pretend to be"? Err..no, that's why it's pretend. Rubbish.

  • monty2k #6 4 years ago

    I played cops and robbers as a kid. That common childhood game taught me to point imaginary guns and kill imaginary cops long before I played GTA.

    I also used to play the even worse cowboys and indians which taught me, at a very young age, how to oppress other cultures, kill them and take their land.

    Video games are not corrupting children since most childrens games, nursery rhymes and stories often already have violent and disturbing themes.
    Edited by 3 at 03/12/07 @ 16:34

  • LeD #7 4 years ago

    You bunch of fuckwits, you know very well that they're on to something. Just be honest about it. As an adult playing sometimes violent games, I'm often deeply affected by what's on screen, feeling fear, anger, joy, excitement, wonder. Almost the whole range of human emotions. Of course this will never prompt me to use a gun or knife in real life.
    As grown-ups though, we have to be careful what our children play or see us play. I made the mistake of playing Gears Of War during daytime, and I saw it affected my 7 yrs old daughter. She has no urge to use a chainsaw yet, but it sure did desensitize her to the idea of people being dismembered.
    Just as I wouldn't let her watch Black Hawk Down or Debbie does Dallas, I'm now taking great care about what I play in front of her.
    This is what it's about. If you took half the time it takes you to utter such clichés as 'I like FPSes yet I've never felt the urge to kill another man' making sure your offspring is using apropriate material instead, we wouldn't have to put up with people questioning our hobby.
    Grow up, or a pair, or both. Take your responsibilities.
    Edited by 3 at 03/12/07 @ 16:51

  • monty2k #8 4 years ago

    @ LeD

    First of all, you start and end your comment with insults which is not the most mature thing you could have typed and not a particularly great example to set to children.

    No one here is saying that it's ok to let kids play Gears of War, GTA or other adult titles. It's common sense that you have shelter children from adult material - I realise this and I'm only 22 and have no kids of my own.

    We're just saying that this film is sensationalist and other forms of media bombard children with equal levels of violence and even higher levels of sex. Gaming is not as bad as this propaganda piece would make you believe. Especially since the wii, which is set be the most successful console of this generation, has the lowest rate of Mature titles in ages (even lower than the gamecube!).

    Next time perhaps you should take a break, relax and think before typing a reply to us irresponsible, immature gamers

  • Royal Fool #9 4 years ago

    I certainly like how this trailer picks out only games featuring burly, muscular men and endless gunplay, even throwing in some stuff that's really not fit for that context. Instead of providing a good overview of what the film is about, it also displays a montage of "experts" (or whatever they are, the trailer never gives names, they could be random people off the street for all I know) spewing sensationalist comments about the evils of gaming, throwing in some more demonizing headlines and news articles for good measure.

    It's obviously not a film meant for intelligent discussion or debate about "the issue", it's just a cash-in aimed at folks who are already hateful towards videogames. It definitely doesn't seem to be taking the middleground.

    I mean, honestly. Jack Thompson was one of the first people portrayed as an "expert", that really doesn't award the filmmakers much credit.

  • huxathon #10 4 years ago

    ohhh...EG, by posting this do you know what you've started?

  • threewayswitch #11 4 years ago

    "Whoever tells the stories defines the culture." That pretty much sums this waste of space up to me. PARENTS are supposed to tell stories to their children when they are growing up. PARENTS are supposed to take responsibility for their children until they are adults . PARENTS are the ones wholly responsible for the attitudes and values of children growing up.

    And parents are never the ones who are blamed. It's time the government in the US woke up and realised that the games industry VOLUNTARILY rates itself as a means of vetting its audience.

    This is like the creationists all over again. Sickening.

  • megamixer #12 4 years ago

    Their needs to be a real debate rather than just pointing the finger and games company's have to learn to create games that give reason for killing in games not just because it looks good or is fun such as GTA if you do wrong you should be punished not just reload as if it never happened but it needs to be a choice from the games industry or it will die off like the arcades.

  • SirClive #13 4 years ago

    what a one sided piece of crap.

  • bushwod #14 4 years ago

    lol, FMV from oddworld. These guys really ain't done there homework.