(this is an old post from my wordpress blog that got deleted there by accident a long time ago, after it was published in 2011 or 2010. I thought it was important that I republish it here)
So the anti-gamers are at it again.... A new 'phone survey' says that 67% of adults surveyed want violent games restricted to adults. No suprise there... But the real issue, is that the survey also says that 39% of adults surveyed think that violent game makers should be held liable when "it can be proven that a violent game causes a real life crime to happen".
You might think this is some honest survey, but trust me it is not .Here is the wording of the study, according to the gamepolitics article I got it from (look in the comments):
"For those wondering, here is the wording and order of the questions in their survey:
1* How concerned are you about the level of violence in many video games today?
2* Do violent video games lead to more violence in our society?
3* Should states be allowed to prohibit the sale or rental of violent video games to minors?
4*
Who is more responsible for limiting the amount of sex and violence
children are exposed to in video games – video game makers, the
government or parents?
5*
Should the makers of violent video games be held liable in court if it
can be shown that their games led to someone committing a violent
act?"Question 1, makes the viewers think about the violent games link to violence, and question 2, makes them think about their opinions on whether violent games cause real-life violence, biasing their answers after that. Question 4 then uses that bias to incite a yes response! This is especially troubling, because what it does is that it makes certain people want to sue, or advocate lawsuits against, violent game makers. If question 1 and 2 were never asked, the chance is greater that question 4 would have had less people who say "yes, sue the assholes marketing violent trash to my 2 year old!"
This is another sly tactic to win viewers over, to make them believe the nonsense that violent games make kids violent, when the only people who said that were biased talk show guests misrepresenting studies that were biased in themselves, that seemed to prove violent games make kids more aggressive. It's mind control, plain and simple... In a sense...
Take the amount of people who thought violent games should be outright banned or sued (11% of 44 comments, 38% of all comments wanting legal action performed (banning, suing, restricting to adults) to all age groups on my study of comments (here), and you see more people want game makers sued than ever before. It seems it's a new fad, "sue ID software,etc" after a school shooting. More people are believing these lies spread around, even in an Amicus Brief for SCOTUS (whose lies were debunked here), and it's scary..
Another issue I would like to bring up, is that the sample size of the survey is a mere 1000 people (probably 1000 people who are in right wing conservative communities that believe the nonsense about violent games that the above amicus brief used to try to sway the SCOTUS decision), out of 300 million. That is 3% of the population of america surveyed, less than a population of one state! In fact that 1000 people surveyed, although it seems big to people who don't look at this stuff, is a mere 1/200000 of the population of one state of the US on average... It's tiny. According to true knowledge, the population of Boston, MA was found to be 618,231 in 2011. That's 618 times as much as the survey sample size. So basically the sample size they used skipped 97% of the population! It's just to small! I'm not saying the survey would have to encompass an entire state or the entire US, but 1000 people, is way to small. I think they chose 1000 poeple who were anti violent games being sold..... Just my opinion. They never asked "Do you think violent games should be banned to all age groups?", to anyone, but since so many people wanted violent game makers sued out of the sample size, it makes me think that they wanted them banned too. Usually people who want lawsuits would also not want games they think cause violence, sold to anyone... No matter how old. Just My opinion...
So basically they are saying the 390 or so people want violent game makers sued out of 1000. That 390 is 39% of 1000, but on the scale of all the people living in an area the same population as Boston in 2011, that's only 0.6% of the population of that area! In contrast, the 67% of the 1000 who wanted violent games restricted to adults (roughly 670 out of 1000) is 1% of that area with the same population of Boston in 2011. That's bigger than the 0.6% but is still tiny..... These survey's don't mean much when 1% of the population of a boston populated area want violent games restricted to adults. There are probably more people in that area who think President Obama should be Impeached.
Speaking of surveys.... I am planning an experiment to see how far the anti-gamers will go. Stay tuned...
