A letter to the sun newspaper (Advance Wars)

hoppo254

The Article in question
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1736813.ece

My E-mail to Andrew looking for his reasoning behind it

Hi Andrew,

I was very disappointed to read you recent article in the Sun newspaper in which you tell the story of the death of a young man who was a member of a gaming community, in particularly the community relating to "Advance Wars" on Nintendo DS or Gameboy Advance.

While in found it interesting and informative given the subject matter, the area that disappointed me was you insinuation that somehow the involvement of the game was a factor in the crime. Referred to as "geeky" and the slant to give the impression that the community was some sort of haven for non-sociable people.

As a gamer (and played said game) and a member of gaming communities i take offence to being referred to as a "geek". Within the media it seems gaming has become an easy target to tack onto crimes when in fact it is often not a factor what so ever. I am saddened that you have climbed aboard this particular band wagon.

If gaming is to shed the incorrect public perception of loners in their room then articles like your own are counter productive. The games of today are multi-player , family orientated and world wide occupations which in some ways are more innovative than movies or music.

I shall be posting this e-mail and its reply onto the internet.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards
Michael





I will post up the reply if i recieve one

OctavarIan

hoppo254 wrote: »

As a gamer (and played said game) and a member of gaming communities i take offence to being referred to as a "geek". Within the media it seems gaming has become an easy target to tack onto crimes when in fact it is often not a factor what so ever. I am saddened that you have climbed aboard this particular band wagon.

It would be foolish of them as tabloid media not to climb aboard that bandwagon.

hoppo254 wrote: »

If gaming is to shed the incorrect public perception of loners in their room then articles like your own are counter productive. The games of today are multi-player , family orientated and world wide occupations which in some ways are more innovative than movies or music.

Tabloids don't care about helping gaming get a good reputation. If anything they're more concerned with the opposite, geek/loner image sells more.

I could understand sending an email in if a proper newspaper published the article, but The Sun? Are you not familiar with what tabloids are OP?

hoppo254

I am very familiar with the rag and the only reason i was reading it was because my family work in the industry and we got the paper free.

I am interested to see what the journalist says in reply...

The more we complain about articles then hopefully the general view will change.

Perhaps its futile but still no harm in trying

OctavarIan

hoppo254 wrote: »

The more we complain about articles then hopefully the general view will change.

Perhaps its futile but still no harm in trying

The rags won't change their views until the gamer geek/loner stereotype is no longer sellable, which sadly won't be happening.

That said I hope you get a reply and I'm interested in seeing the response.

Dont be at yourself

Hasn't there been an arrest of a German man who knew the deceased through the gaming community? If so, it does look as if the gaming connection was a valid one.

I may have got my wires crossed somewhere along the lines though.

DeathMachine

What's far worse is they compared Advance Wars to chess and insinuated it's some sort of personification of last decades stereotypical Dungeons and Dragons playing, long haired, glasses wearing nerd, the exact opposite of what AW both is and represents....

The game was a factor in the crime, clearly - but sure every crime has multiple factors. I was more outraged as the pathetic coverage of the game in question and the light it was cast in.

Cuddlesworth

Girlfriend was a bit of allright.

Zillah

Its The Sun. Jesus. Its like finding a racist rant in a neo-Nazi publication and sending an email "I find your use of racist language hurtful".

Kinetic^

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Girlfriend was a bit of allright.

Should've gone to specsavers!

Retr0gamer

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Girlfriend was a bit of allright.

She's on the market again.

Rhyme

Retr0gamer wrote: »

She's on the market again.

I'm caught between laughing (evilly) and calling you a b*stard.

Am looking forward to seeing a reply to this letter, should be interesting if nothing else.

FruitLover

Nice letter, but I wouldn't even have bothered sending it. It's The Sun like. You may as well have sent it to the monkey house at the zoo.

Thomas-G

When will people learn, video games don't cause violence, violence causes video games :P
God I hate the tabloids. thank the gods for RSS news feeds from intelligent sources. I was playing Advance wars for 5 hours straight yesterday, so you'll excuse me if I go use my CO power now.

*Makes Coffee*