British paper paying for game violence stories
by Kyle Orland 
{ Apr 2nd 2008 at 10:00AM }
Good journalism is almost always based on real shoe-leather reporting -- working the phones, hitting the streets and talking to people to find out what's really going on out there. Or, alternatively, you could just offer to pay people for a story that fits your preconceived notions of what would be "juicy."That seems to be the idea behind this StarNow posting which bluntly asks, "Did computer games make you turn to a life of crime?" According to the posting, a national British paper will pay "hundreds of pounds" for the right tale of game-inspired crime. The site doesn't mention which newspaper is searching for the stories, and the free listing could well be a prank (we are dangerously close to April 1), but the whole thing seems entirely plausible to us -- checkbook journalism is pretty common among the English tabloids, as are sensationalist takes on our favorite hobby.
While other similar postings on StarNow insist submitted stories be "true" or "real," the video game violence offer simply promises that "if it's something we like, we'll call you straight back." We're almost tempted to encourage our British readers to write in with the most ludicrously false stories they can come up with, but that plans runs the risk of having a ridiculous fiction actually running as the truth in a major British newspaper. Decisions, decisions ...
[Thanks Randy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:10AM
I've already spun a tale about how I uncovered ancient relics of a forgotten age and used them to kill god. Think they'll believe me? I'm a god killer now.....
Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:13AM
psshh in today's day and age who hasn't done that yet
Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:18AM
My friend Jerry is digging for his godslayer mech. He hasn't found it yet, so he repairs mine with the far off fream of "one day."
Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:11AM
you english people make me sick
SUPER DESU @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:28AM
Ever watched Fox?
Poisoned Al @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:36AM
Yeah, the Mail is FOX news for people who can read. They are just as right wing, but can count to 11 without taking off their socks.
Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:44AM
I don't watch fox
i just wanted to make a point of how easy it is to generalize an entire country
I'm sure now everyone thinks i'm a gun-toting right wing homophobic bush loving prick whereas i'm not.
though i think i failed at making my point
Jevanzz @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:11AM
Hey AMERICA! FUCK YOU!
JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:50AM
No, you just made a racist statement and when people started flaming you(HOW DARE THEY!?), you decided to come up with some lame excuse.
Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Apr 2nd 2008 12:49PM
@ Jabuk
how does that saying go? "when you assume you make an ass out of you and me?"
i'm sure you'd find in hilarious to know that i'm half english
NATO_Duke @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:12AM
Pathetic.
You offer people an excuse for their poor behavior and they will always take it.
Yeah, video games cause cancer too - sure. Can I have some money now too?
PointyThings @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:15AM
And someone paid like 6 million dollars for a picture of Angelina Jolie's baby.
Diagnosis: People are sleazy bastards.
Hyams @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:19AM
And this is why I get my news from http://news.bbc.co.uk rather than the horribly biased and hyperbole laden newspapers.
Poisoned Al @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:37AM
Yeah me too. The BBC is so on the fence it's infuriating, but it's far better then the rest.
A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:55AM
Now unbiased reporting is span by people as "on the fence"!? Please! What's the point of reading a news story if you can't be sure it's the truth?
Jon @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:58AM
BBC is no better these days (their One show lambasting video games was ridiculous hyperbole). But they are still 10x better than The Scum, Daily ShitMail, Diana Express and The Times.
Helloimbob @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:09PM
Diana express... classic
rasgueado @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:21AM
Again... this is the Daily Mail. I can't imagine that many thinking people taking that paper seriously.
Chris @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:22AM
GTA 3 made me rob a store, then rob a store again when I played it.
JonathanEx @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:36AM
Sadly you need to pay for a membership. Sucks.
Matt B @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:41AM
More like Daily Rag. amirite?
Prime Minister Jim Hacker: "I know exactly who reads the papers: The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by people who actually do run the country; The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Financial Times is read by people who own the country; The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is."
Sir Humphrey: "Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?"
Bernard Woolley: "Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits."
Matt B @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:54AM
Other fun DM stuff:
http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dailymail.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/DailyMailFrontPage.jpg
I never knew there could be "over the top right wing" but this is it.
Kyle Orland @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:52AM
To be clear, this is not necessarily the Daily Mail making this offer. We don't know what paper is making the offer, as you'd know if you read the post. The picture was just to illustrate the checkbook journalism issues involved.
electronicat @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:32PM
Um, a bit misleading, don't you think? What the hell is "StarNow" anyway?
Nigeria: Cody ChesnuTT Defense Force @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:50AM
All the London tabloids are garbage. And most of the "quality" newspapers are filled with filler, football, celeb gossip, or middle class outrage. It's a joke. Journalism is a joke in this country.
Yet, some members of the public eat this stuff up. It's a wonderful distraction for them. Sigh.
I really hope the internet kills of some of these relics.
Poisoned Al @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:08AM
Well the internet and 24/7 TV news already have in their way. There is no exclusive stories of real importance any more, so the tabloids have to make their own exclusives, often quite literally.
Anam @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:50AM
Think they'll give me any money for my story of the "Battletoads Incident"?
wickedpheonix @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:03AM
Banhammer please...
Donald @ Apr 2nd 2008 11:43AM
I'll send them a story about how Trauma Center allowed me to perform an emergency appendectomy on someone. Hundreds of pounds = thousands of dollars.
rivaldi22 @ Apr 2nd 2008 12:17PM
I had written a satirical response to this casting before submitting the story to Joystiq.
You can read it here:
http://rivaldi22.deviantart.com/art/Confessions-OfAn-AssaultJumper-81700239
Mills and Boom @ Apr 2nd 2008 12:27PM
Actually I do have a story for whoever these guys are. I've said before but a kid at my school years back stole used to say he was going to steal some cars "like in GTA". Not a major killing story but hey if I'll pay for a few DS games...
Have to hunt around for this paper now.
JaSoN! @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:09PM
ok i work for an irish newspaper and i've decided to take on the role of video games journo in order to provide a gamer's perspective on um, games. everyday of the week i see how insanely cut-throat this industry is and that scare mongering seems to be the sole tactic employed by editors. currently there is little or no feedback from readers regarding my articles because they may not conform to the sales-through-fear business model which newspapers adopt. I'm sure that if i wrote an article lambasting the effects of interactive violence on our youth today then i'd probably get a major response. to stoop to this level for personal gain is, in my opinion, immoral and a serious abuse of publicity and propaganda. I'm not sure whether people realise how much of an impact trashy mainstream journalism actually has on the masses. it provides the radio with content and often raises the main topics of conversation amongst ignorant people who have nothing to say. that's a hell of a lot of people.
but i'm going to stand my corner! wait, our corner!
check out some of my stuff at http://jasoncoomey.blogspot.com/
actually this posting has given me a renewed incentive to update my blog more regularly. thanks.
mr mobius @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:22PM
What paper you write for? If it's available up north I'll maybe check it out sometime. Is it a weekly column or something?
ssuk @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:28PM
SURPRISE! THE DAILY MAIL!
As this page was loading I was there saying "Gee, I wonder who it is." Page loaded, Daily Mail pic. I laughed, pretty loudly.
The paper is a load of shit, don't listen to a word of this middle-class, scaremongering toilet paper replacement, it has the journalistic integrity of Fox News.
zelderman @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:30PM
I play video games, and after reading this post, I killed my soul. Does that count?
Dan @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:31PM
For the non English audience I'd like to clarify that The Daily Mail is a shit heap of a news paper with a reputation for pandering to middle England conservatives, reactionaries, racists and pig headed twat bandits. Nothing they say or do should be taken seriously by anyone.
Mills and Boom @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:07PM
Can tell you don't read it. Between the naff, troublesome stories they have (which are true about immigrants mostly, we're a full island blah blah) they have very strong and useful campaigns.
Whereas you look through papers such as The Sun and them C-class papers there is no good between the crap.
Nowts as good as The Guardian though, but that's like saying The Beatles aren't good or The Simpsons still has a place on modern TV.
mr mobius @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:28PM
Mills, would you be one of those avid Daily Mail readers? Yes The Sun, Daily Mirror etc are utter crap but don't fool yourself that the Mail isn't.
The only written media that I take interest in is the BMJ because at least anything in it is almost guranteed to be as accurate as possible.
ZeroCorpse @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:54PM
I'm going to sell them a story about how I was turned to a life of fatally jumping on tortoises by that wicked, wicked Mario game.
And then I'll tell them about my crime spree that involved my childhood paper route and people's windows, all thanks to a video game.
And then I'll explain how I turned to a life of crime when exposed to a rousing, violent game of "Risk" -- The board game that turned me into a killer!!!
ZeroCorpse @ Apr 2nd 2008 1:56PM
And don't even get me started on what playing "Clue" did to me.
Let's just say that the man they found last week with a wicked head wound caused by a candlestick wasn't a suicide. . .
Kujel @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:25PM
In time the vial non-gamers will all die off (maybe with a helping hand from someone) and we gamers can finally play in peace.
James Lockwood @ Apr 2nd 2008 2:29PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3663097.ece
Not violence, but stupidity.
My rebuttal:
I must confess, I was incensed upon reading this article: ignorance of this scale must not go unchallenged. Hopefully, articles like this will open the eyes of many people that believe anything a broadsheet publishes is stone-cold fact.
Video games are a form of entertainment, just like books, movies and TV. They are something people of all ages enjoy in THEIR free time. The reason, of course, Mr Whittell does not pass judgement on other such media is because his target audience, the people he believes will read this, are not generally 'video gamers'; so basically, that gives him a green-light to talk about how much better life was before the internet came along.
Mr Whittell, when you put something on the internet, you should expect it to be scrutinized by a wider spectrum of people than the (generally) pretentious, pseudo-intelligent folk that buy The Times. A hobby is subjective: one person may get more out of a particular auxiliary activity than the next person. Can you be objective about the benefits of one hobby over another? Perhaps, but with little legitimacy - creativity cannot be quantified, and I assure you that much of my creativity was sparked by imaginative video games.
Mr Whittell’s diaphanous diatribe takes a ‘holier than thou’ attitude, yet offers no solutions. When I get home at 7pm after a hard day at work, feet sore and head aching, do I really want to put my climbing boots on and scale the nearest rock face at midnight? No, or course not, so what would he suggest? Something constructive? Like learning a language, or a new skill? Mr Whittell obviously doesn’t work hard enough - when I get home, I’m drained and take no issue with sitting down, putting my feet up and socialising with friends in a video game. Far better than glued to the Television passively watching a soap opera, surely?
Moderation is the key. Video games are this generations scapegoat; an excuse for bad parenting, a trait Mr Whittell seems to portray. Your narrow-mindedness will only slow the development of your children in this increasingly digital world. In 20 years time, people will look back at this article and laugh. And so they should. A “colossal waste of time”? You get what you give; perhaps Mr Whittell needs to explore this new world a little deeper before he so definitively casts it aside. He may even have fun.
Gurei @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:36PM
Damn why dont they do that over here,....ID SOOOOO TELL EM THE TRUE GAMER STORYS if they payed me...
After that,id use that money and BUY GTA now LOL.
If anyone asks,i did those things inspired by the game,but motivated by the news.
Beddoes @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:27PM
Damn Daily Fascist!! I hate them so much. Best thing to come out of them was the free Flight of the Navigator DVD two weeks ago. Compliance!
Schuey19 @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:57PM
And what I find funniest about this is that no one, and I mean ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY no one, who reads the Daily Mail has even the remotest clue about video games at all.
The Daily Mail's demographic is strictly Conservative, middle-class, 40-retirement aged, jingoistic, xenophobes.
The closest any of them would ever have gotten to a video game was either playing pong in the 80s or Wii Sports in their retirement home. Seriously I'd swear this was an April Fool if wasn't for the fact that I'm subjected to this rag every bloody day due to my work, and so get the pleasure of reading this sort of shit 5 days a week.
DDP @ Apr 4th 2008 10:23PM
Pretty typical Daily Mail bollocks.
However, I do hope they are successful in finding plenty of reprobates claiming their criminal conviction was as a result of playing a videogame, as it's actually a breach of UK media laws to pay a criminal for his story that resulted in a conviction. Maybe the Mail will learn to STFU when the fines start rolling in.