back to article Politicians call for Modern Warfare 3 censure

Four MPs have tabled a motion calling of Parliament to express "deep concern" about how videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 allows players to "engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public". The MPs are Keith Vaz (Labour, Leicester East), Bob Russell (Lib Dem, Colchester), Sir Alan Meale (Lab, …

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  1. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Alert

    Given the current US Insider Trading issues in Congress, does anyone know if any of the MP's making noise about this owns Activision stock???

    If so, that should be publicly declared.

    1. Anonymous Coward 101
      FAIL

      That made no sense

      1. They are MPs from the UK, not US Congress.

      2. Insider trading is banned for MPs in the UK.

      3. If they were going to have the game banned, would it not make more sense to short the stock, rather than own it?

    2. Ru

      I say old bean, that's not the way one rolls in Parliament

      Traditionally, one shills for a company and then accepts a directorship once ones tenure as an MP has concluded, but until that time only expensive dinners are acceptable as payment.

    3. Paul Shirley

      The one that definitely escaped corruption charges through conveniently timed ill-health (strange how often this happens to politicians isn't it?) was not involved with Activision. I forget which local companies it actually was... very easily searchable though ;)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's an 18...

    BBFC have done plenty, they shouldn't ban a game due to bad parenting!

    Parents shouldn't buy their kids this game, in the same way they shouldn't buy them porn!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Exactly, it would absolutely absurd to buy your kids porn, they already know where to get it for free anyway. Ditto any banned games they wanted to play.

    2. SuperTim
      Flame

      adult games and cartoons

      Parents simply pass them on to their kids. "it's a game, innit?" or "it's only a cartoon".

      You don't need a licence to have children, but you should have to pass some sort of "I'm not a compete moron who only has kids for the benefit money it gives me" test.

      My nephew plays these games and he has been since he was 8. It annoys the tits off me.

  3. John70

    MW3

    Are these MPs complaining because some 8yo is killing them on multiplayer and making it like they "care" about our young?

    1. Greg J Preece

      You might be on to something there! Given the number of overblown teenagers on X-box Live, he might be trying to remove the competition.

      Fuck these people. I've been beating the shit out of digital representations of real things since I was what, 4? No murders, no assaults, no arrest, not even a parking ticket, because I can tell the difference between pixels and people.

  4. Shakje
    WTF?

    Bloody hell.

    Are people seriously still going on about things like this?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Yupp

      Who elects this cretin?

  5. MAPINGUARI
    FAIL

    oh dear

    "remarkable resemblance to the tragic events of 7 July 2005"

    Hold up - the 7/7 bombings involved an SAS team in a pick-up truck chasing a train being used by Russian Ultranationalists to transport chemical weapons in to the West End? I was under the impression that it was suicide bombers....

    Really though, this is no more "engaging in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public" than reading a Tom Clancy novel, where there's all sorts of baddies being very naughty indeed. Depicting acts of terrorism is fine if it's a novel but a big no-no in a game?

    1. O RLY

      Novels

      Of course terrorism is fine in novels; children don't read novels for fun :)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've been playing these violent games since kicking off in about 1985 with Spy vs Spy on the spectrum

    So far, I've not murdered anyone

    not one single person

    Maybe I'm lucky

    1. An ominous cow herd

      You would say that, wouldn't you....

    2. David Webb

      Back in the 80's I played "How to be a complete Bastard" and in that game I stabbed someone with a pair of scissors! (the cops then came and arrested me, bastards), but in real life I've only ever shot someone once and that was before I played video games.

    3. Spudbynight

      However...

      You posted anonymously - I think a clear sign your mind has been warped by Spy vs Spy

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Usual tosh from our wonderful politicians.

    "there is increasing evidence of a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users" - umm, no there's not, only a possible link that says persons predisposed to violent crime quite possibly endulge in violent video game use. No causality.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    heh shock, Labour and lib dem's demanding more censorship and believing the peasants to thick to be able to cope with fantasy.

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Because a moral crusader from the christian right would never dream of censoring video games.

      1. Thecowking
        Paris Hilton

        Do we even have a Christian Right here?

        I mean Conservatives aren't exactly that right wing, nor that Christan.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh not this old droll on again

    Seriously, many studies have shown that computer game violence does not begot real life violence. If anything without a outlet in a virtual world the insidents of real life voilence increases.

    Also how can `the people` take them seriously when they say ""engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public"." when banks have and still do that to the public. What next convicted criminals allowed back into the house of Lords £300 a day expense club despite them having a conviction of expense fraud.

    There are more actual event that need addressing and not freedom of choice of those who are not hurting anybody in real life. If your a MP then stop focusing on games in virtual worlds when the real world needs your attention.

  10. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    "...a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users"

    Playing COD MW3 does NOT make children violent.

    Playing COD MW3 with Internet lag... ...THAT'S what makes children violent.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wish they would fu*% Off and find something usefull todo

    Wish these Bloody politico's would just Fu%& off and find something more usefull to do...

    How about the economy ?....the large numbers of un-employed.... high fuel costs..... high cost of living.....

    No... they focus on a video game.... Tossers

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Like this ??

      They held a debate today on 'regulating hairdressers' so stop worrying about the national debt, jobs, fuel, energy costs etc etc, your leaders have more important things to do

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > "there is increasing evidence of a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users".

    There is increasing evidence of a link between politicians and whining about violence in video games to get publicity.

  13. Bumpy Cat
    WTF?

    Jeremy Corbyn?!

    He's one to talk! He has no trouble supporting terrorism:

    http://hurryupharry.org/2011/10/28/friends-of-raed-salah-labour-mps/

  14. Ken Hagan Gold badge
    Big Brother

    Evidence of a link, eh?

    "there is increasing evidence of a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users"

    You mean like a "correlation". Gosh. Blow me. Who'd've thunk it?

    It wouldn't be surprising if people who enjoy committing acts of violence in the real world also get off on doing it in a virtual one. The converse needn't be true. Quite the opposite, in fact, since perhaps the enjoyable thing about cyber violence is that no-one gets hurt so you can stick Keith Vaz masks on all the bad guys and beat seven bells out of them without offending your personal moral code.

    But maybe you want to get all Minority Report and start tracking down those who purchase such games. Well, here's another "link" for you: Every society that has attempted to legislate what goes on in adults' heads has been a really crap place to live.

    If God had intended us to poke around in each other's minds, he wouldn't have sealed them in a bony box.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      More people who commit crime wear clothes - Way more than have even played any video game ever. As such they should ban clothes, you know it makes sence.

  15. Bailey
    Mushroom

    Rushdie Affair, Filkin Inquiry, Hinduja Affair, etc, etc...

    And where do I go to express my deep concern about The Rt Hon MP for Leicester East..?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Vaz

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wow! Holy shit, he's a bad 'un. I can't believe you are allowed back into parliment with such a clearly bad record. He seems scum on so many levels its stunning...

  16. tommy060289
    Facepalm

    ALLLLL ABOARD!!!!

    The bandwagon! No doubt the governments results will show that is a problem that needs to be tackled and the only solution is some nice taxes...

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Actually, these games are more like training us to kill Russians - Vaz will thank us when the red tide sweeps across Europe! He'll eat his words I tell ye, eat his words!

    Anyway, I also think we should get the RSPCA to put pressure on the government, I can't tell you how many wolves I've killed in Temeria this week. Also dragons, but I don't know whether that falls under the group's remit...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So...

    They obviously haven't bothered to watch that Tube scene then (there being no chance they would actually play it).

    In a rare moment of self-censure by Infinity Ward, IIRC there's not a single civilian in the firing line throughout the whole chapter - either on the train, or in the tube station.

    In fact, rather than the 7th July bombings (I detest the 'say 7/7 so it sounds like 9/11' shite), the basic blowing up Parliament plot-line is a bit over 400 years old with the tube-bomb angle added in more recently by V (for Vendetta).

    AC for iconic reasons.

  19. King Jack
    Trollface

    Free publicity!!

    Did you know Hitler was an avid fan of video games? It's where he got all his ideas from.

  20. burnard
    Flame

    You can't handle the truth!

    The world, all the plants, animals and people on it a cruel. Lions eat zebras, Orcas harry mink whales untill exhaustion then drag them under the surface to drown, sharks eat stuff...etc...etc. People die, there is disease and there are terrorists...etc...etc. This game is not aimed at children - it is certified 18 just like a film and cannot be sold to anyone under that age. Equally in 5-10 years this game will look like a cartoon. Remember the fuss about those old mortal combat games because the showed some blood splattering? It looks so shit now even a two yr old would laugh at it while playing with his iPad.

    Personally I like my politians to be educated, informed and have some bottle to handle difficult situations and make difficult descisions. If they can't handle a game that a) gives you the option to turn off the nasty bits, and b) is played and enjoyed by millions....just fuck off!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yawn...

    .Wake me up when there's a game that allows players to engage in gratuitous acts of violence against attention seeking Members of Parliament.

    1. Graham Marsden
      Happy

      @Yawn

      "game that allows players to engage in gratuitous acts of violence against attention seeking Members of Parliament."

      Now there's an idea...!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Call of duty: Voting from the rooftops"

  22. Mike Brown

    vaz!

    Mans an arse.

    Hes tried this before. He tried to show a link between a murder and Manhunt. unfortuantly the only person with a copy of the game was the victim. and the police laughed at his attempts to link them.

    have a dig around about his numerous conflicts of intrest. there are many. not only that but he is bad at them, and keeps getting caught.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    "bearing a remarkable resemblance to the tragic events of 7 July 2005"

    Yes, I recall reading about the flatbed trucks chasing the tubes in a high speed gunfight in 2005.

    My only hope is that someone has actually been turned into a violent psychopath by MW3 and decides to attack Keith Vaz.

  24. Phil 65
    Trollface

    "...a remarkable resemblance to the tragic events of 7 July 2005"

    I wasn't in any of the bombed underground trains, but I'm reasonably certain that they weren't being followed by a jeep full of machine gun toting soldiers & I doubt it derailed, slid sideways 90 degrees & didn't flip over 3 times.

    Not sure if serious or trolling...

  25. Kit-Fox
    Mushroom

    Typical Politician Claptrap

    Nothing to see here folks, normal service is resuming at the House of Commons, once again people who have no idea what on earth they are talking about are trying to get something canned simply because they have a personal problem with it.

    Are these really the type of people we want running our county?

    It never stops, first it was any music that wasnt classical, then the silver screen, then music came around again in the3 form of blues/jazz/rap etc and lets not forget how skateboards were all some sort of commie plot in the 70s/80s and of course now we have music. videos & computer games taking the blame.

    You know just once I'd like these politicians to get confronted after saying stupid things like 'video games make you violent' with the peer reviewed evidence that shows there is no evidence whatsoever to show that playing violent video games can actually turn you into a violent person or increase a persons level of violence.

    PS - ElReg, I want the hand grenade icon back pretty please with a cherry on top :)

    1. Miek

      "Are these really the type of people we want running our county?"

      The situation is far worse than you imagined ... these tw@ts are in charge of our Country too!

  26. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Happy

    "engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public"

    "There's no room for men like you in my force, Savage. I'm transferring you to the SPG".

    Ah, truly the old ones are the best....

    GJC

  27. DEAD4EVER
    Stop

    mw3+ mps

    i knew this game would cause controversies and it has replicating 7/7 is wrong but still activision gets away with it. for me i didnt buy it and i wont be buying it for me its ruined cod and rightly so ever since mw2 came out its been going down hill filled with bugs small maps camping little noobs hiding in corners and nothing new added. why should i pay 30 odd quid to play cod online when i can play on the psn for free anyway. i left cod after the disaster black ops caused not so much controversies but more of the online side sucked because it kept freezing my console lagging online constently i was getten kicked out of the lobby all the time. and before anyone asks no my connection was fine im on upto 20meg and its unlimited and runs fine on other games so clearly its cod thats the problem. as for mw3 they can ban it for all i care they should of banned it before it got released.

    1. dogged
      Trollface

      did it steal your full-stop key, too?

      1. King Jack

        You mean the shift key.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Name truncated

      By the look of your english I can only assume that the word brain was truncated from the beginning of your ID?

    3. teebie

      The article tells you it doesn't replicate 7/7, and so do half of the comments

      You say "ruined cod", is this what you have for grey matter?

  28. Yet Another Commentard

    ad hominem

    Mr Vaz MP understands how research works. His early day motion on homeopathy (29 June 2010 for those who are interested), for example, notes that “there is overwhelming anecdotal evidence that homeopathy is effective”. As Lionel Hutz might say “hearsay and anecdotes are kinds of evidence”. As such simply writing “there is increasing evidence of a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users” is just an extension of the same principle.

    PS – don’t mention the Hindujas (sp?), Salman Rushdie, that poor woman at the Met, or…well, just go and read some Private Eye…

    1. GitMeMyShootinIrons

      Vaz is only whinging....

      ... Because the games manufacturers won't give him an envelope stuffed with cash to keep quiet. Wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him.

  29. Chris Harrison
    FAIL

    express "deep concern" about how videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 allows players to "engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public" -

    Err, no it doesn't. The 'members of the public' in games are not real. In fact if instead of playing computer games we all went outside then we would have much more opportunity to engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public.

    But then when do people like vaz worry about real, tangiable things?

  30. ElReg!comments!Pierre
    Coat

    Real-world consequences

    Violent computer gaming ruined my life.

    After years of Hack and Nethack gaming as a kid and then student, I met a really, really annoying person at a party. So annoying in fact that at some point I litterally attempted to kill her. The only way I knew of. Worst mistake of my life. I lost my freedom, my -relative- wealth, my lifestyle, everything.

    Don't play violent games, kids: you'll end up like me. Married, and with kids.

  31. William Boyle
    FAIL

    No other choice

    So, I guess if you want to participate in gratuitous violence against the public, you have to either join the military or the police forces?

  32. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Gawd not this

    s**t again

    If video games make people violent, then I should be dressing in a rubber suit and gasmask, making myself an oversized flamethrower and go round setting fire to random people in case they are spies*

    Or like sneaking around towns dressed in some dark brotherhood robes and stabbing targets and getting paid for it.**

    Lets face it, if parents are buying 18 rated games, then giving them to little Johnny, its the parents that are at fault !

    And politicians only ever come out with this crap in order to splash their names across the daily wail to make it look like they either care or doing something when in fact they are really a bunch of ineffective useless twats

    Boris

    *Team fortress 2

    ** Oblivion

    1. Swarthy
      Joke

      "If video games influenced life, kids who grew up in the 80’s would be running around in darkened rooms, listening to repetitive electronic music, and popping magic pills.

      ..Oh, wait….”

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I note that the idiot Vaz isn't calling for the banning of the Koran

    which has definitively been connected to violent acts

    1. Steven Roper
      Thumb Up

      I'd be willing to bet

      substantial money that if your post had said "Bible" instead of "Koran" then the PC bigot who downvoted you would have upvoted you instead.

      So you get an upvote from me :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Accidental downvote. It was right beside the 'Next' button. Hope the upvote balances things... And good point!

    3. Chad H.
      FAIL

      So has the Bible for that matter

      Do you have a point?

  34. LarsG

    IF THEY PLAYED......

    the game instead of playing the expenses they might be better informed. They are so out of touch it is embarrassing.

  35. Tom 260

    Not sure Activision would notice...

    After all, the magazine stand in the tube station features an entirely US-ian selection of subjects, such as swamp fishing, bullets and baseball, so they clearly don't have a clue about the UK anyway. Considering also the Hollywood movie style fleet action engaging in the rivers around New York at cutlass range (and the Russian submarine with completely unenclosed and non-counterrotating screws, which would be as noisy as hell), I'd say the game has a strong argument of not being based in realism anyway.

    There is the odd civilian here and there (including the underground station near the aforementioned magazine stand), but always accompanied by shouts from the AI warning you of their presence, and presumably (I haven't tried this out, as I'm not a psychotic killer...) a mission failed if you shot them.

  36. LarsG

    IF THEY PLAYED......

    the game instead of playing the expenses they might be better informed.

    They are so out of touch it is embarrassing.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not really liking this modern world where minority risk means majority punishment. Seems to be happening more and more. Did anyone vote for this crap?

  38. Chad H.
    Joke

    There's a simple solution to all of these "Video games turn you into a killer" folk

    After we all spend a few hours playing Trauma Centre we offer them all free healthcare.

    After all if FPS's turn you into a killer Trauma Centre must turn you into a surgeon. They should have no apprehention about us cutting through their gizzards. If we get stuck we can always use the healing touch to slow things down.

    And if for some reason things go wrong.... Can someone pass me Ace Attourney?

  39. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    MODERN WARPORN 3

    18-rated "games" ARE for kids. Why would an adult want an 18-rated game? If I want gratuitious violence - which I don't! - I can watch a movie; if I want pornography, I can watch a porn video.

    I don't think violent games make people violent, but I do think they have a negative effect on people, particularly when they stop being games and become WAR SIMULATORS, in which all the creativity and imagination is removed. You have flight simulators - well, MW3 is a war simulator, depicting the ugliness of war in all its bloody "glory".

    In the 1980s, people looked forward to going down the arcade - it was exciting and fun! It provided escapism. These kind of "games" are about the ugliness of life. And that's all many kids - and adults! - get these days - a constant bombardment of ugliness.

    Maybe if the corporate-owned and corporate-controlled media showed people the reality of war, the suffering in Iraq and Afghanistan, people would be less enthusiastic about war SIMULATORS. I find it surreal that as we send people off to kill, die, and destroy, for politicians and for corporate profit, we get excited about playing a simulation of what others are really living through right at this moment. Many soldiers who went to Iraq have committed suicide; others have had their limbs and genitals amputated. Soldiers who returned from the Falklands war didn't want people cheering and celebrating their return, treating them as if they had won a gold medal at the Olympics - because they hadn't! - they had, instead, experiended a horror.

    More concerning is the war propaganda surrounding these WAR SIMULATORS. The blurb tells us that there's a "commie threat", and the implication is that when "we", the West, invade other nations, it's for the right reasons, that war is ALWAYS the first and only solution, that 100s of 1000s of civilians aren't also killed or maimed - directly or indirectly (and often deliberately) - in these wars, and that once "we're" through bombing, the countries are free and can prosper.

    Cambodia features in one war simulator. Instead of adults acting like children, perhaps they should watch serious documentaries made for GROWN-UPS, rather than 18-rated war simulators made for children.

    Go to johnpilger(dot)c om, click "Video", then click on "Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia" - the kind of documentary that's not made anymore.

    It's strange how if you re-enacted high-profile murders - say a game in which you play Myra Hindley - it would be considered - at the very least! - insensitive to the victims, but re-enacting real wars, that's perfectly acceptable - who cares about the victims (mostly innocent civilians) - or the truth!

    1. Chris Harrison
      WTF?

      WTF?

      "18-rated "games" ARE for kids. Why would an adult want an 18-rated game? If I want gratuitious violence - which I don't! - I can watch a movie; if I want pornography, I can watch a porn video."

      Well you are free to do whatever you want, but why are your choices the only valid ones?

      If I want gratutitous violence, then maybe i find a game more interactive than a movie. A bit like sex with a real person rather than porn.

      Once you start a post basically saying that everyone should think the same way as you, do you think anyone is going to give a damn about what the rest of your post says?

      And by the way, capitalizing WAR SIMULATOR doesn't make people hide behind the sofa either.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Why would an adult want an 18-rated game?

      Because, dumbo, they are a hell of a lot of fun to play.

  40. FozzyBear
    Mushroom

    Can I lay ino this argument as well

    With a couple of frag grenades into a crowded parlimentary sitting.

    Hey where the hell is my hand grenade icon

  41. Greg J Preece

    Video games are bad. They make evil feckless layabout Young People want to kill their fellow man! They should all join the army and get a real career in state-sponsored killing.

    It is astonishing how much of my time I spend pissed off at human logic...

  42. Richard Wharram

    The usual suspects have signed this.

    Frankly these MPs are the commons equivalent of trolls. Best not to feed them.

  43. Ross K Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Hmm, politicians...

    Twats. It's much easier to send kids to Afghanistan where they can get shot or blown up for real, isn't it...

    Nice to know they've solved the world's pressing problems, so now they can turn their attention to a game.

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public".

    Whereas it's okay for the police to do so.

  45. Garf
    Flame

    Weird how....

    Everyone I play MW3 with is also in the military (all 3 branches) - if it was a war simulator (capitals omitted due to not being a retard) then surely they would all being having PTSD attacks because it's so real! (It is a simulator, apparently).

    If we're thinking of the poor children, which game inspired them all to go rioting and steal crap from JD sports and Currys then? Oh wait, must have been GTA the RIOT SIMULATOR (mind the caps!)..the classic scapegoat... or it could just be they're all idiots who should be banned from breeding!

    Anyway back to the waste of oxygen, attention seeking MPs - did any of these have anything decent to say in the debate about fuel costs the other day, I doubt it! The sooner we get rid of these self-serving muppets the better!

    </rant>

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe he's right.

    After playing Assassin's Creed and then reading this, I do want to stab someone in the neck. Any nominations? AC to keep my incognito bonus...

  47. JimmyBobMac

    Put something decent on TV and perhaps we might not play these games in the first place. Surely now isnt the right time to be debating this sort of stuff?

  48. CD001

    Games don't make me violent

    Games don't make me violent - politicians do, especially Keith Vaz ... whenever he opens his mouth I get a string urge to kick him in the nuts.

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