Black Ops, Cuba and the First Amendment

[mgc1961]

Dear Cuba:

Maybe you’ve got a point.

I refer to your outrage over a new video game, the object of which is to assassinate Fidel Castro. In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the latest in the popular series from Activision Blizzard, Inc., the player is transported to Havana during the Cold War with a mission to kill the young Communist revolutionary.

As an article on your state-run news website put it, “What the United States couldn’t accomplish in more than 50 years, they are now trying to do virtually.” It says the game will turn American kids into sociopaths. That’s a dubious claim, at least according to Christopher J. Ferguson, a psychology professor at Texas A&M International University and expert in video-game violence, who was quoted in an Associated Press account. “At this point,” he said, “there is no evidence that video games, violent or otherwise, cause harm to minors.”

Youth violence in this country, said Ferguson, is at its lowest ebb in 40 years, even though research indicates that virtually all young men — up to 95 percent — have at some point in their lives played violent video games. So, Cuba, your suggestion that Call of Duty will produce kill-crazy psychos seems naïve, at best. Hysterical at worst.


Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/16/103744/commentary-call-of-duty-black.html#ixzz15S6YGYhb

[Mika]

1. From the Miami Hurled, I see.

Where no Miamicuban exile terrorist activity against Cuba goes reported.

Not even worth the price as fishwrap.


http://www.tradeshowboothrentalsinmiami.com/uncategorized/the-miami-heralds-booth-at-the-cuba-nostalgia-show/

[L.Torsalo]

2. Videogames and violent behavior, a clear link.

http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01ab.pdf

As usual, some asshole trotted out a fake expert to talk about something he knows little of. All I had to do was google the subject and ..voila, proof of a link...
Cuba is right.

[mgc1961]

3. Here's more on the subject of violence and video games.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110402450.html