Church of England Sues Sony

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=71736

The Church of England has sued Sony over using Manchester Cathedral for the game 'Resistance: Fall of Man' as a battleground in the game without their permission. Though Sony say they got the nessasary permissions needed to use it. You can understand the way the church feels in the fact that a place of worship is being using for a gun battle. But that isn't the thing about it all I want to stress.

It's what they say after about violent games. Manchester has been affected by gun crime more frequently in recent years. And this woman states that they don't want that connection of gun battles in Manchester as it might effect the families in the area affected by gun crime and goes on in that nature, watch the video to understand it all.

I'm sorry but this lady talks bull****, for one it's a game where you kill aliens and fight for justice. Not in one way does it promote gun crime, as Sony states it's a Fantasy sci-fi game which is set in WW2 era.

But it does bring up 2 discussions:

1.) To what point can developers use a place without offending others and should they be allowed to use them?

2.) Do you think the MP is overeacting to the situation?

 

1. Of course! It's a place. You can't rule a place. Anyone can say its name, draw a picture of it, or think of it in their head.

2. Definitely. Violence in video games is just a tiring thing to hear about these days.

 

1) I can see where the Church of England is coming from not wanting the church tied to a game that would attract gun-battles. But I also think they're being slightly ridiculous, I mean the game has you fighting ALIENS. And we all know Manchester, England is crawling with those.

2) I think I answered this above but yes I think they're overreacting just slightly.

 

1) What Sai'x said

2) Overreacting all the way

 

I think that using this in a game really won't have any effect on the way people think. I mean, we all play a game where the main character uses a 'blade' and I am sure this has not crossed the members mind to re-enact this in real life. It seems that a scapegoat is needed for the real problems of society and games are one such target. Music is another. They don't seem totally sure that it is Manchester Cathedral, and many such buildings (including the cathedral in my home town) have those 3D panoramic pictures on the internet anyway. I don't think the design is really copyrighted.

With this in mind you could equally argue that any public building is unsuitable, as would be any private house, as someone lives there. Anyone for a game that only occurs in open plains and deserts?

 

1) Kinda hard to say.

2) Yes definately. Their reactions are so sterotypical.

 

When priests are molesting alter boys they just move them to other parishes, but when a life-like rendition a building is featured in a video game all hell breaks loose? Yes the Church of England is different and an entirely different in regards, but it's simply a matter of the types of battles people are choosing to fight.

 

I can definitely see where they are coming from but I don't see what grounds they have on removing the game (I'm not defending the COG btw). I mean people are hardly going to go there to have bloody gun battles now, are they?

It's a bit like Call of Duty having to ask permission for the whole of Europe, doesn't make a lot of sense.

I agree this is a massive overreaction and that the Church has enough internal problems to start a row like this.

 

Publicity stunt. Obviously trying to promote that video games are 'bad' for the people of 'today.'

Being a Christian, I find their claims completely utterly rubbish. I play heaps of violent games and some of them involve churches. Yet if memory serves me coorect, I do not recall ever having the urge or come up with the idea that I should take out a pocket knife or a weapon of some sort, and go commit murder.

And besides, why raise the issue now? There have been heaps of game already on the market that has involved killing in churches so why did they not try and make their point when it first occured?

If you ask me, that church in England is falling apart and are looking for a subsitute to put the blame on.

 

Well it originally started about the use of the catheral without their permission, but somehow it turned into a rant about violence in games.

It appeared on ITV news last night, and it focused on the violence in games, I remember them saying "One of the most violent games in the market". It's far from the most violent, games like God of War, GTA and far more realistic games are. They are using the exuse of Next-gen graphics and realism. I can understand the church being pissed off, but the Media took it out of hand.

 

That's pretty much why I think the latter half is ridiculous. Exploiting an initially 'more' legitimate issue to further a hidden agenda--it's obvious there's some unjustified video-game hate-age going on.

Everyone else has pretty much said what I would've wanted to say, so I'll just say the church's argument fails.

 

It's just like the Laura Mallory incident.... sheesh give kids' stuff a break

 

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*sigh*
blame sony for gun violence?
I feel like strangling the media.
Sony has sold games... nothing else.
What are kids even doing with these games?

 

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see, this is another idiotic one-day-in-courtroom case and the media and the church want an extra time up at the plate (sorry for the baseball metaphor) the world can just never agree on anything...okay, maybe one this. Paris Hilton in jail:D

 

I guess this has reached Tony Blair's ears as well. Here's what he had to say:

I'm thinking the social responsibility deals with these gunbattles that have been taking place in Manchester.

I've read somewhere that the church wasn't made to be Manchester Cathedral but rather a generic church.

article taken from: Yahoo News

 

1. The first thing I noticed about this video. WHY SHOULD SONY MAKE A ****ING DONATION TO THESE PEOPLE?! This is exactly why I don't like religion and people who over exaggerate the potential power of games. It's a game based on sci-fi. Give me a break, UK. You guys have a battle to fight, but seriously...you're only promoting the game more now. You're all already suing Sony, so god damn, they shouldn't have to give you jack **** as a donation. It's your problem, not their's. Greedy bastards.


2. Sony is entirely in the right here. It's a game based on fiction, fighting aliens, and who cares if you're using Manchester as a battle ground? In no way does this apply to reality.

This kind pissed me off. XD