Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!usenet
From: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kehaar)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Offensive new video game...
Message-ID: <1990Apr11.003741.4610@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 11 Apr 90 00:37:41 GMT
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 31

Netbirders:

     I know, y'all are probably wondering about the subject, and what a video
game has to do with birding.  Well, read on, my friends...

     When I was going to campus on the bus tonight, I overheard a couple of 
video game nuts talking about a new video game that had come out, an "improved"
version of _Duck Hunt_.  In _Duck Hunt_, the player took turns shooting at ducksand clay pigeons to amass the highest possible score.  However, the new version,
_Bird Hunt_, really plays hardball.  Rather than just ducks and clay pigeons,
a large variety of birds come out on the screen--and the player is expected to 
shoot all of them.  Apparently, the more endangered the species, the higher the score for shooting it.  For example, shooting a Cardinal is worth about 10 
points, while shooting an eagle is worth 10 times that much, 100 points.
Apparently the game even uses falcons as targets (point value unknown).  And, ifthis isn't enough, as the game progresses, more and more powerful weapons are 
used, right up to a .761 caliber, able to "red-mist a sparrow at 100 yards" (youfigure that one out--that's a quote from the slob hunters that I overheard).

With the birding community having enough trouble with trying to protect the 
birds from greedy slob hunters/poachers, do we really need such a video game
teaching our youngsters that it's fun to "shoot" endangered bird species?
I myself am a video game nut, but I think this is carrying things way too far!
	
If anybody else has information on this video game, i.e. has seen it, knows who
makes/distributes it, etc, please write and/or post to me.  I am considering
starting a protest against it.     

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R. Cody Buchmann                             ^.^  
   "Kehaar"                 
                                       "He tell *me* the plan...I *know* the 
email: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu        plan!"  -Watership Down. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------