Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!rutgers!bellcore!att!cbnewsd!bamford
From: bamford@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (harold.e.bamford)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Offensive new video game...
Message-ID: <14108@cbnewsd.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 90 16:02:52 GMT
References: <1990Apr11.003741.4610@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: bamford@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (harold.e.bamford,ihp,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 42

rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kehaar) writes:
> ...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!

Give me a break!  Its the middle of April so this cannot be an
April Fools joke.  It is just a video game.  It isn't real.  There
ARE people that have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality
and these people should not go to plays or movies, should not read
fiction, and should not play video games.  But most of the rest of
us, including children, understand the difference in rules between
the world of a video game and real life.  The exceptions are just
that, EXCEPTIONS!

If you really disapprove of this game, then don't give it free
advertising by protesting it.  Remember the movie, "The Last
Temptation of Christ"?  I only wanted to see it because of the
protesters.  It turned out to be a worthless, boring movie.  It
would have been out of the theaters in a week if it hadn't been for
people like you that wanted to impose their own opinions and
attitudes on others.  This kind of protest is self-defeating.

Mellow out!  And if you must continue with this discussion, lets
get it out of this newsgroup.

Jeez!

-- Harold