Law & Order and their Videogame Stereotypes

[Badnik Mechanic]

You know.... often I get the urge to try and wrtie that play about videogaming, yeah theres some stereotypes in it, but nothing that couldn't be too over the top... Been trying to write it for a long time now in between other projects...

Then I watch Law & Order, some kind of criminal drama show, and think... wow... why am I wasting my time when I could be as good as this. Please be aware, the bad writing goes almost right to the end of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZlQkzYjs-g

So lets review....

Videogames are played by button bashing.... well some are... but it looks like RPG Adventure games are now too.

When the characters push the buttons... the characters in the game do nothing! (hmm sounds like Tekken 6!)

The girls of gaming are no longer hot (lets face it the bulk of girl gamers are Sexay beasts!) and actually call themselves mommy to a character in the game.

Even though the power on the PC has been turned off... the game is still able to play (you can see the red power light shut off).

Janus coins are important

Level 20 has the kingdom of Galagar!

Games with cute avatars = the sex.

Going to best buy to get a new release is a great way to meet girls!

Whenever people who are questioned by the police they say "WHOA! Pause the game!"

.. ... ... I'm not making this topic because somehow I'm offended by this, it's so hysterically bad it's not possible for me to get angry over this... but it's so bad, the writing, the acting and the stereotypes I have to wonder, has anything changed or are people who play games still stereotyped like this? Out of all the SOS' and VGL's I've been too, I've not yet met anyone like the guys here.

[Tornado]

The CSI Miami episode was worse.

[Tori Himemiya]

This is nothing really to be mad about. Really.

Just laugh that how they didn't do the research.

[GameFarnsworth940]

The CSI Miami episode was worse.

After watching... THAT thing above, I kind of doubt that.

[Marcello]

I hate watching people play video games in movies, tv shows etc. It's never realistic.

For example. Scrubs. In episode 6.02 JD and Turk are playing Xbox 360 in multiplayer. It is later shown that it was singleplayer. JD was playing with a cable controller with it's cable cut off. The console had no cables connected to it.

One thing I hate so much in everything where they play games is when they only turn the TV off and just leave as if turning the TV off also turns the consoles off >_>

[Tornado]

^ You mean like Rumble in the Bronx with the kid playing a Game Gear with no game in it?

After watching... THAT thing above, I kind of doubt that.

The only bit from the offending episode I was able to find on Youtube:

They took their gaming to the next level.

I'm pretty sure CSI Miami actually did two episodes on the subject, as well. One of them had Tony Hawk in it.

Edited September 30, 2010 by Tornado

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

I don't see the problem with this. There are a lot of video game fanatics out there that act like this....maybe even worse. This isn't really stereotyping gamers at all.

[Tornado]

There are a lot of video game fanatics out there that act like this....maybe even worse. This isn't really stereotyping gamers at all.

Which is why CSI Miami comes to the rescue:

The first episode (which I swear to fucking god is called "Game Over"),

The other episode.

They may have tackled the subject since then, but I haven't watched CSI Miami since season 7 when they cut back on the unintentional hilarity.

[TheGerkuman]

SVU is basically the televisual equivilant of the Daily Mail. That is, doommongering, for the sake of entertaining the masses. (At least Olivia's hot, and the show has Munch in it. Mr. Belzier is awesome)

It's so bad, BD Wong seems to have something in his contract that allows his character (The psychiatrist bloke) to be the voice of reason whenever the writers demonise something that doesn't deserve it.

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

I still don't see how that Law & Order clip is "demonizing" video games. If anything, it is demonizing the idiots who consider video games more important than everything else in life. Which can cause harm to themselves and people around them. (These kinds of people DO exist in real life.)

[Noir]

Ahaha, that was hilarious. Writers sure did their research there.

[Sapphire]

I just hate the button-mashing. Any commercial, movie, or TV show that has someone playing video games, they are always pushing the buttons like they're trying to break the controller. Seriously. I don't know a SINGLE game where you have to button-rape the controller.

[KittyNakajima]

Don't be so uptight - that clip doesn't tell the whole story (as many a LOLWUT moment in this series has). After that, the detectives find out that the reason the mother got attached to the virtual kid is because she developed some kind of chemical imbalance/brain damage from behind hit by a bus that leaves her unable to actually recognize her own child. Because she didn't "recognize" her own child, her live-in piece of crap boyfriend was able to use it as a reason to be pretty neglectful towards the poor kid and keep her chained up so she wouldn't cause trouble/interrupt their game. And on the off chance that she finally got away, she got raped by someone else. :c

Made further sad because they proved she can still recognize her daughter's voice, but not her face, as she flipped out and slapped the poor girl across the face because she thought she was an imposter. o_o

Law and Order has a history of taking things from the headlines and making them into episodes, and this was merely showcasing a parallel to a real life story in recent news of a Korean couple who basically let their infant daughter die of malnourishment while they were way more attentive to a virtual one (ironically named 사 랭 "sarang" which is Korean for love). Both parents had become unemployed, the baby was unplanned, and to escape their problems they played for hours at one of the many PC cafes that are staple there, taking turns to feed the child every eight hours or so.

The conclusion to the real life story is apparently both parents getting some sort of jail time after having begged for leniency due to the woman being pregnant again. Yikes.

Anyway, point is, don't take it so seriously, because it's not lumping gamers in one negative light, just alluding to something that's out of the norm, for entertainment's sake. I wouldn't be surprised if they do an episode eventually has anagrams of Chris-chan and/or Encyclopedia Dramatica mixed in to provide background for a case.

P.S. - And if you couldn't tell by now, I am a devotee to this television show. xD

Edited October 1, 2010 by KittyNakajima