The World’s Ugliest Metaphor: Xbox Live has AIDS
We recently reported on the latest Modern Warfare 2 glitch that gives every player that comes in contact with an ‘œinfected’ user unlimited ammunition. You may have also noticed getting chucked into private matches when selecting matchmaking, where you can catch this ‘œvirus’. Obviously this is a big error, but Infinity Ward has waded in claiming a fix is on the way.
A well known videogame blog has picked up on the story and has jumped firmly on the alarmist bandwagon like it’s nobody’s business. The headline boldly reads ‘œModern Warfare gets an AIDS-like virus on Xbox Live’, which I’m sure you’ll agree, is suitably subtle. It then features such grossly inappropriate statements as:
[The glitch will] “infect” your profile and turn you into the game equivalent of an HIV carrier.
Equivalent? Not really sure about that, for it to be on par with suffering from HIV the player’s immune system would have to fail, slowly losing their defence against the commonest of cold. I’m not sure you can get that over Xbox Live.
Also:
Who on Earth could predict that AIDS would come to Modern Warfare 2?
Lovely.
While the problem is serious, at least in the microcosm of videogaming, is it not slightly crass to compare this to a virus that since 1981 has killed 25 million people and resulted in the orphaning of over 14 million African children? No, it’s ridiculous and idiotic to compare the two.
But naturally there’s a need to make everything horrifically dramatic so as to foster some sort of reaction. As ad revenue decreases, it’s often found that this sort of sensationalism erupts in the gaming media. While being edgy is OK, there is a very fine line between humour and idiocy, and personally, this is way over it. Being overly offensive is likely to ensure that normal people don’t want to read gaming blogs, and makes “gamers” look like crude morons.
In normal people’s mind, videogamers are fat, lazy idiots who love violence, graphic sex and have an inability to talk to women. I say that’s a bullshit stereotype, but doing things like comparing AIDS to a a glitch in a videogame reinforces that stereotype more dramatically than any Daily Mail rag could achieve. For us to not have to endure “GTA is destroying the world” headlines, we need the gaming publications not to act like the stereotype gamer, but like what they are; members of the press.
you had me at “hello” You had me… at “hello”
It’s Jim Sterling. I’m not sure if you were expecting high-class, straight-faced journalism, but it made me and many others laugh, which is what Jim does.
Going overboard like this and ranting just gives him more hits. Besides, this is how he always is. It’s not like he did it to get hits. This is just how he writes. If you read Jim Sterling’s posts, you just expect it. It is crass but nothing out of the ordinary for him.
Not everyone at Destructoid is like that either. I’ve been reading their site for awhile and that’s just how Jim is. If the post sounds crazy and out there, it’s Jim writing it. Just don’t write off the entirety of Destructoid because of one staff member.
at “hello”?
Destructoid has long since devolved into sensationalism. They try to act super “edgy” and like they’re being “brutally honest,” calling it like they see it or whatever, but really they’re just juvenile sensationalists that try to be as obscene and inflammatory as they can be to get as many hits as they can. It works.
I used to like that site a lot. But ever since Jim Sterling’s “unique” brand of journalism has thrown their credibility out the window, I can’t stand it. The worst part is that some of the other people that work there are actually really good and I want to read their stuff, but I have to wade through all the shit that Jim and the rest of them post to find it.
I love Destructoid, they’ve been one of my favorite gaming sites for a long time, but Jim Sterling can – and often does – take things too far past satire or parody. He can be very funny, but tries too hard in a lot of cases.
So you personally took offence to a throw-away joke on a videogames blog. Is this really worthy of a post on this websites main page?
wow, this site is lame, GO JIM STERLING!
Nice piece Sam. The HIV comparison is as distasteful as raping a certain King of Kong’s wife, or pedophilia…oh wait.
I’m backing you up 100% on this one, Samuel.
It’s British satire. There’s nothing untouched and unturned when it comes to this. When people think somebody has “gone too far”, that’s fine and to their own moral judgment – but it doesn’t mean that said person should talk down the opposing party.
That, is going to far.
Obviously the glitch is like The Clap if anything
Funny how this article’s moaning about Sterling using this comparison while there’s an article called “Work makes free” on you very own sidebar. Sounds suspiciously like the slogan used on several concentration camps to me.
@totorooo:
Well those are two different writers you are referring to and I happen to believe very little is off-limits. You’re reading one person’s opinion, not the site’s… it’s even prefixed with a rant warning if you hadn’t noticed. Thank you for noticing my Nazi idiom though.