An exclusive gaming industry community targeted
to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses
and Students in the sectors and industries
of Gaming, New Media and the Web, all closely
related with it's Business and Industry.
A Rich content driven service including articles,
contributed discussion, news, reviews, networking, downloads,
and debate.
We strive to cater for cultural influencers,
technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders in the gaming industry.
A medium to share your or contribute your ideas,
experiences, questions and point of view or network
with other colleagues here at iVirtua Community.
Earlier this week GamePolitics was highly critical of an appearance by Dr. Susan Bartell on Fox’s The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet.
Bartell, a psychologist and author, ripped violent video games ingeneral and Halo 3 in particular. Putting it mildly, we took issue withher comments. (see: Who is This Person & Why is She Saying These Awful Things About Halo 3?)
Apparently, GamePolitics readers flooded Dr.Bartell’s e-mail with protests following our coverage. A dialogue ofsorts developed between the good doctor and longtime GP reader Hayabusa75. Eventually, this led to my own correspondence with the psychologist.
Dr. Bartell was gracious, especially considering the cirumstances. Ilearned that she does quite a bit of TV. Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC -she’s been on all of them multiple times. She’s written four books anddoes a good bit of public speaking.
That being said, I was fascinated - and concerned - by what shetold me about how the Halo-in-church discussion went down. If youhaven’t seen it, watch the clip:
Here are some excerpts from e-mails between myself and Dr. Bartell:
GP: One thing I found especiallyconcerning… was [an e-mail] comment that you only saw the [IndianaUniversity] brain scan pix five minutes before air [of The MorningShow]. That being the case, do you think it appropriate to go on andoffer a professional opinion based on the scans to the audience?
Dr. Bartell: That’s the way it is with TV — it’sjust not a black and white thing. I am genuinely sorry that it causedsuch a sense that I was being so disrespectful [to gamers]. The scansaside I stand by my opinion that violent games should not be played byteens… As to whether I should have responded to the scans — my intentwas going on air to discuss whether the church should be holding Halonights, clearly that was derailed.
GP: In all honesty, I’m having difficultyreconciling “that’s the way it is with TV†to responsibleprofessionalism. It smacks of sensationalism. Just being candid here.
Dr. Bartell: I can understand how you feel… thereis an element of sensationalism to it I suppose, but no less, IMO thanall the hoopla created by the GP posters in response to my appearance.I appreciate candor — it will always help me grow as a person and as aprofessional. I couldn’t — five minutes before going on air — say,sorry I won’t do it, I don’t have enough background information aboutthis brain scan! I’m just not that much of a purist…
Nice person, Dr. Bartell. But that aside, I can’t condone allowingherself to be portrayed to the audience as a subject matter expert, yetin actuality trying to explain a study she’d never seen until a MorningShow producer handed it to her just before air time.
And while I don’t doubt that some gamers were nasty in theire-mails, I’m not sure that’s relevant. Flame e-mails don’t help thegaming image, of course. But who’s got the greater responsibilty here?
I’d submit that it’s Dr. Bartell, who made these remarks on national TV because… why? The show must go on?
Digg Topic
Tag topic on On del.icio.us
Technorati Search
Post to Slashdot
