NIMF To Close Its Doors 68
eldavojohn writes "One of the driving forces behind the ESRB toughening its ratings is closing its doors on December 31st, 2009. The National Institute on Media and the Family was funded by Fairview Health Services, and simply could no longer justify the yearly $750,000 price tag given today's economic climate. NIMF's reign of nagging has been pretty consistent since 1996, and was often indirectly featured on Slashdot. Don't worry, president and founder Dr. David Walsh promises to keep writing and giving speeches ... and imploring us all to think of the children."
Sad news (Score:5, Funny)
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try Al Gore Warming department.
Fortunately (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one good thing that comes with economic hardship. Idiotic, wasteful, inefficient ideas like this get swept away in the tide while people start focusing on more important issues, like keeping a roof over their heads or feeding and clothing themselves and their children.
We need many more years of economic hardship to get rid of all the free-loaders who make a living from telling other people how guilty they should be feeling, or making nonsensical claims with no evidence to back them up.
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You think it's not idiotic to have a company devoted to screaming "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" at the top of their lungs 24/7?
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There's nothing wrong with parents wanting to prevent their children playing certain types of games. If you think they're harmless, that's fine. Let your own kids play them. A lot of parents do care, and do like some sort of age rating. The NIMF encouraged this in a generally fairly reasonable manner.
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A lot of parents do care, and do like some sort of age rating.
You obviously don't care enough to fund it, hence the insolvency.
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Pity other extremist political groups appear to have rather deeper pockets. No doubt some even thrive in times of economic hardship
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Except when the bad ones get bailed out, and thus make the good ones suffer more than the bad ones. :(
violence is go (Score:5, Funny)
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That is terrible! (Score:3, Funny)
*sniffle*
You are thinking of the children, aren't you? Michael Jackson did.
E
Economic climate... or lack of concern? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is NIMF's inability to procure funding just a sign of the harsh economic climate or is it an indication that people are becoming less concerned with the issues it promoted. 15 years ago, computer and video games were making the transition from "toys for children" (Sonic, Mario) to more graphic and mature titles (Doom, Duke Nukem). Parents and (older) adults saw these gore-soaked, stripper-filled games and wondered what effect this would have on the younger generation. Worriedly, they funded -through contributions or taxes- groups like NIMF.
More than a decade later, a generation has come of age having played these games for most of their lives and -surprise, surprise!- they are not any more messed up than any previous generation. Video games, it seems, are not the corrupting influence people thought they might be. Not only are the supporters of yesteryear lest likely to fund these groups, but the same generation NIMF etal were meant to protect -now grown up themselves- are equally unlikely to open their pocketbooks to them.
Claiming it is merely the "economic climate" that is shutting down these groups is buying into their argument that there is a necessity for the services they provide but that harsher realities requires our finances to be redirected to more essential things. People generally consider "protecting the children" to be a priority. That NIMF is closing is just as likely an indication that we recognize they are not necessary to keep the kids safe because there never was any real danger to them in the first place.
Re:Economic climate... or lack of concern? (Score:4, Interesting)
Either that, or the Video Game Bogeyman has been replaced by the Terrorism Bogeyman, and people are simply concentrating on that instead.
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Don't forget the "e-safety" bogart
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Either that, or the Video Game Bogeyman has been replaced by the Terrorism Bogeyman, and people are simply concentrating on that instead.
Sad but true.
This touches on another trend. If you want power over a man, don't make him feel secure. Instead, instill a fear of a great evil and position yourself as his protector. Then he will willingly give you his wealth, servitude, and even family.
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"toys for children" (Sonic, Mario)
Sonic has, is and always will be a mans (or womans) game. Despite the fact that it's nearly 20 years old it's still one of the most fun games I've ever played.
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Considering the number of attempts to pass video game regulation legislation in various states (all of which have so far been struck down as unconstitutional AFAIK) I dont think the "war on video games" is dead by a long shot.
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More than a decade later, a generation has come of age having played these games for most of their lives and -surprise, surprise!- they are not any more messed up than any previous generation.
Two words: [citation needed]
well.... (Score:1)
Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.
Crying Wolf3D (Score:2)
Wolf3D was "too violent" for these guys.
Now when I play Mario Kart or the new COD, I get the same violence warning (to skip).
To their credit, I was warned about the slaughtering of all those Green Shell, Red Shell, and the rare Blue Shelled turtles.
Already said, but true... (Score:3, Funny)
Whenever someone brought up "think of the children" to me, I always asked them "What, are you a pedophile?".
Has resulted in the occasional fist-fight and me having to bail before the cops arrived, but I think it's worth it just for laughs (and knocking some sense into an idiot - you can't teach a moron, but repeated beatings at least discourage them). If you need proof, look at the protesters at Marilyn Manson concerts. When they started out, there were hundreds of fundamentalists. The last time I saw him play, it was one teenage girl who looked so pathetic and discouraged that I offered to buy her a ticket.
Now if that guy who writes all those fundamentalist pamphlets suggesting that rock'n'roll or whatever leads to demonic possession or what-have-you dies, and the MPAA/RIAA goes away, they legalize drugs, and the government gets to deport illegal immigrants (like it was for a while and should be - I never minded waiting the extra 8 hours or so when getting released from jail while ICE came in and hauled off every one of those fucks away, before the PC crowd managed to tamp that down as "civil rights violations"; this is one of the few times I've seen a government agency actually doing it's job effectively and properly) my native country will be a better place (and before you start in with bits about American Indians, I'm part Cherokee as well as a White, so shut it).
Ah, if wishes were fishes...
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before the PC crowd managed to tamp that down as "civil rights violations"; this is one of the few times I've seen a government agency actually doing it's job effectively and properly
That's the problem with the two party system in America. It's the Democrats' job to be pansies for the sake of being pansies. It's the Republicans' job to be pansies in order to prove that the government can't do anything right.
This is also why there's psychos roaming the streets: Democrats said insitutionalizing the insane
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AC, to be factual - most murderers are not insane. There's a reason why people like Ted Bundy and the like receive so much attention. Because they are an extreme minority of the murderers in this country. And they're generally smart enough to get away with it...for a while.
Most violent crime is committed for money (or drugs, but that relates back to money - compare Prohibition-era crime with War On Drugs crime and you'll see very similar situations, which is why I am all for decriminalization or legaliza
Re:Already said, but true... (Score:4, Informative)
my native country will be a better place (and before you start in with bits about American Indians, I'm part Cherokee as well as a White, so shut it)
Irrelevant. If you were born there, you're a native. Doesn't matter if your parents invaded the country and stole the land your house is built on, you'd still be a native.
Without the Cherokee blood (and perhaps even with it) you can't claim to be a Native American, but that is not the same thing as claiming to be a native American (= native of America).
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Point taken. But I like to shoot down the PC crowd before they get one in.
And, yes, by law I meet the standards and I can claim the reparations/benefits by virtue of being part Cherokee. I meet the qualifications more than a lot of people who claim to be so. That I choose not to do so is a personal decision. I'm predominantly White, my mother is a German citizen, and I feel that it would be hypocritical of me to do so.
Why? Because we have enough parasites in this country, playing up on events that happ
If that's your point... (Score:2)
Then why are you posting as an Anonymous Coward?
Christ, and to think I got on here today to read up on anything to do with the Supercomputing Conference.
I am way too easily distracted.
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Well, the local bar's dead tonight, so I'm back here dealing with an asshole like you.
Neither of us know each other. But at least I have the balls to say what I think and feel with some degree of openness. You, on the other hand, are trying to psychoanalyse someone online. You presume that I'm playing myself up as a maverick. Please. You don't know what I think about myself. You can read my history of comments and note that I have a tendency to make comments on social and political issues that don't jive
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And just because you're born somewhere does not make you a citizen. Ever heard the term "anchor babies"? I find it ridiculous that a Mestizo woman can give birth to a child in this country and it's a citizen.
It may make then citizens but it does not earn his/her parents the right to stay here in the US. My friend is a US Customs officer working at a major international airport. Many pregnant women come to the US from Central and South American countries trying to give birth in the US with the mistaken hopes they will be granted some type of residency to stay with their now American child. And guess what? They send then right back on a return flight all the time because they know that is why they came here. They
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The land was stolen out from underneath your ancestor's feet, their villages razed and their society pressed to the most useless stretches of this country, and you claim that the order that did this are the rightful owners and citizens of this country, and that any of their descendants have the same right to the land? This is utter nonsense and I would expect you to recognize the dissonance in your life when you rail against immigrants. With the exploitation of workers in mexico and south america by satte
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I don't think you really read what I posted. Firstly, I think Native Americans got screwed and deserve a chance to better their selves. Which they often do. Though I'm a bit dubious about the casinos, since they benefit much fewer people than scholarships and the like. But what the hell - it's their community. And remember - I'm only part Cherokee, predominantly German-Irish. So I see both sides of the historical and modern-day issues.
Secondly, Blacks got screwed by both their own people (who sold them t
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Sarcasm requires an identifying bit to it that enables one to recognize it as such. Your comment did not. Plain and simple.
The next time you level up, spend a few points on Bluff or Diplomacy, it would enable you to make comments that can be recognized as sarcasm or jokes, instead of appearing as outright belligerent stupidity.
But I retract my walking in traffic statement, in deference to your original intent. The rest stands - it was a stupid comment that was not identifiably sarcastic.
Better luck i
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If you need proof, look at the protesters at Marilyn Manson concerts. When they started out, there were hundreds of fundamentalists. The last time I saw him play, it was one teenage girl who looked so pathetic and discouraged that I offered to buy her a ticket.
People pay to see Marilyn Manson? Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper just to wait for him to come to your house as he goes door-to-door?
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Yes, these gatherings are called concerts.
Get out more.
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Now, now. Be nice (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure there will be quite a few disparaging remarks about the NIMF in this thread. And while some comments may be deserved, we should all just step back and take the time to say something good.
I'll start.
They're gone.
Good.
Let's face facts (Score:2)
And so we say farewell... (Score:4, Funny)
...to the Rats of NIMF.
Nimfy. (Score:1)