In my personal opinion, GTA is the kind of game that perpetuates violence in modern culture as being a kind of entertainment, and general discrimination against many different ethnic groups.

The idea of "blowing someone's head off..." to let out anger, to me sounds like some sort of therapeutic topic that should be looked at more deeply than just "a healthy way to let off steam..."

And in case you are all wondering, I have played this game many times, and used to love playing on a daily basis (many years ago) Vice City, and Liberty City. I have experienced the kinds of things that can be done in these games firsthand, because I have played them. I used to love doing those sorts of things to "let off steam" as well, but have seen myself as "growing out of it."

There are much more productive and positive ways to further yourself, however I do realize that this is all a matter of pure perspective. Though, overall, this is the kind of game that I see the repercussions from in my school. I see harassment, and bullying with ideals that are parallel to the ideals of this game, and that is what irks me the most about the Smashing Pumpkins contributing music.

If Billy is against our society's ways of violence and modern culture, etc., and says that the U.S. is, "literally the stupidest society on earth", why would he support this? This is why I imagine it was the record company's deal.

[THIS IS ALL MY OWN OPINION. I RESPECT AND AIM TO UNDERSTAND EVERY OTHER VIEWPOINT.]

Geek N.Z. wrote:

DON wrote:But the independent-times are defintitly over now and the Pumpkins finally also became a victim of their own greed and the crapy musicindustry.
Geek N.Z. wrote:
Don't be daft. What do you think this big kerfuffle with Virgin is about?
OK, they're battling Virgin that's a good thing...the only good thing...

Some good points but,

In my personal opinion, GTA is the kind of game that perpetuates violence in modern culture as being a kind of entertainment, and general discrimination against many different ethnic groups.

You'll always get dumb people who are easily influenced. Society has a responsibility to help them though, right? However, censoring doesn't solve the problem. CONSTANTLY educating people to think for themselves is the way forward.

I see harassment, and bullying with ideals that are parallel to the ideals of this game, and that is what irks me the most about the Smashing Pumpkins contributing music.

I can see why that's annoying (ie they're associated with a video game which has a negative influence on some people) but that's other people's perception of the Pumpkins. You know that Billy and Jimmy aren't violent or aggressive people, so don't worry about it.

If Billy is against our society's ways of violence and modern culture, etc., and says that the U.S. is, "literally the stupidest society on earth", why would he support this?

Because he isn't responsible for other people's actions. He thinks that US society is stupid because the people don't think for themselves and decide what's the right way to behave - they have to be told.

EasternMind wrote:
In my personal opinion, GTA is the kind of game that perpetuates violence in modern culture as being a kind of entertainment, and general discrimination against many different ethnic groups.

The idea of "blowing someone's head off..." to let out anger, to me sounds like some sort of therapeutic topic that should be looked at more deeply than just "a healthy way to let off steam..."

And in case you are all wondering, I have played this game many times, and used to love playing on a daily basis (many years ago) Vice City, and Liberty City. I have experienced the kinds of things that can be done in these games firsthand, because I have played them. I used to love doing those sorts of things to "let off steam" as well, but have seen myself as "growing out of it."

There are much more productive and positive ways to further yourself, however I do realize that this is all a matter of pure perspective. Though, overall, this is the kind of game that I see the repercussions from in my school. I see harassment, and bullying with ideals that are parallel to the ideals of this game, and that is what irks me the most about the Smashing Pumpkins contributing music.

If Billy is against our society's ways of violence and modern culture, etc., and says that the U.S. is, "literally the stupidest society on earth", why would he support this? This is why I imagine it was the record company's deal.

[THIS IS ALL MY OWN OPINION. I RESPECT AND AIM TO UNDERSTAND EVERY OTHER VIEWPOINT.]

Any avid fan of this series of games knows that the company that releases the game, Rockstar, is based in the UK. Whether it be the mock-talk radio or the idle dialogue between pedestrians on the street, it is made abundantly clear that GTA does not promote themes of violence - instead, it skewers them and reveals to us just how desensitized we've become. Zeitgeist and Grand Theft Auto go hand-in-hand, as far as their standpoint on American violence, politics, and media are concerned.

Besides, there is more than one way to play this game. With the exception of the missions, the game's sandbox-type environment allows you to do virtually whatever you want - that includes abstaining from killing, if you so choose.

For those of you who played San Andreas, you'll get my point. They didn't place titantic environments like Back o' Beyond and Mt. Chilliad (virtually devoid either people or vehicles) in the game for the players to partake in mindless violence.

This is great and there nothing wrong with SP having a song in a GTA game, this isnt selling out also, I could go into the ins and out of why this is or how I hate the selling out of music but also the blinked/snobby/ultra indie esk atttiude that having your music any where a little different from the CD is selling out but I cant be bothered

As for SP on Rock Band, it's kind of the greatest thing ever. I made everyone at this party I went to last week perform that song (Cherub Rock). Whereas the drummer and guitarist couldn't keep up, I got a 99 percent on the vocals, hehe.

only 99%????

See, that's the downside of SP being in games, especially GH and RB. People will only know SP through "that song that was on that game".

Trillian wrote:
As for SP on Rock Band, it's kind of the greatest thing ever. I made everyone at this party I went to last week perform that song (Cherub Rock). Whereas the drummer and guitarist couldn't keep up, I got a 99 percent on the vocals, hehe.

I played Cherub Rock on Rock Band. I was the bassist. My friend Anthony kept going, "What? You think you're D'arcy now?"
It was pretty fun.

I was in a gas station the other day and Free Bird was playing, and these two girls who didn't look a day over 12 were like "OH MY GAWD....IT'S LIKE THAT SONG FROM GUITAR HERO!!!" I just shook my head and thought, is this what music is coming to?

PistolPete wrote:
I was in a gas station the other day and Free Bird was playing, and these two girls who didn't look a day over 12 were like "OH MY GAWD....IT'S LIKE THAT SONG FROM GUITAR HERO!!!" I just shook my head and thought, is this what music is coming to?

My 13 year old cousin is like that. Then she tells me, "The music you listen to is hella old. Will you take me to a Fall Out Boy concert? Mom won't take me."

Oi...

Geek N.Z. wrote:
See, that's the downside of SP being in games, especially GH and RB. People will only know SP through "that song that was on that game".
Better that than "Oh, it's the Bat in a cage guy..."

Or not knowing about them at all, for that matter.

PistolPete wrote:
I was in a gas station the other day and Free Bird was playing, and these two girls who didn't look a day over 12 were like "OH MY GAWD....IT'S LIKE THAT SONG FROM GUITAR HERO!!!" I just shook my head and thought, is this what music is coming to?

But that IS what music is coming to. Or already has come to really. Sad isn't it?

What's wrong with young kids discovering classic music? Games like guitar hero and rock band are great because 1) they expose youngins to amazing, timeless music and 2) they encourage musicianship (OK, so maybe playing those makeshift guitars aren't the same as the real thing, but maybe little Sammy or Suzie playing those games will make them desire to learn a real instrument!)

I'm jealous that this generation of gamers has myriad good songs at their fingertips. All I had back in the day was the Mario Bros. theme song and Pacman, haha.

Although, the Legend of Zelda was MY JAM, YO.

Yeah.
I just wish more people today would be more open to music thats not played in videogames, MTV, and the radio.

Well, it's kind of like bad news, isn't it? In that you hardly ever hear about good news on TV, always some shit getting fucked up here and there...

People like us hardly talk about those cool kids who have cool parents who have all the good music playing constantly in their house, which then rubs off onto the kids.

We'd rather complain about the kids who find out about that one song by Smashing Pumpkins, "Rat in a Cage"

I played GH3 for the first time in my life today. It was only the demo, so no Cherub Rock...

It was frikkin' hard too!