Bono's Company Elevation planning on

[Justin24]

Purchasing Take Two Software (creators of Grand Theft Auto series)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/07/EDGU9GJD7D1.DTL&hw=bono&sn=001&sc=1000

Does this contradict Bono's messages??

 

[randhail]

It means that Bono plays Grand Theft Auto because he likes getting hookers, killing them, and getting his money back afterwards.

 

[AliEnvy]

If Take Two still owns the publishing rights and distribution royalties, then yes.

Just because they created it, doesn't mean they still own it.

Maybe it does mean that they have significant creative and technical expertise that might be better off in the right hands.

Bono and Ali built Edun as a model for responsible commerce, I doubt he would let Elevation run amok.

 

[nbcrusader]

Depends on the type of purchase, but Elevation will acquire the rights to the GTA series and licensing royalties from future sales.

Elevation is probably after some talent and other IP owned by the company.

 

[Bono's shades]

If Take Two still owns the publishing rights and distribution royalties, then yes.

Just because they created it, doesn't mean they still own it.

Maybe it does mean that they have significant creative and technical expertise that might be better off in the right hands.

Bono and Ali built Edun as a model for responsible commerce, I doubt he would let Elevation run amok.

I sure hope you are right.

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

I don't see how this is an issue.

(GTA is a kickass game. )

 

[AliEnvy]

Depends on the type of purchase, but Elevation will acquire the rights to the GTA series and licensing royalties from future sales.

If that's the case, I hope Bono responds to criticisms. I'd like to hear it.

 

[Axver]

Er, I thought Bono was simply one member of Elevation Partners and it's not solely his company?

And honestly, I don't see the issue here. I don't see Bono supporting the game, and even if he did, I still wouldn't see an issue because it's just a video game.

 

[digsy]

I don't see how this is an issue.

(GTA is a kickass game. )

same here

 

[digsy]

If that's the case, I hope Bono responds to criticisms. I'd like to hear it.

what criticisms??
that one of several companies he's on a board of owns a company that made a game that is rated 18 and has content to match that rating?

i just don't see the problem, but then i've never understood the backlash against video games, GTA in particular.

I was reading an article the other day about someone calling for the banning of the game because their 14 year old started with threatening behaviour after playing it.
point to note: the 14 year old SHOULDN'T be playing it, thats why it has a rating of 18 and is perfectly suitable for people over that age.

 

[AliEnvy]

what criticisms??

i just don't see the problem, but then i've never understood the backlash against video games, GTA in particular.

The article that was linked was pretty critical and I'm sure there are others.

I don't particularly have a problem with GTA or other video games but for those that do and make a media stink about it, would be nice to hear what Bono's response would be since the day before that was announced, he was asking Americans to rise to a higher standard.

 

[digsy]

The article that was linked was pretty critical and I'm sure there are others.

I don't particularly have a problem with GTA or other video games but for those that do and make a media stink about it, would be nice to hear what Bono's response would be since the day before that was announced, he was asking Americans to rise to a higher standard.

i guess when i asked "what criticisms" i meant "why the criticism"

personally i just dont see the issue here.
its a video game for crying out loud, its not like Bono has endorsed gang violence and run around waving an automatic rifle. hell, he's only on the board of a company thats probably made countless other games, he's not animating the pools of digital blood himself.

while i don't know what this call to rise to a higher standard was, i dont see how anyone can draw parallels between the humanitarian efforts bono makes and the reflection of a video game on soceity.

i think my problem with it is that i've never bought any of this "video games/movies endorse violence" bullshit and therefore i dont see any conflicting mesasges between bono's debt relief/save the world efforts and being part of a video game company.

and there'll be those that argue that kids shoot their friends after playing video games, but thats why games, like movies, have ratings and kids shouldn't be playing them.
people need to be responsible with that.

and as for the article and the story of the gang going on a rampage in the style of the game, i refuse to believe that, had these guys not played that game, they wouldn't have hurt a fly - people like that have violence in them, it was gonna come out with or without GTA. no originally stable person sits down, watches something and decides its a good idea to re-enact it, those issues are there long before they pick up the PS2 controller.

And yes, i love GTA - i get a kick out of running over policemen and starting a rampage on opposing gang members with a flame-thrower.
does that mean that i'm not allowed to do anything worthwhile with my life now beacuse i'd be contradicting the message!
no
why??
BECAUSE IT'S A FICTIONAL GAME!!!

why don't people get that?

as for Bono having to answer to this bullshit...
if i were him i'd just pull out my uzzi and blast the heads off the nearest bastards before running over them repeatedly in my stolen gang-car

 

[SunBloc]

Does this contradict Bono's messages??

The first thing that crossed my mind was the same question. If the sale actually goes thru (remember the big buyout rumors about Tomb Raider's company), wonder how it will be handled.

 

[Tennis05]

it only bothers me because I think of Bono and U2 in the boston dvd doing that incredibly moving rendition of bullet the blue sky with the anti-NRA message, the "business of bitter tears" he calls it.
GTA, while i enjoy it, glamourizes a gangster lifestyle and i would be bothered by a mostly self-described pacifist like bono involved in the selling of that game

 

[AliEnvy]

while i don't know what this call to rise to a higher standard was, i dont see how anyone can draw parallels between the humanitarian efforts bono makes and the reflection of a video game on soceity.

At the prayer breakfast last week, Bono asked Americans to rise to a higher standard and increase foreign aid.

Maybe there is, maybe there isn't a parallel between a war-mongering country ignoring millions of people dying for no rational reason and profiting from a fictional violent video game.

But those in the media who would like to continue to ignore Africa will jump at any opportunity to discredit Bono and his message in any way they can.

 

[digsy]

At the prayer breakfast last week, Bono asked Americans to rise to a higher standard and increase foreign aid.

Maybe there is, maybe there isn't a parallel between a war-mongering country ignoring millions of people dying for no rational reason and profiting from a fictional violent video game.

But those in the media who would like to continue to ignore Africa will jump at any opportunity to discredit Bono and his message in any way they can.

fair enough, i do kinda see the point someone else made with Bono's anti NRA calls and all that stuff and then a gun related game, i just don't see a valid reason for it being personal with Bono - its not solely his company and he hasn't created or endorsed the game in anyway, it was there before he was!

you know if it were a u2 game where edge's guitar turns into a chainsaw to mutilate people with then i would see the complaints, but i think its unfair to link something so distant from Bono with something so close to him.
but as you say, people are always gonna look for something to use to discredit him, i just think this really is a stretch.

 

[AliEnvy]

i just don't see a valid reason for it being personal with Bono

It's just the typical shoot the message by shooting the messenger game.

If people get all caught up in speculating Bono's lack of integrity and hypocrisy, they can rationalize and ignore their own.

 

[a-mole]

raising to higher standarts can also mean:

switch on brain and finally learn that fiction and facts are not the same.

raise the standart of thinking and distinguishing. I simply refuse to give a video game the same importance as a real war/ conflict

and mind you: so far all wars and bloody conflicts have been initiated by those crying against those "evil" games 8and movies and books and whatnot) teh loudest

makes me think

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

who cares?

 

[AliEnvy]

At the end of the day, Africans care.

 

[a-mole]

about GTA?
I do not think so

I am actually pretty sure that they could not care less

 

[AliEnvy]

That's for damn sure.

My point was that all that matters out of any of this BS is that people take Bono's message about Africa seriously. Everything else is noise.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i heard africans are much more into mario brothers

 

[a-mole]

check your sources

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I read this on U2log

Anti-games campaigner alleges Take Two lied to investors

Following the emergence of rumours that Elevation Partners may launch an acquisition bid for Take Two, anti-videogame campaigner Jack Thompson has written an open letter to one of Elevation's key investors - U2 frontman Bono.

"Dear Bono," the letter begins, "I write you as a fellow brother in Jesus Christ, appreciative of your bold witness to the transforming truth of the Gospel, in both your words and your deeds... I write to encourage you, respectfully and in a spirit of brotherly love, not to purchase Take Two Interactive Software, Inc."

Thompson warns Bono that if he acquires Take Two, he will also acquire "A Mature-rated murder simulator marketed and sold to teens that has been linked by law enforcement officials to numerous, specific, provable copycat killings around the country" - namely Grand Theft Auto.

He goes on to claim that Take Two "lied to the investment community" in its latest SEC filing, and warns that ongoing "criminal investigations" have put the publisher's very survival at risk, "Despite the fraudulent assertions in the recent [SEC filing] that they are all "without merit."

"That is akin to saying that AIDS poses no threat to life. Ridiculous."

Thompson then argues that the PS2's dualshock controller "desensitises the user to the act of killing" because it "sends a visceral jolt back into the hands of the player each time he kills."

Thompson doesn't think much of Bill Gates, either, who recently appeared on the cover of Time magazine alongside Bono. "I assume you think Gates a man of intellect," the letter reads.

"Here is what he said recently on 60 Minutes: "These action games transport you to a world you think is real." Exactly. That is why they are dangerous."

Next in the firing line is Bully, a forthcoming Rockstar title that is set in a school and which has already caused controversy despite the fact it has yet to be released. Thompson describes it as a "Columbine simulator" that will "spawn more school violence," alleging that Take Two has "lied to the public about what is actually in this game."

He also claims that he has obtained screenshots which show the game's true content, stating: "I can hear Take-Two saying to you, Bono, if I were to show you these clandestine screenshots, "Who are you going to believe, Bono; us or your lying eyes?"

Thompson warns Bono that buying Take Two "will serve as a refutation of your Christian twitness [sic]", stating that unless Elevation Partners plans to buy Take Two for the purpose of incinerating the Grand Theft Auto games and the other murder simulator titles that Take Two owns... Then you will be tying a millstone around your own neck."

The letter finishes: "I could fill another ten pages with descriptions of the criminal activity by Take-Two and [law firm] Blank Rome toward me, but I can tell you about all that if and when we meet.

"I am trying to keep you, dear brother, from being run over by a careening bus. I do this to help you. A brother in Christ has now warned you. Now, do the right thing, in His powerful name I pray," Thompson writes, before signing off: "In Jesus Christ, Jack Thompson."

The letter has been published in full by website Game Politics.

 

[a-mole]

 

[BonosSaint]

Perhaps U2 is going to remake the game--Grand Unicef Otto.

 

[Anu]

Well, the "video games cause violence" argument has huge holes in it, but so does the "it's just a video game" cop-out.

I mean, are our beloved U2 records "just music"? Has Bono ever believed it's "just entertainment" that he does?

So while wondering about this new acquisition, perhaps we can look at what elevation already does? The company they already injected with cash, "bioware pandemic," has a link as does "elevation partners."

http://bioware.pandemicstudios.com/

http://www.elevation.com/

unlike EDUN, there's not a word in the elevation blurb about doing anything with fair trade, ethical commerce, or conscious capitalism, or any other bono buzzwords. looks like pure business.

And the games? "Mercenaries" and "Full Spectrum Warrior" and the like.

Of course Bono bundles contradiction and hypocrisy with his critical beauty and beaming voice for justice.

Why couldn't he have gone in with Chris Martin and invested in fair trade chocolate?

Anu

 

[Devlin]

Heh. All video games are violent, to some degree or other..You usually have to kill something to get something. GTA is just more graphic about it.

And, seriously, if stuff like that makes people violent, I am a past master at Duck Hunt - I always got a head shot. Right through the eye. I should be out killing people now.

 

[nbcrusader]

Well, the "video games cause violence" argument has huge holes in it, but so does the "it's just a video game" cop-out.

I agree that video games by themselves do not have a direct cause-affect relationship with violent behavior. But we must look at the magnitude of the influence these games have on children.