Home Gaming Law and Order: SVU butchered gamers and gaming

Law and Order: SVU butchered gamers and gaming

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DUN DUN

I’ve been preparing you all for the GamerGate Law and Order episode. I still held out hope that they might make it somewhat balanced or interesting for gamers. I was obviously far too naive – they butchered gamers, gaming, and made the whole thing into a cartoon caricature of good vs evil. Yeah, it was way worse than I imagined.

I’m still trying to grab you some video clips, but the internet doesn’t seem to be playing nice at the moment. So, here are some notable quotes from the show; I will add video as soon as I can. The fake games from the show apparently looked like something ripped out of a 90s PSA and the whole thing is made out to demonize gamers.

It’s corny, terrifying shlock that demonizes hardcore gamers and turns complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil. Even as SVU’s writers imagined up a terrifying, totally feasible kidnapping scenario, they just couldn’t help but pepper it with cartoon villains (who frequently talk about how they don’t want women in video games, because of course) and painful one-liners. “There’s no reset button in the real world,” one cop explains.

Other lines include Ice-T’s character saying in reference to a group of misogynistic criminals who have kidnapped a female game developer, “They’re playing a game. We’ve gotta play, too”. The whole thing just makes my blood boil.

I suppose it’s the nature of the show. It’s not meant to show any kind of high level debate or discussion. It’s just about pairing some cheesy plot with even cheesier writing. I just wish they could steer clear of sensitive topics if they’re going to handle them like a bull in a china shop – it doesn’t help anyone, and it isn’t even entertaining to watch. Shame on you Law & Order: SVU, and shame on you Ice-T for being involved in projects that make your fellow gamers look like a bad 90s stereotype.

Last Updated: January 4, 2017

59 Comments

  1. Hammersteyn

    February 12, 2015 at 10:12

    Now we sit back and wait for the first dumbass to use this episode in an argument as an example against gamers

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      February 12, 2015 at 12:01

      You shut up! In this contest you don’t understand. Why? Because you haven’t investigated it. You see, I watched this one ep of Law and Order and Ice-Tea said “They’re playing a game. We’ve gotta play, too” So yeah, I know loads of stuff!

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 12, 2015 at 12:10

        XD

        Reply

    • Darren Peach

      February 13, 2015 at 07:41

      Gamers are evil freaks who eat babies for breakfast.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 13, 2015 at 08:16

        hahahaha

        Reply

      • Gayna Rimmjib

        April 7, 2015 at 00:48

        awww thank you. as a female gamer i make my own, the fresher the better, some times i even use fetuses (thats what we are doing here right? making up more bullshit)

        Reply

  2. Blood Emperor Trevor

    February 12, 2015 at 10:20

    Ag, so what? It’s meaningless TV schlock. Getting upset or defensive about it because it’s not an accurate portrayal of gamers is a waste of time. Gamers aren’t real.

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      February 12, 2015 at 12:01

      You aren’t real!

      Reply

      • Kensei Seraph

        February 12, 2015 at 12:14

        Well he does claim to be a gamer, which by his own statement means he is not real.

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          February 12, 2015 at 12:32

          It’s a stupid label for a group of people that’s far too big and diverse for such simplistic labeling.

          Reply

      • Blood Emperor Trevor

        February 12, 2015 at 12:29

        I still can’t believe YOUR FACE is real!

        Reply

  3. HvR

    February 12, 2015 at 10:22

    Expected as much, these shows always follow the main stream (read popular media) point of view with not doing any kind of research.
    Firearms (seen a few L&W episode guilty of this) is of course the favourite; any handgun with 5+ shot magazine can kill hundreds, banned/illegal “cop killer” armour piercing Black Talons (FYI they were never illegal or banned and no more lethal than any other type of premium hollowpoint ammunition at the time and less effective than what we get today) etc etc.

    Fracking poisoning everything for hundreds of miles despite there never been a reported case.

    Hacking, any kid with basic knowledge of HTML and internet access can cause huge amount of damage; lucky this one seems do dying down as people get more knowledgeable but I’m sure we are going to see a few gems with CSI: Cyber

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      February 12, 2015 at 10:24

      You can get a jump on CSI:Cyber by watching Scorpion. It’s terribad.

      Reply

      • Ceyber, The Metal Rabbit

        February 12, 2015 at 10:30

        Have seen, can confirm, cannot be unseen.

        Reply

      • HvR

        February 12, 2015 at 10:36

        Had the unfortunate experience of seeing the cross-over CSI: Cyber episode, when they started that the common person do not see 95% of the internet which is commonly known by computer programmers and nerds as “The Dark Side of the Net” (basically made up of IRC message boards) I had to switch off before insulting my TV out of pure disgust.

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          February 12, 2015 at 10:51

          How boring. On Scorpion something something plane navigation software corrupt, something something hack, something something clever people aren’t normal, something something hack some more, something something break into high security facility, all culminating in an exciting scene where they drive their convertible under a low flying jumbo jet to connect his laptop to the plane via an ethernet cable they dropped down the wheel well to upload a good copy of the software. CASE SOLVED!

          There was a bit more to it, but I’m having a hard time remembering.

          Reply

          • HvR

            February 12, 2015 at 10:53

            They didn’t use an Iphone with a covert app to hack the plane via Bluetooth, noobs.

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            February 12, 2015 at 10:57

            Dude, this is real life, not sci-fi like Independence Day 😀

          • Lord Chaos

            February 12, 2015 at 10:58

            Just… Wow… My brain hurts now

      • Purple_Dragon

        February 12, 2015 at 14:36

        I was quite keen on Scorpion, gave up after a few shows. Damn what a shitty show, it seemed like a bad 90’s show.

        Reply

    • John Brown Jr

      February 13, 2015 at 00:19

      FYI, the “Black Talon” rounds never went away, just the cool name. The Winchester Ranger T loads use the same bullet, just without the cool name, and black paint.

      Reply

  4. Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

    February 12, 2015 at 10:22

    DUN DUN

    Reply

  5. Ghost In The Rift

    February 12, 2015 at 10:28

    Well…………(Refresh)

    Reply

  6. Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

    February 12, 2015 at 10:29

    You know what our world’s problem is? It has to put everything in its own little box.

    An industry with more men than woman: Anti-feminist
    American is killed: Terrorism
    Muslim is killed: Religious killing
    Male Gamers: Gamergate and hate

    Why? Why do we do this? It’s bloody stupid. YOu know what? Killing is killing regardless of nationality.
    Unbalanced woman/men ratio in an industyr? It happens. Deal with it or enter the industry and make a change from within. Don’t make it a hate thing of them vs us.

    Etc etc.

    We need to stop labeling absolutely everything that doesn’t need to be labeled and we absolutely have to stop blowing it all out of proportion.

    Anita Sarkeesian? Yeah, she’s a pain in the but and yes she seems to have more negative things to say about men than possitive things to bring to the table regarding woman in gaming… But why is she getting death threats etc? Because we’ve put her “movement” in a box and labeled it “Anti-gaming and stupid”.

    I know my views are not always popular and I know I get a lot of flak for things I say. I also know I am part of the crowd that often points out the flaws or shortcomings of people like Anita and the whole gamergate thing. But it really is something we should ALL move away from doing.

    Anyway, this show is just making things worse. It’s spreading hate and it’s stupid

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      February 12, 2015 at 10:33

      … he said putting the show into a box. tee hee *run very fast*

      Reply

      • Deceased

        February 12, 2015 at 11:08

        Is this one of those “Step One: cut a hole in the box” kind of comments?

        O.O

        Reply

      • Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

        February 12, 2015 at 11:49

        lol

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      February 12, 2015 at 11:21

      tl;dr

      Reply

  7. Lord Chaos

    February 12, 2015 at 10:39

    Where’s a writer’s strike when you need one?

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph

      February 12, 2015 at 12:13

      I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers have been on strike for a while.

      Reply

      • Michael Goldman

        February 13, 2015 at 06:03

        With the economy the way it is, nobody can afford to be on strike. For the record, most of the SVU stories are written by the same 4-5 people(if that many). They don’t have tons of writers for this show anymore. That would cost MONEY!

        Reply

        • A Gawd Dang Mongolian

          February 16, 2015 at 22:20

          Well given the quality of the episide, I’m starting to think the writers don’t know much about current events. But then again I wouldn’t if I was stuffed in a room and only let out to get fed and give scripts to the overlord.

          Reply

  8. Deceased

    February 12, 2015 at 10:44

    Gh’well, I didn’t have much hope for it in any way whatsoever…

    Also, I’m proud to be a hardcore gamer and have always been, I don’t care what the rest of the sheep out there think or say about gamers…

    “I am who I am, take it or leave it,
    A rebel at heart…”

    Reply

  9. Goal9

    February 12, 2015 at 10:53

    “It’s corny, terrifying shlock that demonizes hardcore gamers and turns complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil.”

    That’s ironic since that’s what most videogame “journalism” sites do when discussing gamergate.

    Reply

    • NeoTechni

      February 12, 2015 at 19:52

      Exactly. They’ve been doing it for 6 months and NOW they have a problem when someone believes them?

      Reply

  10. CAE9872

    February 12, 2015 at 11:29

    Unfortunately its not surprising. American TV shows especially tend to be mainstream to the Nth degree. So to portray a balanced view isn’t getting the viewers in. In truth, I think it may actually be boring – most things in life when presented equally are “boring” as the said article/show doesn’t illicit a strong response (good or bad).

    Nature of the beast I suppose.

    Reply

  11. L337J1MB0B

    February 12, 2015 at 11:31

    Oh gosh it’s just a fictionalized bit of entertainment. You think that real people who watch this show are now going to assume that every gamer is a misogynistic terrorist? Not everything has to be a thoughtful and balanced examination of a topic. If you want that go watch a documentary.

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph

      February 12, 2015 at 12:11

      Of course there are those idio*cough* people who will assume that the show is accurate and that every gamer is a misogynistic terrorist.
      I’m just glad those people are few and far between, even if they tend to be loud and vocal about their “beliefs”.

      Reply

    • Bea

      February 12, 2015 at 17:32

      Did you see the CSI episode about the furries? Real people who saw that episode still assumes that all people who are fursuiters wear their suits everywhere and lives to yiff in a furpile. It’s not true but people still assume it.

      Sadly some people will look at this episode and think that more along the lines that Jack Thompson was right that violent games make the players into violent psychopaths who can’t tell the difference between reality and the game. Look at the reasons some are anti-vax now.

      I do so love that nice touch they added where the games developed by males where violent and horror themed but the females’ was more constructive and peaceful. /s

      Reply

  12. Kensei Seraph

    February 12, 2015 at 12:08

    “The fake games from the show apparently looked like something ripped out of a 90s PSA…”
    It’s not really surprising since no self-respecting developers would be willing to assist with this kind of drivel.

    Reply

    • NeoTechni

      February 12, 2015 at 19:53

      Looks pretty close to Revolution 60 actually.

      Reply

      • Bea

        February 13, 2015 at 00:24

        NeoTechni, I’m sorry but you have to be tested for gsr. It seems that shots have been fired.

        Reply

  13. cr1t

    February 12, 2015 at 15:03

    Ok, so a tv series did not reflect the real world,
    that is a shocker because we all know every thing on tv is real.

    Reply

  14. Circlesea7

    February 12, 2015 at 16:07

    why is the auther saying “shame on Ice T” specifically, likr he wrote the dame thing. this was dick wolf’s fault

    Reply

    • Nonscpo

      February 13, 2015 at 01:21

      Because Ice-T is a known gamer!

      Reply

      • Circlesea7

        February 13, 2015 at 07:30

        hm, didnt know that. just thought they were shoehorning that into his characterization

        Reply

  15. Bea

    February 12, 2015 at 17:50

    Why oh why did I have the slightest bit of hope that this episode would be remotely decent, that it would be more balanced? Maybe because I enjoyed the older seasons where the plots and writing had more depth. Maybe because will that is going on they could have made something great regardless of which side of the debate it might have sided on.

    But as soon as I saw the beginning and noticed the lack of females playing and overall cosplays (I think we saw one booth babe) I knew we were wading in the shallow end of the pool. Not even ankle deep by the time the opening credits started. Then it went with the normal crime drama formula of providing more shock using the damsel in distress plot.

    I felt like I had watched a Jack Thompson wet dream only focused more on a handful of guys which I guess is suppose to represent this big group.

    I wonder if Kotaku is still pleased with the plug?

    Reply

    • NeoTechni

      February 12, 2015 at 19:55

      “I wonder if Kotaku is still pleased with the plug?”

      Ironically no, which I don’t understand. It’s the exact narrative they’ve been pushing for 6 months and they’re upset that the writers fell for it? It should be exactly what they wanted.

      I’ve read comments from ghazi saying they’re upset the gamers were more powerful than the gamergate, in that they could shut down security systems and so forth. They portray us as worse than terrorists, and are upset that a TV show does the same? I just don’t get these people.

      Reply

      • Bea

        February 12, 2015 at 22:07

        Funny, both sides are united in the disappointment of this episode. But the game puns were the only entertaining things about it. Can we just make it a thing where we do things and say we leveled up? If something fails Game over or can we reset? To honor this episode game puns in everything we do.

        Sorry kotaku no reset on that plug.

        Reply

  16. NeoTechni

    February 12, 2015 at 19:51

    Naw, they’re not to blame. They bought the narrative all the game journo pro sites have been pushing. If anyone is to blame for the false narrative, it’s them. And it’s exactly what caused this mess in the first place.

    Reply

  17. Megamatics

    February 12, 2015 at 20:18

    Well, I found the episode to be be quite comical. I want more shows to take on the Gamergate thing because of how hilariously out of the realm of realty they can be. In my opinion, the SVU episode entirely encapsulates the media narrative of GamerGate… Look at how GamerGate has been described as”worse Than ISIS”, “Angry White Men”, and “Trying to push women out of gaming.” All of those things were in that episode, to me it was just the Media’s narrative come to life. They kept publishing horribly out of base stories, refusing to address the issues put forth by GamerGate, and it resulted in just more horribly out of touch media. What sources could the writers have possibly gone on ? Wikipedia’s Article is totally biased and a smear on gamers, Polygon refuses to acknowledge anything but Victims, and the more global news media takes the more comic book narrative against Gamers 100% of the time. I honestly don’t blame the SVU writers for getting it totally wrong, as there aren’t many media outlets covering GamerGate from a neutral position.

    Reply

  18. HoneyTree EvilEye

    February 13, 2015 at 02:30

    Glad I’m not the only one that was disgusted by that pathetic episode. I don’t expect much from that feminazi Mariska Hargitay anymore, or her enablers at NBC.

    Reply

    • Michael Goldman

      February 13, 2015 at 06:07

      That’s a little bit harsh. For the record, I am extremely unhappy with the way NBC has treated SVU over the last few seasons, and I have made that clear time and again. The “Comcast Cash Cow” is one greedy SOB, and I’m trying to wake people up to say and do something about it, but most people are on twitter and I’m not.

      Reply

  19. Michael Goldman

    February 13, 2015 at 06:00

    Was this an NBC drama or a documentary? Most of you are screaming like this is what gamers are really like. The people who watch SVU are very intelligent and know that a lot of the “Ripped from the headline” stuff isn’t 100% factual. The Ray Rice like episode had a totally different outcome than the real case. Does anyone know what “Creative license” is? Did anyone read the disclaimer at the beginning of the show? Did this put some of gaming in a bad light? Absolutely. There are lots of shows who have stories that put lots of people in a bad light. Now that the episode is over, there’s something everyone needs to get back to. IT’S CALLED REALITY!

    Reply

    • GrowSomeHair

      February 23, 2015 at 16:10

      SVU is the head-injury ward of the L&O franchise. The original was the normal-intelligence one, Criminal Intent was for smart people (at least till René Balcer left), and SVU is for the kind of person who can have their life changed by a Lifetime movie or an after-school special.

      Actually the Lifetime movie comparison is apt: every episode of SVU is like a 48-minute Lifetime movie. One could characterize it as “[Pick a Lifetime movie]: The Series”. None of that “deliberately tweaking your little hardwired apple-polisher sensibilities” you sometimes got on Criminal Intent (like when the guy “reaching out to inner-city youths” turns out to be a Nietzschean Ubermensch cult-leader brainwashing them to steal and murder at his slightest whim); an SVU writer who challenged the “shallow, lazy, conformist leftist” preconceptions of its audience would probably get his head sawed off.

      If I said “Dick Wolf” was a really ironic name in this context, you probably wouldn’t know why, would you?

      Reply

      • Michael Goldman

        February 23, 2015 at 23:01

        I appreciate your extraordinary vocabulary. No, I didn’t get the “Dick Wolf” reference. It’s not really like a Lifetime movie. There’s more violence, and Lifetime doesn’t like to show things usually include violence against women. Do you really think that most people who watch SVU are leftist? What channel would you say leans the other way(besides FOXNEWS?) I understand that a lot of gamers felt extremely offended by how they were portrayed in this episode, but I am offended by the stupidity of my fellow man every single day of the week. The solution for you is simple: Just don’t watch.

        Reply

  20. Darren Peach

    February 13, 2015 at 07:44

    @ Zoe, They did a episode involving superheroes. If you want to see credible crime stories, Watch the crime channel.

    Reply

  21. Lars Anderson

    February 15, 2015 at 00:52

    The same sites that created the narrative SVU used as a template for the episode, are now criticising it.

    Reply

  22. A Gawd Dang Mongolian

    February 16, 2015 at 22:17

    So is the the new Deception of a Generation? I thought only fringe fundamentalists cults were this stupid.

    Reply

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