Gamers Strike Back Against Cooper Lawrence On Amazon
By William on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 AM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games Industry, Mass Effect, Microsoft, Microsoft
*UPDATE* Unfortunately, Amazon is now deleting any one-star negative reviews of the book.
After hearing the offensive and biased attack against Mass Effect on Fox News, I decided to check out some links on Cooper Lawrence, the psychologist who took part in the biased strike on the game. I came across her book on Amazon.com titled ‘The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever’. It was interesting to see that the page was full of one-star reviews of her book mostly coming from gamers. Shawn covered the topic HERE yesterday. This is definitely one of the reasons I love the internet. She may think that it’s ok to bash a product she has never used and gamers are now bashing a book they have never read to drop her book rating on Amazon. Currently, there over 40 negative reviews posted. Check out the Amazon link HERE if you’d like to throw your two cents in or to just read some of the funny comments against her. Personally, I would never purchase advice from a psychologist who doesn’t do research on the topics she talks about. If Fox News and other media outlets want a war against gaming, they’ve picked an industry full of hard-core fans who aren’t going to sit back and take it anymore.
Some of the witty comments included:
I am giving Ms. Lawrence a poor review because she makes assumptions that are not based on fact. During her Fox news report, she blatantly lied and completely misinformed the public. This is not acceptable behavior, and how does she expect me to read her book and believe what she has to say? She completely threw her credibility out the window. Mass Effect is a PG-13 game (and even that is pushing it, I’d consider it “PG”) that is “M” rated because the ESRB is harsher than the MPAA. I think she should denounce Rap music rather than things she knows nothing about. And her comment about knowing what young boys think is absolutely laughable at best.
I respect you, Ms. Lawrence, I really do, but please, do some research before you try to convince the public not to support something.
I caught her doing a segment on Fox News. She spent 3 minutes attacking a product she hadn’t used, and actually made assumptions about the quality and use of the product. I suppose when you are so busy trying to overachieve and look perfect, you don’t have time for fact checking. Shame.
Excuse me “Darling”, I guess I don’t have to read your book to bash it the same way you don’t have to play or even research a game you are talking about before you go on Fox News and spout your ignorance as fact. You are a moron and an attention [expletive deleted].
Here I am on your amazon, Bashing your book.
i COULD show cooper lawrence the error of her ways.
but then i just think “what would be the point”.
hahaha… brilliant.
i just left a little review
we gamers need to do our part!
Her bad behavior doesn’t excuse ours. While some of the comments are humorous, as well as accurate, I think this is a bad idea. If we go off and act like vengeful children, thats what we’ll be in the eyes of the masses.
Gamers are showing their teeth at last. About damn time. Internet Justice has been delivered.
As of posting this, some 50 or so comments on there have just been deleted. It’s a shame really, because there were some very well written comments, but alas I could only get through half of them before I noticed they were deleted.
Interesting though; we have no proof that those who rated it high (and remained up there) actually read it too, or weren’t for example friends. Of course that’s unlikely, but should still be considered.
I checked AMAZON 2 min. ago. Right in the moment I tried to show all the 1 Star Reviews, AMAZON has deleted them. Just in that moment. There were about 51 bad reviews, that are now deleted.
Perhaps the appropriate action is for gamers to stop buying any of their hardware/software from Amazon.
I’m not so sure I agree used Cisco I get what you mean act like children and be treated like children but hell we let a lot of things pass and we’re still treated like children, yeah we run on our forums and bash people who claim video games made me kill 7 people and 2 dogs but really we let it pass compared to the amount uprise we could make.
If we are already made to look like sex crazed immoral blood thirsty children and no matter how much we try to show that video games are just another form of entertainment then why not strike back? Because it will make us look bad? We already look bad no matter what we do it seems.
Hey watch Amazon take any negative press down from their website just like the religious nuts tell them.
The problem is that a lot of the people are writing personal attacks or bitching about Mass Effect instead of just writing a bad review of the book.
I’ll put up some of the quotes since Amazon is taking them down:
“Absolutely terrible book, and from an individual which is incapable of creating her own personal thought.
It’s clear from the start that the author is speaking about things which she doesn’t understand. She fumbles around in places making comments which are absolutely uninformed and completely untrue.
I’d suggest everyone stay as far away from this book, as possible.”
normally I’d be against any kind of revenge, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. I’m not saying gamers need to slander this psychologist, but she opened the door for this kind of attack. Most of the comments actually were not slanderous in any way. They made valid points…why should anyone purchase a book from an author who obviously doesn’t do her research.
Here’s another:
“Here’s tip #1 for making peace with your inner overachiever: don’t waste your precious time and money reading anything by Cooper Lawrence.
Why would anyone searching for credible, meaningful advice on how to live a more fulfilling life turn to a psychologist who spends her time critiquing videogames on FOX news? Honestly, has America started offering Psychology degrees to new credit card applicants? Lawrence Cooper is just another ignorant, media-hungry hack with a Ph D.
Want some REAL advice on making peace with yourself AND the world? Go read the New Testament; and then go play some videogames with your friends.”
Its nice to see some people over here in the UK giving it a go as well though
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cult-Perfection-Making-Peace-Overachiever/dp/1599211793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201099837&sr=8-1
Fried Yoda writes (awesome name):
“Cooper Lawrence is psychology’s version of District Attorney Mike Nifong. Remember him, the prosecutor in the Duke rape case that went on a wild goose chase to convict a few Duke lacrosse players without any substantial evidence? Remember how he used personal attacks and slandered them without even knowing them? Cooper Lawrence is similar in that she likes to attack subjects in which she has no personal experience in. Although she is cute and I’d love to re-enact a Mass Effect scene with her, she simply has zero credibility on what she preaches in this book and what she preaches in public.”
That’s all for now, I suggest everyone reading this throw their 2 cents in and show Ms. Cooper Lawrence what we think about her and her thoughts on gaming. Write up a review and if it’s a good one, I’ll throw it up in the comments in this article. Also, don’t forget to let Amazon know how helpful the negative reviews have been to your book buying habits
Christopher Coucke “ShotPutKing” writes:
“Ms. lawrence spends over 200 pages talking about how great of a person she is, and discussing ways in which she can slow down to be like the rest of her normal friends… not much humor, not much information that anyone else could ever use. i could not recommend this product to anyone.”
God, this sounds like a riveting book. Seriously, I can think of a million different ways to spend $16.47 than spending it on this book.
You could buy some crack for $16.47 I bet.
@annon,
“why not strike back? Because it will make us look bad?”
No! I’m not saying gamers shouldn’t “strike back” or stand up for themselves. We most certainly should. I’m just not sure that attacking this womans book, or slandering her personally, is a good way to do it. I don’t think these particular actions will achieve ANYTHING other than revenge against this woman personally, at the cost of gamers reputations. We need to strike back in ways that show we are a force to be reckoned with financially and culturally, not just an angry internet mob.
BingoBango writes:
“Like all of the worst bits of the worst self help books condensed into one giant dung pile. I generally would be totally against the concept of burning books but I’m willing to make an exception here (just try not to stand in the smoke because its sure to be toxic).”
D. Hunter writes:
“This woman has no business spreading any kind of media. She bases her theories on conjecture and nonsensical heresay instead of fact. What she said about Mass effect on FOX was an utter disgrace and I implore anybody who is considering buying her book to steer well clear. She is merely an opportunistic faker who will spout on about any topic, regardless of her knowledge on the subject. “
@used cisco: I really don’t see how most of these comments are slandering her. She claims to be a professional psychologist, yet she proved on Fox that she does not actually research things she talks about. I think people are making some valid points here.
I think her rant of Fox damaged her credibility, and people should really know about it before buying her book. If she lied on Fox, odds are she lied in her book about various topics.
The irony is she is not a doctor of anything, she has a Masters in Developmental Psychology but has not completed her PHD yet. I sent a request to Amazon asking why the negative comments were removed and the positive ones left there.. it seems odd to me that they only removed the 1 star reviews, and not all of them to try and make things fair and clean. Some of the positive reviews had been posted yesterday as well… so timing is not the sole factor here.
Amazon is a corporate machine, who Murdoch helps all the time it is easy to figure out why they only take down the negative posts. Down with the aristicrats.
Daniel said: “BingoBango writes:
“Like all of the worst bits of the worst self help books condensed into one giant dung pile. I generally would be totally against the concept of burning books but I’m willing to make an exception here (just try not to stand in the smoke because its sure to be toxic).”
I wrote that
@used cisco
I agree this won’t get us anywhere and yes it will be at cost of reputations, but lets face it publishers/developers won’t do anything for fear as being singled out even more. A lot of the points in these comments are valid as well, making points like if she doesn’t research and holds herself to the pintical of morality then we should model ourselves after her, so in turn we don’t know anything about her book we haven’t read it and couldn’t really care less but we can assume its full of slewed facts and poor assumptions. An eye for an eye if you will.
As far as other methods of voicing ourselves when dealing with mainstream media their is no way to disagree, and thats what they like about it. What are we going to do? send them emails? send them letters? Or even an online petitions god knows they always work. Come on they would slide accost their desk with all the other trash they don’t care about. At least this way we effect the person on a more personal level. No its not a good way to do thing, but it boils down to something like this, OR nothing at all, and we’ve done nothing at all over and over again.
Anastacio Guerrero writes:
“People who have an opinion about something they know nothing about, should point it out that it is just their opinion.
I saw your interview on Fox, and passing judgement on a video game withour even plaing it is complete slander on your part. I never read your book, but I too will pass a judgement on it. It’s a complete waste of time to read this book as it it trying to make you follow the ways of this author, and not finding your own way of finding peace.
Thats just my opinion.”
Jacob J. Harder writes:
“I have to read this book for my class this semester. I can tell you it tends to generalize in almost every aspect and while might be ok for Johnny white collared americans does not apply to 95% of the world.
I’d pass if you don’t want DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR.”
Regardless of the actions that she has taken, posting negative comments on an Amazon book sale is not the way to speak out about it.
As used cisco said above, it only makes gamers as a whole look petty and childish, which is exactly what these people want. If you’ve read the book and want to review it on its merits, that’s one things. However, simply posting bad reviews because of what she did on Fox News is nothing more than gamers stooping to her level, and once again living up to the stereotype that we are childish fools.
This type of behavior is why gamers as a whole have trouble rising above the stereotypes society has set for us. It’s not that we have bad intentions, it’s just that the more vocal among us have fingers and tongues that move much faster than their brains.
Why not leave Cooper some email?
cooper@cooperlawrenceshow.com
I wouldn’t suggest spamming her email. It’s just an assistant of hers reading it more than likely anyway, plus spamming email is just really bad.
I’m not saying to spam her email. You can voice your opinion to her inbox. People have a right to voice their opinion to a public inbox whether the intended recipient reads it or not. If you are sending her a well thought out opinion on the topic, that is not spamming.
@ Ron Whitaker:
I think FOX news did a plenty good job at filling the petty and childish role, here. With Ms Lawrence leading them on.
How much public slander do gamers still have to take before we get hungry for payback? Right-wing american media seems intent on painting gamers out to be school shooting gang raping maniacs with no minds of their own simply because they play videogames! As if it’s a means of mass hypnosis.
The FOX news reporter asks Ms Lawrence what damage this game does to children (the conclusion is already drawn at this point that gamers are exclusively 15 year old boys and not mostly people of both genders and all ranges if sexual orientations of over 20 years old) and she goes on to explain that… wait, what?!
That this game encourages children to look at women as LUST OBJECTS?! I’m sorry but Cooper Lawrence is fighting the wrong fight here if that’s a point she wants to make. She could’ve done her research but instead she chose to go the route of public slander for purposes of sensationalism.
What does it say about FOX News as a whole if they seek to paint off a game where sex is the OPTIONAL result of an honest love between two people that takes the entire course of the game to develop, and is even then nothing more than a sideplot? There’s plenty of Hollywood flicks out there where people shag for less well founded reasons, but apparently those are fine.
If a woman in love(or vice versa, because you can play both genders in Mass Effect) having sex with her partner sends the message that women are more lust objects, am I then right in assuming that Ms Lawrence never got laid? Clearly a much too sinful act.
I applaud all efforts made by gamers to ridicule her.
I agree the dude, these reporters must have the lights off when using the bathroom in fear of seeing something lude.
@Norbit: My hat off to your sir.
Of the many ironies, look at that cover. Is it about the subject matter or is it about sex.
The cover is designed to get the attention of men (and boys by default), if 2 books (this one and another) are sitting next to each other on the same subject, the thinking is that some skin and tight clothing will see more books. Women also buy into this because they want to be smart and sexy and can only feel that way through external feedback or in this case emulation (a gross generalization used for the purposes of discussion).
If she was such an expert and what she had to say was so great, a white cover with words should be enough.
She should ban herself for promoting men and women to see females as sex objects and not thinking humans ( following her own logic).
She’s probably just happy to have some attention, check on fox news later tonight for reports of this developments… seriously…
@The Dude:
I’m not debating the validity of her statements. However, I stand by my statement that this is not the way to go about disproving them. Every time someone inm print or on TV makes a negative statement about gaming, there are gamers who foam at the mouth, send hate mail, and otherwise just make complete asses of themselves. This has a negative effect on the perceptions of games and gamers as a whole.
We’re far better off writing coherent, well-researched letters to the network, or to her publisher, or to anyone that can make valid opinions heard.
‘Payback,’ as you put it, should not be our goal. Rather, a valid understanding of games, their backgrounds, and their merits is what we should be striving for. This childish ranting on Amazon serves no purpose except to make some people feel big for posting a negative comment, and it certainly doesn’t help make gaming a more acceptable hobby.
On a somewhat related note, has anyone looked at the cover of the book? Is it just me or does it look like her huge melon was photoshopped on someone’s body. And what’s up with the way her hands are in her jeans? Who stands like that?!
Put all of your fingers in your pockets!
As far as I’m concerned we should be striving for what you suggest, yes, but I do think it’s good to show that we won’t just sit back and let people shower insults over us.
Is there a majority of people of over 40 years old who completely misunderstand videogames and how they affect the psyche of young people? Yes, there is.
Do these people line up to spew insults and slander over us? No, they do not. That’s the role of specific self-proclaimed experts.
Should we make these self proclaimed experts like Cooper Lawrence think twice before she puts her career on the line for something so trivial? Yes, we should.
Maybe other people equally interested in making games and gamers out to be a horrible aspect of society will consider what happened to miss Lawrence if the reaction reached a point where it could endanger her “career”. That’s the power of the internet.
I of course realise that at the end of the day this whole situation is nothing new. American media behaving like extreme prudes? Nothing new. Public slander and misunderstanding of a new form of media? Nothing new. For example we can think back to Beatles lyrics supposedly spreading satanic messages if played backwards. And in the end this -is- just a phase. A phase that will pass. But we can make it pass considerably faster if we show our collectively teeth.
IMO.
The above post was aimed at Ron Whitaker btw. Damn me for being so used to forum mechanics and assuming there would be an edit function to erase mistakes and typo’s not once but twice XD
So gamers have stooped to her level and made themselves, and all the rest of us gamers by proxy, look like ignorant reactionist jackasses in the process.
Great job guys!
This whole scenario could have provided an opportunity to show that gamers can be mature thinkers and debaters, but instead you just helped prove the notion that gamers are a bunch of immature goons with too much time on their hands.
Seek therapy. Seek lives.
@Handshakes: If you read the comments people are leaving about her book on Amazon, they are mostly insightful ones. Sure, there are better ways to attack a situation like this, but I can say I am at least impressed with the amount of thought going into this.
Mass Effect of all games is the worst game to bash
. I don’t actually think you really see any blood accept when the developers placed it there for a specific reason! Star Wars was pretty much exactly the same, but perhaps more violent, and yet it becomes an icon and people like this bash Mass Effect? I laugh at stupid people usually, but her i simply pity. She brings to mind people who hate the war in Iraq “because war is wrong” but have never even served in any armed forces and wouldn’t volunteer. Or people who won’t eat a food because it looks disgusting. For her own sake I hope she learns to outgrow her ignorance, and do some research next time.
Also she could learn to pick a better game to bash. Like Man Hunt or Gears of War were there is actually something more then you would see in a PG to PG-13 film
What Handshakes said.
@The Dude: While I agree that there are ways to make ourselves heard, and that we CAN use our numbers in a productive way, you can’t possibly believe that the childish comments we’re seeing on Amazon are an acceptable way to make ourselves heard.
Because of comments like these, you’re virtually assuring that gamers will be seen as exactly what they’re portraying us as. This ‘reaction’ does nothing to endanger her career, because you’re using Amazon’s comment system to vent your anger, rather than using a channel that could actually have some effect, such as writing to her publisher, the network, etc…
The Amazon comments are vanishing as fast as they are put up, and they should. Amazon does not exist as a venue for spewing negative comments that have little to no bearing on the product they’re posted on.
Just remember, we can speed the acceptance of gaming by having informed intelligent conversations on topics that people have concerns about. Gaming has always been poorly represented in the mainstream media, mostly because most people who you see on TV are woefully uninformed on the subject. Unfortunately, that’s not likely to change soon, because situations like this one make news people and network executives believe that we can’t be trusted to be civil in a discussion on the issues, and instead that we’ll go rabid at the slightest provocation.
Living up to people’s expectations isn’t ‘payback,’ and it isn’t putting anyone’s ‘career on the line.’ It’s simply painting gamers with the same brush they are, and giving justification to their labels and stereotypes. It’s not helping gaming, or standing up for it, it’s holding gaming back.
The other thing that confuses me is why a game that is pretty much PG is treated like the evilest thing ever, but the most violent, bloody, twisted, sick films are talked about like their bloody making the world better. I have nothing against horror movies and such of any kind mind you, but I mean you’d much ratehr have your kid play Mass Effect then watch Saw or Hostel, would you not?
Someone should send her a 360 with Mass Effect and put a hidden cam in the xbox and see if she plays =)