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Midway's Slugfest, Ballers Inappropriate For Kids?

Posted by simoniker on from the i-wish-i-was-a-little-bit-taller dept.

Thanks to ABC News for its article discussing controversy over the content of Midway's officially licensed baseball and basketball videogames, as the story explains: "Nine-year-old Stephane Safar likes to play MLB Slugfest, a video game rated 'E', that is, for everyone 6 years old and older... But then he played it in front of his mother Amy, and what she saw went well beyond real-life baseball, as players punched and kicked each other during the course of the game." Amy explains: "Does he know that that's not really how Barry Bonds acts out on the field? Does he know that Nomar [Garciaparra] can't punch somebody?" Midway's NBA Ballers also comes in for criticism, with Kimberly Thompson of the Harvard School of Public Health complaining: "I think the message that kids take away from NBA Ballers is, it's all about money... Women are objects in this game."

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Ballers by pudge · · Score: 4, Informative

    Saying women are "objects" in Ballers is an understatement. They are actually purchased in the game, just like a house or car. And the NBA endorses this. Lakers legend Jerry West was slated to have his likeness in the game, and he backed out once he saw the content.

    1. Re:Ballers by pudge · · Score: 3, Informative
      From the ABC article:
      But Jerry West -- who has been a part of the NBA for 41 years and whose silhouette is used in the league's official logo -- was supposed to be one of the "NBA legends" featured in NBA Ballers. When he learned what was in it, he insisted upon being removed.

      "The only thing that a player has is, to some degree, his reputation and his integrity," West says. "I think all of us would like to feel like that's important to us."
      I had heard this originally when ESPN (both ABC and ESPN are owned by the same company) ran the same story weeks ago, except the link between his asking to be removed because of the content seems, to my memory, to have been more overt. Regardless, we can't know who's telling the truth, I guess, but I'd put my money on the guy who isn't trying to defend his product, and who has a long history of being trustworthy, and nothing to prove or gain by lying. :-)
    2. Re:Ballers by mcgroarty · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do me a favor and play the game before taking the article for its word. In the game you acquire friends -- girls and boys. And all of the female images were cleared by the ESRB. You're being joined by women (and men) dressed far more tastefully than your average modern school student.

  2. Re:wait... by mcgroarty · · Score: 2, Informative
    Hell, even without the implied prostitution, it is indefensible
    Please play the game before you make this kind of comment. You gather a posse -- boys and girls. At no point does the game suggest that you're acquiring a girlfriend or a boyfriend. The people you gather in your posse stand courtside and cheer you on as you play. Period.
  3. Barry Bonds? by BTWR · · Score: 2, Informative
    "Does he know that that's not really how Barry Bonds acts out on the field? Does he know that Nomar [Garciaparra] can't punch somebody?"

    Barry Bonds is not in the MLBPA (MLB Players Assoc). Therefore, he is not "bought" along with all the other players when EA buys the rights. In fact, in one game (MVP Baseball?), instead of buying Bonds in addition to the MLBPA, they made a charachter with Bond's exact stats, and he's some white guy on the Giants with some generic name. It's the biggest rip-off since "Mr. Dream" was the double of Mike Tyson in "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" in all ways except he was just some no-name with Mike's former abilities :)