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Game Industry Derided For Mature Content
Steve Rock writes "To the surprise of no one, game manufacturers and resellers were again
taken
to task over the production and sales of games containing violent or
sexual themes. According to the National Institute on Media and
the Family's Ninth
Annual Mediawise Video Game Report Card even games with beneficial
or neutral content can be harmful to children because of the connection
between gameplay and our obesity epidemic. Interestingly, out of
fifty
surveys mailed out by the Institute to retailers and producers only
two were completed and returned. The industry was given a passing
grade for the ESRB rating system but the actual enforcement of the
system by the retailers was not -- it is worth noting, however, that
the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association has stated that self-regulation
procedures were scheduled to be implemented by December 2004 and therefore
tests of retailer compliance to ESRB ratings was premature."
Back in 1954 Dr. Frederick Wertham wrote the infamous Seduction Of The Innocent, regarding the comics industry preying upon the youth of America.
Before you laugh off it off, recall the US Senate Subcommittee Investigation on Juvenile Delinquency in the United States. and all the recent stink about decency in television.
The comic industry, to placate the witch hunters offered self policing. Sound familiar? Wertham considered it a sham. Sound familiar, too?
For some background on Comics Code check this site and this site.
make way! make way! make way for the age of decency! 60,608,582 merkins can't be denied!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
> "Video Games are for children."
Video games, like every product on the planet, are *for* who buys them, and right now adults buy video games. The average age of all video gamers is above 21. So I'd have to say that your statement is exactly untrue.
j
And a few Christmas's ago, had the following conversation with a customer who walked in to buy a game:
(Me): Thank you for coming to [store]. Can I help you find anything.
(Her): Yes, I'm looking for that game.
[slight wait as I realize no more information is forthcoming]
(Me): What game would that be ma'am? We carry a lot of games.
(Her): It's a driving game. It's fairly new.
(Me): Ok. [I list off the more popular driving games, ending with..] and finally GTA:Vice City.
(Her): That's it. Do you have it?
(Me): Yes we do. Here it is right here. Do you want to get the strategy guide with that? It's five dollars off the guide if you get it with the game.
(Her): No. My son likes figuring these things out on his own. This game is appropriate for a ten year old, right?
(Me): No ma'am, it's not.
I proceeded to explain what the 'M' meant and showed her that while some games only had one or two 'blurbs' on the back listing what made them mature games, that GTA:Vice City had several more.
Needless to say, she not only did not get the game, she got something else and went home to have some words with her son.
My manager was impressed with the way I handled that, because we had a couple salesclerks that would have just sold her the game.
Atomic batteries to power! Turbines to speed!
No, I think you're mistaking the world's attitude towards videogames today for the one ten years ago.
College campuses are full of people, not guys, people, who play games. It is a fully acceptable hobby for people other than geeks now. And while it's not the sort frequented by Hell's Angels, it's not anything other than an ordinary college town bar.