Games As The Mainstream Media's Demon

1up has an editorial up exploring the biased nature of mainstream media gaming coverage, especially in light of the recent Hot Coffee scandal. From the article: "...Are CBS, Donny Deutsch, and Ed Bradley actually informing their viewers--or just inflaming their fears in a culture already on edge? Many, certainly many in the videogame industry, believe it's the latter. There's no shortage of gaming coverage, but it seems that what's out there, outside of enthusiast coverage, focuses disproportionately on certain kinds of games or on partial information that does no justice to the industry's successes. "

Comments

Mmm Hmm

[NanoGator]

"...Are CBS, Donny Deutsch, and Ed Bradley actually informing their viewers--or just inflaming their fears in a culture already on edge?"

It'd sure be interesting if these dudes would say "Here are games we approve of!", as opposed to just bla bla bla'ing about how games they've never played are evil.

Re:Letter to The Editor

[miyako]

you know, this actually make me think about something. If the ESRB is just given a video with the most extreme content in the game, which I would assume is not all that long, in order to rate the game, why not have the companies who want to sell games provide the retailers with a copy of this video.
The retailer could have a small kiosk that could allow parents to walk up and scan a game and see a video of the content in the game to help them decide if it is or is not appropriate for their children.
It really seems like a somewhat simple and elegant solution to helping parents know what's in a game. It would also probably work in the favor of game companies as well. I know more than a few 17-18 year olds who would be more likely to buy a game if they could scan it and see the extreme amount of gore/sex in the games.