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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. "
In other news: Slashdot has an article covering a gaming site's editorial covering the game coverage in press.
"...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.
"Derp de derp."
As soon as the media conglomerates start buying up game companies, everyone's going to STFU about video game violence.
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What about the real Gaming Demons? The ones that tell me to do bad things and hurt people...you know when you play the game backwards....
I was pretty sick of hearing about how games were corrupting people, so I wrote the following letter to the editor. It ran in the Bergen Rocord a few weeks ago.
"I'm 18 years old, I'm going to college in the fall, I volunteer twice a week, and I play a lot of computer games. I hold in my hands a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which I received as a present before the pornographic content debacle. In the past few weeks there has been much attention paid to games and their content by the media, and as one who plays a lot of games, I'd just like to share my thoughts on the matter of content and the rating system.
A woman is suing Rockstar Games (the publisher of San Andreas) for misleading her into thinking that the game was an appropriate present for her 14 year-old grandson. I have the game right here, let's see how she was deceived. On the front there is a big black "M" and it says "Mature 17+." On the back, next to another big black "M" there is a more detailed explanation which reads, "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs" That seems pretty honest and unambiguous to me, not deceptive at all.
According to an article in Computer Gaming World, the Entertainment Software Review Board, ESRB for short, does not actually play the games it rates. ESRB is given videos of a games most extreme content and bases its rating on that. Knowing this, it's easy to see how something like San Andreas' pornographic content slipped by, and how other objectionable content could be slipped by. ESRB needs to start playing games. Until they do, things will slip through, if for no other reason than some people want to push the envelope and test the system - it's the class clown mentality. ESRB needs to play games, and they need to play them more than once. They need to release detailed reports on the content of every game they rate. Until they do things will slip, people will be mad, and they will call for Congress to hold hearings on how the gaming industry is corrupting children.
I think that rating games is a good idea, even if the current system is flawed. I think being able to look at a box and see what kind of content is in a game is a good idea, I think that before parents allow their kids to play games, they need to know what's in the game. If you think that your child is too young to be handle a game's content, don't let them play it. Get involved, teach your kids what's right and what's wrong, what's educational and what's just entertainment. That's what my parents did, and while I play games that turn the stomachs of Joe Lieberman, Jack Thompson, and Hillary Clinton, I've never gotten so much as a parking ticket.
People are outraged, absolutely. But we don't need Congressional hearings over whether games are corrupting our youth. We need parents to teach their kids values and the difference between reality and entertainment, and ESRB needs to be more comprehensive in its ratings. My final thought is this: Without following instructions posted on the Internet, San Andreas still has graphic violence, gangs, drug use, corrupt cops, and crime galore. We knew about that, it's right there on the box. What does it say about our priorities and our values when we allow all that, but are incensed and call for Congressional hearings when we find out somebody hid a little sex in there?"
This sig is false.
Ok, I'll bite..
The difference between Blizzard and the media reporting on videogames. Blizzard, as a company, doesn't actually think WoW (or any other videogame, ASFAIK) is evil. The media, on the other hand, has no idea whether video games are evil, but that doesn't stop them from claiming just that in order to create some kind of 'story' they feel their consumers will watch.
TFA's point is that the media isn't reporting on actual problems, they're just (*gasp*) sensationalizing.
Whether the above point is actually worth reading about, I have my doubts. I just thought your post needed a response...
It happened with comic books. Now it's happening with games. Ultimately, some new form of entertainment will come along that will attract the eyes of moral crusaders, and the game industry will spend less time in the spotlight.
Less time, sure... but it won't escape entirely for quite a while. You could replace every instance of "video game" with "comci book" (and change the examples to match) and you'd still have a largely factual article. Neil Gaiman made a great comment a few weeks ago about how mainstream coverage of comics books alternates between "Wham! Bam! Comics have grown up!" (which is 20-year old news) and "OMG! This comic book not meant for kids has material unsuitable for kids in it!"
There's an advocacy organization, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, that works to raise awareness and raise funds to help defend comic book authors, artists, retailers etc. from attacks against freedom of expression. Retailers have been arrested for selling adult comics to adults. Artists and publishers get sued for parodies. It doesn't get as much covereage as video games anymore, but what coverage it gets is still as biased as it was in the 1950s.
Media bias is probably only rooted in ignorance and a desire to "make news" rather than report the facts, but have you considered that console videogames are in direct competition with broadcast and cable television? For people that only have one set, they can either watch TV or little Billy can play his videogames. I cannot claim that this is why the media likes to demonize games (it's not--they aren't that smart), but it is an interesting way of looking at the situation.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
I've personally never found the media's reaction to video games to be suprising at all. Video Games are basically in direct competition with Television for the time and attention of people. The Info-tainment industry wants to play up video games as being bad because they don't want people to grow up getting their daily dose of sex and violence from GTA 237: Let's Kill Some People; they want them to get it from Channel $X News and The $City Times.
Media companies are no more going to sing the praises of video games than Coca Cola is going to come out and say "You know, we like coke, and a lot of other people like coke, but if you like pepsi then that's A-OK with us".
Of course, the reason why this isn't going to work in the long run is that overly dramatic FUD is only entertaining if you don't realize that it's overly dramatic FUD (at least in the case of info-tainment). Most people I think, or at least most of the Gen-X and Gen-Yers have played enough video games to realize that this is FUD, and so they get bored with it- so they stop with the news and pick up video games instead.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
There are two sides to every story and neither the Mainstream Media nor the Gaming Advocates really represent the true situation.
The facts are that gaming media, like most other forms of media, has contraversial games which push the limits of what is generally acceptable; these contraversial games are then demonized by 'crusaders' and by the media. The reality of the situation is that there is a type of symbiotic relationship between the crusaders and the developers.
If you compare the average quality, and quantity of high quality, 'Mature' games to 'Everyone' and 'Teen' games you will notice that there are far less good 'Mature' games and in general they're of lower quality at a similar sales level. Now what certain game developers are doing is taking a pretty crappy game and pushing the boundries with their content to sell more units (think Manhunt); this content then enrages crusaders who then get the media involved and since the game is 'Uber-Mature' it sells really well to insecure 14 year olds (and 14 year olds at heart). If the crusaders (and the Media) ignored this games, the games wouldn't sell well on their own merit, and for the most part the 'Plague of Damaging videogames' would dry up.
Now, I personally suspect that this will only continue for a short period of time longer. Much like with Rap Music and Horror movies, Violent Videogames will only continue to be press worthy for a short period of time longer (probably less than 5 years). After that it won't matter if you produce a game a where you're a 5 year old, with a passion for guns, that shoots cops it won't make the news. Thus the contraversial game will no longer have the free press to cover up for it's poor game mechanics.