Adult Content In Video Games
To find out why this is a problem, we must get to the root of the controversy. This all started in the early 90's when fighting games were all the rage thanks to Street Fighter II. The guys at Midway Games Chicago decided to get in on that game money with Mortal Kombat, but their game didn't have anything that made it stand out besides the realistic graphics (for the time). The solution? Add blood and guts. Once the game released it was a huge hit, because of the finishing moves. For those who don't know, when you depleted your opponent's health, a message would pop up famously saying "FINISH HIM/HER" and if you put in the right button combination, your character would kill the opponent in bloody gory ways. One of the most famous examples was when Kano pulls out his opponent's still beating heart. Kids and teens loved it, parents were horrified. It soon became known as one of the biggest controversial subjects of the year. The reason being that video games were still seen as a kid's toy, so when parents saw their innocent babies tearing peoples heads off, they went crazy. While I'm not saying this was not an important issue, this was an extremely overblown issue. A senator even blamed an increase in gang violence on Mortal Kombat.
As mature rated games became more common, the issue evolved as well, but not by a lot. Now it's more about selling the games to kids, not the content. I honestly think the argument about selling violent games to kids is hilarious. Because most kids stuff is violent,just not gory. Pokemon? that is pretty violent if you think about it.
As the controversy of violence became less and less, the controversy of sexual content became bigger. The most recent and popular story was in Mass Effect. Mass Effect is an extremely good game with deep characters, fun and engaging gameplay, and choices that actually effect the story, I highly recommend it. The issue is about a scene near the end where you have sex with one of the three possible crew members after evolving your relationship with her/him. The most skin you saw was somebody's butt, maybe a little bit of side boob, but for just barley a second. Fox News decided to report on the story with the infamous headline "Se"xbox. They were claiming that the 2 minute scene was a graphic full nudity sex scene that showed women as just objects of desire. Geoff Keighley was the opposing voice to some women who wrote a book (that was her only qualification) and he tried to tell her how she was wrong and that she had no facts. She stated that a new study said that boys who play video games CAN'T repeat CAN'T tell the difference from what's on screen from the real world. Maybe for 7 year olds, but not boys in general. Geoff tried to defend the game as best he could, but was only talking to deaf ears. That is what I'm talking about. That woman didn't know her facts about the game, she knew questionable research, but not anything about the game itself. Geoff even asked her if she had played the game, she responded saying "No" in a "Are you serious?" tone of voice.
I feel like games can be just as compelling as any other art form, be it film, music, or T.V. Each medium has had to endure some form of controversy to get the point they're at now. We need fight back the false claims and fight to the end, defending our medium at all cost, never backing down, never surrendering, always moving forward. We've had games that have tried and succeeded in telling a mature story. Games like The Witcher 2, Mass Effect 1 and 2, even the new Grand Thef Auto has had a crack at it. Parents, don't buy your kids M rated games until you think they are old enough. 14 or 15 seems like a good age to start in my opinion. Just don't everything at face value, do your homework.
If you like this subject and want a more British view on it, look up LiamRproductions. He started doing video game reviews but as of late has done a lot of Unseen 64 and Monocle Wearing Rebuttals, where he commentates on news storys or poorly made documentaries about video game violence and addiction. Here is a link to his latest MWR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJVWzWBlp0&feature=channel_video_title
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