Why is it that everyone who despises video games, has never played one? Agenda-driven politicians, panicked parents, attention-hungry news stations—they all leap before they look, spout before they think, pledge before they prove.
Just last year a highly anticipated video game, Mass Effect, was released into an unexpected shitstorm. Fox News had discovered the game contained a sex scene! Seizing upon this scandalous, and therefore
valuable information, the news station launched a valiant crusade against this immoral abomination.
Experts were called in, a panel was formed, horrified parents wept as they clung to their children, indignant politicians proclaimed they would not stand for such things. Fox created a segment entitled “SE’XBOX? New video game shows full digital nudity and sex” and challenged a video game journalist, Geoff Keighley, to defend the game’s heinous actions. He would be set against Fox’s champion, Cooper Lawrence, an expert psychologist and author, who was soon to have another book published.
After a panel of concerned parents discussed their fears about how their children needed to be protected from such immorality, a Fox anchor served as mediator between the psychiatrist and the journalist. Lawrence stood at the ready, armed with a short speech on how such video games corrupted children’s views on women, degrading all the work they had accomplished in the Feminist Movement. Women were people, not sexual objects. Fox News was prepared; they had their frightened parents, an offended expert, and a news anchor who would often cut off any response from Keighley. They had done everything they could.
Everything except their research.
Lawrence and Keighley were brought into the room, with the mediator sitting between them. Lawrence launched her tirade, furiously denouncing such chauvinism and explaining how this game was training innocent little boys to use girls for sexual gratification. “It’s pornography!” she haughtily stated to a stunned and confused Keighley, before going on to describe how the point of the game is for a man to have as much sex as he can with as many women as possible. The mediator sat and nodded understandably, quietly voicing her own agreement.
Lawrence breathlessly finished her rant, and the mediator allowed Keighley to briefly respond while the expert recovered her breath. What was his first question? “Well, uh, first, have you ever played the game?” he asked.
Lawrence pulled back as if slapped, “No! Of course not!” She scoffs, disgusted at such a notion.
Keighley gaped silently at her, perhaps wondering why she didn’t see this lack of experience as a detriment to her position. He then, haltingly and constantly interrupted by the news anchor, went on to explain that Mass Effect was a Mature-rated video game, meant only for those who were seventeen or older (retailers require ID when a game is rated Teen or higher). He talked about how the 15-second-long sex scene (in a game that lasts over thirty hours) showed no nudity at all, and only just enough movement was revealed in the dark to hint at what was happening. In fact, the sex scene was so tame that Fox News was able to air almost the entire segment during their bashing of the game.
Mass Effect was designed with character development and customization as key features. How can a game that allows the player to create a female character objectify women? Players could not go around wantonly engaging in deluded sex, because the sex scene only occurred after a friendship was formed through lengthy, and completely optional, dialogue that occurred throughout the game. On top of that, the player was not forced into a sexual situation, nor was the partner mandatory. The game couldn’t objectify women when the options for possible romance included a woman, a man, and a genderless alien whose idea of sex was “telepathic union.”
Even more recently, a writer for the Houston Chronicle, Willie Jefferson, demonstrated that some people are simply looking to make trouble. He watched a trailer for a video game called Left 4 Dead 2, and came up with an outrageous claim- he believed it was racist.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a horror-survival video game that challenges the player to try and survive in cities teeming with the undead. The producers decided they wanted to set the game in the South, with one level in New Orleans so that they could use its rich cultural history (not to mention architecture) in Jazz and Blues for a soundtrack. It is gory and violent, but also rated M for Mature. Jefferson, after seeing a video of gameplay, accused the game of racism because “players will have to fight their way through hordes of zombies - with several of them who appear to be African-Americans.”
Is it racist to make all enemies a single ethnicity? Many would enthusiastically yell, “Yes!” Personally, I agree, though the line becomes a bit blurry in certain video games, like the Call of Duty franchise, a WWII game series in which until recently, players shot only German Nazis.
But Jefferson is accusing L4D2 of being racist, because it has “several” zombies that are African-American. Wouldn’t it be more racist if the game was populated only by white zombies? Especially since the game is set in New Orleans, which is 67% African-American, according to the last U.S. census. If anything, the developers of L4D2 should be accused of whitewashing the zombies (typically, the zombies are a rotting gray color, with some obviously being African-Americans and others being obviously white). In case you were wondering, of the four human survivors the players can be, two are African-American.
These controversies had no basis and would never have risen to such proportions if people had done a minimal amount of research. Left 4 Dead 2 isn’t racist, and Mass Effect wasn’t pornographic or sexist.
Video games are seen as an easy scapegoat, a social ill that can be blamed for numerous problems. Viewership is always guaranteed when someone promises to “expose” video games, to show the poisoning of children. Politicians wanting to acquire easy votes will promise to “fix” these video games. How many of these accusations would simply disappear if parents sat down and actually did some research?
Being the newest form of media, video games are experiencing a typical wave of confusion and fear. All forms of media have undergone this same process. Metal was accused of turning rebellious teens to Satan and people thought television was brainwashing children into puppets. Video games, on the other hand, are the most interactive form of media yet. Thus the fear and confusion is so much greater. People aren’t just listening or watching anymore, they’re participating. These fears, especially those of parents, are not unfounded. The problem is that most adults refuse to play these games, the only method that would surely reveal how misplaced their fears are.
Despite video games becoming more common and mainstream, most people, especially adults, know little about them. They don’t know anything about video games, but they watch as kids, teens, and young adults play them extensively. They are afraid. Wouldn’t you be scared if your own child constantly stared at a wall and talked about a virtual world you didn’t understand? Many politicians (including Fred Upton, Herb Kohl, Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, and Leland Yee) have tried to cleanse video games, banning those with content they judged to be unsuitable. The parents are ready to defend their children against even the smallest amount of harm. Hungry politicians come running, wanting votes, and are perfectly willing to make a mouse into a lion to achieve that goal.
Not all video games are violent or crude; many are lighthearted and fun. Puzzle games challenge the player to think, sports games allow the non-athletic to share the glory, and adventure games can tell epic stories. Wii Fit fights obesity, Brain Age attempts to make the player more intelligent, and Super Mario Sunshine even has children cleaning up graffiti. Yes, there are many games out there that are exceptionally gory and grotesque, but they aren’t aimed at children. They are designed and marketed towards adults, both young and old, like R-rated films. They’re not meant to be viewed by children because of their violence and language. The game Prototype is an excellent example of this. In the game, the player is a super powered anti-hero, killing innocents, monsters, police, and the military in ultra-grisly ways (people are literally ripped into bloody chunks as if made of meaty paper). Unlike most games, Prototype does not even punish the player for killing civilians and, in fact, encourages it. This game was rated Mature, and is obviously not meant for children, with commercials appearing only late at night and on channels like Spike and G4.
Lawrence, the “expert” who lambasted Mass Effect, became the public face of this inept attitude. Her book, The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever, available for preorder on Amazon.com, became a target of gamer frustration. The website allowed users to give feedback and ratings on their products, and her scathing reviews of her book came flooding in. Her book achieved the lowest rating from nearly every single review, and became the lowest rated product on the website. One review boldly stated, “I haven’t read this book, but I know it’s horrible and is an insult to female dignity everywhere.” Though Amazon.com eventually reset the book to a neutral rating, it currently has 78 one-star ratings (many of which reference her Fox News interview and her inability to do research).
In an attempt to redeem herself, Lawrence watched someone play the game for two hours and afterwards admitted that she had misspoke. “Now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”
This entirely overblown controversy could have been solved by this single act: actually playing the game.
Jefferson, who accused Left 4 Dead 2 of racism, has not retracted his statements, but has instead become increasingly surprised and irate at the number of vicious comments accusing him of racism on his blog.
So have critics learned from this valuable lesson? Do they actually go out and try that which they degrade? For the most part, no. Only those with research grants have realized that actually observing people play the game (or playing it themselves) may be helpful. This pattern of shock and fear is simply too easy and lucrative (remember how extreme the Swine Flu scare was? Ever do some research to find out how many people die from the actual flu every year?). Forcing people to believe video games are evil solves nothing, and in fact makes it harder for people to find out the truth.
