Controversial games subject (A.K.A. The government problems

[Bartman]

VGC, I have heard about the controversial games you reviewed Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, Doom, GTA, etc... They have all been seen but never played by the government. The latest game to be controversial was Bully. There is a PS2 version. There was going to be an Xbox version but got cancelled because of an attorney, Jack Thompson, who blames games criticized Microsoft. The attorney never seen it but thought it would be a Columbine simulator but more like Dennis the Menace. I am tired of the government blaming everthing on video games. It all started with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap. The governemt starts thinking they were very violent but it is obvious they never played the game. That is the reason the ESRB is formed. The government people who blame the games are definitly over 40. People like Joe Liberman, Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Herb Kohl, every single person from the government who blames stuff heavily on video games are over 40. Kohl is 71 years and probably never played a Sega CD or a PS2. Liberman probably never played Night Trap and Mortal Kombat, and GTA. Clinton probably never played GTA, or any violent games. Thompson never played Bully, GTA, and Doom. VGC, please make a rant about the governments problems of blaming games.

[Leo Ames]

Bully was cancelled for undisclosed reasons at a time when many publishers were dropping support for the Xbox. It's highly unlikely Microsoft ever took Jack Thompson seriousily enough to encourage Rockstar to not release a game.

[mako]

[QUOTE=Bartman]

VGC, I have heard about the controversial games you reviewed Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, Doom, GTA, etc... They have all been seen but never played by the government. The latest game to be controversial was Bully. There is a PS2 version. There was going to be an Xbox version but got cancelled because of an attorney, Jack Thompson, who blames games criticized Microsoft. The attorney never seen it but thought it would be a Columbine simulator but more like Dennis the Menace. I am tired of the government blaming everthing on video games. It all started with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap. The governemt starts thinking they were very violent but it is obvious they never played the game. That is the reason the ESRB is formed. The government people who blame the games are definitly over 40. People like Joe Liberman, Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Herb Kohl, every single person from the government who blames stuff heavily on video games are over 40. Kohl is 71 years and probably never played a Sega CD or a PS2. Liberman probably never played Night Trap and Mortal Kombat, and GTA. Clinton probably never played GTA, or any violent games. Thompson never played Bully, GTA, and Doom. VGC, please make a rant about the governments problems of blaming games.

[/QUOTE]
That's so true! I remember reading about a GamePro feature centering around a remarkably similar topic. They pose some interesting points like "Why do people who aren't gamers like the government, judge games?" That's just like showing Messiah, a game centering on a baby angel, to someone who is a worshipper.

And I despise how they keep insisting that games cause kids to degenerate into violent and unmoralized monsters. Right... Playing fragging games like Unreal Tournament or GTA, will not cause bloodlust. Furthermore, all of this is speaking from experience. I never felt the need to grab a handgun and start shooting something with an burning passion after diving into Hell for a while.

Doom is highly controversial as it really is a mindless blast fest. It was the one chance ID Software could have involved mind provoking game-play but they just threw everything down the drain by turning the game into a mindless FPS filled with run of the mill weapons and monsters. Strife beats down on Doom so hard it's silly. Basically, Strife is an FPS created with the Doom engine but instead of involving a detour to Hell with a multitude of demons, you get to travel through a living breathing city filled with people you can talk to along with creative weapons, environments, and enemies.

Zombies? Please... No more of that, instead you get these incredibly cool mech robots and floating robots. It's a shame really since the government should focus on more intelligent shooters like Strife instead of Doom. So my point is that the job for judging games shouldn't be made from non-gamers like the government but instead by real gamers.

This makes the most sense since gamers have superior knowledge than those who have barely played any games. Gamers, themselves, have experience what its like to play a game, so what better idea than giving them the job of critiquing games. While GTA may be a tad mindless and violent, I am really contrary to the thought that it will provoke feelings of really performing those malevolent actions in real-life.

[feilong801]

First, "Bartman" probably refers to the Simpsons but I'm hoping that it refers to Steve Bartman. Baseball fans know who I mean.

 

Anyway, yeah, I hear ya, but it is a little bit of a straw man issue as far as I'm concerned. Its irritating to hear certain politicians and media figures talk about games when they have no knowledge of them. But the ESRB has proven to be more or less what the industry needed to do: some kind of self regulation akin to Hollywood. Even Joe Lieberman himself praised the video games industry for being diligent in this manner.

 

In fact, up until a year or two ago, the industry was making such great progress that the controversy was somewhat muted (despite the Columbine tragedy kicking it up a notch). Of course, "Hot Coffee" changed all that.

 

In my opinion, it was in ridiculously poor taste to think that a "sex minigame" was a good idea in the first place, but then to still include the code in the game was negligent. That game was released in an era where codesharks allow even unsophistacted users to hack into a game. The hot coffee was going to be found, so to speak.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not terribly prudish: I think the topless female character model patch in Oblivion was an overblown controversy and I think the ESRB was wrong to rerate the game in that case. But Rockstar opened up a new round of controversy.

 

-Rob

[feilong801]

Just a lighter follow up to my last post:

 

Oblivion might have the hidden ability to show topless women, but boy, what is with how ugly the women are? They have man faces, I tell you! MAN FACES!!!

 

-Rob

[Crevalle]

While I agree with the premise that the government ruins much more than it fixes, and when it tries to fix something, it usually makes it worse.  However, I don't think the fact that the politicians you named have not played the game carries much debate-weight.  I have never tried cocaine, but I know it should not be made available to kids (or anyone for that matter).  I wouldn't want my kid playing a game where spines were ripped out of opponents--I wouldn't have to play the game first to make a decision.

[feilong801]

You make an excellent point, Crevalle.

While I do think that people who aren't gamers might come to false conclusions because of their non-experience, the first hand exposure to something isn't always required to know something is bad.

 

-Rob

[twel]

i have had some expirience on that topic last week. i live in germany (the land where mortal kombat 2 is forbidden ... no - you can´t get it if you are 18 ...). in fact pac man for the atari vcs is on the index too - hm wait a minute - EVERY vcs game is on the index - no kidding. as of 2003 it has become law that all games that were not rated by a special instance (est. about 10 years ago) are treated as if they are only for adults! i bought a sega nomad lot  via ebay.com and tried to sell some of the games in germany -  my auction got canceled (we are talking about aladdin, marsupilami and pitfall stuff here). depite of these laws you can buy these games on ebay germany but if you take the law serious this is all adult content.
btw. copies of mk2, mk3 and manhunt will be confiscated if found.
games on the index include:
goldeneye 007, doom, doom2, resident evil2, resident evil4 and many, many more
many games are censored - command and conquer generals and gta vice city for example

[wur1]

Apparantly the German government is the worst in banning games.  They banned *River Raid* in the 80's.  Additionally, the marines in Half-life had to be changed to *robots*, and German-based Crytek had to severely censor Far Cry.  Not to mention Gears of War--Microsoft isn't going to even bother releasing this in Germany.

[Alienblue]

I've said this before but it bears repeating: I don't get why nudity and sex are considered so much worse than violence. Making love is a natural act; getting angry and shooting a bunch of people is NOT. In many countries (MOST actually), showing a woman's breasts is not even wrong or sexual! After all, breasts are FUNCTIONAL organs meant for babies, and HELLO, but males have nipples they can flaunt whenever? Yet women can show every part of their breast EXCEPT the nipples? Yeah, that makes sense!

By the way, I am NOT condoning sex videogames, I too, think they are silly and dumb. I'd rather play Super princess Peach thanks! But weather or not an Amazon Warrior goes topless in a game should not be an issue....while killing, murder and immoral acts SHOULD. Ok, I'll get off this soapbox, NEXT! (: