Video_game_controversy

Video games have caused controversy since their inception; U.S. PTA president Ronnie Lamm pushed for legislation in the early 1980s to place restrictions on how close video game arcades could be to schools, asserting that they caused children to fight.^[1] Violent video games, in particular, have drawn considerable criticism. One of the first widely accepted controversial video games was developer Exidy's 1976 title Death Race, in which players controlled cars that ran over pixelated representations of "gremlins". The game caused such an outcry that it was pulled from store shelves and profiled on 60 Minutes.

As video game's graphics increased in quality, furor over games increased. Senator Joseph Leiberman conducted Senate hearings on violent video games such as Mortal Kombat.

The fact that some video games allow players to act out crimes and reward the player for doing so has raised controvesies. A frequently-cited example is the extremely popular and controversial Grand Theft Auto III by Rockstar Games, in which a principal game activity is carjacking. Once a car is stolen, the player can run over pedestrians. The player may also purchase guns to shoot at and kill rival gang members (or pedestrians) as he completes missions for crime bosses. The game also became a center of controversy concerning attitudes toward women, because the player is able to pick up a prostitute, have sex to replenish health, then kill her to take back the money spent. It should be noted, however, that any activity of this sort in the game is done completely by choice and players are punished for committing crimes by the police. Considering this game allows one to freely choose, it could also be noted that the game is similar to real life. (A later game in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas goes a step further, with levels that require the gamer to murder corrupt police characters before the game will advance.) Groups that have objected to the game have raised concerns over underaged persons playing, although the games typically receive mature ratings in the US and 18 ratings in the UK and are not specifically aimed at children.

The game's immediate prequel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came under similar criticism, also for implying allegedly racist hate crimes: The game, taking place in "Vice City" (a fictional Miami) in 1986, involves a gang war between Haitians and Cuban refugees, and the player often serves both gangs to plot against one another. Haitian and Cuban anti-defamation groups highly criticized the game for these actions, including using phrases such as "kill the Haitian dickheads" (a phrase used in the game, actually referring to the Haitian gang with which the character is having a shoot-out). After the threat of being sued by the Haitian-American Coalition, Rockstar removed the word "Haitians" from this phrase in the game's subtitles.

These concerns have led to voluntary rating systems adopted by the industry, such as the ESRB rating system in the United States and the PEGI rating system in Europe, that are aimed at informing parents about the types of games their children are playing (or are asking to play). Certain game publishers’ decision to have controversial games rated shows that they are not targeted at young children. They are ESRB rated as "Mature" or "Adults Only" in the US, or given BBFC ratings of 15 or 18 in the UK. The packaging notes that these games should not be sold to children. In the US, ESRB ratings are not legally binding, but many retailers take it upon themselves to refuse the sale of these games to minors. In the UK, the BBFC ratings are backed up by law, so it is actually illegal to sell the game to anyone under the indicated age, and many UK retailers go beyond that and also enforce the PEGI ratings, which are not backed up by law.

Lt. Col. David Grossman, a former West Point psychology professor, has written several books that pertain to the subject of violence in the media, including On Killing and Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill. During heights of video game controversy he has been interviewed on the content of his books, and has repeatedly used the term "murder simulator" to describe first-person shooter games. He argues that video game publishers unethically train children in the use of weapons and, more importantly, harden them emotionally to the act of murder by simulating the killing of hundreds or thousands of opponents in a single typical video game.

Video game violence critics generally agree that violent video games are at least as bad an influence on children as are television shows with the same level of violence and cruelty, and most seem to believe that video games are more threatening to a child's well-being, because the video game player uses the controller to make an on screen character act out the violence personally.^{citation needed} It was widely reported that the killers in the Columbine High School massacre were, like many teenagers, fans of first-person shooter games. They had recorded a videotape before the massacre in which they said they looked forward to using their shotguns just as in the game Doom. It can be argued, however, that these teenagers were already mentally disturbed before playing the game, and thus the game did not directly cause their actions.^{citation needed}

Some studies have shown that children who watch violent television shows and play violent video games have a tendency to act more aggressively on the playground, and some people are concerned that this aggression may presage violent behavior when children grow to adulthood.^{citation needed}

Most studies, however, reach the conclusion that violence in video games is not causally linked with aggressive tendencies. This was the conclusion of a 1999 study by the U.S. government, prompting Surgeon General David Satcher to say, "We clearly associate media violence to aggressive behavior. But the impact was very small compared to other things. Some may not be happy with that, but that’s where the science is."^[2] A meta-analysis by psychologist Jonathan Freedman, who reviewed over 200 published studies and found that the "vast and overwhelming majority" did not find a causal link, also reached this conclusion.^[3]

Controversy of speeding and evading the authority in racing games has surfaced when a copy of Need for Speed: Most Wanted found on one of the street racer's car in Toronto in January 19, 2006, when two street, named Alexander Ryazanov and Wang-Piao Dumani Rossracers, both aged 18 were involved in an accident resulting in a taxi-driver's death, named Tahir Khan. Nevertheless, the police did not find any connection between the game and the incident.^[4]

The First-person shooter is the other type of video game, with arguably the highest immersion factor, since the player "sees through the eyes of the character the player is controlling". The 1993 first-person shooter Doom, a game that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris played a lot and mentioned in their suicide video, caused some activists and parents' groups to blame it (and other FPS games like it) for the shootings at Columbine High School. Critics of FPS games claim that the immersion factor is just too high, and that the U.S. armed forces uses them for training their soldiers.^{citation needed}

The most common argument against video games is that they promote violence. A counter-argument commonly expressed in the video game community is that playing these games does not motivate players to actually commit acts of violence in reality; playing a first person shooter does not cause most people to commit murder. A US Secret Service study found that only 12 percent of those involved in school shootings were attracted to violent video games, while 24 percent read violent books and 27 percent were attracted to violent films.^[5] An Australian study found that only children already predisposed to violence were affected by violent games.^[6]

Many gamers accuse critics of overreacting and imagining effects. As with Fredric Wertham's widely publicized crusade against comic books in the 1950s, the association of video gaming with youth crime can be at best seen as a correlation; because a very high percentage of adolescents and young adults play video games (analogous to youth readership of comic books in the 1950s), it would not be surprising that these video games show up in the possession of young violent criminals as well.

Within the video game industry itself, there is not much self-criticism about excessive sexuality or violence, as it is generally agreed that video games are for a wide range of ages, as with films and books, and are not always toys for children. The industry also argues that video game publishers have as much right to explore adult-oriented, mature themes as do movie studios or book publishers. Some developers and publishers find some of this type of content distasteful and do not produce it, but in general there is not much agitation to set limits on adult content for the industry as a whole. Nolan Bushnell once said in a documentary that violent video games, for the video game industry, are similar to what porn films represent for the film industry.

Currently, some educators have begun to address "the controversy over the effects of violent gameplay on gamers" and have also discussed ways in which teachers might incorporate video games into their classrooms, as is the subject of the book Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom written by a Ph.D. at Brock University.^[7]

After conducting a two-year study of more than 1,200 middle-school children about their attitudes towards video games, Harvard Medical School researchers Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson found that playing video games did not have a particularly negative affect on the researched group.^[8]

Sexual themes

Western video game publishers have not to date explored sexuality in video games to the degree seen in movies, books, or even TV shows.^{citation needed} Almost no American video games display full frontal nudity. Sexual themes are more common in some Japanese PC games, however, console companies such as Nintendo and Sony do not license adult only content games for their systems.^{citation needed} The following is a list of games containing sexual elements and nudity.

Example: In June 2005, an entire portion of unused code for an interactive sex mini-game was found within the main script of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game could be accessed in the PC version via a modification, and through Action Replay codes in the PS2 and Xbox versions.^{citation needed} The fact that the scene was left on the disc and could be accessed by altering a few bytes of the game's code via a hex editor prompted the ESRB to change the rating of San Andreas to "Adults Only" on July 20, 2005. The game was pulled from many stores; Rockstar Games posted a loss of $280.8 million that quarter. (see hot coffee mod)

Response to controversies over sexuality is generally in the form of indignation that video games are singled out where movies, books, and television shows currently are not (despite the fact that Hollywood exercised the Hays Production Code to ban any movie which violated its strict moral regulations in the early half of the 20th century). Retailers have sold "R" and "NC-17"-rated (and in some cases "PG-13" and older "PG") movies showing nudity for several decades without generating an equivalent level of moral panic in doing so, and the moral problem they claim to have over video games with nudity is seen as hypocritical by some.^{citation needed} Because video games have a rating system roughly equivalent to the movie rating system, the two are analogous. Video games have also been seen to be singled out from other forms of entertainment when it comes, not only to violence, but also to nudity; hence the term pop culture pariah.

Social development

Over two hundred studies have been published which examine the effects of violence in entertainment media and which at least partially focus on violence in video games in particular. Some psychological studies^[9] have shown a correlation between children playing violent video games and suffering psychological effects, though the vast majority stop short of claiming behavioral causation.

The American Psychological Association summarizes the issue as "Psychological research confirms that violent video games can increase children's aggression, but that parents moderate the negative effects."^[10] Craig A. Anderson has testified before the U.S. Senate on the issue, and his meta-analysis of these studies has shown five consistent effects: "increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior".^[11] Nevertheless, some studies explicitly deny that such a connection exists, most notably Anderson and Ford (1986), Winkel et al. (1987), Scott (1995), Ballard and Lineberger (1999), and Jonathan Freedman (2002).^[12] More recently, Block and Crain (2007) claim that in a critical paper by Anderson (and his co-author, Bushman), data was improperly calculated and produced fallacious results.^[13]

On March 6, 2005, the American television news program 60 Minutes took on the case of 18-year old Devin Moore, wherein plaintiffs have argued Grand Theft Auto: Vice City inspired him to kill three police officers that came to arrest him for stealing a car. In October 9 2005, a judge sentenced the convicted killer to death by lethal injection.

For more mature gamers, however, such recent games such as BioShock provide "an entirely new tool through which to explore philosophy, psychology, and morality."^[14]

Many responded that video games can enhance children's social interaction because many video games are multiplayer games, where two or more players can have fun competing or co-operating on the same television screen, and that if a child is isolated and antisocial, this is not the fault of video games, but perhaps of the child's inborn disposition, or perhaps of the parents' lack of attention to making sure their child has enough opportunities for social interaction with other children.^{citation needed} Additionally, with the advent of online video gaming, it is not difficult for children to find others to play with, although these experiences are often anonymous.^{citation needed}

One response came from social critic and author J.C. Herz, who suggested that some criticisms of video game violence come from distinctly Marxist and socialist viewpoints from academia, and do not reflect the realities of modern life:

Specifically, Herz claimed that such things as a "lack of cooperative behavior" and "aggressiveness" are both necessary and useful traits in a capitalistic society, but that academic psychologists tend to ignore this.^{citation needed}

Also, it should be noted that the majority of video gamers are adults. "The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years."[1]

"The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old. In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18."[2]

Some psychologists claim that while causation has been linked between playing violent video games and an increase in hostile behavior, the effect is very low.^{citation needed} They also claim the effect tends to increase depending on how angry the person was to begin with. Some also claim the effect violent video games have on adults is very similar in magnitude to the effect they have on the behavioral processes of children.[3]

While not a therapist, Brian Clevinger (author of 8-Bit Theater) opposes efforts to censor video games. He is critical of parents who fail to involve themselves in their children's lives. He argues that it is the parents' disinterest that hurts the intellectual development of children. Clevinger believes video games are just a convenient scapegoat: "It's not my fault my kid doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, or fantasy and reality, it must be those darn video games I kept buying him in lieu of parenting."[4]

Addiction

Some criticisms from both game players and non-game players alike are directed at the game play in and of itself. This primarily is focused toward RPGs, especially MMORPGs, and First-person shooter (FPS)'s, whose gameplay, critics feel, causes obsession or addiction. This is often joked about and admitted in the MMORPG communities^{citation needed}. A prominent aspect of RPGs is the immersion factor, or virtual reality, which is seen by critics as "escapist"^{citation needed}. Finally, as most RPG leveling mechanics allow for getting stronger by repetitive fighting of weaker enemies for a long time, this is seen as discouraging risk taking or instilling a fear of losing in the gamer. In fact, most MMORPGs place a level range requirement for getting experience points, in which the lower the enemy's level is relative to the player's, the less experience is gained (until it reaches zero).

Publicized incidents

Several incidents speculated to be caused by video games in recent decades have helped fuel controversy.

Video game legislation

In response to concerns about video games, governments worldwide have enacted or attempted to enact legislation regulating, prohibiting, or outright banning video games. In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court so far has struck down those laws as unconstitutional according to the First Amendment.

Contents

Controversial topics

Crime and violence

Sexual themes

Social development

Addiction

Publicized incidents

Video game legislation

See also

References