Ever since game designers were able to put red pixels on their imaginary characters that had recently deceased, there have been people crusading against their subversive methods. The outrage at video games seems to become cyclic, fading really briefly before exploding into the public eye once a lot more with renewed frenzy. The controversy seems to have sparked up again in recent times, with numerous crimes getting blamed around the corruptive influence of video games. There have also been various “controversies” surrounding recent video game titles and their content in the areas of both violence and sexuality.

The first video game to receive widespread criticism and media attention was the martial art fighting game “Mortal Kombat”. This video game included big spurts of blood emitted from attacks and also “Fatalities” that might be performed on stunned opponents after their defeat. These Fatalities had been gruesome animation sequences showing the victorious player killing their defeated opponent in the vast variety of methods. Gamers revelled in this new experience and the controversy surrounding the violence caused mass hype that informed the less informed gamers that the video game was out there. Consequently gamers played the new game just to find out what all the talk was about, thereby greatly increasing revenue.

One of the largest sparks of controversy was the release of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA)”. This involved unlocking a sexually oriented mini-game that had been removed from the video game before release, although evidently not from the source code. The creators from the video game, Rockstar Entertainment, obviously realised that this particular part of the video game was not appropriate for that video gaming public and removed access to it. An enterprising fan of the video game found out and modified the original code to give access to the content once again. Lawsuits had been brought against Rockstar for including such content material in their video game, although the validity of the lawsuit has to become questioned. If the video game is simply purchased and played as intended by the developers, this admittedly tasteless and inappropriate mini game would never be encountered. It isn’t until the user-made modification is downloaded and installed that the player is able to access the content.

Regardless of who’s to blame, “GTA: SA” was re-rated in America and banned from sale in Australia. Oddly enough the gratuitous and encouraged violence in the video game went largely unnoticed in the wake from the “scandalous” sex scenes involving clothed, cartoonesque people.

When examined objectively almost all game titles contain a certain amount of violent content material. The kid-friendly bright and colourful “Mario” games by Nintendo feature a character stomping on animated creature’s heads. In fact the majority of game titles, even children’s game titles, involve the protagonist crusading against an enemy horde of some sort and usually “disposing” of them in some manner, regardless of whether it be striking them with a weapon or body part (feet, hands, possibly a tail depending on the nature from the character). The only real stand out difference is that in a children’s game the ‘bad’ characters will generally bounce backwards in a cute manner and explode having a humorous puff sound (or merely disappear) whereas in a game oriented towards older mature players, the characters are more likely to be (somewhat) realistic, spraying a gusher of red upon their demise.

Whenever some young person somewhere commits a violent crime these days it seems to get blamed on a movie game, from “Duke Nukem” and “Quake” getting accused for that Columbine High massacre, to a a lot more recent incident involving a group of minors attributing their violent actions to the “Mortal Kombat” video games. Without any solid evidence either way it’s difficult to say regardless of whether or not video game violence actually has much of an influence on players. To really be certain you’d most likely have to have a control group of isolated kids that have in no way seen a violent movie or played a bloodthirsty video game. History does however show that brutal crimes were committed long before video games or even movies came into existence.

Kids are quite easily influenced by some thing that they’re excited about and I’ve witnessed this happen a lot. Playing a wrestling video game along with a group of eight year olds often leads towards the eight year olds screaming raucously and trying to pin each other down around the ground. Pre-teens will often punch and kick their way out of a cinema in terrible combat stances right after having viewed a martial arts movie. The current content rating system in location is not geared towards consumer restriction; it is largely aimed at simply informing the public about what they are going to knowledge. Legal restrictions are not actually put in location until the higher, a lot more severe ratings like in x-rated films. Parents, guardians, and society in general require to start taking an interest in who is viewing particular kinds of content. Instead of complaining about the entertainment a child is enjoying, the parent could be there at the beginning looking at the rating that is printed clearly on the packaging of all entertainment. A simple “I don’t think that’s suitable, how about this game? It has a lizard! distracts the child a surprising number of times. In my knowledge, children genuinely just want people to take an interest in what they’re interested in, not just murmuring indistinctly, “Yes dear, that’s nice.” as the child installs the newest violent video game.

What concerning the children which are playing the game titles within the restricted ratings categories? The only way that they can even get the online game into their possession is if a parent (or somebody of legal age) purchases the video game for that child, or if the store disregards the rating guidelines in place and sells it to them regardless. Either way the fact that a game’s material has fallen into a minor’s hands is not the fault of the video game developer.

I’m not out to defend the integrity of artistic vision presented in video games as many other gamers are. Frankly there appears to me to be little artistic integrity in rendering blood that is ever a lot more liquid in appearance. I do however enjoy playing some game titles that are very violent in nature and in numerous cases the violent nature from the game increases my enjoyment. Video game titles are escapism, there’s (arguably) no point in playing a video game that simulates some thing you can just walk outside and do (and yet sports games somehow consistently sell in large numbers… curious…). Interestingly I have in no way yet felt the overwhelming desire to break down into a kung fu stance and commit murder. Perhaps a lot more essential than simply banning questionable material in video games would be studying why this material is so appealing to today’s society? Or possibly why parents aren’t more involved with their kids and watching what they play.

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