Jack Thompson+Mass Effect= Armageddon

[Haliwali]

I don't know if you guys have been keeping up with the Mass Effect controversy (get caught up on www.gamepolitics.com) but things just took a weird turn. The man who says games are the doom of civilization, Jack Tohmpson, has actually said Mass Effect is OK. Also, Hell is opening a new ski resort.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I know the internet loves a scapegoat, but it's very, very bad about picking them -- Derek Smart, Uwe Boll, Jack Thompson and the like are all people who are playing everyone like fiddles. They're outrageous characters created specifically to draw attention to themselves. And the Slashdots and Kotakus of the world eat it up...

The thing is, though, that on some level Jack Thompson is absolutely right: video games *are* extremely violent, often simply for the sake of being so violent that people notice how violent they are and give them free press. And that's really dumb.

Yes, we should disagree with Mr. Thompson and the like on principal and defend the fundamental right of video game developers to make such games... but we sure as heck shouldn't be satisfied with things like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt. We should scold them equally for making games that make us look bad, that abuse the idea of games as art... that skip on clever and sometimes even fun just for the sake of being edgy and extreme.

I think this story, more than anything, should show people that complaints about violent video games aren't being made by religious extremists or self-promoting crazies... the argument is being put forth by intelligent people who happen to believe something different from you.

(We also shouldn't object too strenously to calls for Congress to 'ban' violent video games... because the end result will simply be that the court eventually declares them protected speech. It's just how the process works -- you go through it and you come out much stronger for having suffered the initial 'defeat.')

 

[Shaggy]

My opinion is that repression breeds rebellion. If the courts outlaw violence in video games there's going to come a point in time when the kids playing games now will become lawyers tommorrow and get the bans repealed, at which point the game companies will once again begin pushing the limits because they were limited before so they want to see how far they can take it.

The problem is that, behind these crusades to ban the games are parents that either purchase these games for their kids or catch their kids playing them and don't seem to think punish the child. Now for a catching parent I can understand their grief, but someone who buys their kid the game doesn't have much of an argument. There's a rating and content listing right on the box.

The other big problem is that nobody in the deciding offices of the issue seem to want acknowledge video games as a form of entertainment and the storytelling capabilities of the medium are constantly evolving. As with TV and movies the types of games that will be produced will be affected by which games are being purchased and once video games acheive a certain legitimacy that process will begin in earnest.

I think that video games, in general, are doing okay and are not in danger of being banned any time soon and gamers today will grow up to be leaders tommorrow. The issue will smooth itself in time and become a thing of the past, we saw it with rock and roll and comic books. The biggest hurdle is training the people to look at and understand the rating systems before they buy a game.