Video games: government threatens to play hard ball

Tuesday March 11, 2008

Are video games about to become the next target of the nanny state, asks Andrew Ian Dodge

It was reported recently that Gordon Brown has tapped a television psychologist to advise him on video games. Now quite what a TV shrink knows about video games is a source of wonder. Considering it could be argued that the two genres are in competition with each other for eyeballs it hardly seems fair.

I wonder how many video games this person has actually played. There was a recent row about a “sex scene” in the game Mass Effect. In a debate on Fox an “expert” got herself into a bit of bother and had to apologise when it turned out she had not actually played the game at all. She then played it and realised how wrong she really was.

One could be rather cynical and suggest the reason TV “experts” are so anti-gaming is that those who are playing video games aren’t watching the tripe that passes as TV content these days. But it would be wrong of me to suggest that television pundits are self-serving, right?

Encourage

No doubt this “expert” will encourage the government to restrict and/or ban certain type of video games as they did with Manhunt II and tried with Carmageddon. In the end the camp schlock driving game where you got points for running over cartoonish pedestrians was allowed to be sold in the UK. Manhunt II, on the other hand, was banned from sale last year, despite repeated appeals to allow it to be sold.

Movies likes Hostel II & the Saw series celebrate gore and torture, even bragging about it in their PR. This type of twisted voyeuristic entertainment should be viewed in a similar light to games like Manhunt II, if not more harshly. Yet these two are merely the ones that get a general release. There are loads more that go straight to video. If the ultra-violence of Manhunt II is banned, why not torture snuff flicks like Hostel?

Of course a libertarian like me does not believe that either should be banned. However, if there are standards to be applied, they should be applied fairly no matter what the means of delivery. It should be pointed out that the video game industry is now larger than the movie business worldwide and the UK produces a great deal of content for the genre.

Unfortunate

It’s unfortunate to see the mainstream media playing into the banning tendency of this Labour government and passively encouraging the government to go after the gaming industry. The discussions in the media are full of inaccuracies, mostly about the average age of those who play video games, and seem to stem from a lack of research. There seems to be a concentrated effort to ignore studies that prove that video game violence does not affect offline behaviour.

Then again this is par for the course these days. People don’t care what the government bans as long as it’s not something they like. And, let’s face it, the stereotypical nerdy young man, the perceived video game player, is fun to pick on whether outside the pub or with the help of the government.

No doubt we can envisage a time when a mature gamer is unable to play a game that the government disapproves of in his own home on a Saturday evening. Of course the gamer is staying in to avoid the feral children running amock in his local town centre. The ferals on the other hand are of the age that is being “protected” by the game ban. It’s always thus with collective punishment. Everyone suffers except those who really should be targeted.

Decision

Parents should be informed by a rating system and then allowed to make a decision. The trouble with government is that it uses a hammer to crack a pistachio. Like with high taxes on booze to prevent underage drinking, the honest get screwed.

There are a lot of crap games out there. If they are crap they aren’t bought. These rating rows just “big up” games that don’t deserve it. I have played Postal (which was under scrutiny as well) and it was total rubbish. Because of the row both the original and its follow-up sold well.

Gamers are not idiots and should not be treated as such. Its a clear case of parents need to act like parents and stop expecting government to do their job for them.

Andrew Ian Dodge is a musician, author and blogger

Sources:
Daily Telegraph/Gaming
Massively/Internet Games