There's this great page on PBS.org called "Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked". If you haven't read it, take a look and you might be surprised at what you read if you're not a gamer. It's nice to see an outlet generally recognized as intelligent and educational as PBS is stand up for the industry I work in when so many people want to tear it down. The article debunks the theories that youth aggression, violence, and desensitivity to violence increases by playing games, and even the myth that video games are aimed mainly at children (that hasn't been the case because those of us in our late 20's to 30's have grown up with gaming and are the primary audience that's introducing the younger generation to games).
CBSNews.org recently ran an article titled "Where Is Our Frank Zappa?" The bulk of the article is really just the transcript of Zappa's hearings in the 1980's with Congress in regards to the PMRC (Parent's Music Resource Center). It's definitely worth reading since many of the issues can indeed be applied to games. But the article never answers the question is poses.
And it's a really good question. Why don't we have a Frank Zappa for the games industry? Someone in a forum I read speculated that the reason we don't have one is the age difference between music and video games. Zappa was in his 40s when he went before Congress. He was a seasoned veteran of the music industry. There was history and foundation there for him to work off of. But video games are only a couple of decades old, and that's if you include the harmless roots video games like Pac-Man and Pong. But the real history of video games as controversial mechanisms for fostering youth violence started with DOOM in the late 1990's. And this forum poster speculated that if you normalize the two histories, our Frank Zappa is probably a 26 year old without any clout to weild before Congress yet.
It's a good theory and probably has merit. But I have another theory. I think it's because we lack a diverse enough gaming portfolio yet that we can use to defend games as a valid medium of expression. Music is art, and no one at this point can really argue otherwise. And controversy in art is somewhat easily defendable because it's part of what makes art what it is. But are games art? Not everyone thinks so, and game developers themselves don't completely agree on the answer.
Within genres like rock and rap in music you can often find great examples to hold up that make the Moral Minority quiet down when you tell them, look, see? There's no reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Movies have the same defense strategy -- if you want to defend the issue of violence having a rightful place in all movies, then when people complain about Pulp Fiction you hold up Saving Private Ryan. It's the defense strategy that says something controversial is valid within an entire medium as long as the medium has plenty of "valid" uses of it. But games lack that when it comes to the pivotal issue of violence. It's hard to defend a game like Grand Theft Auto when we don't have anything else to hold up alongside it. We have no Saving Private Ryan in video games, no game that uses violence to show how horrible realistic violence really is.
I wish such a game existed. I wish a game developer would make a game that made a point of using what games do that no other medium does -- forcing the player to make decisions and experience the consequences -- and tie it into the issue of violence in such a way that we could make the player feel the negative consequences of actions that result in the realistic violence that we're capable of rendering in today's game engines. I don't wish this game existed because I have a problem with violence in games and want to attach morality to it -- I don't. (Hey, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy running around in Grand Theft Auto beating up innocent people and stealing their cars. It isn't like I'm ever going to do that in real life, so why not enjoy doing it in a game?)
I wish it existed because it would force a discussion about broad-sweeping legislation of games that currently completely ignores any evaluation of the game content itself. We're on the verge of government legislating against any video game that contains material considered "violent" or "adult" based solely on the "M" rating on the box, and legislating it in ways that the movie and music industries have never seen, in ways that completely sidestep any discussion about whether or not the content in question provides discussion or educational value. Why? Because we currently don't have any games in which the violent or adult content actually does provide any value for discussion or education.
And we're doing all of this legislating because people are afraid of what they don't know anything about. Parents, the ESRB rating on the game box gives you just as much information about the game, if not more, than the movie rating gives you about the movie in its preview. If you're capable of making an informed decision about movies based on their rating without the government's help, then why aren't you capable of making the same decision about the games your child plays?
Before I type a long response, let's see if this works.
Posted by: Dad | March 6, 2006 09:54 AM
Every generation has had their Frank Zappa. For my generation, it WAS Frank Zappa! Although the video game generation’s Frank Zappa might only be 26 at present, it’s important to remember that Frank was younger than 26 when he started bucking the system, and always stood up for his beliefs and opinions. He did it to the music “establishment” early on, long before the Senate hearings, and continued, throughout his life. Unfortunately, as Caryn states, there is no “new” Frank Zappa stepping up in defense of the video game industry, and that’s the big problem.
I've never been much of a video game player. Not into GTA, Quake, Doom or WoW. I have nothing against them. They've just never piqued my interest (not too sure how the apple fell so far from the tree on this one, but that's another topic for another day). At 53, I'm in the generation that enjoyed Pac-Man and Asteroids when they were the “new” pinball games in the bars and clubs where we hung out. But during our formative years, they just weren't an option for "home" entertainment. Hell, I was an adult already, when the first home Atari systems were just coming on the market!
In the late 1950's, many civic leaders called the emergence rock & roll, "the Devil's music", and blamed it for nearly every ill of society they could possibly imagine. Why? Because they had lost touch with the youth of the time and the problems they faced. They had no clue why they were seeing such rebellious attitudes from their normally "perfect" children. As with many issues confronting us today, I believe that the public outcry over violence in video games is merely a smoke screen. Our elected officials are inept, and unwilling or unable to step outside that same “clueless” mentality, and deal with the issues of disenfranchised youth, and why their discontent often manifests itself as crime and violence in our society. Perhaps they don’t know what to do, which is sad. But quite possibly, they don’t care, which is tragic! Assuming the latter, the best course of action for them, is a scapegoat, and I believe that’s what they are doing with the video game industry.
It seems that our government officials make it a virtual daily practice to blame others for their mistakes. VP Dick Cheney accidentally, but irresponsibly, shoots his hunting partner in the face, and the victim is immediately placed at blame for "stepping out of the hunting line". The White House is on vacation in Texas and Michael Chertoff, the head of the Dept. of Homeland Security is at a bird flu meeting in Atlanta, both ignoring the warnings from Michael Brown (FEMA) of impending disaster associated with hurricane Katrina, and then they blame Ray Nagin for the confusion and lack of a proper response.
I grew up watching the Three Stooges on television. I was glued to the set every day! I couldn’t wait to see Moe whack Curly with a hammer, or see him squeeze Larry’s head in a vice. Were these acts of violence? Sure they were! But did any of that make me act out similar antics on my brothers, or other people? Perhaps we should ask my brothers, but I’m pretty sure the answer is a resounding “NO”! Are some video games violent? Sure they are, but are they to blame for the violence and crime in our world? Again, I’m pretty sure the answer is a resounding “NO”! Perhaps the game industry should adopt the slogan strategy of the NRA…“Video games don’t kill people. People kill people”! Instead of being the “leaders” that we elected them to be, our officials look for the easiest target to blame, therefore relieving them of the need to act, and also affording them the opportunity to appear as the “saving grace”, when they step in later, and put shackles on the “offending” party, i.e., movie, music and video game rating systems!
Given the direction our leaders are taking this country, and pushing the world in general, it's not surprising that our children are looking at a fairly bleak future, and they sometimes express their frustrations and lack of options in violent ways. Meanwhile, "Dubya", and the rest of the elite in Washington D.C., unable and unwilling to admit their failure in leadership, are turning their attentions to “WMD” (Weapons of Mass Deception) and passing the blame, attacking the easiest target they can find…the video game industry. It MUST be their fault!
Frank Zappa had no clout when he first came on the scene, and was often ridiculed for his opinions and actions. However, he had a dedication, and a commitment to the things that were important to him. It was this unflinching resolve that evolved into the political clout needed for him to be considered an important part of those Senate hearings. The video game industry needs someone with the same resolve, regardless of their age, to step forward now, and start building the clout needed to fight the good fight. C’mon…you know you’re out there…you know you’re pissed off…do something about it!
Sorry, didn’t intend to write a novel. Uh-oh, I feel a song coming on…”Moving to Montana soon…gonna be a dental floss tycoon!”
Posted by: Dad | March 6, 2006 01:31 PM
If only non-gamers would listen (well, I started to convince my dad. He now happily agrees that "hot coffee" for GTA:SA wasn't a big deal, wasn't easily accessible to any minor unless a non-minor already bought then the violent product to begin with, so why should people complain).
I'm taking a parenting class several co-workers have recommended (http://www.parentingwithdignity.com/) and on the first day I had a big slap in the head, so common sense that nobody even realized it: tell your kids what you want them to do not what you don't want them to do.
The media/govt/many schools/parents just want to place blame and are so busy at it that no one goes to the kids and say "little billy, pointing guns at other people is wrong. You only point guns at targets." It's all "NO! Don't do that! You're to young for that! Don't play with guns." So... then what are kids allowed to do? Anything except play with guns & that covers a lot. Then we get a bunch of stupid kids because when they're young & impressionable nobody told them what's right & wrong.
Then we've got majority of gamers who get upset every time a polition (who doesn't know better & is responding to all the media/govt/many schools/parents with a "quick fix") says "ban games" (just pick a forum! :D ) and yet not one writes to their senators or congressman or the newspapers. Not everyone had Clinton representating them (I didn't vote for her!) or Lieberman.
I don't think we'll get a Frank Zappa any time soon (I'm young... had to look him up). Music's been around for hundreds of years, musicians know how to handle censorship and they have the past to show that music censorship is wrong. We've got ~30 years behind us and that's it. The public don't associate video games with sports, board games, card games, etc. At least senators group Rap with Classical... we can't even get gamers to group Doom 3 on the same page as HL2. :(
Posted by: The Happy Friar | March 7, 2006 12:18 PM
So what about the games that have already "ripped off" Saving Private Ryan?
The beach storming scenes in, oh...every WWII shooter ever made? Call of Duty 2 even took it so far as to knock you off your feet so as to have an excuse to have you watch what was happening around you.
The original Call of Duty's Russian campaign was chock full of rather powerful imagery.
But has the film industry really been trying to justify the use of violence, or sex, or language in the industry because it was used effectively in particularly meaningful movies?
To me, it seems that they simply claimed freedom of expression.
And if you want to make an argument about games as art, why not just go grab Tim Schafer's library of adventure games? Grim Fandango, Psychonauts...unique experiences that can't be had anywhere else in any medium.
What about Shadow of the Colossus?
Posted by: ReverendTed | March 9, 2006 11:17 AM