Keeping us even safer

By Steve Rosenthal on December 14, 2009

Keeping us even safer  | read this item

Last week I discussed the banning and censoring of games such as Left 4 Dead 2, which has been a fairly recent issue in Australia.  Due to the country lacking an R18 rating for computer games, anything deemed unsuitable for a 15-year-old to play is either banned or must be censored before sale.

This is only part of a broader problem for gamers. Take for example the recent “outrage” vented in the UK Parliament over the release of Modern Warfare 2. Members of Parliament criticised the game for the violence that “absolutely shocked” one MP and likely sent many others clutching for their pacifiers and teddy bears.

Of particular concern was a level in which the player goes undercover to join a terrorist group that kills civilians. Goodness me. A computer game in which you kill innocent people. Who could imagine that?

Not that I’m saying it’s a great thing to portray murder and death in computer games – just that it’s not the evil it’s made out to be by newspapers, politicians, and the assortment of religious and parental groups out there with too much time on their hands. Their argument, in a broad sense, is that violent computer games encourage children – who remember, are a minority of gamers – to commit similar acts of violence. Sounds legit right?

Until you do a little research into the causes of crime. Don’t take my word for it; go look it up yourself. We know as statistical fact that poverty, lack of education, and drugs and alcohol are leading causes of crime, among others. Try to find a study that shows “exposure to computer games” is a major contributor of crime. Go on, go have a look. I’ll wait.

By this logic, after playing Super Mario Bros I should have an unstoppable urge to jump on people’s heads and eat magic mushrooms. Try visiting a jail for violent offenders and picking all the nerdy gamers behind bars. You’ll find on the contrary that the vast, vast majority of people in jail for violent crime are the exact opposite of the pimply game-nerd, generally brandishing expansive muscles, tattoos and piercings, and a history of poverty.

And let’s not forgot the Hot Coffee controversy shall we? A minigame depicting consensual sex between two adults, which could only be accessed by hacking the game against the wishes of the developers, caused such uproar the US Senate attempted to pass laws putting further restrictions on game sales. These weren’t any old nobodies in the Senate trying to pass it either – both a presidential nominee and a vice-presidential nominee were at the forefront of this.

Ban it! Oh won’t somebody please think of the children!

But hey, if you’re in government, it’s so much easier to blame computer games for crime than it is to address the real causes such as poverty, which you yourself would have helped create. Why take the blame yourself for something you directly contributed to as one of the heads of government, when you can blame it on something new and sophisticated that you just don’t understand?

Throughout history media has been the scapegoat of the righteous, bearing their anger and frustration at the wretched world they have made with their own fallible hands. Ask your parents – or your grandparents – about how their elders reacted when comics first came out. That Dick Tracy and Superman will make the kids into little murderers I tells ye!

I’ve played computer games since I was six. I especially love violent ones, and remember spending hours upon hours on the old Carmageddon series running people and dogs over for fun. Nowadays, cannon-balling out the front of a speeding car wielding a light machine-gun in Saints Row 2 is more my thing, but that’s really not much more than an updated version of the same entertainment. If you’re to believe the bleating from governments around the world, I must be a prime example of a blood-thirsty maniac responsible for multiple murders, living a life of crime.

In over 10 years of driving (in real life), I’ve only collected two traffic tickets. Likewise far from being an anti-social psychotic with a lust for blood, I have two university degrees – including an oh so respectable law degree – and I’m studying a third. I also work with charity organisations providing much-needed public relations and promotional work. But here’s the real kicker: I’m probably pretty average for most adult gamers, who are ordinary decent folk who just prefer to put in some effort with interactive entertainment rather than just let their brain melt in front of a TV during their spare time.

Tags: Censorship, Crime, Violence