With GTA IV coming out tomorrow, the usual gang of idiots are up in arms about how this game will lead to the end of civilization as we know it, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria, etc. As I said in my PAX keynote, this sort of moralistic chest-thumping makes me a little stabby:
Whenever I hear [Hillary Clinton, Jack Thompson, etc.] pontificate about how dangerous and antisocial and devoid of redeeming qualities video games are, I get a little stabby, because these games we love to play are much, much more than the simplistic bloodbaths Mass Media likes to portray them as during May sweeps.
Just as the multiplayer games are social activities, so are the single-player games narrative works of art, and they should be treated that way.
The hysteria surrounding the release of GTA IV has officially crossed into the realm of the absurd as moralizing groups of busybodies lead (shockingly) by Fox News successfully forced the transit authorities in Chicago to pull GTA IV ads from their buses. In Miami, professional attention whore Jack Thompson forced the Miami-Dade transit authority to yank GTA IV ads from bus shelters.
Can I just take a moment and point out how insane this is? This type of hysterical overreaction to a video game is completely out of proportion to any alleged harm it could inflict on anyone, but is accepted because it is done, as it always is, in the name of protecting The Children.
Yeah, it’s always about protecting The Children, which leads me to wonder where The Parents are, and if these people are so serious about making the world better for The Children, why they don’t invest the same amount of energy and resources into securing quality healthcare and world-class education for them as they spend wringing their hands over video games that aren’t even supposed to be played by The Children in the first place.
As numerous others have pointed out, there was nothing offensive or suggestive in the ads that were pulled, but the spineless cowards responsible for running them instantly caved to the slightest pressure from the self-appointed morality patrol. I wonder how much revenue these cities lost because of this? GTA IV is rated M, the equivalent of R, so does that mean that all these cities will start removing advertising for movies that aren’t appropriate for children? What about advertising for fast food and junk food and alcohol? Surely those are all things which could cause harm to children, right? If they don’t instantly remove all the advertising from city buses that may offend anyone, what will we tell The Children?!
Surely, I’m not the only guy in the room who sees how absurd this whole thing is, right? Please tell me that I’m not, and I’ll stop calling you Shirley.
I’ve said that this behavior can be equated to the Satanic Panic of the 80s. Leslie Benzies, the president of Rockstar North, took it even further back and said that all this hysteria is just like the Elvis Panic of the 50s:
[GTA IV critics are] the same kind of people who
complained about Elvis… There is a big fear factor here. It’s [like]
the coming of the railways, it’s Elvis shaking his hips. It’s cars
going over 25 miles per hour and making people explode.We’ve had such a beating over the past three years, by the US
government, the British government, the Daily Mail. ‘You kill
prostitutes’ – that’s usually the objection. I ask if they’ve ever
played the game. Invariably they haven’t.
In my PAX Keynote, I said:
Speaking of parents and children and video games and opportunistic, pandering politicians: it’s none of their fucking business what I choose to play with my kids, and I wish they’d stop trying to tell me – and everyone else by extension – what my kids can and can’t play. I didn’t let my kids play violent or graphic games when they were too young to understand what the game was about because I’m a good parent who is involved in his kids’ lives, not because some idiot politician tried to score easy political points with the authoritarian 20 percenters who think censorship is totally awesome.
Let me point you to a great bit of satire, Celebrating 30 years of video games killing children. It starts with Space Invaders ("This
will clearly make children think they can get another life after they
die, thereby causing kids to start killing themselves in droves
thinking that they can instantly come back to life!") and ends with GTA IV:
Studies now show that the average video game player is not a child at
all and that their average age is actually 34. Considering this
alarming data — along with our history of pandering for votes by
portraying gamers as evil, psychopathic, nut jobs for more than a
quarter of a century now — we have determined the obvious course of
action: To protect our political careers, it is imperative that we raise the voting age to 35!
That’s what this usually comes down to: people who genuinely don’t
understand what’s going on having their fears exploited by people with
an authoritarian agenda, who really aren’t as interested in protecting The Children as they are in expanding and strengthening their power. That offends me even more than the spineless cowards who
are letting people like Jack Thompson set the agenda for the rest of us.
According to Richard Bartle, though, the age of pandering politicians attacking video games and video gamers to score points with those 20 percenters isn’t just coming to an end, it’s already over :
We’ve Won. Get Over It.
I’m talking to you, you self-righteous politicians and newspaper
columnists, you relics who beat on computer games: you’ve already lost.
Enjoy your carping while you can, because tomorrow you’re gone.[…]
Dwell on this, you smug, out-of-touch, proud-to-be-innumerate fossils:
half the UK population thinks games are fun and cool, and you don’t.
Those born in 1990 get the vote this year.[…]
This anxiety you sense, this fear of what you don’t comprehend: hey,
it’s OK. Parents who didn’t play computer games do feel alienated, do
feel isolated from their children; they do feel frightened, and
naturally so, because they can’t keep their children safe if they don’t
understand what they’re keeping them safe from.
GTA IV will be officially available in about 7 hours here in Los Angeles, but is just 4 terrifying hours away in New York. How will our nation survive this great terror? Will we be able to Keep Calm and Carry On?
The ‘controversy’ story gets a bit frustrating… if this
was a movie, a book, or a TV show, we wouldn’t be having this
conversation. We’re an easy enemy to divert everyone’s attention from
the stuff that really matters.
There’s an argument that video games have caused this
massive upsurge in youth violence–they haven’t, it’s actually gone
down. So it’s got nothing to do with the content; it’s to do with the
medium.
So the self-proclaimed morality police can just calm down. Relax. The Children are going to be just fine, no thanks to them . . . especially the ones whose parents have responsibly taken an active role in their lives.
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Wil, I’d like to direct you here:
http://www.gamerevolution.com/static/index.php?section=feature&sub=violence&page=violence
I’m sure you get a million links, but this is great article about the myth of video game violence translating to real world violence. Basically, it asserts (with Department of Justice charts for backup) that crime rates among all age groups, but especially among 12-17 year olds has done nothing but drop, sometimes dramatically, since the release of the PS1. The “Epidemic” of teen violence that the news always refers to is just reporters being lazy. They know what they know, and don’t confuse them with the facts.
Cheers, Wil. My ‘tax fun’ check is coming soon. I think I will use some of it to buy your books.
Linked to this and got much love from my friends/family that are gamers. So that means they must have read it.
Keep on keepin’ on, brother!
so wil I think you play the alien in the republicans spreading democracy short(you watch it on your apartment TV) but I’m not too sure.
There will always be anti video game rallies going on, because they are effective with older people and mean the government can waste time backing them instead of tackling real issues. The only people who go out and commit crime after playing this game are the same asbo sociopaths that did before the game came out. I remember when Manhunt pulled from shelves here because a boy was murdered by his friend who allegedly owned the copy, it was later revealed to be the victim’s copy. Manhunt 2 has yet to see the light of day over here, though I felt quite uneasy playing through the first game which may or may not have been the desired effect. Of course I still find it laughable that there is such an outcry for this kind of thing over there in america, when you could freely take a three year old to see Saw or Just about anything with a gore factor that supasses any you’ll find in any video game. But hey, what do I know?
The reviewer in the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/
entertainment/2004380098_grandtheft290.html)
points out that “…the number of bodies dropped per hour [in the first eight hours of the game] is less than in the last two Oscar-winning best pictures, ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘The Departed.'”
The plotline in GTA III was thin gruel indeed; Vice City was a little better, but you had to not mind playing a psychotic killer. San Andreas is, I am reliably informed, a sadly accurate portrayal of inner-city life (as in, for instance, the part where none of CJ’s accomplishments, from managing rapper Madd Dogg to his chopshop in San Fierro to his one-third interest in the Four Dragons casino, mean anything to his brother Sweet – because he didn’t do them all “for the ‘hood.”), and its plotline was a bit more involved.
GTA 4 looks to be continuing that along further – the reviewer said he hadn’t hired any hookers, but he had taken a nice young lady to dinner.
I’m super-impressed you’re taking a stand in this, Wil.
…This is one of “those” topics that gets me fired up immediately, especially on paper, so pardon me guys, because this is bound to be long-winded…
Growing up in the tail end of the X Generation, I sometimes forget that a large segment of our population is barely aware that video games exist. I think that in the future, as the Gen-Xers continue to grow up and into positions of power, gaming will be given a lot more consideration. By that point, it might actually be recognized as a legitimate art form. We’ll probably see gaming museums, with exhibits of the most visually stunning games.
We’re winning for now, because we have so many strong personalities behind us, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blagojevich and Wil Wheaton. But I don’t think gamers should get complacent. Some people have never played a single video game, and their conception of it is marred by media mud-flinging. Plus, a lot of the powers that be don’t take gaming seriously. There an article (an older one) about that here: http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/05/06/games_as_speech/print.html
The reason lawsuits keep coming in state after state, even though they lose, is because would-be censors think gaming’s an easy target. They don’t respect the First Amendment in the first place, and they think it would be easy to slough off any issues of free speech with a medium that’s just a game. And that’s true. It is just a game. It’s entertainment. But you could just as easily say the same thing about television, or radio, or art, or novels.
There’s a pattern here. Whenever a new form of creative expression appears, it inevitably comes under attack. Well, gaming is that latest form, and the eager would-be regulators haven’t missed their mark.
Once the weasels get their meat hooks in just a little, it won’t end there. When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) first came into existence in 1933, it did so with the justification that it HAD to regulate radio, because the number of stations was limited. Variety of choice certainly isn’t a problem now, and yet, the FCC is a hell of a lot more powerful. I’m sure it even has its beady little eyes on the Internet (a losing battle, but that won’t keep them from trying). Why? Because money makes the mare to go. I’m not convinced that the same organization that would be willing to bomb struggling entertainers with thousands of dollars in fines cares one jot about someone’s child accidentally seeing boobs, or a drive-by shooting, or a drive-by boobing. If no one spoke up, censors would have us watching and playing with nothing more than brightly colored geometric shapes. They don’t care. They don’t care about art or creative expression. And unfortunately, most of them are probably on some pathetic power trip.
It may not be the FCC that will try putting its fingers in the gaming pie, but some cute little acronym like it will try stepping in. (There’s an acronym for everything else!) The FTC is busily cranking of reports critiquing the ESRB rating system. (Whatever evolves, it will love people like Jack Thompson. He’s their bird dog). I read this in Wired: “In the near future, the IRS could require game developers to keep records of all the transactions that take place in virtual economies and tax players on their gains before any game currency is converted into dollars.” http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/law.html
Of course, it probably won’t be as bad as colorful shape scenario, but it would be a much more boring world if censors had their way, not just for the viewer/listener/gamer, but also for the artist. What graphic artist—or any artist at all—would ever want to work in a restricted field? Probably not the most creative ones. Art is a generative act, you have to have elbow room to come up with new ideas, even wild ideas, and communicate them in wild and interesting ways that grab the audiences’ attention. Just the idea that you’d have Big Brother looking over your shoulder would be psychologically deadening, and a Big distraction to something that’s already hard enough. Censorship kills art.
Plus, censorship is just plain insulting. It presupposes that people are like children, who need to be protected from the strength of their own choices. The implied message is: “You’re too stupid to know what’s morally right for your children, or even for yourself,” or: “You’re too negligent to parent your own children, so we’ll do it for you.” What’s worse is that tax dollars—not just tax dollars from those who can afford to lose it—but taxes from people stuck in boxes of blue collar boredom with no end in sight, including struggling artists—are helping fund this repression. The FCC is supported with taxes. And where does the money from its fines go? How much of our taxes does it get? I guess we’re too childish for that information.
(Also, if I may wax philosophical, free speech can be one of the only ways justice is achieved. Even if someone circumvents the law, they will, at least, always be wary of what others have to say. Earlier this month, I went to a talk by Salman Rushdie at Tulane. He said, among other things, that the rule of the pen being mightier than the sword holds true. Dictators may try to rewrite a country’s story, but in the mere act of remembering—especially on paper—you are countering that attempt. He also said that most of the critics banning his novel had never even read it).
Wow. Man, don’t get me started.
Not all censors are rotten. Some of them probably do believe they’re performing a valuable public service. They find it disturbing that video games reward the enactment of violent acts, concluding that if someone does something criminal in a game, then they will become criminals in real life. My beef is that this is pretty simplistic and insulting view of human nature, like we’re a bunch of Pavlovian dogs on a perpetual quest for something to brainwash us. (That’s more like wishful thinking on their part, me thinks).
Any therapist with a pillow and a wiffle bat in their office knows that healthy expressions of violence will reduce violence in real life, and anyone informed knows the research “proving” violent video games lead to violent behavior was specious. A great article on this is at : http://www.fepproject.org/commentaries/videogamelaws.html
Aside from that, they never stop to consider that artists throughout history have used depictions of extreme behavior. It’s an artistic tool. Imagine a Shakespearean play with no murders. In Titus, a young girl’s tongue and hands are cut off after being raped—a horrid, deplorable act, yet no one disputes that this is a great work of literature. Shakespeare explored every facet of human nature, including its violent extremes and uses all the off-color vernacular of his day. Of course, there have always been censors. If Ovid were still around, he’d agree. But notice that centuries after the ancient Greeks had their heyday, it’s Ovid’s name we remember, not the critics’. Gaming may not have seen its Gamespeare yet, but s/he’s going to be a lot less likely to appear in a field that’s heavily regulated. Again, part of the problem is that too many people don’t take video games seriously, and they don’t think in principals. The principal is suppression of creative expression.
If you’re reading this, anyone, and feel similarly, you might just want to take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor of whatever newspaper is closest. It could only be a few sentences long. But if they know that’s how people feel, they’ll be compelled to take it into consideration, because, well, they want to sell newspapers.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” –The Constitutional First Amendment, written in the late 1700’s, when no one could forsee in their wildest dreams mediums like television or radio or gaming. But this was a really radical law. If written today, wouldn’t they logically have included all forms of creative expression, including the more technologically advanced ones, under the same umbrella?
OK, I’ll step off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.
I hope this is useful/ applicable 🙂
I’m sure someone already said this or something similar to it, but here it goes.
You said: ” …which leads me to wonder where The Parents are, and if these people are so serious about making the world better for The Children, why they don’t invest the same amount of energy and resources into securing quality healthcare and world-class education for them as they spend wringing their hands over video games that aren’t even supposed to be played by The Children in the first place.”
My answer: Because it’s easier to villify a video game than it is to fix the health-care system. It’s easier to deride a medium-sized computer game company than it is to oust the Big Pharm PACs that are in every Congressman’s wallet.
That’s why.
Came here via FARK, btw. Cheers!
I’ve seen references to comic books in the 50s, Elvis … etc…
But, I’ve gotta say, this is reminiscent of the whole Dungeons & Dragons crap that happened in the 80’s / 90’s too. Blame a game on a crazy person’s need to act out and kill his parent’s, or his friends…. Blame a game instead of the parent’s who let their screwed up child play the game in the first place.
What about the whole “Heavy Metal made him kill his parents”? crap that’s happened how many times throughout the last 30 years? Kiss (devil made me do it), Ozzy, and I’m sure countless others I can’ think of…
Politicians, and Censorship happy people will use this line of attack to help curb the imaginations, spirits, and drive to be somebody of children and society as a whole for their own personal gains. If these people had it their way, we’d all be walking drones with no imaginations, no will to rebel, or express ourselves, with art, craft, or even stress relieve with video games, tv, sex (unless married, and you only do it to have children) and last but not least be Human…
This is slightly off-topic, but since I don’t have the soapbox forums to ask it in, I figure this is the best place… Why isn’t this GTA 6? Are Vice City and San Andreas not considered full games or something?
A comercial for GTA IV came on the TV last night and my 4 year old daughter said “That’s Cool! Is that a Video Game?” I told her it was scary and she said “No it’s fun!” I don’t know what she thought was so cool, but those Ad gurus, sure know what they are doing. Of course, I would never let her play it or watch anyone play it. I just thoughtit was weird, because she has never been excited about a video game commercial before.
Check out this article: “Playing the Blame Game.” I just heard that one of the researchers profiled in the article is speaking here in Berkeley on May 6: http://journalism.berkeley.edu/events/details.php?ID=518
After the Mass effect “sex scandal and hoopla of GTA IV, its make me wonder will the press ever get that not all videogames are for kids in the same way not all tv programs and movies are not for kids…But thank you for trying to be the voice of reason in this insane world
here is a very well-written letter regarding ‘GTA morality.” you should definitely check it out. it also contains more links supporting your contention.
http://lawofthegame.blogspot.com/2008/05/open-letter-to-glenn-beck-re-grand.html