Game Violence segment on CNN

[Master]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/11/09/o...urg/index.html

Thoughts?

[Tracer]

I didn't like it too much. Not overly sensationalized and seems to be coming from a perspective with little insight but it wasn't overly sensational. What turned me off the most was "the topic is Adult Video Games and while that may sound like an oxymoron.." fuck that.

I think they could have also stood to cover adult games that are refined and not overly juvenile. Splinter Cell coming out is not for children, and Soldier of Fortune II is another game that deserves mention. It's heavy-handed with violence, but that's what something like that CAN BE. It's mature in it's depiction but it's also mature in the way it handles it. It's not for kids, but it doesn't make all M rated games sound like "boobies and bikes".

On a side note - Raven should partner with EA to make a new Medal of Honor game. Think about it.

ºTracer

[UndeadKing]

They sound like typical morons who have no business covering games. There were many glaring errors in that piece, including what I hope were typos, such as the following quote.

The first one is from Acclaim called "BMX XXX," based on the series of games that have come out before from Acclaim about "BMX" writing

[burgundy]

The idea here, though, is that -- I mean this game gets so many rave reviews from the gaming press because of it, it's so deep. You're able to do a lot of things. You can kind of, you can, you don't have to go on those missions. Like you said, you can explore. You know, it's kind of a -- some might say it's kind of a shame that the best example of video gaming that's out there right now is one that your kids really can't play.

He has a point here. Animal Crossing tried to bring open-ended gameplay to the K-A market but it really has a totally different focus.

Again, that's left up to the retailers to enforce when a child goes to a store and, of course, for parents to make sure that their kids don't have these games if they're going to a store. There is a Web site, we should point out, esrb.org, which does have all of these different ratings outlined, what they relate to. You know, there's E for everyone, there's T for teen, M for mature. There's all these different ratings and they all have different reasons why they have these different ratings, whether it's violence or sexual content, whatever it may be.

Also true. Retailers do a shit job enforcing the ratings and the industry as a whole takes the heat.

Right. And that, you know, it's possible because, you know, a lot of critics of the game say look, it could just be a child over at somebody's house and the game could be sitting there on the coffee table and they pick it up and start playing it that way. So, you know, there's always a chance, always a way for kids to possibly see these games or to be able to play them.

Because that couldn't possibly happen with porn. Or beer, or pot, for that matter.

They absolutely are. You know, but you should, we should point out that Nintendo is even pushing their adult themed games even more with titles like "Medtroid Prime," which is a mature-rated game.

There is a world of difference between Prime and Vice City, which is a flaw of the ratings. Prime does not deserve a Mature rating, nor do most of the games that get one. As a result, the Mature rating has less of an impact.

[Tracer]

The last thing you said Burgundy was what I was on about.... well, sort of.

M rated games get colored wrong because of this. They (ESRB) should either take the strict AO rating down and keep the games like Halo and Prime M's or drop games like Halo and Prime down to a T rating. As it stands both T and M are too vauge ad ambigious to really tell what kind of content you're talking about in a game. Goldeneye gets a T and Halo gets an M. Why? Goldeneye gets a T and so does JSRF? Why? I'm fine with the T rating because PG-13 is just as vauge at times. Many R rated movies should be PG13 and many PG13 movies I've seen might as well be R. What does get me is that Halo (which is so tame) is in the same category as SoF2 and Vice City which aren't at all tame.

In games, there seems to be too conservitive a perspective on what is and is not adult content. Often there are double-standards. If a violent game is based off of a PG13 movie then it's game should be T right? Wrong but that's the way it goes anyway. If it's not based off a movie and has the same violent content it's going to be an M :/

There's that and then there are games that deserve M (ala Resident Evil). Then there are games that are unquestionably not for kids that still get M.

So you have M Rated games that are exactly the same as some T rated games, some M rated games that are resonably mature and some M rated games that are defintily for mature audiences only like SoF and Vice and I suppose BMX^3. The biggest problem with that is that the lower end of the spectrum, the tamer ones, get painted in the same light as the media grabing GTA and now BMX^3 which really is going to give people (the uninitiated) the wrong Idea about a game.

A lot of people aren't aware that games actually aren't overly violent, hethenistic, pronographic romps with guns and immoral decadence. Even the worst ones (in the USA at least). Most are like Halo (content wise). Innocent, kill the aliens/cyborgs/zombies and have fun. Things with no sex, no over-glorifying of illegal activities or substances and usually no refrence or affiliation to this or that god or lack thereof. TV, broadcast TV, is much worse than your AVERAGE M rated game. It's true and truer yet as things continually get out of hand with the boob(ies)-tube.

ºTracer

EDITED - easier to read now... yeesh that was a run-on to shame SpoDaddy.

[Andy]

Originally posted by TracerBullet
"the topic is Adult Video Games and while that may sound like an oxymoron.." fuck that.

Exactly what I was going to say.

[burgundy]

Tracer, I agree with your point, but I think it cuts the other way. I think that having not-so-objectionable games like Prime grouped together with Vice City and BMX XXX dilutes the effectiveness of the Mature rating. If only a handful of games were rated Mature, I think the guidelines would be more strictly enforced, but since titles like Prime are getting the same treatment, retailers and parents gloss over them. "Well, Prime isn't so bad, so I guess Vice City is appropriate for my 10-year-old." I honestly believe that many if not most parents may well draw the line somewhere between Vice City and Prime, so if the ratings are throwing all of these together, what good are they? Certainly, AO ratings aren't an option - they're the retail kiss of death. In the end, I agree that more Mature games should be rated Teen. Maybe there should be a four-tiered rating system, with Mario at the low end, JSRF next, Prime and then Vice City.

I think the general public expects Vice City to be like Halo, not the other way around. Then when Vice City has hookers and strippers, they get all indignant, because l'il Jimmy's Nintender games just can't have that kind of content.

This is all ignoring that ratings are also a means of marketing. Nintendo may well have sought a Mature rating for Prime to drum up interest among teenagers and young adults.

[Jeremy]

Well, they DO add in the little snippets of text in the rating boxes to help differentiate from one game to the next by describing (loosely) the mature content in a game.

[Tracer]

Burg: It works both ways I would say.

Jay: Yeah, they do, but would you care to read your GTA box snippets? I don't think this accurately potrays they things that can be expressed in GTA.

[Doug Branches]

The only reason kids are even going to be affected by violent games nowadays is because they feel like they should be, what with all this bullshit the news is forcing down people's throats about it