Clueless Media Group Releases "10 Most Violent Video Games" list

[James]

The following is an annotated article released by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

ICCR hompage
The original, unedited statement
Their follow-up press release about the list

Joint Statement for November 23, 2004 Press Conference on Violent Video Games

1. As the holiday shopping season begins, we come together as citizens, consumers and investors concerned about the marketing of a culture of violence in a season where "peace and goodwill toward all" are principal themes. We are especially concerned about the marketing of violent entertainment, particularly violent video games, to children.

2. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, violence (homicide, suicide, and trauma) is the most prevalent health risk for children and adolescents.

3. One factor contributing to violence is entertainment media products such as violent video games. Years of research have shown that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children. Research on violent interactive media indicates that it has a strong and more lasting effect on violent behavior.

"a strong and more lasting effect" than what? Movies? TV? A good book? Also, there has been research done that shows the effects to be equivalent from one medium to the next. It's really just a matter of whose research you're willing to listen to.

4. Video games have emerged as a popular form of entertainment, with 70% of children living in a home with at least one video game player, and 33% with one in their bedrooms. $7 billion were spent in the United States in 2003 on video and computer games.

5. We wish to speak today to corporations in the video game industry, and to adults who will be purchasing video games as holiday gifts for children.

6. We believe that corporations in the video game industry, who may pride themselves as good corporate citizens with an interest in promoting healthy communities, must assume greater responsibility in ensuring that violent interactive entertainment is not accessible to children and youth.

For the sake of argument we can assume they mean everyone from developers to publishers to retailers here, rather than wonder which corporations they're talking about.

7. We ask companies to consider what messages are being sent to children and youth when they market certain video games that promote violence and gender and racial stereotyping. For example, the Federal Trade Commission's July 2004 study expressed a concern about advertisements promoting Mature-rated games (for ages 17 and older) in publications oriented toward younger children. We believe this type of marketing must end.

Fair enough, marketing M-rated games to kids is bad. Would you care to let us know which childrens' magazines were running these ads? You should probably know before you start that any gaming magazine out there is going to call itself a general audience magazine in order to snag as much advertising revenue as possible.

8. While a number of retailers have made efforts to restrict the sale of inappropriate games to children, we are not satisfied with the results. The Federal Trade Commission's "Mystery Shopper Survey" in 2003 found that 69% of children were able to purchase Mature-rated games in retail stores. A New York City Council Investigation Division investigation in 2003 revealed that 97% of the time, "a young person can walk into almost any store selling video games in New York City and purchase games that encourage and reward them for performing acts of violence and brutality that include beating women, shooting cops and committing racially motivated acts of violence." The report concluded: "Retailers must make a real commitment to keeping video games with graphic violence or strong sexual content out of the hands of children." And we add to that conclusion teenagers as well.

Lots of questions from this particular entry, such as why is it so bad to kill an innocent female bystander but not worth mentioning when you kill an innocent male one? Other than the whole "Kill the Haitians" debacle from GTA: Vice City the other year, what games have "racially motivated" violence in them? Where, where, where!? are you getting all these games with "strong sexual content" in them? Wouldn't 69% nationwide (FTC) vs 97% for New York City (NYC Investigation Division) indicate a regional attitude? Etc.

9. We call on the marketers and sellers of video games to:

· Develop standards for marketing video games that encourage/reward players for performing acts of violence and brutality, and that depict images demeaning to women and minorities.

Because as we all know, brutally slaughtering women/minorities is wrong, so all gaming baddies must be straight white men.

· Prevent minors from purchasing/renting M-rated games by separating these from other games so that parents can shop for products appropriate for their children.

Because the needs of the parents take precedence over the needs of any segment of the video game buying audience.

· Evaluate and report on their enforcement and compliance programs of policies to prevent minors from purchasing violent video games.

Because retailers have all the time in the world to fill out more paperwork for every group with a cause.

10. We urge those who purchase video games for children, or allow children to purchase such games, to do so with great care. While the game software industry finances a rating system through the work of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), we are not convinced that parents can completely depend on its accuracy. Some parents' concept of what is acceptable for children and teens may not be the same as that of the ESRB. A study by Dr. Kimberly Thompson of the Harvard School of Public Health concluded that "physicians and parents should be aware that popular Teen-rated video games (ages 13 and older) may be a source of exposure to a wide range of unexpected content" including games that involve intentional violence, such as rewarding or requiring players to kill.

We can amend that last sentence to mean "kill other humans", rather than Mario's unending war on goombas and turtle-critters. Even taking that into account, it's pretty clear that the T rating is for general violence while the M rating is for bloody, graphic violence. I actually do agree with them that the ESRB does seem to be fairly flexible in it's standards of what constitutes an M or T game, but the MPAA has exactly the same issues. These advisory boards are private initiatives, and the guidelines for what games get what ratings rests on the opinions of the handful of people people doing the judging. Not to wander into overt cynicism, but I seriously doubt this would change were the ratings sytems backed up by force of law and government guidelines.

Also, "Some parents' concept of what is acceptable for children and teens may not be the same as that of the ESRB." does run both ways. There is a good amount of T rated games out there that are absolutely acceptable for the younger crowd, and a fair amount of M games are perfectly suitable for most teenagers not quite old enough for the 17+ end the M rating. Here's a list of the ratings and the associated ages of the ESRB page for those who don't remember which ratings correspond with what ages.

11. We encourage parents to exercise their power as consumers and hold retailers accountable for the way that violent video games are marketed and sold. Parents can visit retailers and find out how they display the games and how stores enforce the current ratings system. They can urge retailers to stop selling violent games or at the very least separate them from child-friendly ones. They can advocate by writing to companies and letting them know their concerns about the marketing of violent entertainment media. They can find out what their internet service providers are doing to prevent children from purchasing or playing violent video games online.

12. Finally, we wish to name several games whose scenes of violence, gender and/or racial stereotyping are such that we would urge parents to avoid purchasing them. Some of the best-selling games of special concern are all versions of: Grand Theft Auto; Halo; Half-Life; Doom; Manhunt; and Hitman.

All M-rated games. Nothing to argue with here, it's all good, sensible advice depending on the age of the person being bought for.

13. We are hopeful that with increased awareness and the empowerment of citizens, consumers and investors, the marketing of violence will decrease and the video game industry will be held accountable to create a positive system for people to enjoy age-appropriate video games.

WORST VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES

1. Doom 3
2. Grand Theft Auto: “San Andreas
3. Gunslinger Girls 2
4. Half Life 2
5. Halo 2
6. Hitman: Blood Money
7. Manhunt
8. Mortal Combat
9. Postal 2
10. Shadow Heart

Gunslinger Girls 2? What, seriously? I actually had to google that one, it turns out it's an obscure Japanese PS2 import. How on earth did they get ahold of it, much less know about it in the first place? Also, seeing as there's very little info on it out there, is it really all that bad? NCSX has a bit more on it, for those who've never heard of it.

Hitman: Blood Money should probably have been Hitman: Contracts. Neither EBGames of Gamestop turned up a release date for Blood Money. We're also going to have to assume they're talking about Shadow Hearts: Covenant, the T-rated sequel to the M-rated Shadow Hearts, seeing as Shadow Hearts the first has been completely sold out everywhere for a good long while now.

Other than those errors (and a few typos) it's not really that bad a list, as these things go. Most of the games are M-rated, and they completely avoided listing The Resident of Evil Creek. Still, I do have to wonder what it is about Shadow Hearts: Covenant that made it worse, than, say Blood Will Tell.

RECOMMENDED NON-VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES

1. Antigrave
2. EyeToy
3. Jak 3
4. Karaoke Revlution Vol. 3
5. Madden NFL 2005
6. Mario Power Tennis
7. Prince of Persia
8. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
9. SimCity 4

Prince of Persia? A game in which one person kills a lot of other people when not doing amazing acrobatics around the scenery? Once again I say "What, seriously?" Also, seeing as you mentioned Gunslinger Girls above, where is Katamari Damacy on the non-violent list? If you can mention a completely obscure Japanese import above then the least you can do is mention a grade-A, if slightly obscure, American version of a Japanese game down here.

Finally, a serious note to the ICCR- we can only take so many logical inconsistencies in one article before we have to completely blow you off as (and this is the nice version) well meaning but clueless. Wanting to do good, make the world a better place for children and puppies, isn't a goal you're going to have to work hard to get people on your side for, but if you're going to try to get people to listen to you then you absolutely have to know what it is you're talking about.

James

[Roufuss]

James you should also throw this in Gaming Discussion so that a more... "open" conversation can take place.

[Jeremy]

ABC World News Tonight did a piece on this report tonight, which of course, ended in gaming being slammed, and parents being made out to be the victims.

[toxic]

This study (payed by the people who made Gunslinger Girls .. shhh) is funny.

[ChaoofNee]

I find it funny that Jak 3 is reccomended, when the past two Jak games have been nothing but shitty GTA clones, GTA being "evil."
It's hard to get mad at this stuff anymore. It really, really is.

[George]

I find it funny that Jak 3 is reccomended, when the past two Jak games have been nothing but shitty GTA clones, GTA being "evil."
It's hard to get mad at this stuff anymore. It really, really is.

How was the first a GTA clone?

[MarkRyan]

I bet they took a list of the most popular games this year, picked the top ten M-rated games and put them on the bad list and took the top ten E-rated games for the good list.

And then threw in Gunslinger Girls 2 to try and front hard-coreness.

[George]

Too bad for them: the next generation of parents (read: us) will have grown up with gaming being a social norm. Blaming video games for their problems will be a moot point.

[James]

James you should also throw this in Gaming Discussion so that a more... "open" conversation can take place.

If anyone wants to, feel free. This was originally going to be a post but then it ran away into a full fledged article, so on the front page it went. Besides, Headlines needed the traffic.

I also left this next bit out of the article because it was nit-picking, but Antigrave? What's that, the ashes-scattering game? Virtual Crematorium? Cool, sign me up!

James

[arjue]

On A current Affair (a shitty "news" program in Australia), they had a segment on violent videogames affecting kids. They did their own test. They got one group of kids to play halo and GTA, while the other played Monsters Inc and a Sharks Tale. They then let them play in a playground unsupervised and filmed it. Group A: the halo and GTA players, were fairly rowdy afterwards and played imaginary games where they were shooting each other. Group B: the "child friendly" game players, went absolutely fucking nuts. They broke toys, hit one another, screamed and yelled, the works.

My conclusion: Shit games make kids angry.