In New York, efforts to legislate video game sales have bogged down in the wake of bitter political infighting between Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R).
While the legislative effort remains stalled, the New York Department of Criminal Justice (!) has produced a 20-minute slide show which, in addition to offering some good advice to parents, dredges up a number of sensationalized stories, presents at least one outright fallacy, and cites a well-known Internet hoax site as a parental resource.
As reported by the Staten Island Advance, Gov. Spitzer unveiled Video Games and Children: Virtual Playground vs. Danger Zone yesterday, accompanied by representatives from the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Said Spitzer of the 20-minute presentation:
Protecting our children from violent video games that contain adult themes is a key priority for my administration. I commend the staff of the DCJS and Commissioner Denise O'Donnell for taking a leadership role in this effort by reaching out to parents and educators to engage them in this important dialogue. This presentation gives parents and educators the information they need to make smart decisions about the games their children play.
While the presentation offers some wothwhile - if standard - advice about ratings and other parental issues, it quickly devolves into sensationalism. V-Tech Rampage, for example, gets prominent mention early in the presentation. For those who may not recall that sorry episode, V-Tech Rampage was a crude, non-commercial game created and posted online by an apparently troubled young man from Australia who gained his 15 minutes of fame by exploiting the Virginia Tech massacre. What does it have to do with parents making video game choices for their children?
The presentation also includes clips from a well-known Australian TV video of a supposed teenage World of Warcraft addict. There is also an ominous mention of an unnamed 13-year-old Chinese lad who is said to have thrown himself from the roof of a building in an effort to join his video game heroes.
We were also troubled by the somewhat random selection of games presented as bad examples. For instance, the video makes much of Soldier of Fortune's realistic body damage model. SoF, however, was released seven years ago. Relevance, please?
The presentation also mentions that Virginia Tech killer Seung Hui Cho was reportedly a player of Counter-strike. However, the Virginia Tech Review Panel's report clearly states that no such evidence was found. The only game mentioned by the blue ribbon panel in relation to Cho is Sonic the Hedgehog.
First-person shooters are referred to as "killographic" games. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is misstated as "Grand Theft San Andreas." How does one botch what is probably - thanks to Hot Coffee - the most infamous game title of all time?
And, as the presentation ends, a resource page lists Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence as one of several places where parents can go for additional information.
Oops!
MAVAV is a well-documented hoax site, created, ironically, by a student from a New York City design school.
In the end, poor research makes Gov. Spitzer's well-intentioned video look amateurish and out of touch.
UPDATE: Albany's WNYT-13 has a report on the release of the New York video.
Comments
Looks like the video has been pulled; I get a ‘Not Found’ when I try to go to the link provided…
same here
guess they did it for a good reason, eh?
I never said they weren't getting into the movies, I said they aren't SUPPOSED to be able to. Once again, the industry creating the content should not be held responsible for the negligence of the parents and the movie houses (or stores in the case of games).
@Erik:
So a ratings board that the industry caters to and tailors their content to accomodate it is not a form of regulation? I never said GOVERNMENT regulation-- but regulation by definition is a system by which to standardize or make regular-- in the case of a ratings system (as in movies) Rated R films have only a certain amount of blood/violence/etc, PG-13 less so, PG far less if at all... Regulation doesn't necessitate law.
Okay, so if you think that the movie industry's self regulation is oh so much more effective than the game industry then why are minors only able to buy M rated games 42% of the time but then able to buy R rated movies 80% of the time.
It seems to me that the movie industry should tailor their regulation to the video game industry's and not the other way around as you so think.
It makes you fat and pacifist. I'm a living example. I was born and bred on Duke Nukem, Doom, Wolfenstein, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, and Bloodstorm. I've only been in two fights in my life...and yeah, I'm a biggun.
Aside from that, however, these people are stirring up the video game equivalent of Reefer Madness, and I'm not laughing, because uninformed people will jump at the first information they hear, and it's usually the wrong kind. That leads to poor assumptions and conclusion jumping, and then our freedoms start being whittled away over trivial issues.
What really gets me, though, is that the government, in its bloodthirsty, righteous rampage didn't bother to fact-check its sources, but what saddens me at the same time is that none of the people this message is geared toward will ever find out that they mistakenly cited MAVAV, showing what outright sensationalist, tunnel-visioned, quick-to-jump jackasses they are. No one will appreciate that they used a hoax to rig their platform, and they will just swallow this swill whole because it makes them feel righteous and proud.
The Games Industry has ALREADY adopted a ratings system similar to that of the film industry's-- it's called the ESRB. It is a self-regulated system, applied voluntarily so PARENTS and RETAILERS can better decide what is appropriate for minors to play. Just like the MPAA's system, the ratings are not enforced by law-- and shouldn't be. I never said they should-- What I DID say, and you seem to ignore, is that the games industry should not be held responsible for the negligence of those allowing minors to play games they shouldn't be playing-- i.e. their PARENTS and the RETAILERS.
Nor did I EVER say the MPAA system is more effective. I only used the MPAA system as an example of REGULATION. Here, let me make it more relevant for you, since you seem to be such a stickler about it:
EC-- Early Childhood (educational games)
E-- everyone can play, mild cartoon violence, if any at all
E10-- mild violence, a little blood maybe, kids under 10 maybe not
T-- for teens. Content unsuitable for kids under 13
M-- under 17 shouldn't play without parents' consent.
I could go on, but I hope you read this thoroughly enough to get my point.
If anything, the ESRB system is far more thorough than the MPAA film ratings. The problem (with both) is that retailers and parents are not enforcing it, either because they don't know or don't care (or both).
Now to tie this stupid argument back into the point of the original article:
That was the major message of the video in the first place: educate parents and others on the ratings system and what content makes a game violent. The methods used to educate them were laughable, at best.
The difference between games and the rest of them is that with time, people had (or should have) become educated on the ratings systems for movies and the advisories for music, so most parents know not to let their kids get an R-rated DVD (once again, whether the kids actually do or not falls on the shoulders of the parents and retailers).
So the solution isn't to coldcock the masses with fear-speech and propaganda, but to educated them in a civilized and respectful manner.
What really gets to me is that this whole time, we are seeing absolute garbage from the government about how to kill the game industry's freedoms as artists because we are "too violent" and "affecting the kids" and all this crap. Where are the commercials explaining game ratings from the ESRB? Why are we seeing all kinds of holiday commercials for electronics and games and all this crap, and not ONE thing attempting to educate parents about the simple means to regulate their kids' game playing? Well, there is one video, but it seems to think that kids get fat from playing games, not from eating McDonald's.
Your statement of "They aren’t supposed to watch rated R movies– they shouldn’t be allowed to play rated M games." seems to imply that there is something more to the MPAA that you do not think the ESRB has in regards to self regulation. But the "they aren't supposed to watch R rated movies" is sort of a moot point when you realized that it is so amazingly easy for a minor to get their hands on an R rated movie.
So just what point where you trying to make? That there should be an ESRB? Because, there is. So just what were you trying to say?
Im not going to get into it because I have a flight to catch, so I'll say this: Read my lines and posts after the line "they aren't supposed to see rated-R movies..." That explains my point. You seem to be skipping all of that.