April 1, 2008 -
In the wake of the Byron Review, Telegraph columnist Jenny McCartney writes about what she sees as a lack of morality in violent video games:Dr Byron seems a sensible woman, and no doubt she has done her best to contain the spread of some of the more obnoxious material on offer without incurring the ire of the games lobby. But one of her remarks in an interview last week struck me as particularly, and depressingly, modern. "My review is not about making any kind of moral pronouncements," she said, "although I do think that it is important to look at the desensitisation to violence."
...The word "moral" still has deeply unfashionable associations with... the "moral majority" protesting against the "tide of filth" in books and television in the US. How tame and inoffensive that tide looks now.
Yet the truth, surely, is that the majority of us would indeed recoil from the idea that our teenage son or daughter was upstairs playing Manhunt 2... It is insidiously corrupting to their view of themselves and other people... Perhaps if more people, including teenagers, were prepared to voice moral objections to this toxic stuff, it would no longer be possible to lampoon them for caring.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail asked British TV personality Anne Diamond (left) to render her opinion on some popular, violent games. Not surprisingly, Diamond issued a beatdown::
After seeing them Anne said: "Just reviewing these games, made my hair stand on end. I have never got into computer games.but my sons all love them.
"I have to guard constantly that they don't use my ignorance to play games that I wouldn't allow in the house, if only I knew their content.
"Some of the games were so mindless it would be hard to see them as a destructive influence. But others were sickening in their gratuitous use of violence and bloodthirsty imagery."
Her comments include:
Call of Duty 4: Perhaps it might be OK for older teenage boys, but only in small doses.
GP: "Older teenage boys" can join the real British Army and be shipped to Afghanistan. But it's best to limit their COD4?
Resident Evil 4: This game shouldn't be allowed to be sold, even to adults... when I played I was stabbed to death with pitchforks amid fountains of my own blood. This kind of violence can only be bad for you.
GP: News flash, Anne. Everybody who plays this game at one time or another gets stabbed to death with pitchforks amid fountains of their own blood. But it's virtual blood. It's a game. Are you suggesting that zombie movies be banned, as well?
GP: The link on the Jenny McCartney column was sent in by our old pal Jack Thompson, in between threats to sue us.
Comments
I also recall a radio phone in about the same subject earlier that day where parents were calling in and claiming outrage over violent video games, I believe several actually said that they thought the age rating on the front was a 'skill level' for the game, and had been tricked by their children into buying it.
The truth is, until television news (I'm thinking the BBC, ITV and Ch.4 rather than Sky) starts paying attention to videogames and broadcasts stereotyped views into people homes on a daily basis, or until The Sun/The Mirror start serious, prolonged negative coverage, this will remain and only amount to a few isolated incidents in the "Little England" right-wing media. However, so far all the FOX News-isms are confined to the papers, whose readership are all 40 + years old.
I feel that what critics like this are missing is that with ANY video game, one keeps in mind that it's fantasy; it's not real. While young kids may still be trying to develop that "line" (and while I don't think kids should play games like RE4), teenagers and adults have defined that line. I understand her role as a parent, but I see her as a "lost" parent. By "lost," I mean that she has no clue what she's talking about, especially when it comes to the ratings game.
Also, common sense alert, Ms. Diamond - if you pick up a game named "Resident Evil 4" that has a character in a bullet-proof vest holding a gun and the word "EVIL" in big letters, what do you *think* it will be about? Same for "Call of Duty 4" - guy in full-out army gear, running with a gun in hand and choppers in back.
Not all game art is that obvious, but it still makes me want to let out a loud, obnoxious "DUHHHHHHH".
RE4 was the ONLY RE game I could play, and only because I don't like horror survival. It's surprising that the game that she hated so much that she feels it should be banned (aka: "shouldn’t be allowed to be sold, even to adults"). Well, it's a good thing that here in America we have the First Amendment, along with a lawyer that obviously doean't know what it means as he supports people who are against it.
You know, in one light, he is a First Amendment Lawyer... If you think about it, both the defense and the prosecuter in a murder case could be considered homicide lawyers, it's just a case of which side they are on. For our good friend JT, it's obvious which side of the First Amendment he is on.
That right there makes this entire article worthy of reading. It's like the build-up to the world's biggest punchline.
Good grief, I live in this fucking country! I'm suddenly very glad of my decision to move to New Zealand. Are things as bad there? Or do people just not care? I've given up hope of a country where games are an accepted artform
To video game haters, this is all the ammo they need to organize a new surge against gaming. Editorials and bloggers will be coming out of the woodwork to shout, "See?!? See? Video games are the devil!"
On Diamond's "reviews," I find it interesting that while she objected to graphic violence against AI opponents, she had no objections to the tamer violence of Halo3. Yet, Halo comes with multiplayer, which means that you get to shoot up player-controlled avatars. Wouldn't the more viceral action of multiplayer be more allarming than zombies with pitchforks?
(Note: I have nothing against multiplayer. I'm just boggled by the "logic" some game critics employ.)
Then maybe alittle less time spent recoiling could be put into better times such as smashing the disc of Manhunt 2 your son and or daughter bought behind your back.
The god damned problem isn't kids playing games not intended for their age. Its kids having parentally inept parents.
Also I'll admit I get scared when I play Resident Evil 4 at night so how the hell is it desenseitizing anything?
I noticed the Mario Kart thing, too. Apparently it makes kids go crazy with rage.
Well, those blue shells were pretty infuriating.
On the other hand, it's nice to know that RE4 will have a new storyline next time I play it. I'll keep my eyes open for chemical attacks and ignore the parasites, kooky religious cults, lack of zombies....nope. Chemical attacks.
I read the full article and she had at least one inaccuracy in every game she 'reviewed'.
However, she later disappeared from the TV when she left TV-AM until she reappeared after about 20 years in a Reality TV show Celebrity Fat Camp, where she whined and moaned and eventually walked out, as she wasn't losing weight. Unfortunately, as is the case these days with the people who act up the worst in these shows, she got paid to come back to the TV, and is clearly acting out the role of grumpy old witch. Let's face it, why would someone like her be asked to play mature-rated videogames and judge them? It's for the tantrums. They aren't seriously asking her for her judgements on how good a game it is, that much is obvious. This is car crash TV, watching the slow-mo wreck of the closing of her career. (A shame, she really was the face of British morning telly, back in her day).
So, the UK videogame panic is more isolated to print? That's a bit of a relief.
We are gamers and we know the content matter so well, we represent ourself independent of the rest of society. But, because we are already biased due to our favoring of games, that our interpertation of what is morally accepted in a videogame is very different. Perhaps we need to find the middle ground, and then controversy will stop.
I am not saying in any way, however that we are to be regulated by some outside interest group.
Sorry if this was a little bit of a ramble, but the article was interesting and commentary worthy.
Stuff like this crops up once in a while, usually associated with some crime or other. In this case I think the tabloids are just cueing up to cash in on the Byron report; this is their best stab at being topical. As Dr. Byron's report has just come out we've a lot more newspaper stories than usual, but even on the day of its release TV had next to nothing.
Give it a day and the Daily Mail will be back to blaming foreigners for our mortgage woes and the EU for making our bananas straight. ;)
Gift.
'Offence taken is inversely proportional to the ability to understand the medium'
The Byron report has merit saying that these things desensitize violence, however suggesting that you remove the factors that make the violence more real ONLY causes further desensitisation of violence.
Would you rather someone see that violence has a gruesome outcome or some sort of happy-wonderfulness?
To me removing blood from a violent scene, movie or game, is the same as removing recoil from a gun. You take away the negative effect which allows you to understand what's happening is bad.
just how blinded by ignorance are they?
geez... i hate our society
One army game. One zombie game based on a classic film. One game filled with sadomasochism and deformed humanoid creatures... from a guy who has written books and movies on the same subject. One game about parasitic infection which earlier in the series was a classic film-style zombie game.
In *every single one of those games* you would hope to act in the same way as the character(s) you play or else you would die. In three quarters of those games you will never find yourself in that situation in the first place, and in the remaining quarter you would only get there voluntarily and after a sheadload of training.
Was she even holding the games she whines about?
If I had nightmares from a horror flick at age 10, the last thing on my mind would be "boy, it would be cool to be like that psycho killer".
I agree with McCartney on one point, though: I would recoil at the idea of my kid playing Manhunt upstairs, because I'd rather they were in a family-oriented area so that we could talk about the game together and determine its values as compared to real-life situations. Morality starts at home, right?
Fangamer
And we wonder why the world needs more nitroglycerin...
"But one of her remarks in an interview last week struck me as particularly, and depressingly, modern." She's upset about comments being MODERN. Just... I can't, I can't figure out why people like living in the past. If someone wants to live in the past so badly, go live a theorcracy. You'll never modernize in a theocracy! I just can't think of an insult.
Call of Duty 4: Perhaps it might be OK for older teenage boys, but only in small doses.
Resident Evil 4: This game shouldn’t be allowed to be sold, even to adults… when I played I was stabbed to death with pitchforks amid fountains of my own blood. This kind of violence can only be bad for you."
You're not a scientist, Ma'am. You're a columnist. You don't know what's good for every kid, let alone every person on the whole freaking planet.
Toxic stuff like pushing your victorian morals on others, dear?
Oh and did anybody notice that the original article gets its comments checked before making them public? Yay for constricting free speech!
Perhaps she's showing how dangerous violent video games can be by cutting herself with the game box?
As I said earlier, a bad airbrush job on the part of the art crew. Notice the other three games in her hand are mixed in with her clothing and the tops have been chopped off.
I'm not sure she was even really holding the games up.
Bite me all right you have no damn right at all to tell me a 27 year old adult what games i have the "right" to buy....F*** this anti game crap i'm sick and tired of it and i'm beyond the point now where i think we need to "protect the children" nothing says this better then a george carlin quote "F*** The children"
Damn moron go do something useful
I wonder how this woman feels about religious texts such as the Bible. That has some way worse stuff than a bunch of villagers stabbing you to death with pitchforks. It'd be hypocritical if she didn't think that should be banned as well.
This is probably the single most horrible sentence in the entire article, if a person calls a scientific analysis of the available evidence "depressingly modern" you know you're in trouble, please ms. McCartney, stay with writing your columns, that fewer and fewer people read, and we'll stay with our "depressingly modern" scientific analyses and computer games.