In response to last week’s story by Charleston, South Carolina’s News 2 on a 14-year old girl who started petitions against the game RapeLay, a local gamer called the station and offered a point of view on the dangers of banning any games.
While he empathized with the plight of Elena Lyons, thirty-two year old Dondi Wiggins took issue with the banning of any game, saying that gamers, “…should have the right to decide for ourselves” what to play.
Wiggins, President of a local gaming group called Lowcountry Anime and Gaming (a group that is a chapter of the Entertainment Consumer Association [ECA]), said that he personally would not play Rapelay.
Wiggins added, “I don’t think video games should be banned. I think we as gamers should decide what we want to play as an adult. We have free speech.”
Just a note... the Wiggins segment is flakey early on in the video, but is served up later in the broadcast problem-free.
Disclosure: Gamepolitics is a publication of the ECA.
Thanks LegendaryGamer00!
Comments
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
Fallout 3 comes to mind. That one has a slave trade that you can actively participate in if you choose to do so.
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
"i mean free speech or not what would happen if someone came out and made a slave trade game?"
Ideally? Nothing. Those that want to play the game would, those that don't wouldn't.
Realistically? Assuming you mean the United States, probably nothing. Someone might complain, it might make the news, but that's about it.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
someone would complaing, and it would make the news somewhere.
Thing is thats not where it'd stop.
much like the hot coffee thing, they'd carry it till somethign was changed, publishers/distributors would back down or demand changes be made.
despite it being a minor blip on the radar, that one bit of news coverage in todays age would still span half the globe.
i mean really, why was some redneck mom that hears "allah is the light" in babies toys being talked about over half the web?
not much if anything came of it, but even the companies making those toys had to openly come out and make statements, as well as test/check their own resources to make sure they were in the right.
all in all thats costing someone money, and it becomes less about free speech anymore and more about being careful of whats being said and done.
basically its just making companies to paranoid to even try new things cause they'll end up like Rockstar and become heavily monitored.
i've the uncensored version of Manhunt 2, and compared to something like Gears of War, that game has nothing worth calling that gruesome in it, the GFX are just to low quality. but look at the problems R* suffers now from the ESRB and media because of some flub in the past.
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
I think you fail to see how the rating systems work.
Manhunt 2 is set in many realistic locations against humans, whilst GOW is against an alien enemy. Mahunt 2 is a PS2 game, GOW is a 360 game, a generation apart. One game is realistic, the other is not and it doesn't matter about the graphics. Gore isn't the key factor in the ratings, it's the type of violence and the realism of the scenarios.
There's much in Manhunt 2 that can be copied (like stabbing someone in the face with a shard of glass), but I can't easy replicate killing an alien with a massive gun that has a chainsaw on it.
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
Basically, people are trying to do to the game industry what they did to the comic book industry, make them deathly afraid to try anything.
If certain people ahd their way we'd be culterally dead.
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
but look at the problems R* suffers now from the ESRB and media because of some flub in the past.
What problems from the ESRB? Did Rockstar bring about some changes in the ESRB rating system? Yes. Are those changes targeted specifically at Rockstar? No. Those changes apply to all game developers and publishers.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
they also got hammered by the ESRB for less detailed violence in their games, as well as get heavier scrutiny over their games because of a simple hacker broke into a code that was never meant to actually be after it was already a dead idea.
as i said, Manhunt 2 isn't nearly as gorey, nore depictive, of violence as a GoW game, let alone some of the finishing moves in Mortal Kombat, or the new AvP.
so why must R* be the only ones to censor or recieve an AO rating?
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
Do you have sources for those accusations? That first paragraph is pure speculation. They don't get any heavier scrutiny than any other developer.
Did Manhunt 2 get an AO rating? yes. Is it the only one to get an AO rating for violence? no. Other games get AO ratings. The only difference is that Rockstar chose to make a big deal out of it. Most companies will just look at the decision and quietly make some changes.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
Grand Theft Childhood (or was it Sex in Video Games,.. hrm..) touched on the ESRB and R*. While it is speculation, the ESRB has a political stake in being taken seriously and seen visibly keeping known studios under control, so it is sometimes felt that they are harsher on studios and series that are already in the political crosshairs.
From the ESRB's perspective, keeping themselves on the right side of political shitstorms is more important for the industry then even handed ratings. Everyone 'knows' R* produces gory games so they would be called out if they were not harsh on R*,... but less known (by non-gamers) studios they can be laxer on because no one talks about them.
Re: Gamer Offers Counterpoint to Girl against RapeLay
And as usual NONE of it would be anything we haven't heard before. The arguments are all essentially the same.