Sentimental Gamer

Tipped off to a video by GamePolitics.com where Fox News states their utter hate for all games with mature content and advances unsupported claims. Wrote a long email about it that took the better part of the morning to piece together (but hey, I didn’t have anything else pressing to do), so I figured I might as well post it on here for future reference. What follows is the email in its entirety:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/163925.html

So this video, umm…. REALLY upsets me. Of course, it’s easy to take issue with Fox News. But it never ceases to amaze me how they simply… it’s hard to say exactly… but they just forget about, you know, that whole “facts that back up my accusations” part of debate. Remember truth? They don’t.

I know that this is a far less serious matter than the war in Iraq, but to me the utter lies they spread are nearly as biting. I’ve chosen to work in a medium that I believe is already beginning to show its maturity. I believe that one day it will be able to teach us about great human virtues and struggles just as movies, literature, and other media do today. To see it unfairly torn down as in the linked video up top just… well it makes me just a little enraged.

---

So, just a few clarifications to their misconceptions:The rating for the game is not clear: “It says MA on the back…” says one commentator. They make references to the actual rating of the game not being apparent while you shop. Ok… here’s the front cover of the game… obviously, there’s no marking that would indicate it’s mature content, right? Right? Surely that highly-contrasted “M for mature” icon in the lower left corner has nothing to say. Of course, as is very popular with video game proponents such as myself, I invite you to compare it to the DVD cover of one of the Saw movies, a graphically intense horror film. See the content warning? Neither do I… To be fair, that the content is mature is obvious enough from the cover image, but my point is that there’s a bit of a disparity here: Video games display their rating using a high-contrast image on their front; movies only show their rating using a low-contrast icon on their back cover. So when the video game industry is knocked for being obtuse in their ratings, I really must beg to differ.

The game is pornography: It’s funny… there’s so many counter-arguments to what the commentators state that it’s hard to pick one to begin with. I’ll start with a somewhat cold, objective statistical note. Whether or not sexual content is proper in the game can be debated as well, but I won’t go into that here. As the poor video game industry rep notes in the video, Mass Effect is 30+ hours in length. While this is quite average for games of its type, try to imagine if this were a sci fi epic movie. The sex scene in the game makes up approximately 1/10th of 1% of the entire game (aka: it’s 1/1000th of the total game). So, if you were to watch a THIRTY hour long movie, and, somewhere in that movie, there were 2 minutes of sex between two lovers, would you instantly cry “PORN!” and seek to have the movie torn from Blockbuster’s store shelves? The double-standard would be comical if it were not so damaging.

The game should be rated AO: I must admit that I’ve never quite understood why the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) created both an AO (Adults Only) and M (Mature) rating. Reading their descriptions, they seem almost exactly the same. Here’s the description from their site (accents are my own) (http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp):
Mature: “Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.”
Adults Only: “Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.“
If you can’t really tell the difference between these two, then you know how I feel. Essentially, I think it’s supposed to be the difference between an “R” rated movie and an “NC17+” movie. Commercially, there’s a huge difference. There are a large number of M rated games on consoles, but almost no AO games. Why? Because all major console manufacturers (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) refuse to allow AO games on their console. In other words, AO games have been categorized as being unsuitable for video game console owners to play. The console manufacturers apparently see these games as sub-art, sub-entertainment. Now, just to quote a few reviews for Mass Effect:
“Mass Effect sets a new standard for sci-fi gaming. ” -GameDaily
“An incredible effort from any perspective, Mass Effect sets the new standard for story-driven games, and has unquestionably surpassed all others to become the preeminent science fiction franchise today.” -GameCritics
“I can honestly say that the universe Bioware created is the best I have encountered since George Lucas created Star Wars.” -GameZone
“Far from being a ponderous sci-fi exposition, Mass Effect boasts a dynamic, well-constructed story with a broad emotional range.” -Electronic Gaming Monthly
“The cinematic design is nothing short of masterful. This is a game that takes the aspects of film that make cinema so compelling and crosses it with the interactivity of games with unprecedented success. Linear storytelling feels quaint by comparison.” -IGN
I’ll stop there…
Clearly, this game has no artistic worth, yes? Surely, these respected video game publications are out of their minds to call it worthwhile.
Obviously, Ben is far too sarcastic for his own good :).
My point here is that it’s simply ludicrous to try to classify a game such as Mass Effect that very obviously has cultural merit as something that should not be given commercial consideration. The content in the game is, quite simply, nowhere near the brazen line that Hollywood has advanced forward in recent years, yet violent, sexually explicit movies continue to be made with only a fraction of the resistance that games meet. The double-standard strikes again :).

The method to block this content from kids is far, far too complex and kids are computer-smart these days and will find a way around it and, umm… the internet is umm… yeah… blah blah blah:
“It sort of cracks me up whenever you hear a company say that, you know, there’s all these controls in there that you can monitor the time and you can [...].You know, but basically… Pandora’s Box is open. Kid’s have access to these things, and unless you’re hovering over them every second, they’re going to find ways to see this stuff on the internet.”

Minor point: I’ll just kinda, you know, forget about the whole “see this stuff on the internet” bit. What that has to do with a game you buy for $60 in a retail store and then play completely cut off from the internet is beyond me. And if they’re meaning to state that kids are seeing videos of the game’s explicit scene that people upload to the internet, that somehow inappropriate content on the net is mostly a result of video games … I’ll just stop there.

Anyways… main point:
Here’s the thing about video game consoles (like the Xbox 360 or Wii) as opposed to PC games. Unlike PCs, which have all manner of makers, brands, specifications, etc… consoles are very standardized, closed systems. Unless you maliciously hack your game box (which I’d love to see the average 13-year-old do (average, mind you, not the exceptional master hacker)), you’re not going to be able to bypass stuff that Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony have put in place. So, as Microsoft plainly states, there’s an EXTREMELY simple parental control mechanism built into EVERY console they sell. Here’s basically how it works:
1.) Parent tells the game machine that you need a password to play games above a certain content rating level
2.) Parent sets password.
3.) Parent plays Mature rated game; kid doesn’t
They try to make it sound as though, in order to prevent kids from playing Mature games, you need to either stare over their shoulder all day or figure out some system of incomparable thickness. It truly depresses me to see how these commentators have completely passed over a nearly sure-fire (no system is ever perfect; that’s life), easy-to-use system to stop kids from playing mature games. The fact is that a system to enforce parental control is available and ready for use; all it requires is a few minutes of time investment by the parent. Now, I won’t make the error of saying that all blame should be laid at parents’ feet; many home situations prevent adequate parenting even when parents wish they could provide it. But to state that parental supervision over what children play is impossible in practical terms is simply untrue. Family groups demanded a content restriction system in video game consoles; the console makers gave it. It exists, so use it!

---

So, sorry for the long email, but this just incensed me terribly. While I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to compare video game’s struggle for acceptance as an artistic medium to other great historic struggles (I don’t think you’ll see any martyrs or physical injuries in this case :), it is something about which I am very passionate. I wish to employ both honest facts and good intentions in my arguments; Fox News seems to only use the latter.
-Ben