Recently the folks over at screwattack did an interview with Jack Thompson which I feel warrants some discussion. Before reading on you can watch (or listen really) the interview here.

Several things talked about were covered in this blog post I did a little while ago. Most of the interview is focused on age restrictions on video games and their poor enforcement. As I've said before, most kids are playing these games because their parents are ignorant of the content or just don't care and this is a large part of the problem. There are laws about selling pornography, alcohol, or tobacco to minors and while I don't believe video games can really be compared to things like pornography I do believe that there should be real penalties for employees and companies that sell M rated games to twelve year olds. Thompson mentions that Take Two is marketing the game to kids and he's right, but I don't believe that they really care who sees the ads. It's not like they are putting ads for GTA and Manhunt on during Saturday morning cartoons, they just want to make money. Nobody is angry at the movie industry for making movies with objectionable content and their ads are just as prevalent as those for video games. If a kid wants to see the new Rambo because the commercial on tv was awesome does that mean that the producers of the movie are targeting kids? No, that's ridiculous, they just want people to know that the movie is out there and they should see it. Why should the people that market video games be treated any differently. And it's also worth mentioning that while there is no age verification on their website where you can order the game you do need a credit card to buy things online. So if your not comfortable with your children playing certain kinds of games then why do they have access to a credit card and unsupervised use of the internet. If your kid can order the game online with a credit card without your knowledge then perhaps you aren't paying enough attention. That said I really can't imagine that there are a lot of kids buying games online without their parents help.

Jack says some things that people should hear him say more often. Namely that we live in a free society were adults are able to consume pretty much whatever kind of entertainment or not. His problem isn't with video games themselves it's with their sale and availability to kids. That said, I don't claim to know the guy and maybe he's talking like he does because he's being interviewed by a gaming website. But I do believe that people can learn from their mistakes and that he at least deserves to be listened to and acknowledged when he makes a good point. It's sad that he doesn't get seen publicly saying these things more often. It's sad that when the general public sees people like him it's when some nutcase does something and the media blames video games. That's when he comes on FOX News, and when he's on FOX or CNN he's not talking like this, he's telling everyone about how video games influenced him and others like him. And that's what the media wants to show, something shocking. Your child's favorite passtime is turning him into a killing machine, more after these messages. They don't really care about reality, they care that all the soccer moms buy into their reality enough to watch the ads for Dove anti aging cream and the new Ford family van. If people just came out saying "that's absurd" and chose not to buy into their spin on video game violence they might be more inclined to do more research and present something more compelling to the legions of soccer moms out there.

They end the interview talking about Take Two and why Thompson keeps going after them. I don't know why the head of Take Two told him to "stuff it" but I imagine it had something to do with how he was approached. There is no point in targeting one company because they produce what you deem the worst content. It's not the content that's the problem, it's how it's digested by a minority of people. Addressing it's availability to impressionable children is a good idea and I support him in those endeavors. Take Two is not the problem, GTA is not the problem, the problem is the conditions in our society that make some people want to do harm to other people. Surrounding oneself in violent entertainment media can be a symptom of a dangerous person but it is not the cause of any violent actions they may take against other people. The solution to that problem lies in changes to society which is much harder then simply banning or censoring things. How do you make the general populace more concerned with those around them? How do you teach a healthy level of empathy to kids? How do you motivate the average joe to care enough to try to help somebody when they see their friend withdrawing from everyone? How do we ingrain a deeper compassion for our fellow man in today's society? I don't claim to know the answer to any of these questions but I do believe that the answers are at least the start of a better direction for society as a whole. It's certainly a better idea then then simply finding new ways to tune out the world.

Please, leave me a comment. Tell me if i'm wrong or just plain crazy here.

Warning: The video link below contains lots of coarse language. If you or you mom doesn't like it then don't watch it.

Absolutely brilliant.

Now that's not to say that I agree with everything being said here. Quite the opposite actually. I'm a big fan of the single player experience, I don't like too much of a challenge, and I want my game to have a story. That said there is still a lot of truth in what's being said here. I've played Portal, it took me a couple hours. Yes it was good, but was it one of the best games ever? Definitely not. Portal represented everything this person hates about games. It's single player, very short, and pathetically easy. True, Portal has some very neat game mechanics and some amusing dialogue. But this is far from enough to warrant all of the game of the year nominations and awards it got from sites like this.

I know i'm not very good at games. That's part of why I play single player RPGs. That said, if somebody destroys me in Unreal Tournament I don't complain. If you don't enjoy being owned over and over in whatever online game your playing then maybe you should stop playing said game online. Don't accuse somebody better then you at Call of Duty of hacking or being a loser. That kind of attitude is as sad as gloating all over someone or telling you that you suck when they can't beat you. Either play the game offline against a friend of similar skill, against a computer controlled bot set to a reasonable difficulty setting, or don't play it at all. Just because "everybody" is playing a certain game online doesn't mean you have to as well. The most important part of playing video games is having fun, regardless of genre or console generation. If your one of those people that don't push themselves constantly, that don't crave a challenge, that doesn't necessarily want to be better then other people, then maybe you shouldn't be playing COD4 online. Maybe you should ignore what your friends are saying and try to find and play games that you actually enjoy. Rather then trying and complaining.

That said, i'm going back to play some more Final Fantasy XII before I go to bed.

I recently watched a documentary called Playing Columbine: A True Story of Video Game Controversy. It is a documentary centered around a game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG! and the way video games are portrayed in today's media. I found it to be rather thought provoking and I decided to post my thoughts here in the hopes that someone may read it and go on to play the game, watch the documentary, or just start talking to someone. Please feel free to leave me a comment.

As a "gamer" we have been and still are scrutinized regularly by society and the media, particularly whenever someone that plays games commits some act of violence. At this point it's probably safe to say that we are scrutinized more heavily then people that watch movies, listen to music, or (gasp) read books. You don't hear FOX News blaming the bible for the actions of a few religious nutcases. Nor do we often hear of serious campaigns saying that X movie is warping the minds of youth and is the cancer killing our society. I recall back when the Harry Potter craze was at it's peak you'd occasionally hear or see someone saying that the books were a negative influence on children, that it was turning them to witchcraft. These people were mostly ignored as just about everyone realized that their arguments were crazy. But it's obvious that video games are the cause of a host of problems with today's youth. If a couple of kids were to mutilate a younger child while acting out something from one of the Harry Potter books would the media give it the same kind of attention as if somebody did something they did in GTA? I'd be very surprised if the answer was yes.

I can think of reasons why the media does this and both reasons are cultural. For starters, most of the people involved in bringing us the "news" are from the previous generation (commonly called the baby boomers). While by this day and age everyone from the previous generation is familiar with the existence of games only a small minority likely respect and understand the artist medium that are video games. If you look back through history you'll likely find that every time a new entertainment medium emerges the previous generation blames it for society's ills. Be it rock music, movies, table top role playing games, or games like Manhunt, it is human nature to fear that which you do not understand. Only an enlightened few will make the actual effort of beginning to understand or appreciate something they aren't comfortable with. The second reason is that most members of society doesn't want to think about what's wrong with themselves. Society has always needed scapegoats for everything that is wrong with it, every tragedy, every warped individual. To place blame is to be human, we all do it on some level. Few people can come out and say they they messed up, that something is completely their fault. That they were lousy parents, that they ignored the kid being bullied in their c lassroom, that they didn't want to invest the time to help someone other then themselves. That is why the same kind of bullying goes on in schools a few years after a shooting. It's easier to blame something for a persons actions then actually think about the societal cause and try to do something to change things for the better.

Gaming is not a new medium anymore, but to those that don't play games or only play(ed) them casually they are still just kids toys. Super Mario Brothers, Sonic, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, these are the kind of things that come to a lot of peoples minds when they think of video games. The idea of the things you can do in GTA is as offensive to the people that don't understand the medium as the idea of Disney producing a full length animated pornographic movie. It is as wrong to blame them for doing what they do as it is for them to blame DOOM and Marilyn Manson for something like the Columbine shooting. FOX News knows that if they blame video games for some recent act of terrible violence they will get ratings. And if they bring someone like Jack Thompson or any "expert" that has never played anything more advanced then Tetris or Mario nobody will question them. To question the media is to question the unthinking hordes of people that just buy into everything they present as "fact". You and I might know better, but the middle aged Christian mother of two teenagers probably doesn't. I can't blame my cat for throwing up on the living room carpet, nor can I blame my Christian father for not understanding the appeal of Grand Theft Auto.

As people that do understand this misrepresented and misunderstood medium it is up to us to both educate and set an example for the general population. There are millions of people that play games across the world, but if a few go out and do something terrible it's not us that the media will focus on. Just like people don't talk about the hundreds of millions of genuinely nice, peaceful, tolerant Muslims out there. I don't claim to know the answers but I do know that posting messages on internet forums about what violent act you'd like to do to Jack Thompson does not help, in fact your helping people like him. Being hostile and/or rude is not the answer, being frank, well spoken, and polite will probably actually get us somewhere. What we can do is discuss things when the issues come up. Talk to your parents about that report about the effects of on violence in video games on children with your parents. Write a well spoken, thoughtful letter to the editor of a magazine or newspaper after they blame video games for the decay in the values of todays youth. Aside from things like that all we can do is wait. Because like every misunderstood generation before us it's only a matter of time till we are in charge. In ten to twenty years there might be an American president that has played (any privately enjoyed) Grand Theft Auto IV.

Another thing I don't hear very often said by people like us to ignorant politicians and journalists is "you have a point". And you know what, Jack Thompson might be a bit of a religious nutcase, but I also think he is right about a lot of things. I strongly believe that video games can be a bad influence on kids and that they should not be sold or given to minors. And the kicker here is that, from what I've read, most gamers would agree with that statement. I know that were I in a position where I had to shoot someone it would not have the same effect as it would on someone that hasn't done the act thousands of times in a virtual world. I know that this is because I play video games, I know that in some ways they have desensitized me to certain images. Jack Thompson is right when he says that violent video games are a danger to children. Perhaps this is because he knows that when combined with bad parenting an individual is much more likely to be prone to violence. The thing is this can happen with any medium, I could use the bible to raise a killing machine. Just look at the crazy folk blowing themselves up in the middle east for their god.

What has been pointed out so many times by people in the gaming community is that it's the ignorance of parents and adults that puts Manhunt in the hands of a ten year old. People talk about rating systems and the need to communicate the content of games to parents purchasing titles for their kids. I don't see a giant M in the corner of movies, in fact I often have to squint to see the box that tells me that the movie contains scenes of graphic violence and coarse language. But that goes back to my point earlier, the previous generation understands movies, they are comfortable judging the content of a movie and wither or not it's appropriate for their children. When I was a kid my parents wouldn't let me watch or rent R rated movies but I had several games for my ps1 that were rated M. Now my parents weren't ignorant trailer trash, nor were they the kind of folk that didn't think about how their kids turned out. It is us up to the gaming community to inform parents about what their buying. To just say that kids having access to these mature games is purely the fault of the parents is just as wrong as the media blaming the games for the violent actions of a few individuals. Knowing this we need to find a way to act accordingly, to actually do something about a problem rather then simply shift blame. But it is also up to parents to care enough to ask, and even more important to have an open dialog with their children about what they are playing. I've worked in game stores and I've told parents buying San Andreas about the content only to have them shrug and buy it anyway. If the government passes law that allows me to deny the sale of that game to that adult or that fines the parent for buying a game I can't say I'd object. If I worked in a store and got caught selling alcohol to someone obviously buying it for a minor I'd probably lose my job. Why are we getting so defensive about the idea of a state passing a law that would let an employee say "I'm sorry sir, I can't sell you this game because you are obviously buying it for a minor"? I certainly don't believe in censorship or banning a game based on it's content, but restricting who has access to potentially damaging content just makes sense. If you have ID and are over 18 nobody will stop you from buying GTA and then killing that hooker to get your money back. If your thirteen and don't like it, that's just the way the world works, it should be up to your parents to know if your are able to properly digest that kind of content.

Finally I believe a large part of educating people lies within the evolution of the medium itself. The vast majority of games being released today are fluff. A paper thin story providing reasons for a two dimensional character to go out and do acts of extreme violence. It us up to game developers, publishers, and us the consumers to force the world to take video games as a mature medium for artistic expression, and social commentary. Video games aren't just kids toys anymore, the responsibility of proving this falls to those that make, publish, and enjoy them. You, the gamer reading this can help, yes you can actually do something. Buy games that have actual story, or have a story that deals with social issues we are facing today. Go play Super Columbine Massacre RPG! and talk to somebody about the social conditions that make people do terrible things like that. Think about what your doing, you may find that it helps you enjoy what your playing. Play a game that has artistic merit rather then just another shooter. Think about what your playing, more importantly start wanting to think about what your playing from time to time. When was the last time you played something that actually had any kind of lasting impact on your life. It's up to us to create the demand for games that do.

Now perhaps your thinking something along the lines of "I don't play games to think, I play them so I don't have to". That's fair . . . . . . . to an extent. If you are actively avoiding thinking, about yourself, your life, or the world you live in perhaps that in itself is a reason to step back and ask "why?". Nobody wants to be constantly engaged with complex social issues, or themes that force you to question how you've been living. Sometimes I just want to pick up a shotgun and put a few people down. In the same way I don't always want to watch movies like Fight Club that force me to think about how I'm living my life and how I should change for the better. Sometimes I just want to watch something simple with a lot of entertaining violence. But if all we immerse ourselves in is shallow and pointless, if all we do is play to tune out our lives and the world. Then we are doomed to become the same unthinking people that don't ponder the causes and just blame something easy when things go wrong.

Apparently youth crime rates are lower today then they were back in 1993, despite GTA, Gears of War, and God of War. You and I both know that just like any contact sport they can serve as a release. It is up to us to stand up to the media and show them they are wrong. To educate those that know little or nothing about video games. To ensure our favorite pastime isn't persecuted just because a few sad individuals also enjoyed it as well.