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Video games are a strangely bipartisan affair, uniting the moral right and paternal left. Thus, we have figures as diverse as Brent Bozell and Hilary Clinton decrying gaming’s purported harmful influence. Fox News releases wildly-inaccurate news reports, and Lt. Col. David Grossman (who should know better) labels FPS’s “murder simulators.” None of these people understand video games.
Last year, 20-year-old David Rowntree armed himself with a shotgun and went on a crime spree that spanned theft, robbery, and grand theft auto. Afterwards, the Australian youth claimed he felt like a hero in a “computer game.” The fact that Rowntree was 20 years old (thus, responsible for his own actions) escaped the notice of news outlets eager to blame video games.
This is only the latest salvo from an ignorant media that never lets facts interfere with hyperbole. We're all familiar with the Mass Effect controversy. Conservative blogger Kevin McCullough claimed in “The ‘Sex-Box’ Race for President” that Mass Effect allows its players “to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived.”
Mass Effect can be “customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes,” McCullough claimed. If this were directed at a person, it’d be a textbook case of libel, so ridiculous are McCullough’s assertions. Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum later claimed that ME features “the ability for players to engage in full graphic sex.”
Curiously, none of the “experts” defaming Mass Effect had played the game.
More recently, Fox ran an expose on Bulletstorm (“Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?”) Detailing the game’s most egregiously violent acts, the piece bemoaned the potential harm to children.
Psychiatrist Carole Lieberman made one of the most reckless, hyperbolic statements ever spewed forth:
“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.”
But that’s not all. According to Lt. Col. David Grossman, FPS’s like Halo are “murder simulators.” In a statement before the New York State Legislature, LTC Grossman said:
“The games that permit a child to hold and aim a gun, and fire it at humans, are particularly harmful, since these devices teach shooting skills. They are firearms training devices at best, and murder simulators at worst.”
I respect LTC Grossman a great deal for his military service. I wouldn’t feign to question Grossman’s proficiency with firearms. But Grossman’s knowledge of video games is spotty at best.
Video games can’t possibly make you a better shooter. In most FPS’s, you hit whatever you aim at. Sight picture, grip, breathing, and recoil (the fundamentals of marksmanship) aren’t taken into account. Anyone who’s fired a real weapon (and spent five minutes with a FPS) would know this.
The culmination of all this ignorance and misinformation is government regulation—in this case, California Assembly Bill 1179, which would make it illegal to sell “violent video games” to minors. “Violence” is defined (by California bureaucrats) as that which appeals to “deviant or morbid interest of minors,” is inflicted upon a human-like character in a manner which is “heinous, cruel, or depraved,” and is lacking in artistic merit.
Each “violent video game” would contain a “solid white ‘18’ outlined in black” on the box. Presumably, this supersedes the ESRB’s own rating system.
In 2005, AB 1179 was struck down as unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court recently agreed to review the decision.
When apathetic individuals dismiss the “games as art” debate, I point to issues like this. If gaming was considered a legitimate artistic medium, it’d be more immune to unconstitutional attacks. The Supreme Court Justices alluded to this during initial oral arguments.
“Some of the Grimm's fairy tales are quite grim, to tell you the truth,” said Justice Scalia. “If you are supposing a category of violent materials dangerous to children, then how do you cut it off at video games? What about films? What about comic books? Grimm's fairy tales?" asked Justice Ginsburg.
I fully expect free speech to triumph. AB 1179 will be reaffirmed as unconstitutional. But this is endemic of gaming’s unsavory reputation. Politicians and the media still see gaming as a juvenile hobby. This informs their moral crusades and calls for regulation. They haven’t the foggiest clue what video games are, how the medium has matured, and who plays them (the average gamer is 35). But those of us who know better don’t write the laws or anchor news reports. All we can do is continue to fight the good fight.