Violence in Games

Edge Magazine – Dec 2007

Biffovision (Grumble Feature Enabled) author -Mr Biffo

Responsibility

ITV boss Michael Grade speaking at the Royal Television Society Conference described ‘videogames as existing in a “moral vacuum” ‘

‘Grades position was that TV had a far stronger moral standpoint than videogames, because it’s able to contextualise its content within a dramatic narrative.’

I’m not sure I entirely agree with this, admittedly I’ve been out of the ultra-violent game loop for a while, or at in least the case of the realistic ones if this is what Grade is referring to. I’m not sure which channel shows it but the Ultimate fighter programs show two willing and above all real people beating seven shades of sh*t out of each other for three rounds, how much more real and disturbing can you get? I mean they don’t kill each other but how much longer will it be before combatant programmes such as this reach the level of the Roman Arena’s of old? At least with videogames the only thing that is dying/being beaten up are pixels, and for most rational people this is quite obvious, isn’t it?

‘Lets face it, many games exist purely to let us indulge the darker areas of our psyches.’

Indeed I’ve played videogames for around 17 years and I’ve never been in a fight let alone killed anyone, admittedly I wanted to at times, fight I mean, not kill. But various ethical and moral codes hold you back along with the knowledge of the consequences. With games you of course don’t have that same problem, or at least not to the same extent. But even with a common target for this sort of ‘videogames are the cause of all antisocial behaviour in youth’ mentality, namely the Grand Theft Auto series you do have consequences, the police and later if you go completely ‘psycho’ the army, will come and either arrest or kill you. Admittedly it takes them a while, but then this is first and foremost a GAME, and secondly it does have an 18+ age rating.

‘…lets work with the legislators to keep these games on the market, but out of the hands of kids. Admittedly, we all know they won’t stay out of the hands of kids, but showing a bit more willing might get them off our backs.’

I also think that violent games have been something that kids have initiated for centuries if not since the birth of humankind, whether that be with sticks for swords, cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. And where does this influence come from? Adult society, whether that comes from hunters, soldiers or the law keepers, maybe we should be looking to the way society works as a whole not looking to make scapegoats of whatever seems to be the current zeitgeist. People were shooting each other a long time before the dawn of videogames after all.

‘We all know that videogames aren’t to blame for all of society’s ills – of course it seems churlish to target popular culture at all when our own leaders seem gripped with a sort of bloodlust these days..’