VIDEO GAMES vs CENSORSHIP
This will be the first of a series of editorials that will follow. They will be a bit different than the entries that I put together. Hopefully, they will make for interesting reading.
The 1990s had proven to be a defining moment for the video game industry. Not only have they gotten more popular, they have established a higher credibility than Hollywood. Their credibility went even further by the following decade.
For all the advances made with video games, they have not been without its detractors. Video games had received the same level of criticism as the TV. Back in the 1970s, the TV was criticized as being something of a drug to children and had been blamed for encouraging obesity. Since its debut, the TV had impressed people with images sights and sound, just like the movie theaters. The level of violence depicted on TV was also blamed for crimes like murder caused by teenagers and even children. Such a notion has been continually debated to this day. The video game had been criticized as being a “plug-in drug” of sorts. People that play video games are enthralled by the graphics, sound, and realism that are applied into video games. This would be similar to how children are enthralled by the animation of cartoons and the movie-viewing public is enthralled by the special effect employed in certain movies. Video game players are so immersed into video games that they can play for hours and have the tendency to lounge around and to become non-athletic. Given such a person’s obesity, they are often referred to as “couch potatoes”, due to their portly shape. When playing a video game, the person gets the gratification of being part of the action, as opposed to just watching a character being in the action. This sort of gratification would lead a person to evolve into being a video game fanatic. This may explain why video games may be compared or likened to a form of drug addiction or obsession.
In recent years, there had been a spate of random shooting sprees that had occurred. It is where a lone individual (usually a mentally disturbed type) would go into a shooting spree and kill scores of people. Such incidents occur in a former place of employment or in a public school. This would give way to the term “postal”. Unfortunately enough, it was because of such incidents that would inspire the computer game titled Postal. The object of the game is controversial enough: kill as many people with whatever weapons available, from handguns to flamethrowers.
Long before the advent of computer games, certain violent TV shows had been blamed for being the inspiration for violent crimes committed by juveniles in the 70s. Nowadays, certain computer games and video games may be blamed for the most recent violent crimes committed in the U.S. I find that somewhat debatable. Just because I play video games involving guns, tanks, combat aircraft, missiles, and warships, does that make me a danger to others? I think not. Some people would likely say that it would be better for people to vent out their frustrations on a video game, rather than on other people in real life. Despite such arguments, video games are still on the receiving end of bad politics.
As far back as the 1990s, politicians and candidates, who are democrats and liberals, have campaigned to ban violence and other questionable materials from video games. Here lies the controversy. The same politicians and candidates have oddly enough not campaigned to ban such content on movies, TV, and the rock music industry (including the now established rap and hip-hop music). The reason being is that Hollywood and the rock music industry has been contributing campaign money -which is in the millions- to the politicians and candidates in question. The very same people, who portray themselves as being against censorship, exercise such to their convenience. This is what you could a double-standard and a flip-flop. Given the fact that most people in Hollywood are liberals, this would reflect badly on Hollywood. It is the same deal with the music industry as well. It is because of this form of politics that the video game industry would gain even more credibility and popularity over Hollywood’s movie and TV industry. This would be a big nail on Hollywood’s coffin.