Posted by Pascal Tekaia on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 ? Leave a Comment?
Let?s Ask the Stu?dio Audience
Gam?ing is hit?ting new strides every day, not just in the types of tech?nol?ogy avail?able for game devel?op?ers and the kinds of expe?ri?ences being passed on to us gamers, but in the grow?ing accep?tance by the rest of soci?ety. Accep?tance as a pas?time; accep?tance as an art form; accep?tance as a means for edu?cat?ing and com?mu?ni?cat?ing. This is a fact that many of us gamers cel?e?brate often, if not daily. Gam?ing is more pop?u?lar today than it has ever been, with more gam?ing expe?ri?ences read?ily avail?able and more peo?ple than ever who con?sider them?selves ?gamers?.
But this social?iza?tion has come at a price. Whereas argu?ments can be made about young play?ers? imma?tu?rity ruin?ing online gam?ing, or that the casual mar?ket is tak?ing away from the hard?core gamer, for the pur?poses of this arti?cle I want to focus on the shift in the media?s atten?tion that has come with the?increased pub?lic expo?sure of gam?ing. With gam?ing being more in the pub?lic eye, the media is report?ing out?ra?geous sto?ries, cit?ing gam?ing as the cul?prit at every turn. Some?how, gam?ing is being turned into a buzz?word at some sort of giant Kaf?feeklatsch where gos?sip is gospel.
Is this the direc?tion that gam?ing is heading?
Call it rat?ings, call it sweeps, call it bad jour?nal?ism, call it extreme left-wing pol?i?tics or polit?i?cal cor?rect?ness run amok; the sen?sa?tion?al?ist per?spec?tive is mak?ing a con?ve?nient scape?goat out of gam?ing, like it did with film, tele?vi?sion, music, and lit?er?a?ture before. The debate of ?Do vio?lent games pro?duce vio?lent gamers?? has obvi?ously been around for a long, long time. But lately we?re see?ing gam?ing being called into play as the per?pe?tra?tor in vic?tim?less crimes (actu?ally, even the word ?crimes? is mis?lead?ing in these instances, more like ?unfor?tu?nate occur?rences?), and events that wouldn?t nor?mally receive any notice what?so?ever -?that?haven?t caused any harm or peril to any?one -?are now con?nected to gam?ing in dubi?ous ways and pub?li?cized with sup?posed pub?lic out?cries of great dis?may. The fact that, with the inter?net and the right forum, every?one is a pun?dit nowa?days doesn?t help our cause as gamers any. Plenty of ama?teurs love to fuel a con?tro?versy, and hav?ing jour?nal?ists that aren?t impar?tial and haven?t checked their facts speak out against gam?ing is throw?ing addi?tional gaso?line on the prover?bial fire. But enough of the back?ground expo?si?tion and metaphors; let?s get down to brass tacks (couldn?t help myself):
- Recent high-profile release, Dead Island, received a fair amount of pos?i?tive feed?back upon its recep?tion. It also received much neg?a?tive atten?tion from the media after it was leaked that a user found the orig?i?nal name of a skill of one of the female char?ac?ters from the game. Spot?ted in the game?s orig?i?nal source code, and removed from proper retail ver?sions of the game, the skill had at one point been referred to as ?Fem?i?nist Whore? by a pro?gram?mer at the studio.
- A young man suf?fered a sud?den and unex?pected death caused by a blood clot form?ing (known as a deep-vein throm?bo?sis) in his leg due to large amounts of time spent sit?ting down, immo?bile. The rea?son? The man was a habit?ual Xbox Live player, spend?ing large amounts of time play?ing Halo?in front of his con?sole. The diag?no?sis? He was ?addicted? to videogames. The head?line? ?Xbox Tragedy?!
- Surely there?s noth?ing objec?tion?able about Por?tal 2, which is rated ?E? for ?Every?one? here in the States?! Wrong. The crime in ques?tion was an in-game series of jokes made at the protagonist?s expense; jokes about being adopted. As luck would have it, Neil Sta?ples hap?pened to be watch?ing as his 10-year old adopted daugh?ter was play?ing this game. Luck?ily, the tragedy was in large part averted (excuse me, but I can?t help a cer?tain level of deri?sion here) when he rushed to her aid and turned off the offen?sive game. The real crime here? The reporter?s rather unin?formed stance, not to men?tion her faux out?raged tone. The daughter?s reac?tion? Noth?ing!
- Cer?tainly no stranger to con?tent that pushes the enve?lope, Rockstar?s Grand Theft Auto?series made head?lines due to its Hot Cof?fee Mod ? a sim?u?lated sex scene hid?den in the game?s code (once again!), which couldn?t even be viewed by the game-playing pub?lic. But sure enough, if politi?cians had their say, all copies of San Andreas would have been burnt in the pub?lic square at high?noon.
-
The people?s voice of reason?
Another one of Rockstar?s games, Bully,actu?ally cre?ated a lot of con?tro?versy before it was ever released. In an effort to get the game banned?from the state of Florida, Jack Thomp?son demanded in court to receive an advance copy of the game, which the court ruled he should receive. Thomp?son had pre?vi?ously claimed (with?out any?knowl?edge of the game?s con?tent whatsoever)?that the game was a ?Columbine sim?u?la?tor? (refer?ring to the infa?mous Columbine Mas?sacre). After advance copies were played, the court ruled that the game posed no threat to soci?ety, and was allowed to ship. As a sad end?ing to this story, Thomp?son sub?se?quently turned his atten?tion towards the judge rul?ing against him, and began a cam?paign that ended in Judge Friedman?s disbarment.
Lan?guid Lin?guini, this is offensive?
The list could go on and on, but I think my point has been made. The media, who are sup?posed to be impar?tial and fair, are?quick to jump on any story that holds the poten?tial of sell?ing a pre?dis?posed point-of-view, and this is cur?rently at the expense of gam?ing as a whole. Why offer a ratio?nal, well thought-out argu?ment when a false head?line scream?ing out?rage sells? And yes, I real?ize the con?sumer is once again to blame for this. But there?s a rea?son why there was no national out?rage dur?ing the late ?80s/early ?90s, when two car?i?ca?tured plumbers with fake New York-Italian accents and han?dle?bar porn?staches had their own children?s TV show, quip?ping things like ?Trav?el?ing tomato sauce!?, ?Cracked Cal?zones!?, and other ethnically-charged allit?er?a?tions ? it?s because it was for enter?tain?ment, and nobody gave a?damn!
Every?thing is ?Peo?ple are out?raged? and ?The pub?lic is offended?. Just once, I?d like to meet some?one who was actu?ally an offi?cial part of the ?offended group? over a par?tic?u?lar gam?ing con?tro?versy, or was affected in some way by the things the media keeps telling us we should be upset about. Any?body? Anybody??
Now, I?m not say?ing that the peo?ple in the above exam?ples don?t have a right to express their opin?ions. The par?ents of Chris Stan?i?forth who died of DVT cer?tainly are right to grieve. Neil Sta?ples has every right (oblig?a?tion, even!) in the world to pro?tect his daugh?ter from harm. But what remains is the ques?tion of how to pro?ceed, and what we as gamers should take from these cases. As cit?i?zens, we have the duty to act in an eth?i?cal and respon?si?ble man?ner. We must not blame?the trou?bles that befall us as part of every?day life on the eas?i?est tar?get sim?ply for the sake of plac?ing blame. We must not yell ?Fire!? in a crowded the?ater. And we must not make gam?ing into the scape?goat for our poor health or lack of par?ent?ing. In other words, we need to take respon?si?bil?ity for our own actions and decisions.
Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2011/09/27/gaming-the-new-daytime-talk-show/
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