Tag Archive for 'Politics'

A New President, A New Age of Game Regulation

Published
on January 20, 2009
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Today confirmed everything I love about this country. It also brought a new perspective on video game regulation to the White House, as Gamasutra reports in today’s article on the history and future of US regulation.

“We need to make sure that all of our children have access to these technologies and we must teach our children how to harness the huge potential of this technology. I want to make sure my children are protected from the dangers of the new media world, but I also want to make sure they reap the benefits of it,” said newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama in late 2007.

The US government has a lot to clear off its plate before gaming legislation floats back to the top, but this presidential perspective marks a definite turning point in games as a new medium.

Researcher Neils Clark opens his examination of the industry and regulation with a quote from Republican Senator Mitt Romney: “I want to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex and perversion.”

Clark covers the history of video game legislation, the need to guard from indecency always balanced with the need for free speech, and points to the lack of understanding of the medium among most politicians as the primary problem. He looks to the cynosure of South Korea, which has a government agency devoted to video games.

Game regulation remains a tertiary issue in the greater scheme of things: “Some of the strongest critics to the industry won reelection to the House and Senate handily. Issues like abortion, the war in Iraq and gay marriage still trump the gaming hobby. Go figure.”

Likewise, Obama’s administration will face the issues of the economy, two wars, and a failing national image, crisis which take precedence over gaming regulation. Clark concludes his essay by urging gamers to remain informed and vigilant for harmful legislation and for the even more dangerous threat of self-censorship by gaming companies.

“Government pressures on rating boards, and their subsequent pressure on ‘appropriate’ or ‘marketable’ imagery, may already affect a number of gaming companies internationally,” says Clark.

Five Presidential Candidates Explain Stance on Game Legislation

Published
on December 23, 2007
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For all those interested in politics, five potential U.S. presidents gave their opinions on legislation limiting the sale of video games in response to a Common Sense Media questionnaire. Preeminent Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson as well as Republican candidate Mitt Romney answered the questionnaire.

Clinton has a history with the issue, having introduced the failed Family Entertainment Protection Act two years ago, which would have banned games rated M by the ESRB from sale to minors. “I felt that video game content was getting increasingly violent and sexually explicit, yet young people were able to purchase these games with relative ease while their parents were struggling to keep up with being informed about the content,” said Clinton in her response, adding that she would continue working to limit game sales if elected.

Edwards lauded the ESRB and manufacturers implementation of content locks in consoles, but suggested that may not be enough. “If the industry does not continue to make progress in keeping video games with intense violence and adult content away from children, we will need to consider further steps to ensure that parents’ decisions about their children’s exposure to these games are not being undermined by retailers, advertisers and manufacturers,” he said.

Obama laid responsibility on parents to inform themselves and on the industry to make information available to parents. “Broadcasters and video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included,” he said. “But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would.”

Richardson also stressed parental rather than federal involvement and brought in the context of education. If elected, he said he plans to provide federal workers with eight hours annually of paid time to spend with their children.

Romney said he wants to target retailers who sell games with mature content to minors, a position similar to Clintons. “I want to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex, and perversion,” said Romney.

Happy holidays, and don’t forget to vote next year.

Educational Games Show ‘Why Games Matter’

Published
on November 21, 2007
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Feeling unproductive after a Thanksgiving break spent gaming? Well eat this (after your turkey). In the “gee wiz” story of the week, the three winners of the “Why Games Matter” contest were announced yesterday, as reported by 1UP.

These three games raise awareness and recommend solutions to issues of gender relations and domestic abuse, teen depression and anger and the AIDS epidemic. Each will be recognized with a $5,000 prize and will be invited to the 2008 Games for Health conference.

Games are made to entertain, but this contest demonstrates one possible secondary function: to educate. This is nothing new. Whoever went to grade school in the early ’90s (and is reading a blog about video games) remembers all those classic computer lab games about doing math, building space ships, stopping bleeding and getting to Oregon.

But will we ever see a game that combines these two functions fully? One that is as fully immersive as BioShock, but also imparts some wisdom about the world outside of Rapture?

Books and movies are already doing this. They flirt around the topic without addressing it full-bore. What better way to learn about the royal politics of Elizabethan England than by reading Macbeth? And Shogun and Gates of Fire are kickass novels, but they also deliver historical and cultural lessons and interpretations. Sure, there are the PBS specials about dealing with racism that we saw in school, but there’s also 2004’s “Crash,” an average film made Oscar-worthy by its relevance.

What lesson does BioShock or Mass Effect teach? What purpose do they serve beyond providing compelling and stimulating entertainment? Interesting questions, which none can answer.

BioWare’s ‘Mass Effect’ to Feature Nudity

Published
on September 19, 2007
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The British Board of Film Classification’s rating for BioWare’s latest venture, the sci-fi epic Mass Effect, revealed that the title features a “brief and undetailed” sex scene, reports Pro-G.As expected with a BioWare RPG, there are several versions of the scene depending on which character you chose to woo. One apparently involves nudity, possibly extraterrestrial. If you play a female player character, you have a choice between romancing a male or female companion.

Is this the next step in the evolution of storytelling in games? Are gamers mature enough to handle such explicit material?

Sex scenes and nudity have been tolerated in films for the past few decades and are often done with taste and a meaningful intent. R-rated films are by no means box office pariahs, although the same can’t be said of NC-17 films.

The ESRB has a similarly taboo rating — the dreaded Adults Only, which recently killed Manhunt 2. AO marks a game as appallingly offensive either for sexual content or over-the-top violence. But just as the line between an Mature and AO rating is only one year (17 and 18+, respectively), there is a fine line between mature content that is offensive and mature content that is acceptable and perhaps significant.

Of course, Mass Effect won’t be the first instance of nudity in video games: Who could forget BMX XXX or GTA San Andreas’ Hot Coffee debacle? But perhaps Mass Effect will handle mature content with respect and use it to further the story rather than draw in a hormone-driven crowd with promises of flashing tits. Perhaps it can drag the AO rating out of the gutter and make it just as viable as an R.

The Point of Games

Published
on September 11, 2007
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Whether they seek to educate or persuade, “serious games” only occasionally succeed commercially or even appear in game stores. But they are becoming increasingly prevalent, and more mainstream titles are picking up their new approach to gaming.

Simulation games, which seek to accurately reproduce real world systems, educate the player on those systems. Sim City demonstrated all the variables necessary for a city to function properly and rewarded efficient urban planning. Flight Simulator allows the player to fly a plane with all the controls and obstacles that a real pilot would encounter.

These games sacrifice fun and gameplay, the two essential aspects of most commercial titles, in favor of realism. Similarly, games such as Brain Age and the recently announced Wii Fit are designed for more than just fun: They are intended to improve the player, either through physical or mental exercise.

A recent slew of serious games intend to influence the player’s opinions, taking the realism of simulations and applying it to a message. Orwell Today’s simulation of JFK’s assassination challenged players to reproduce the shots which killed Kennedy, shooting from Lee Harvey Oswald’s position. While notably morbid, failure would prove that there was more than one shooter.

Even governments have seen the persuasive potential of games. The US military uses America’s Army, a realistic first-person shooter, as a recruiting tool, and Iran’s Save the Port promotes Islamic beliefs.

The utility of games for arguing a point has been picked up by commercial games as well. For example, Army of Two designer Chris Ferriera commented in an interview with Gamasutra that the very modern issue of private military contractors is an important part of his game’s setting.

Ian Bogost, the author of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames who recently appeared on the Colbert Report, comments in his blog that many commercial games–such as Sim City and Grand Theft Auto–consistently reference and provide allegorical insight into real world events.

These examples take games in a new, more meaningful direction, hinting at a future where an argument or theme is at the heart of any good game.