Last night, I was playing a video game I rented called Predator: Concrete Jungle, wherein you take the role of the fearsome predator from the movies by the same name. Now, the Predator movies are pretty violent, so you would expect the game to be no different. And it doesn't disappoint. Within a half-hour, I had eviscerated mobsters, crushed skulls, and sliced police officers in half. At one point, my mission was to make "an example" of three gang members who had stolen Predator technology. I grabbed one by the skull, dragged him up to the top of a tall building,
flayed him alive, and then hung him off the side. And all I could think about was, "I wonder what Hillary would think of this?"
[Continued after the break...]
Now, I don't believe in war for any reason and I'm opposed to violence in general, but I like a good, action-packed video game as much as the next guy. It's just entertainment to me - not a learning tool for life. But why are mutilation, murder, and torture acceptable in a video game, while a scene of consensual sex causes a furious outcry? Grand Theft Auto, which was a great game by the way, is just about as violent as you can get - running over old ladies, killing police officers, doing drive-bys. It received a Mature rating, and deservedly so, because kids shouldn't play that game. But once Detective Hillary uncovered a secret sex scene, the fit hit the shan and the rating was immediately changed to Adult. I guess in our repressed, backwards, Puritan culture, graphic violence is somehow higher on the Absolute Scale of Morality (tm) than consensual sex.
Hillary, for all her good qualities, showed a profound lack of knowledge on an issue she was purporting to take the lead on. She reminded me all too much of the religious right's ignorant fire-and-brimstone moralists who condemn movies they've never seen, T.V. shows they've never watched, music they've never listened to, and books they've never read. The scene in GTA, as we all know, was not accessible to the public. Children who wanted to soil their minds with the "Hot Coffee" third-party mod, had to seek it out intentionally and then go through the trouble of installing it onto their existing game. The developers didn't hide that content to be clever or cute. They probably did it because they were probably forced to lock it up at the end of the development cycle in order to ensure an M rating from the ESRB. In other words, they self-censored themselves already. Isn't that what we want responsible companies to do? Or would we rather force draconian censorship on them? Furthermore, it just begs the question: if you don't want your kid exposed to adult content, why did you buy him or her an M rated game with pictures AK-47s on the cover in the first place? "Oh, I knew it would have maiming, mass murder, horrible executions, drug use, and more. But a sex scene!?! That's just unacceptable!"
I also think that Hillary made a political blunder as well. The video game community, composed mostly of young males, will remember this insult to one of the most beloved game franchises and game companies in the entire industry. This will stick with them until 2008. I see little tag lines on gaming sites that say things like, "Hillary won't like this one," and so forth. We should be trying to motivate young people to vote, not persecuting their favored form of entertainment. What young gamer is going to be motivated to vote for someone they feel will ban their favored medium of entertainment? Would you vote for someone that would ban your favorite movies, television shows, or books? I know it seems trivial in the grand scheme of things, but we're talking about apolitical, young, and frankly rather egocentric people here. Things like this just reinforce their belief that politicians don't care about them and can't relate to them.
When Hillary began her righteous crusade against GTA, my first thought was, "Congratulations, Democrats! You can't stop the Bush administration, you can't stop the war, you can't save the environment, you can't reduce our oil dependence, you can't win an election to save your lives - but you got a video game pulled off the shelf to remove content that was already hidden and locked up in the first place." This is why I'm a registered independent, despite the fact that I'm very liberal. I can't bring myself to officially join a party that does things like this (and it's not the first time, right Joe Lieberman?). We don't have anything to worry about other than sex in video games, Hillary? Actions like that make Democrats look ridiculous to the public.
I abhor violence in real life, but I don't believe video games lead to violent acts. Nor do I think the minute amount of sex in video games would ever lead to "moral corruption," especially when compared with the smut that you can find even on broadcast TV. Video games are targeted because they're perceived as a product for children - but they're not. Games have surpassed television as the recreational past time for many American 18-34 year olds. Hillary would do well to remember that the next time she decides to suck up to social conservatives rather than fight the real menaces in our society. Hillary, why don't you motivate the young, unregistered voters out there by fighting for their rights, ending the war(s) so they aren't drafted, and making a real contribution? Or is that too much work?
Sohei
Forged Demon [demon.carvedangel.net]