Hillary is joining the bandwagon criticizing violent video games.
She wants a $90 million investigation to be launched into the impact of games and other electronic media on the "cognitive, social, emotional and physical development" of children, according to a Sunday Times report.
"Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them," she said in a statement on the issue. "This is a silent epidemic of media desensitization that teaches kids it's OK to dis people because they are a woman, they're a different colour or they're from a different place."
Read More: gamesindustry.biz and The Australian.
My take:
- firstly I support the right to make crap, even this sort. Further, I know decent people that find it cathartic.
- the studies in children definitely show such games reinforce bad behaviors. It will not turn a good person bad, but insofar as we all have potential anger issues, there is not really a lot of doubt that games like this promote the violent tendencies we do have. For most, that will not be beyond a dangerous threshold, but for some, it may be. Taken statistically across the whole culture, I think we can't deny there is an affect. Personally, I think the affect must be dealt with culturally and not by prohibition... it's just the cost of freedom.
- I made video games for years, non-violent networked games, but I no longer do, and one reason was when you go looking for work you are essentially applying to make various kinds of murder simulations with very very few exceptions.
- I still support the right of people to make and market games, even ones as bad as Grand Theft Auto. And by bad I mean, of course, the spirit of the game... all reports are that the game has a kind of flexible immersion which ironically is exactly what I loved about making games in the first place... creating a virtual environment.