Rated "M" for Mature

(My issue that I bring today is violence in video games. Before we begin it should be noted that my issue does not receive much press time. In addition the only press time it gets is never truly balanced. Proponents against my issue will bring up violence in video game is hiding behind the first amendment. While the first amendment does protect violence in video game I will not be using it as my arguing point. Instead I will give you the other side of the story. The side of the gamer. Too many times have, what I believe, bad parents or helicopter parents used video games to blame how people act aggressively. And with that let’s begin!)

           

Around 1994 the video game industry pressured from Government gave birth to the ESRB. The ESRB to put it simply is the equivalent of the MPAA for video games. Similar to the MPAA the ESRB has categories to rate games, but unlike the MPAA, the ESRB gives a letter rating, and an age range rating. For example Super Mario Galaxy received an “E” (everyone can play) with “Mild Cartoon Violence”. Final Fantasy XIII received a “T” (appropriate for anyone over the age of 13) with “mild language, suggestive themes, fantasy violence”.  And lastly Borderlands received an “M” (mature audiences, only those who are 17 and above can play) with “blood and gore, intense violence, mature humor, and strong language”. These ratings by the ESRB are not only detailed but also appear on the front of the box on video games. Some publishers like Capcom (makers of Resident Evil and Street Fighter) even go so far as to show the rating before the game loads up. All current consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) even have a parental lock that can be activated and if a mature game is placed in the console with the lock on a password is required to play the game. There are enough precautions TODAY taken by the video game industry to keep violent video games away from minors. For the state of California this precautions are still not good enough!

            

Earlier this year the Supreme Court heard a case (Brown vs EMA) on violence in video games. California signed into law that retailers should not sell violent video games to minors, to which the Supreme Court stated that denying access to the violent video games would violate the right to free speech. Like I said before I won’t be using the first amendment for my argument. What I will do is show how wrong California is. First, good for California for passing a law that bans the sale of violent video games to minors. Unnecessary and unfair it may be, why unnecessary? Well in addition to the first paragraph add this, GameStop and EB Games, themselves will not sell “M” rated games to minors. They will sell to parents or anyone older than 17 and yes they do ask for a license. What that parent does with the game after is not GameStop’s or EB Games’ fault. Unfair? Unfair in the sense that movies are more violent than video games and will be rated softer. Remember Final Fantasy XII’s rating and one of the actual categories it fell under? Now compare that to the reboot Transformers series. I own FF 13 and can say the mild language was added because of the word “damn”. Transformers on the other hand has language such as “*hit, pu**y, b*tch,” several occurrences of sexual innuendo, several sexual situations, and robot violence oh and this was PG-13! The Dark Knight featured an antagonist (The Joker) slam a man’s face on a sharp pencil. Let’s not forget the first scene in a bank robbery by the Joker in which his men killed each other or the end of the movie where Joker wants prisoners and innocent citizens to blow each other up! The absence of blood does not make the movie any less violent. FF 13 had violence but they too did not have blood and defeated enemies would dissolve. Yet video game violence is still treated as though it is worse than violence on TV or in movies because of the interaction between the product and the consumer.

            

When we sit down to look at a movie or television our interaction is minimal. When playing a video game more interaction is involved. Gamers take control of their virtual characters in their virtual worlds. And that is just it, it is virtual, it is not real. Yet prolonged hours may bring out aggressiveness in young adolescents. You know what else brings out aggressiveness in everyone, the fact humans are naturally aggressive. Even from a very early age (below 4 years) we know how to hit and kick. Being aggressive comes naturally. If playing violent video games makes minors aggressive than so does reading, watching tv and movies, or listening to music. Video games are a new form of entertainment (around since 1970’s) and like all new forms of entertainment they go through phases. Video games are now at the phase of being blamed all the time. Before video games, it was horror movies that caused young people to behave aggressively. Exposure to Halloween, or Friday the 13^th, Psycho, those caused teenagers to be aggressive. Before movies it was television causing young kids to act violently.  (Sorry I wasn’t alive when TV dominated so I have no clues about which TV shows were rumored to cause kids to behave violently. Most likely the old westerns. ) And before television, comic books were thought to make kids behave violently and also might entice kids to act homosexually. Yep, Freddic Wertham, a psychologist stated Batman comics may entice kids to behave homosexually. His campaign even got the attention of a Senator and the Government pressured the comic book industry to make the “Comic Code”.

            

All forms of entertainment will be brought to the courts for the public to decide if they cause our children to act abnormal. We should not take it to the courts to decide. Instead citizens should come together and figure out the truths of entertainment. There is no doubt that there is violence in video games. But does it cause more aggressiveness in children. Not even close!