Ben-DutkaVideo games have been coming under fire ever since the Newtown, CT shooting tragedy.
And as no mainstream media source will give the industry a chance to defend itself, we turn to Video Games: The Movie , where several major developers have spoken out on the violent game debate.
This new clip includes spokesmen from Gearbox Software, Blizzard and Epic Games, and addresses the subject that seems to be on everyone's lips. First up was Blizzard Entertainment chief creative officer Rob Pardo:
"There's always a lot of media talking about violence in video games. And certainly there are violent video games. But that's not how you describe the medium of gaming. The interesting thing, I think, with games, is that we actually have an even better ratings system than movies but there's still kind of this general misunderstand with the older generation that all games are like Grand Theft Auto. It would be like saying 'We don't want anyone to go watch movies because all movies are violent.' But people don't say that because everyone really understands movies as a medium."
That's pretty straightforward and unfortunately, it makes perfect sense. It speaks to the general widespread ignorance concerning the gaming industry. That's sort of expected from the public because in many ways, gaming remains somewhat niche, but it's not acceptable from so-called expert sources. Gearbox creative designer Mikey Neumann added that we should be blaming parents:
"It's weird how when you watch the people and they go to Congress and they're angry: 'Our kids are being corrupted.' I'm like 'Yeah, exactly. They're your kids, they're your children; you should be not corrupting them. 'I leave them alone ten hours a day, he's getting corrupted by this.' Well no sh**. It's like finding your dad's Playboys under the bed and then blaming Playboy."
Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski said there is no causal relationship between violent video games and real-world violence, and compared it to the following: It's like saying there's more crime in the summer, and people eat more ice cream in the summer, so ice cream must cause crime. These are points we're not allowed to make on major networks or anything like that, so we'll have to be content with this.
And that my friend is why I dont eat ice cream !!!!
All pretty much true. I like the comment that the world doesn't understand gaming as a medium, it's so true. Some things are doomed to be misunderstood forever, like anime, but I think gaming will one day become understood when all the ancient people are out of government.
I blame Playboy magazine for my corruption.
But yeah, I don't think most current day politicians are fit to judge video games as a medium. We need young people who truly understand the world as it is today. We need realists!
I can't understand why no one in the national media wants both sides of a debate. It is the only media that is treated like this. it shameful.