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The Political Game
Nothing is as controversial as the combination of the entertainment media and politics. When something becomes obscene in the media, the politicians step in to shut it all down. Video games are a part of that entertainment media, and it has come under fire from politicians dozens of times over the years. From Mortal Kombat and Joseph Lieberman to Grand Theft Auto and Jack Thompson, the political game has been going on since the 16-bit era and only gets bigger and sometimes worse. This week on Gaming Trends we look at the history of this political game. Plus, everybody has been saying bad things about Jack Thompson, but is he as evil as we make him out to be? I believe so, because I'll be comparing him to another modern day evil plaguing our society.
Mortal Kombat: The ESRB is formed
While it technically all started with the release of Death Race in the late 70's, it politics really started up during the early 90's. Mortal Kombat was a huge hit at the arcades and rivaled in popularity to that of Street Fighter. MK was also infamous for showing blood actually coming out of the characters and featured special moves called “Fatalities” where the player kills an opponent in gory fashion. That did not sit well with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and so started to accuse the video game industry of purposely marketing violent games to kids. Remember, back then there was no official rating system for games, so in a way, Lieberman was right. When MK was released for the consoles, Nintendo took all of it out for the SNES to avoid possible problems, but Sega kept it all intact for the Genesis and got better sales out of it. Kind of makes you think for a second.
Another game that had politicians like Lieberman going after games was Night Trap, which would becomes infamous for many reasons, mostly for had really terrible this game was. The political reason was it depicted young women (played by real actors) getting brutally murdered by the “Augers” if the player didn't react in time. Then there was also the infamous Doom, but we'll get to that game later.
With games like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap coming out, Lieberman along with Herb Kohl warned the industry that they needed to create a rating system for games or else the government steps in. Thus the ESRB would be created. Now when a video game get released, the publishers send footage of the most violent or other questionable content in it's game, the game gets proper rating, done and done. Over the years the ESRB would improve it's rating system and was constantly praised by Joseph Lieberman.
Simplified: Lieberman thought games were being purposely marketed to kids, so we make a ratings system to control it so the government doesn't, and Lieberman is satisfied. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the end of the blame game.
Columbine: The shit hits the fan
The Columbine High School Massacre was one of the worst school shootings in history. The shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, had been gathering guns and making bombs and writing out hit lists of who they wanted to kill while posting all about it on their blogs. The reasons for this shooting ranged from bullying to gothic cults to, you guessed it, video games. Parents of the victims would start suing video game companies over the old “you taught those shooters how to kill” bullshit we've all heard a million times by now.
So why did video games become part of the blame in the Columbine Massacre? Because the shooters happened to be big fans of Doom. Eric Harris had a website hosting levels he created in Doom, and it was also this site where he posted how he wanted to kill people and what weapons he would use. So the parents of the victims thought that violent video games were to blame and sued many publishers (including NINTENDO of all people!) for around $5 billion in damages. As much as I feel sorry for the relatives of these victims, it's a good thing they didn't win. There were many problems that finally opened to the publics eyes from the social outcasting of schools to lack of gun control laws, but violent video games should not have been one of them.
But let's think about this for a second. Because Harris ran a website that was for downloading Doom levels he made, they immediately blamed Doom and similar games for supposedly training the shooters to kill. Now, let's see Harris didn't have a website related to Doom at all and never made reference to it in his blogs. Would video games still be blamed for the Columbine shootings?
Six years after the Columbine massacre, Daniel “Danny” Ledonne created an RPG called “Super Columbine Massacre RPG”, where players take control of the two shooters and, if the player wanted, can kill the people inside the school before committing suicide and fighting in hell. The game followed the events of the massacre very accurately, and of course was criticized for “glorifying” the massacre. The game is free to download from wherever you can find it, as the game got so popular that Ledonne had to take it down from his website due to bandwidth issues. In September 2006, a school shooting took place in Montreal, and because the shooter just happened to love “Super Columbine Massacre RPG”, blame was immediately placed on it. Now here's the best part about this story: The killer NEVER MENTIONED THAT HE LOVED PLAYED SCMRPG. But hey, when has facts ever stopped politicians and lawyers?
Simplified: The blame game reaches an all time high all because of a Doom reference. Could you imagine if one of the 9/11 hijackers referenced a video game to the terrorist attacks?
Congress reacts: Want some “Hot Coffee?”
So Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is released to many gamers waiting to play something much better then the overrated Vice City (it's a good game, just not “OMG PERFECT” that people hype it as). The game becomes a success and the usual GTA bashing commences. But we all ignore it because it's the same old crap over and over. But then in June 2005, a person hacks the game and discovers a hidden mini-game Rockstar locked away that lets you have sex with your girlfriends to improve your relationship. Hack hits the news, game gets re-rated and pulled off shelves, and politicians start barging in.
Because of the Hot Coffee incident, two acts have been popping up recently in congress which may get signed. The first is the “Truth in Video Game Rating Act” by Sen. Sam Brownback, which changes how the ESRB rates it games. The way ESRB has always done it was using part time raters judging from the sent game footage. What the TVGR act does is make the ESRB play the games in their entirety before giving it a rating. Even though playing a game in it's entirety would be a true way to determine all of it's content, here's the two biggest problems that causes:
1. There are so many video games released a month that it would take way too long to play every single one of them throughout. Just look at our roundtable: there are about 40 or more games coming out in April. I think when Brownback made this bill, he was only counting the major AAA titles that get released, not realizing there is more to video games then Grand Theft Auto.
2. What about games that have no ending (aka every single MMORPG) or have their content changed based on the actions of online players? What about games that use mods and other sorts of user created content? How are you ever going to rate them if their never really complete? Once again, it makes Brownback look like he thinks “GTA” is the only video game in existence.
Another bill that is being considered is Sen. Fred Upton's “Video Game Decency Act”. What this act is does is punish developers for hiding any content from the ESRB that would affect the game's rating, calling it a deceptive practice under the Federal Trade Commission Act. Basically, if a company like Rockstar were to hide suggestive content such as the Hot Coffee mini-game, they would be punished under law. I don't know if gamers are bashing this as much as Brownback's act, but I honestly support this bill. The way I see it, this whole Hot Coffee crap began when Rockstar hid the coding within the game. If they didn't want gamers to play that mini-game, couldn't have Rockstar oh, I don't know...delete the code entirely?! One hack later and suddenly bills are being made left and right. The VGDA probably won't end this current cycle of bills being made, but it will hopefully stop crap like this from happening in the future.
Simplified: 99% of congress sucks when it comes to knowing video games. The only reason I don't say 100% is because I support Fred Upton's “Video Game Decency Act”.
A Jack Thompson Comparison
If you've read my Select and Start News Reports, you would know how much I've constantly mocked this man. Why do we as gamers constantly mock this man and create death threats? You could read all about it just about anywhere, even right here at 411 when Joshua wrote a whole column about it and might even do an interview with the guy. Then again, Thompson has a history of backing down from his “modest proposals”.
So instead of typing up the same old crap about why I hate this guy, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to compare Jack Thompson to someone I find him very similar to and is also hated by lots of people (especially people who try to get an interview out of her but she just pisses them off constantly).
This is Shirley Phelps-Roper, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, a group that basically hates all religions except their own. Well actually that's a lot of groups but that's another rant for another section of 411Mania. They're also the infamous group that runs godhatesfags.com.
Here's where the first similarity begins: Shirley Phelps-Roper blames everything on gay people and that God continues to kill us because gay people exist (or something like that). From the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the Amish school shootings to Hurricane Katrina, she basically blames gay people and protests at funerals to get her point across. While Jack Thompson may not be as insanely racist as her, he does have a similar hatred to video games and gamers. When a teenager kills someone, Thompson will immediately point the blame to video games whether or not it as anything at all to do with the case. It isn't just the super violent ones like Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto; he also blames other games for ridiculous reasons. He claimed that The Sims trains child molesters on how to lure children because of an internet patch that uncensored nude Sims, including children.
Simplified: Shirley Phelps-Roper's hatred of gay people = Thompson's hatred of games and gamers
The next similarity is of course the most annoying: God. It's obvious how Shirley Phelps-Roper uses God, because apparently God is telling her this is the right thing to do. It's hard to tell which God though since technically she hates catholics, so I don't think it's the same God who fathered Jesus. That and there's like dozens of these supposed “Gods”, mostly roman and greeks. Anyway, it's bad enough Thompson is your typical ambulance chasing lawyer. It's worse when he decides to use God in his speeches about why Take-Two is going to lose a lawsuit or about why gamers who committed suicide were losers with no lives. Yep, God is a really popular figure amongst people we all hate the most. I'd feel sorry for the big man above, but then again for an all-powerful deity he never comes down to defend himself, so he may as well be non-existent.
Simplified: Both love to use the name of someone who doesn't actually have a name and has a very questionable existence to spread their hatred. Besides, didn't Time Magazine said God died back in '99?
Finally, both have no logic. Shirley Phelps-Roper has no logic to her hatred. She hates for the sake of hate. Just how exactly do you wind up hating catholics, jews, Muslims, and Americans all at the same time? Thompson has no logic as well. Remember how much of a big deal he made over Bully? Telling about how our children were going to become Bullies themselves by playing these games? (plus there was a scene where if you tried hard enough you can get Jimmy kissing a boy, which Thompson also had a problem with. I guess Thompson hates gay people too). What logic did Thompson, a LAWYER no less, use to prove that this game was going to make our children evil?
Because the game is called “Bully”.
So technically, if the game was called something like “Hero” or “Good Samaritan”, Jack Thompson, a LAWYER, meaning he had to pass an exam to prove how logically smart he is, he wouldn't have a problem with it. Bully got a T-rating and wound up not being the mega-hit we assumed it was be, and Thompson almost got held up in contempt because he insulted the judge who presided over the Bully case.
Simplified: Shirley Phelps-Roper has no logic to her hatred like Thompson has no logic in his lawsuits.
I can't think of a good conclusion, so I'll end with this: Politicians need to keep their noses out of video games, because it usually ends up being worthless.
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