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Why Are We Plagued By Indifference?
Video game: noun. (1)Any of various games played using a microcomputer with a keyboard and often joysticks to manipulate changes or respond to the action or requests on the screen. (2)Any of various games using a microchip-controlled device, as an arcade machine or hand-held toy. (3)An electronic or computerized game played by manipulating images on a video display or television screen. (4)A game played against a computer.
Video games are the most recent form of medium in the world of entertainment. Speculation has surrounded the industry since the beginning. Video games have violence, sexual content, puzzles and riddles, and much enjoyment for those who play them. Are we to speculate that they are bad? There is more than one side to every story.
Violence is an act of aggression. It's a turbulent state resulting in injuries and destruction. Society blames violent behavior on many outlets. The New York Times website published an article called “Courts Block Laws on Video Game Violence”, which states politicians are trying to outlaw the sale of violent video games to children: “Citing the Constitution’s protection of free speech, federal judges have rejected attempts to regulate video games in eight cities and states since 2001. The judge in a ninth place, Oklahoma, has temporarily blocked a law pending a final decision. No such laws have been upheld (Schiesel).” This would have been an unconstitutional law made and many appeals would have been made on behalf of video games. The [video game] industry has been under scrutiny for many years for its violence and now, most recently, California and New York have made attempts to fight. “Video games are a new medium, and while people are used to scary stuff in the movies, they aren’t as used to having scary stuff in interactive media, so there is political value in passing these laws even if they are ultimately rejected by the courts,” said Paul M. Smith, a partner in the Jenner & Block law firm, which represents the game industry. “I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people who passed these laws knew they were unconstitutional, and they did it anyway.” Simply, the United States Supreme Court, in this interpretation has allowed states broad leeway in regulating minors’ access to explicit material. That is why it is illegal to sell pornography to children (Schiesel). The courts have yet to make it legal for states to regulate violent video games. It is the opinion of Zackery P. Morazzini, the California deputy attorney general, that video games should be regulated for both sexually explicit material and violence. There should be a better rating system that grades video games before a final product can be produced for the public; however, a commission to reform the current rating system would create both positive and negative changes in the production of aforementioned games. I don't see this happening in the near future unless it becomes proven fact that video games are the absolute reason for violence in the community.
Video games have become the scapegoat for the media when someone executes a murder, when there is destruction of a building, or when someone disappears. Most recently a 15-year-old boy, Brandon Crisp, ran away after his parents confiscated his Xbox360. He left his home after the argument and has not yet been found. He has been described as “obsessed” with the game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Microsoft, in turn, has pledged a reward for information leading to his return (“Avid Gamer Falls Off Radar”). They haven't found him yet and the Canadian police say that he may not be in the country. This isn't the first time video games have been blamed for anything. The Columbine High School massacre was also blamed on video games. Jennifer Rosenberg states “When the two boys entered high school, they found it difficult to fit into any of the cliques. As is too common in high school, the boys found themselves frequently picked on by athletes and other students.” Were video games really to blame for this event? I don't think the massacre was caused by video games. All the boys did was play the game Doom. They became friends and after several months or so of being bullied around they decided to get revenge. The boys acquired weapons and went on a well-planned killing spree within their school. This marked the beginning of video games being chosen by the media as a source of violent behavior in youth.
Scandalous behavior and imagery in video games has become mainstream in the world. “Various commentators have recently noted that there has been a dramatic increase in sexual content in the media... prime time is saturated with sex, and more explicitly so than ever” (Impett & Malamuth 271). The rise is due to the generation of gamers becoming older. Due to interactive media, video games have fallen into a pornographic --or sexual-- category. Developers have been creating sexually attractive heroes for a while now. They didn't blatantly announce it. They produced a game that had an attractive protagonist for the game experience. One of the first games with a lecherous protagonist was Leisure Suit Larry. In the game you are a playboy in a casino. Larry's deeds lead him to women and wealth. Sexual humor in the game is minimal compared to a pornographic magazine or book.
Television has a high level of sexual content, yet there are no laws preventing the sale of cable and satellite service. The Internet has more sexual content than a video game can ever have. All someone needs to do to find sexually explicit material is use a search engine. Evan Lauteria says that “While gender and race studies have been done on video games (even if very few and far between), the issue of representation of sexual orientation in video games has largely been overlooked academically. Within gaming culture, there seems to be a certain level of accepted homophobia, probably due to the lack of cultural diversity that is associated with 'gaming culture.” Even with many positive studies about sexuality in gaming parents, organizations, and government want to prohibit the use of sexual content in video games.
Many video games offer both multiple paths and utilize problem-solving skills to find your way through a trap, or mechanism, to help you move to the next part of the game. Games have clues to puzzles and alternate doorways that need to be solved in order to use those passages. A simple example is a game called Echochrome for the Sony PlayStation Portable. Echochrome is a puzzle solving game. You have to manipulate the surrounding platforms to acquire “shadows” so you can progress to the next stage. People learn to think outside of the box to finish many levels. A recent title called Portal enables you to use a “portal gun” to get from one point to another. There are many different traps to impede your progress. A list of objectives is given to you and you have to complete each objective. James Paul Gee told Wired Magazine “The secret of a video game as a teaching machine isn't its immerse 3-D graphics, but its underlying architecture. Each level dances around the outer limits of the player's abilities, seeking at every point to be hard enough to be just doable. In cognitive science, this is referred to as the regime of competence principle, which results in a feeling of simultaneous pleasure and frustration - a sensation as familiar to gamers as sore thumbs.“ This means that video games help with the cognitive, or conscious, decisions that we can make. This also means that sometimes it takes a time of trial and error to make it past a portion of a game. Interactive media can be used for learning due to interaction with environments and other game mechanics.
There are many people in the world that love to play video games. Between the challenges that games create and the joy that comes from overcoming those challenges there can't be a more gratifying feeling than finishing a game. Even if people don't finish a game they can still get enjoyment out of it because of how they play, who they play with, and how long they play. Video games don't only offer escapism; they allow relaxation and rational thought to take effect when stress ignites the person playing the games. Then, why are video games given such a bad reputation?
Sources:
“Avid Gamer Falls Off Radar”"High Score Education: Games, not school, are teaching kids to think"
Impett, Emily A., Neil M. Malamuth. “Research on Sex in the Media” Handbook of Children and the Media. Ed. Singer, Dorothy, Jerome Singer. Sage Publications. 2001.
"Sexuality and Sexual Orientation in Computer and Console Games"
"Columbine Massacre"
"New Study Reveals Parents See Benefits of Kids Playing Games"
"Courts Block Laws on Video Game Violence"
