Zelaron Gaming Forum - controversy in video games

Okay, well, I am about to write your paper for you.... Controversy in video games is always going to be there, from the time when Pocahontas a General Custer "got it on" on the Atari, to the violence of GTA and Postal. But what compels people to make such outrageous games? Is it the fact that today's society is obsessed with violence, or possibly the fact that it pisses people off? I know that there are some WAY over the top games out there, so I will explain why it shouldn't matter, as well as why it should matter.

As you know, everyone has played a game at one time or another in thier life. Be it Tag, Tug-O-War, or some video game. Games are an integral part of the social life of everyone. You can always talk to someone about some type of game. Video games are only thing parents seem to be worried about for some reason though. If you play Halo 2, is it not the same as going to a large room and playing Lazer Tag or Paintball? You shoot your enemies, help your teammates, and hope to win. Games like Grand Theft Auto seems to be the game currently on everyone's "Evil game" list right now. But what do kids see on this game that they don't see in the news? You could watch America's Wildest Police Videos and get the same experience, but it's not interactive. Kids want to interact with EVERYTHING, from what they see on the news, to what parents do in their spare time. This also brings up what should and shouldn't be recreated from video games. Do you let your kid misbehave, because he lost in Tic-Tac-Toe? Well, you either punish him, or don't let him play Tic-Tac-Toe, right? The same goes for video games. You can't punish the older generation of gamers that can differentiate between masses of polygons and real people. If someone can't tell that people in games are fake, then maybe they shouldn't be able to watch movies either. Or watch T.V. at all, because its all in those places too. You can't ONLY censor video games, when other forms of media are producing the same content, and getting away with it.

But there are some times when video games go over the top and should be "put to rest", and never be played again. Games like Manhunt and Postal, that allow players to commit mass murders and get away with it. You could brutally beat, batter and bruise other NPC's and you are, in some cases, rewarded for doing so. Why, then, if a bunch of polygons do this, do they become the ones parents blame? Because they are so life like, that it may be that much harder for the younger generation to tell the difference. The ESRB Rating System, though quite effective, doesn't prevent kids from going to a friends' house to play these games. All the parents could do is hope the kid has enough sense to say, "Let's go outside and play tag or basketball." But, with the popularity of video games and today's kids, this has become all but likely. So parents are forced to attack the companies that make the games. This is a major mistake, because then the parents look like some kind of evil force trying to ruin gaming for the whole community, when they are just trying to help thier kids. Is there anything we could do to prevent these kind of games from being created? No, but we can make the guidelines more strict for different levels of the ESRB. As we speak, the ESRB is adding a new rating, so that games that just barely make the mature rating, but definately go over the teen rating, will have its little section. Will this help keep controversial games from reaching they youths' grasp? Only time will tell.

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do not copy what is in this quote box. I am writing 2 endings, so you could choose if you would prefer to write that you are for the banning of controversial games, or if you are against it. Also don't put the numbers in the ending...O.o

1.) I personally believe that games are just a way to escape reality. How many times have you been pulled over by an asshole cop, and just wanted to ring his neck, or give him a mean whoopin? Well, for many people, they now can, by going home and popping in a video game and going on rampages, without hurting a single person. And it helps relieve the stress of the work day. If you feel that you just have to kill a cop, and go out and do it, then you are mentally sick and should get help immediately. Those people are the kind of people that end up in prison anyways, and criminals never admit that its their fault that they commited the crime, of couse they're gonna blame the first thing that comes to mind. "Oh, yeah, Kurt Russell shot some Government agents to protect New York, so I had to shoot some Government agents to at least protect my house," or, "Solid Snake snapped someone's neck because they killed Meryl, so I had to kill this guy, because he killed my girlfriend." Just some excuses you could expect to hear from criminals. But that doesn't mean that the game caused it, the criminal just uses that as an excuse to try to get off the hook. What sucks is, sometimes, it takes just that to start a campaign against games.

2.) Although I love playing games myself, I do feel that stronger restrictions need to be added in hopes that these kind of games do not offend anyone. These games need to be either, A.) made so that the characters are obviously not real, such as giant winged leopards or talking pink elephants, or B.) have to use watered down graphics, and lower polygon counts so the graphics aren't so life like. If either of these are used, it will help the kids decipher what is real and what is fake in games. Hopefully, this will help stop the recreation of violence from video games.

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you can insert the the letters A.) and B.) because those are parts of your ways to fix the problem. If you use even part of this, I must get full credit from your teacher :)