aphexplotz

Stop blaming video games for bad parenting.

Please, just stop. For the love of God, Yahweh, the FSM or whatever diety you choose to believe kills kittens when someone does something wrong. Today I came across a video, which I'll talk about later in this post, which really rubbed me the wrong way. It was so blatantly misinformed that it really made me angry. So, hopefully I can incite change in at least a few people.

If nothing else, I'll ask one thing. Stop swallowing the propaganda thats being fed to you. Video games are not training your kid to become a mass murderer, sociopath or felon. Its gotten to the point where people are regurgitating this nonsense with no factual basis, simply because they've heard so many other people say it. Its untrue, and frankly, idiotic.

I'm a senior designer for EA's online games division, the largest game developer in the world. I work on Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). They're called Massive for a reason. It is estimated that over 200 million people play these games worldwide. Like anything with such a wide distribution of population, there are extremes. Not everyone who drinks is an Alcoholic, not everyone who gambles is an addict, and not everyone who plays MMOs does so to these extremes. Demonizing the genre due to a few examples is as wrong as demonizing all people who gamble or drink.

Many people like to say that there is evidence proving video games are harmful. Sadly those reports do exist. However, they're from disreputable, biased and anti-gaming activists. The people pushing this agenda have done no scientific study or research to give any reputable proof to these claims. In fact, most of the major players in the modern anti-video game activism are the same exact people who attacked the TV, Movie and Music industries for their content. Jack Thompson, the most vocal of the activists and a Florida Lawyer, is currently in the midst of disbarment hearings by the Florida Bar. He even had the balls to try to sue the Florida Bar for investigating his frivolous lawsuits against the gaming industry, most of which he was soundly defeated. He's the same lawyer who gave attorney general Janet Reno a letter at a campaign event requesting that she check a box to indicate whether she was homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual, and then attacked her publicly for her alleged homosexuality. He is also the same lawyer who attacked 2 Live Crew for obscenity. The list goes on.

Regardless of the completely baseless claims from these raving lunatics, Senators Joe Lieberman, Sam Brownback, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Rick Santorum pushed the Children Media Research and Advancement (CAMRA) Act through committee last year, which they first introduced in May 2004.

CAMRA will enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which will work in coordination with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to research "the effects of viewing and using electronic media, including television, computers, video games and the Internet on children's cognitive, social, physical, and psychological development."

Sadly, those who are in favor of the bill are the most heavily anti-gaming lobbyists and senators, who are more concerned with their personal beliefs than scientific evidence. Prior to this, funding has been blocked from many organizations friendly to the gaming industry that wanted to publish studies showing that the effects are not nearly as harmful as they've been claimed to be, so our industry has little faith that the study will be as neutral as we can hope.

However, there have been several studies in Korea and Japan, where gaming is a much more prominent activity than the US. In Korea a large majority of the population, yes MAJORITY, play online games. Games such as Starcraft are even televised several channels. Their Gaming champions are treated roughly akin to professional sports players in the states, and payed about as well. Scientists there have been dealing with a much heavier dose of gaming, and thus have done extensive studies on the subject. They've found that effects can come about from long term game exposure in certain conditions. Children under the age of 12 who have had extensive exposure to violent video games have shown diminished beta brainwave patterns and a suppressed limbic system, which is the area of the brain that regulates impulse control. However, because of the rapid decrease in omega 3 fatty acids in the diets of parents and children over the last 40 years which can also do this, the exact cause is hard to pin down to a singular cause. Short term exposure in scientific study was shown to have short term effects, but no lasting effects in anyone above the age of 12. Yet, all subjects studied developed significantly improved reflexes, motor skills, problem solving skills, and reaction times. Studies of patients with traumatic brain injury also showed significant brain development that rivaled that of ROT exercises. Exposure to video games in elderly drivers has also been shown to improve motor function, peripheral vision, and reaction time, thus making them better and safer drivers.

Yet, things like this still happen. In the clip, Fox News attacks Pandemic/Bioware's new mega hit Mass Effect for containing "full digital nudity and sex'. The problem... it doesn't. Not even close. Geoff Keighley, who works for G4 TV and finds himself defending the completely insane accusations of people lobbying against the gaming industry tries to interject this. The people attacking the game flat out admit they've never even played it, and the "newscaster" admits her only knowledge of the game is from a cursory glance at the website right before the interview.

There is so much misinformation in this clip, its hard to know where to start. What happened to research in journalism?

As Geoff points out, there is no full digital nudity or sex. There's one 30 second scene in 30 hours of gameplay that shows a side shot of an alien breast. You get more nudity an average R rated movie, and at least those breasts aren't blue and scaly (yes, the breast you see in the game is blue and scaly). The fact that one of the "panel" calls this "Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas" is astounding, and demonstrates that they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

The scene has to be actively sought out in the "choose your adventure" style game, by falling in love. If you decide to hack and slash your way through the game instead of playing the good guy, you'll never see it. The Misogynistic angle they try to take by saying that the game is taken completely from the perspective of a man, as Geoff points out, is also false. You can play the main character as a woman OR a man. Your choice.

Then, there's the "expert". She doesn't get two sentences in to her uninformed blathering before she spouts this gem. "If you look at the statistics, who's playing video games but adolescent males."

OK. I'll bite. Lets look at the statistics.

These are taken from the ESA, the Entertainment Software Association. This is somewhat of an overseeing body in the gaming industry, much like the MPAA or the RIAA. I would love to quote the entire article, though everyone should read it, but its too long. I'll just pull out the relevant parts.

These numbers are probably not what you expected. In fact, they show completely contrary information to what most people believe, that adolescent males are the majority of gamers. In fact, the majority of gamers are in the 18-49 year old range with a staggering 24.2% of gamers being 50 years or older.

Sorry Miss Expert, looks like YOU should look at the statistics.

What really kills me about these people, is the way they speak about children. They speak of them like wild animals, who do whatever they want without any control from the parents. I just simply don't understand this. Video games carry an ESRB rating, similar to the MPAA rating on movies. Here's a quick guide to the rating system, though its pretty self explanatory:

The easiest way to prevent children from seeing what you do not want them to see in video games is to look at the ESRB rating. It will tell you what, if anything, a game contains, and the appropriate age range as described above. If it has something that you don't want your kids to see, don't allow it in your house. In addition, game companies and console game system makers have gone to great lengths to add parental controls that can help you monitor and regulate game usage. Bypassing all the safeguards in place to prevent adult games from reaching children's hands is like bypassing safeguards in place to prevent children from seeing porn. I'll never understand a parent who willingly buys a game that is clearly labeled AO (ADULTS ONLY) for their adolescent child, then complains about the content. Its akin to buying your child porn and then complaining to the publisher for their content.

Another thing to note, is the grossly misrepresented number of violent and mature games. As the ESRB article above states, roughly 11.9 percent of games fall into this category. The media likes to bill the industry as a production house for violent and abhorrent content. However, they fail to mention that over half the games produced carry no objectionable material whatsoever, and another 30% on top of that are the equivalent of a PG-13 movie. However, games like "The Sims" (Which happens to be the best selling video game of all time) "Viva Pinata" and "Animal Crossing" don't seem to make the news much. Instead, you see "Grand Theft Auto". Just like many other aspects of the news media, violence and sensationalism sells. Thankfully, thats not true for the gaming industry, regardless of how its billed.

So, hopefully this has shed a bit of light on the subject. I'm more than willing to answer any questions you might have on what your perception is, and how it meets up with the reality.