Figure 3 Gamer Node. Sales from 2008 suggest that families do take an active involvement in what their kids are playing by what is sold. 23 Mar 2010

Figure 3 Gamer Node. Sales from 2008 suggest that families do take an active involvement in what their kids are playing by what is sold. 23 Mar 2010.
That hasn’t stopped some political figures from bringing up the cause-and-effect theory to congress. For every action there is a reaction and it has been debated to death that violent video games cause the violent actions of children. One of the most famous cases of blaming video games for violence was spearheaded by Senator Joe Lieberman in 1993. The popular debate went to congress over the game Mortal Combat where the question, Are these violent games “training early killers?” (Wired, 2009) This created bitter rivalry between the popular gaming companies Sega and Nintendo who fought through the entire Congressional hearing. It was Senator Lieberman who presented Congress with the Video Game Ratings Act of 1994 which never passed because the gaming industry voluntarily created the game rating system mentioned above which began on September 1^st 1994. In 2007 this rating system was questioned when a bill was presented by Senator Samuel Brownback to congress called the Truth in Video Game Rating Act. The bill tries to tie the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (or the ESRB) to certain regulations while rating a game such as playing a game all the way through to include all hidden content, disallowing any game creator, marketer, or distributor from withholding any content from the ESRB and would make it a federal violation to give a game an incorrect label such as E when it should be T. This would prevent incidents as in August of 2005 when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ rating was changed from M to AO after discovering you could download hidden content which was pornographic. At that point the game had already been on the shelves for years.


Figure 4: GameSpot.com. Richard Taylor, a spokesman from ESA. 16 August 2010.
If the bill passes the question is, will this make the parental controls on gaming consoles applicable? There is some debate on the ease of accessing parental controls depending on what console you are using. Jeff Cork reviewed parental controls in his article It’s Under Control in the March 2010 issue of Game Informer. In the article he had his wife who is not a gamer try to access the parental controls. In the end his suggestion was, “I’d like to see more flexibility overall. Having restrictions based on ratings is a good start, but parents should be able to make exceptions on a game-by-game basis. Halo 3 might be perfectly acceptable for a kid who’s not quite ready for Grand Theft Auto.” (Game Informer 2010) Some parents are aware of the games available so they know what’s best for their child but what about for one who is not?

This is the question California is raising right now. The Supreme Court is currently hearing the case Video Software Dealers Ass'n v.  Schwarzenegger. The case asks that violent games be marked with a warning label on front similar to what you see on the cover of music cd’s that have foul language. The bill states:

“A reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find it appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors…it is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the community as to what is suitable for minors… or it causes the game, as a whole, to lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” (Game Informer Oct. 2010)

The debate here is that this would give the government the ability to decide what games can and cannot be put on the shelves and what game content can and cannot be created. ESA spokesmen Rich Taylor believes this is a violation of free speech that would not be afforded to the literary world, Hollywood or the music industry. “If you’re a retailer, you want to be able to sell the products that come to your store without fear of potentially being on the wrong side of the law.” (Game Informer Oct. 2010) The article states that game publishers fear the reaction to this will be that retailers fearing legal action will decline to carry violent video games and as a result the publishers will be forced by lack of profit to discontinue creating M rated video games. The case was declared unconstitutional as it violated the First Amendment by the district court judge and that finding was found to be correct when put before the U.S. Court of Appeals in February.

In the past, cases involving changing or categorizing the First Amendment have been declined with the reasoning that they would not create restrictions from the protections of freedom of speech in this country. In this case the Court failed to comment when asked if they planned on categorizing First Amendment rights. The court appears to be considering restricting minors free speech by reviewing the case of Morse vs. Frederick in favor of the school against the student who waved the banner, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus,” (Findlaw, 2010) rather than the opposite findings from a few years ago.

The opposite end of the spectrum is that California does not want retailers selling to minors. They want to do that with large fines for every time they sell violent games to underage patrons without parental consent. States may not have the legal right to decide what is harmful and what is not. That depends on how you define freedom of speech. The way California sees it there are other restrictions that already exist to restrict kid’s access to other harmful influences like pornography, firearms, tobacco, the death penalty, and alcohol. They claim there is a link between playing violent video games and real life violence.

America isn’t the only country that is fighting what rights the gaming companies have. In Australia it’s believed that because you interact on games, unlike other forms of entertainment such as in literature, films and music, that you can be more openly influenced by what is in the game. The Australian government has stepped in and there is no R18+ rating. In 2002 Attorney-General Michael Atkinson used his veto power to disallow the creation of any games rated at or over R18+ for his entire 8 year term which ended this year. The problem there is that games which should be rated at 18+ are rated at 15+ in order to be released in the country. This allows children at 15 to be subjected to adult content which again makes the parental controls of gaming consoles a moot point.


Figure 5 Tiggervamp. Senator Jack Thompson. 25 September 2008.
Blaming video games for violence is not a thing of the 80’s and 90’s. Recently in Germany there was a mirror event of Columbine where a school shooting was blamed on video games by President Horst Koehler in 2009. He stated at the memorial, “All Germany mourns with you. Each child is born innocent, and when a child dies, it is hope and the future which dies too… [there should be restrictions on] the innumerable films and videogames of extreme violence, with their display of dead bodies…” Right now there is an attempt there to ban the creation and distribution of all violent video games which would affect the popular company Crytek the creators of Crysis, and Far Cry. They are censored there more than what you see now in the US. For example, if you walk into a gaming store and find a copy of Left For Dead the cover—which usually shows a green hand with a severed thumb—will instead display the hand with the thumb still intact. In 2009 a law was presented in Venezuela to prohibit violent video games and toys. In France there was controversy over a video game depicting the homeless as drunks fighting for their part of the street. Homeless groups were up in arms over the depictions of homeless people in the game which invites the player to fight and drink.


Figure 6: Wii. Father supervising and playing games with daughter on Wii Parents page. http://www.nintendo.com/wii/console/wiiparents
Are these politicians asking any questions about the possible benefits of playing video games? A recent study has found Tetris may help reduce flashbacks in patients with PTSD. If played shortly after the traumatic experience it seems to work by altering how the brain stores those memories thus reducing the occurrence of flashbacks. Another recent study found that certain games (first person shooters mostly) improve hand-eye coordination more than sports so that some hospitals have created games for surgeons to play before they do a procedure in order to be at the top of their game. Studies have shown that some games relieve stress, relieve pain through distraction, improve peripheral vision, distract people from snacking and over-eating, improve your imagination, help you enhance problem-solving skills, increase cognition, and even heighten empathy levels in players. (Tasty Human, Apr. 2009)

On the other hand, you have retailers selling violent games rated M to minors. Jack Thompson stated in an interview on CNN, “the Federal Trade Commission found last month that roughly 42% of the time that any kid of any age can walk into any retailer and buy any game…despite the game rating,” Later in the interview he presented the audience with the fact that the American Psychological Association found there was a direct underlying link between the play of violent video games by minors and actual violence acted out by those same minors. He took it a step further by stating there are over a thousand studies which show a direct link between the play of violent games and violent behavior. He even mentioned brain scan studies that show teens process violent video game play in the same part of the brain that processes copycat habits. There was one which had a blanket statement of, “Much of the experimental research that has been conducted on violent video games and aggression suggests that there is some type of causal relationship between the two; namely that violent video games increase aggression.” (Giumetti, Markey 2007). Another stated no evidence could be found that there was a direct link in college students between game play and decision making. (Lee, LaRose 2007).

Karen Moltenbrey; the Chief Editor of Computer Graphics World Magazine, eloquently summed up the issue at hand to include parental involvement:

“My view on violence in games is this: If you don’t want to look at it, don’t. Games, like movies, are rated. So, simply do not buy it. But, don’t stop others from doing so, unless it is your own family. The problem is that many parents do not check the game rating, or simply ignore it…Will I purchase certain games for my almost-teen son? No. Will he play some of them at a friend’s house, where the rules are more relaxed? Probably, But it is up to me to monitor that situation. Come to think of it, isn’t this the same issue our parents had years ago with certain movies and television programs?”

Figure 7: Mortgage Coeur d’Alene. Don’t bury your head in the sand. 7 Aug 2009. http://mortgagecoeurdalene.com/2009/08/

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    Game Politics. Report: German President Backs Ban on Violent Video Games, Movies. 24 March 2009. http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/03/24/report-german-president-backs-ban-violent-video-games-movies
    
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Directory: 2010
2010 -> Through the Roof
2010 -> 2004 ieee international topical meeting on microwave photonics technical digest
2010 -> The petition and case system
2010 -> Hr 116 Application for Employment with Hills and Dales
2010 -> Polimaster ltd V. Rae systems inc polimaster ltd.; Na&se trading co., Limited, Plaintiffs-Appellants
2010 -> The tandem project
2010 -> Cape Lookout National Seashore Historic Resource Study By
2010 -> Cape Lookout National Seashore Historic Resource Study By
2010 -> Ap u. S. History presidents list the Young Republic, 1788-1815 George Washington, 1789-1797