My Thoughts And Opinions On: Do Video Games Make People More Violent (Part 1)
A Brief History Of Video Game Controversy (Custer's Revenge, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night Trap, Mortal Kombat, Doom, and the Creation of the ESRB)
In 1982, a
video game company called Mystic Games released a game for the Atari
2600 called Custer's Revenge. The game depicted (in crappy pixelated
Atari graphics) of a naked General Custer raping a Native American
woman. Not surprisingly, the game caused a lot of controversy
(Rightfully so, as the game was offensive to both women and Native
Americans). One could look at a game at Custer's Revenge on the 2600 was
and understandably realize why that game so controversial.
Around this time as well, Wizard Video Games released a game adaptation of the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
In this game, one played Leatherface while wielding a chainsaw and
cutting down trespassers. This game also quickly gained notoriety. It
became a rare title as many stores refused to carry the game. There was
merit behind these early controversies as these games were promoted on a
system that was mostly targeted to children. In these earlier years,
the vast majority of those that played games on these systems were
children. Gaming was largely associated as a kids activity during the
late 70's/early 80's. Since video gaming was in it's infancy, it's
effects on the general population was unknown.
Things would not always be like this though. Those that demonize
video games because they don't know what they don't understand or take
sensationalist claims at face-value will have their views debunked with
facts and research. This research would debunk the claims of those that
preach that video games as the worst thing ever to occur in Western
Civilization. One would get to a point where systems like the Xbox,
Playstation, and games on the PC catered towards a late teen/young adult
market. Video games wasn't a kids activity anymore. Even the Nintendo
Switch, which is embraced by the young, has universal appeal as it also
appeals to those that need to have their share blood and mayhem. In
2019, the average age of a typical gamer is 34 years old. I wonder how
many of you knew that? Eventually the research would come, and when it
did come, those empty claims that many held on for years and decades
would be debunked.
The video game crash occurred in 1983. With it, the issue largely died down as gaming in general declined following the crash. Nintendo revived the industry with the NES in 1985. Console gaming became very prominent again. However, Nintendo exercised quality control over the games that were released on their system via a lock-out chip. In order for a game to get a lock-out chip, it had to conform to Nintendo's guidelines, which demanded family friendly games geared towards a general audience. Because the Atari 2600 was built from off-the-shelf components (their was nothing proprietary about that system), Atari was unable to prevent third-party publishers like Mystic Games or Wizard from publishing content on their system. Nintendo would exercise strict quality control to prevent a similar situation from occurring on their own system using proprietary solutions.
As the 80's continued, gamers continued to grow older. They started to outgrow Nintendo's offerings. Sega became very prominent during this time, releasing titles that wouldn't have been released on the NES. Sega also got the upper hand in technology by releasing a 16-bit console before Nintendo did, in the form of the Genesis here in the US, or known as the MegaDrive in Europe.
Many adults played video games as well. However, they were often lampooned by those that saw it as a stupid distraction, failing to realize that any recreational activity, like watching books, watching movies, or blogging (as this idiot is doing right now), are distractions that were on equal footing with video games. As we entered the 90's, the typical age of the gamer was growing in age, and as such, video gaming wasn't restricted for only children.
Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, Nintendo, and the Creation of the ESRB
By the early 90's,
game publishers and developers realized that it wasn't only children
that played video games. As such, many game companies started to target
a more mature audience.
On the consoles, Mortal Kombat took the gaming scene by storm. Being the curator of family-friendly video games, Nintendo opted for a blood-free version of the game which didn't have the horrific (but yet epically awesome) fatalities. Despite the lack of blood and fatalities, it was essentially a arcade-perfect port of a game that drew massive crowds to arcades nationwide. The Sega Genesis port wasn't as graphically impressive, but yet, it had the blood and those awesome fatalities. It was estimated that the Sega Genesis version outsold the SNES port 4 to one.
On the consoles, Mortal Kombat took the gaming scene by storm. Being the curator of family-friendly video games, Nintendo opted for a blood-free version of the game which didn't have the horrific (but yet epically awesome) fatalities. Despite the lack of blood and fatalities, it was essentially a arcade-perfect port of a game that drew massive crowds to arcades nationwide. The Sega Genesis port wasn't as graphically impressive, but yet, it had the blood and those awesome fatalities. It was estimated that the Sega Genesis version outsold the SNES port 4 to one.
Mortal Kombat For The Sega Genesis/MegaDrive
Mortal Kombat For The Nintendo SNES
A few weeks ago,
the ISO images for the MS-DOS version of Night Trap was posted on
Archive.org. I decided to try out the game on DOSBox. The only other
experience with this game was when I tried the SegaCD version on the
Fusion Emulator which emulates various Sega systems. Between the two
ports, the DOS one is better over the SegaCD. I could navigate the
cameras far more quickly using the numeric keypad than a controller, the
video was higher quality, and the use of a mouse made game-play much
more convenient.
After sampling this game out for a short duration, I have come to a few conclusions. Was Night Trap beyond cheesy? Yes. Was it horrible, perverted "smut" that the politicians like Joe Lieberman made it out to be? Far from it. It was essentially a crappy 80's B-Rate movie that just happened to be in a form of a video game instead of a VHS tape.
After sampling this game out for a short duration, I have come to a few conclusions. Was Night Trap beyond cheesy? Yes. Was it horrible, perverted "smut" that the politicians like Joe Lieberman made it out to be? Far from it. It was essentially a crappy 80's B-Rate movie that just happened to be in a form of a video game instead of a VHS tape.
Night Trap for the Sega CD running under the Fusion Emulator for Windows.
Night Trap for MS-DOS running under DOSBox SVN Daum
For the
general audience that embraced the mindset that only children played
video games, the existence of Mortal Kombat and Night Trap was seen as
an assault on values. The publicity that these game received made them
public enemy number one in the eyes of many. Congressional hearings were
held in 1994. Lead by Joe Lieberman, they called the major game
companies to testify in front of Congress.
Nintendo, which was the most prominent of the companies, was
called to testify as well. In a very selfish move, the gaming giant
dragged the whole industry under the bus so that they can make
themselves look good in the eyes on Congress. Nintendo stated that they
were champions of family-friendly games, and declared that they chose
morals over profit.
As noted in the Wikipedia article, Howard Lincoln, who represented Nintendo, declared that they would have never released a game like Night Trap period. Bill White, who represented Sega, countered that Sega imposed it's own voluntary ratings system, which rated the games appropriately under the system (Mortal Kombat MA-13, Night Trap MA-17). Sega was actually being more responsible to the consumer because they implemented a ratings system to inform the consumer of how the games were rated. They just didn't assume that all video games were just for a general audience. They also felt that it wasn't in their place to become the morality police by determining what the consumer can and can't buy based on what Sega's own interpretation of "morality" is. This is anti-consumer. As long as games were rated appropriate, then the consumer has the provided information to know if the game is suitable for their own taste or that of a family member.
Fearing
government intervention, many of the gaming heavyweights agreed to
self-regulation by voluntarily creating a industry-standard ratings
system in the mold of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board).
The ESBR rated video games in the same manner that the MPAA (Motion
Picture Association of America) rated movies. A rating is attached to a
game based on the content that's within in.
Shortly after the creation of the ESRB, Nintendo published a
arcade-perfect port of MKII with all the blood and fatalities. They
justified this move by stating that since their was a ratings systems in
place, they could release the game with the full content with the
consumer informed with how the game was rated. This was a massive
contradiction to the earlier claim that they only promoted
family-friendly content and that they chose morals over profit.
MK2 For The SNES
Despite their MKII
move, in the short term, Nintendo became the darlings of families that
wanted family-friendly content, and not that "smut" that was on the Sega
Genesis. Nintendo greatly profited in the short-term with families
purchasing SNES's based on Nintendo's perceived image. In the long-term
though, this move greatly damaged Nintendo's reputation as now it was
seen as basically a toy company that made games only for children, a
stigma that they hadn't been able to shake off until recently, embracing
their current image as a universal game company.
Nintendo's self-promotion during the Congressional hearings was very destructive. Instead of working together with other gaming companies in countering the false claims made by politicians that stereotyped their industry (despite the safe assumption that the politicians that demonized the industry probably never held a controller in their life), Nintendo used the hearings as a opportunity to make the rest of the industry look bad. Nintendo took the self-righteous, moral high-ground at the expense of the rest of the industry for their own selfish reasons.
Nintendo's self-promotion during the Congressional hearings was very destructive. Instead of working together with other gaming companies in countering the false claims made by politicians that stereotyped their industry (despite the safe assumption that the politicians that demonized the industry probably never held a controller in their life), Nintendo used the hearings as a opportunity to make the rest of the industry look bad. Nintendo took the self-righteous, moral high-ground at the expense of the rest of the industry for their own selfish reasons.
Editors Note: I admit that there is obvious bias, and it's hard
to examine Nintendo's actions during the 1994 Congressional hearings
objectively. It also has to be highlighted that the Nintendo of 1994 is a
completely different company today, so the prejudices of the past
aren't their today. These past grievances don't reflect the current
company. Nintendo recently stepped up to the plate when Reggie
Fils-Aimé (who recently stepped down) called out Trump when he started
to use the industry as a scapegoat for the shooting in El Paso, using
published statistics to back up his argument in a Twitter post.
Essentially, Nintendo step up to defend the industry and counter absurd
claims that weren't based on fact. This is a move that needs to be
commended.
Doom and Columbine
With a defined ratings system in place, The
politicians were hoping that the video game publishers would start
making only family-friendly content. What happened though was
essentially the opposite. Many developers and publishers now realized
that with codified ratings system in place now, they could starting
making content that specially catered to a more mature and adult
audience.
The FMV (Full-Motion Video) scene that dominated the SegaCD found its way to multimedia PC's as CD-ROM drives became more accessible. Games like Phantasmagoria on MS-DOS had very gruesome death scenes. However, they were very over-the-top and not very realistic. Once the FMV fad started to fade, the first-person-shooter began to reign supreme.
The FPS (First Person Shooter) genre became very prominent with Wolfenstein 3D, a game where one fights Nazis in a secret castle to stop the SS from doing there insane experiments in the name of world domination. While popular, it was with Doom in 1993 where the genre took PC gaming by storm. One plays a space marine battling demon possessed soldiers and various monsters that were unleashed when the portal of Hell was opened on a Martian colony.
The FMV (Full-Motion Video) scene that dominated the SegaCD found its way to multimedia PC's as CD-ROM drives became more accessible. Games like Phantasmagoria on MS-DOS had very gruesome death scenes. However, they were very over-the-top and not very realistic. Once the FMV fad started to fade, the first-person-shooter began to reign supreme.
The FPS (First Person Shooter) genre became very prominent with Wolfenstein 3D, a game where one fights Nazis in a secret castle to stop the SS from doing there insane experiments in the name of world domination. While popular, it was with Doom in 1993 where the genre took PC gaming by storm. One plays a space marine battling demon possessed soldiers and various monsters that were unleashed when the portal of Hell was opened on a Martian colony.
In 1999,
Columbine happened. The horrific shooting sent shock-waves around the
country. Moral panic insured. People started to look for answers. They
felt that the world and society failed them. Nobody took the shooters
seriously. One was on anti-depressant medication. Both had access to a
large arsenal of high-powered weapons at their disposal. Embracing their
already violent mindset, the shooters looked for games and activities
that already reflected their violent tendencies.
Not content with doing soul searching, most just found it much
easier to hunt for scapegoats, and scapegoats they found. The shooters
were avid fans of Doom, and one of them even made their own stages for
the game using a level editor. Doom quickly became a scapegoat, along
with Marilyn Manson. Those who were afraid of what they didn't
understand (nor didn't want to take the time to) quickly went out of
their way to demonize these objects with extreme hate and scorn.
"I wouldn't say a single word to them—I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did."
Marilyn Manson quote from a interview with Micheal Moore in Bowling For Columbine
The Marilyn Manson
episode was extremely unfortunate. Because the
shooters wore dark trench coats, the general public just automatically
stereotyped
them as goths, and as such, all goths were labeled as violent people.
Anything that was associated as goth was considered "evil". Marilyn
Mansion, who was already seen as the Anti-Christ by middle America,
became
vilified by the media, with him and his music getting blamed for the
shooting, even though the shooters didn't listen to it. In fact, they
had contempt for
Marilyn Manson and despised his music. Scapegoats at it worst.
Correlation doesn't equal causation. The shooters played the games and listened to their preferred music because it reflected their interest, not caused it. Using media as a scapegoat would eventually become a common trope for those that didn't want to tackle issues such as easy access to high-powered guns or social/heath issues that often drive such shootings. Doom or Marilyn Manson never killed anyone. They weren't responsible for what happened in Columbine. Research failed to find a correlation with video games and media with real-world violence.
Correlation doesn't equal causation. The shooters played the games and listened to their preferred music because it reflected their interest, not caused it. Using media as a scapegoat would eventually become a common trope for those that didn't want to tackle issues such as easy access to high-powered guns or social/heath issues that often drive such shootings. Doom or Marilyn Manson never killed anyone. They weren't responsible for what happened in Columbine. Research failed to find a correlation with video games and media with real-world violence.
With that, I'm
going to wrap up part one of my article. The next article will focus on
the research. Baseless claims and empty blanket statements start to
become challenged by scientific studies that start to debunk false
information.
Marilyn Manson–Columbine High School massacre controversy
Wikipedia
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
Custer's Revenge
Wikipedia
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (video game)
Wikipedia
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
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