Fox News Does It Again

Here we go again.

So Fox News has a piece up on their website titled, "Is Bulletstorm The Worst Video Game in the World?" in which the writer, John Brandon, attempts to "warn" parents of the incoming assault on their 9 year old's innocence. The amount of ignorance, not just ignorance of gaming, but ignorance in general, found in this article and the comments below it will boggle the mind. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"And with kids as young as 9 playing such games, the experts FoxNews.com spoke with were nearly universally worried that video game violence may be reaching a fever pitch."

The first problem with this sentence is the part about kids as young as 9 playing this game. This seems to always be the first argument presented by these people. The ESRB has given Bulletstorm a rating of M, here's how the ESRB describes the M rating:

"MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language."

17 and older. There is no reason a 9 year old, or anyone under the age of 17, should be playing this without the consent of their parents. Are there ways for people under 17 to play games rated M? Of course there are, just like there are ways for young kids to watch movies rated R or internet porn. I've seen clerks in GameStop turn down kids trying to buy games rated above their age many times. I've also seen GameStop clerks explain to parents the content of such games when buying them for their kids.

Here's another excerpt from the article:

"“If a younger kid experiences Bulletstorm's explicit language and violence, the damage could be significant,” Dr. Jerry Weichman, a clinical psychologist at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute in Southern California, told FoxNews.com."

What about when a younger kid experiences a movie like Machete? It's full of sex, gore, and foul language, except it has real actors in it and therefore is naturally more realistic to the viewer than some video game that looks fake. What about Fox News and the real violence that kids see on the news? Could that cause "significant damage"?

It's easier for a child to go online and watch internet porn or actual killings than it is for them to buy a game like Bulletstorm. The fact is that we have a ratings system in place to keep children from buying games that they shouldn't and to educate parents on what kind of content is in the games that they are buying for their children.

The Fox News story calls this pic:"An artist's recreation of a scene from controversial video game Bulletstorm, which takes violence, vulgar language and sexual innuendos to a new level."  As far as I know, Fox News created any kind of controversy surrounding this game, or as I like to call it, "creating news where there is none".

And that's what we in the game industry always come back to: the parents. Ultimately the parents are the ones that are responsible for what their kids watch and play, not the ESRB and not the game developers. Some people will argue that most parents just don't care what their kids play and that's why there should be stricter laws put on games. But that brings up another question: who gets to decide what my kid plays? Halo and CoD have an M rating, but if I've educated my child from a very young age to know the difference between video games and real life, do I have the right to let him play it? Of course I do, he's my kid.

Everyone has slightly different views on what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate for their kids. I know people that let their kids leave this house in the morning and run the roads until late at night without knowing where they are or what they're doing, I don't. I let my kid play Halo and Call of Duty, some don't. Live and let live.

Here's another excerpt from the article:

"Carol Lieberman, a psychologist and book author, told FoxNews.com that sexual situations and acts in video games -- highlighted so well in Bulletstorm -- have led to real-world sexual violence. 

“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” she said."

From what I remember, making an explicitly sexual game will land you a big 'ol AO (Adults Only) rating from the ESRB, which is the equivalent of retail suicide since almost all of the major retailers (like Wal-Mart) refuse to carry games earning an AO rating. And where are the facts supporting this claim? I've never seen any study suggesting that video games are attributed to a rise in rape cases.

I remember when Fox News did the story proclaiming the Xbox360 the "sex box" because Mass Effect had a love scene that, depending on the choices you made, could show up in the game. This love scene showed a butt and part of a boob and earned the game the title of sexual simulator by Fox's  "experts". The game industry's own Geoff Keighley was on the show, and despite a very intelligent explanation of the scene and the game, was laughed at and insulted. Later, after having the Amazon rating of her new book destroyed by angry gamers, Cooper Lawrence (one of Fox's "experts") apologized for her remarks and went on to say that Fox had told her before that show that the game was basically pornography.

Conclusion:

I guess what really pisses me off everytime one of these "stories" comes out is the attitude that video game makers don't have the right to make mature themed games. The fact that major news organizations like Fox News keep creating these video game controversies is tantamount to professional bullying. Where are the big stories about how violent movies and TV shows are doing irreversible damage to our kids? The video game industry is singled out time and time again when games don't even use real actors. The blood in many video games often times looks cartoony and is more funny than shocking.

So should game developers be able to make games like Bulletstorm? Absolutely, and for the exact same reason that Fox is allowed to run unintelligent, unresearched, hit pieces on video games with zero repercussions, it's called the Freedom of Speech.