A History of Nonsense
I rented/watched A History of Violence over the weekend. Great movie - classic Cronenberg. As the title might suggest, there are some intense scenes of violence in the movie. But, I'd say they are in context and while gruesome, not gratuitous per se. Admittedly, the part I found most amusing was one of the bonus features discussing the difference between the American and international releases of the film. Apparently, the MPAA asked that a few scenes be "softened" a bit for the American audience. And so, we have an unintentionally funny description of how a shot showing a guy's massacred nose was made to drip instead of spurt. Ditto for a scene where a bodyguard's throat was being crushed (with a little less crunchy noise).
Yet, in our happy industry of video games, there remains a huge disconnect, with debates based on myth and hyperbole instead of facts (eg, less than 15% of games made/sold are rated M; not a single M-rated game made it onto 2005's Top10 sales list; adults/parents are present ~90% of the time when purchasing games, etc). Instead of praising the industry for massive improvements with voluntary access restrictions to mature-rated games, we get beat up by the Senate - who make the suggestion of submitting games for independent review by a panel of psychologists to gauge what impact each might have on players. How Orwellian!
(As a side note, I believe the ability for retailers to restrict access to R-rated DVD's is in the sub 10% range! Uh, but no one's complaining about Junior's ability to get his hands on, say, A History of Violence...)
Similarly, Leland Yee braves an appearance at GDC and walks away thinking we're all BFF. Yee is dillusional. I was sitting right next to him and things were not going well for his side of the debate (well, except for the one person at the back of the room who kept clapping)... Nevermind that he's talking nonsense when he proclaims his quest to squelch "ultra-violent" games and yet uses GTA's Hot Coffee sex mod as his main catalyser. Go figure.
Why is it that each time the industry reaches out with the olive branch, we just get slapped with another bill to regulate us? We try every time.
Posted on April 2, 2006 11:03 PM