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July 02, 2007
Thumbs Up for Rockstar
"...we do not think video games should be singled out for special treatment from the authorities."
So said a press release issued by Rockstar Games in response to the recent Manhunt 2 festival-of-craziness. There's an excellent article on it here over on 1up.
Video games, like every other art form, have a right to explore the full range of the human experience. The perception that video games are just for kids is absurd, particularly given that the most recent stats show that the average player is a 33 year old guy. Nonetheless, this "for kids" mentality pervades the political and censorial climate that surrounds games.
We are the latest new technology, the latest thing to excite the younger crowd.
When cars were first released, people rallied against them, calling them "devil wagons" and "brothels on wheels." Many sought to ban the Hardy Boys calling the books, "explosives, guaranteed to blow your boys brains out." Elvis' hips would make us insane. The Beatles long hair would bring morality to a new low. Comic books censored themselves with the Comics Code in the 1950s just as movie did in the 1920s with the Hays Code. Why? Because the perceived sex and violence was just way too much for us. We, the movie buying, comic buying, game buying public can't be counted upon to purchase the right thing. So, it needs to be censored down for us. We just can't have it.
The AO rating is our modern day means to do this.
I suspect it won't matter much in a few years. Direct distribution, like that found at Manifesto Games, makes too much sense in too many ways, a great many of them financial. When the middle man ceases to be important, opportunities change and with them, restrictions.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at July 2, 2007 01:19 PM | Discuss this post on our forums