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Something smells funny in videogame-land

Started by mathewi · 1 year ago

I don’t know who to blame for the fact that Manhunt 2 has been indefinitely shelved by Rockstar Games: the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which rated the game Adults Only because of its “excessive violence” (thus ensuring that Sony and Nintendo would ... Continue reading »

3 comments

  • Kent

    2 years ago

    I'd never let my kids watch the Saw movies (though I thought they were reasonably good).

    The current trend in video games, like the current trend in entertainment generally, is clearly towards more excessive sex, profanity and violence compared to 20 or even 10 years ago. The rating is simply a rating. Anyone who wanted to give that game to their kids could buy it and do it. They couldn't come to my house, but they could do it.

    Should kids be allowed to buy beer, cigarettes, guns, etc. Of course not. Why are games any different?
    reply
  • Mathew

    2 years ago

    I think the main reason games are different is because they're games, Kent.
    reply
  • Nav

    2 years ago

    I think the fact they're games is exactly the point. While films are narratives - the placing of events into a structure that is inherently about meaning making - the dominant mode of gaming is simulation, not narrative and, thus, does not demand the same meaning-making strategies that narratives do. This is why both GTA and Tetris are 'games', even though they seem to differ so radically. It's for this reason than Manhunt 2 *should* be banned - it crosses the line from that which can be narratologically positioned into that which simply revels in violence.
    reply

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