Sexual Content and Violence in Video Games.

I present to you, if you will, an argument. An argument which is as old as the people who crusade against it, and an argument we have dealt with our fair share as gamers. I’m of course referring to violence and sexual content in video games.

This is a subject that really gets to me, especially with it generalizing so many on so little. Yes, there are kids out there who shot a gun in virtual world and saw fit to do it in the real world. Its happened, there is absolutely no arguing that and my heart is with the victims and their families. On the surface this makes a copy of Grand Theft Auto look like a machine gun toting Nazi, but dive a little further into the subject and expand beyond it, and you’ll see that there really is no argument to begin with.

For starters, mankind has been trying to kill each other since somebody sharpened a rock, attached it to a stick, and called it a spear. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to stop anytime soon with history showing this time and time again. People have been killing people long before you could do it on your TV.

Of course there’s a counter argument. If there is a cause for these occurrences, it just makes sense to get rid of it to save those that are effected by it. I reluctantly agree, a great way to get rid of a problem is to remove the source. On that same note, I’ve spent more then my fair share hours in front of a video game console, and I still don’t have an urge to kill anyone. Furthermore this argument is removed when you look outside of gaming itself. You’re completely correct when you say eliminating video games will wipe out some of the unfortunate killings that happen in the world, but so would eliminating guns, in fact this would be more effective.

You can remove the thought from a small group of people or you can remove the tool from everyone. Tossing games from society is not going to solve more then a tiny sliver of the violent crimes that take place in the world. Hell, while we’re at it, lets get rid of movies and books to, even some cartoons. Movies are a far more graphic way to view violence. Sure, you’re not directly controlling it, but you’re watching real people, it’s no longer fake. Have you seen Saw, The Devils Rejects, any action film that have been released this decade? Tell me a game that is more gruesome and graphic then some of these titles. There are many cases where someone has viewed something on TV or movies and mimicked the actions on another human being.

All this talk of movies sets me up nicely for the second issue, sexual content in video games. First, let me see if I understand this correctly. It’s bad for me to see a digital character take off her top in Grand Theft Auto, but its completely fine if I see an entire “bottomless” party in Harold and Kumar? Explain to me the logic behind this, please tell me what piece of the puzzle I’m missing.

They’ll run their mouths about kids walking into a video game store, maybe not getting carded for a mature rated game and see a flash of boobies, but the fact that any of these kids can simply Google the word and get pages of the same thing in the flesh isn’t worth crusading against?

Again, I’m not trying to say that this isn’t a problem, and of course some of the media I used has been a victim to the same sort of criticism. What I am saying is that this is simply a case of prosecuting one medium over another. If these arguments are valid with video games, then they’re also valid with movies, so why are gamers getting all the guff? Why did we spend a year or so labeled as murders and psycho’s while the people accusing us sit at home and watch movies with disturbing rape scenes filling in the gap between people getting tortured to death?

Simply ignorance, which has got to be in at least the top 20 in the causes of the violence they claim to want to stop. I’m not a murderer, I’m not a psycho, I’m simply a guy enjoying my hobby.