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The recent Hot Coffee mod controversy had inspired a number of (mostly Democrat) politicians, including Sen. Clinton, to attack the computer game industry. They call for federal studies on the effect of games on children’s mental development; they are trying to start Congressional inquiries; they are wooing the crowds with “think of the children”. In short, they are looking to institute something like the much-loathed Comics Code which had utterly stifled any creativity in the US comics industry between 1954 and the mid-1970’s. Fortunately, there are some voices of sanity. Steven Johnson, in an editorial in the LA Times, utterly demolishes Clinton’s position:

I’d like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.

I’m talking, of course, about high school football.

Johnson’s basic argument is that 1. kids have always played games and have always preferred playing games to doing homework; 2. computer games require more mental exertion than board games or TV; and 3. violent games act as a safety valve on pent-up violent emotions (the rise of Grand Theft Auto coincided with a fall in real-world carjacking); and hence, 4. Sen. Clinton and Co. are spreading bullshit.

It is an excellent argument, and I agree with it fully, especially with the third (well, and the fourth) point. It seems that if you have a kid who is in the mood for some ultraviolence, and he has a choice of going out and joining a local gang or staying in his air-conditioned living room and killing cops on the TV screen, the kid may well tend to stay inside, let out his anger as he plays a couple levels, and eventually mellow out.

In fact, it might make sense to supply violent criminals with violent computer games.

In fact, exposing kids to games with explicit sexual material — and I mean high quality, big-budget games, not the cheesy Japanese dating sims — might be an excellent way to decrease the incidence of teenage pregnancy. (Internet porn and rap music have already done much to take the mystery out of sex; however, games can be significantly more immersive than music or bad-quality videos.) Too bad the US culture is not ready for such a game, considering the controversy that surrounded a few seconds of Janet Jackson’s unattractive breast.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 18th, 2005 at 23:48 and is filed under General, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.