Tuesday 29th of March 2005

Protest

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A , posted by Anthony in the early afternoon.

I’m not at work today. Not because there’s nothing to do, but because there are protesters hanging around. R* hasn’t shut down, but I was told I didn’t have to come in if I didn’t want to – I’m not doing anything that urgent, and I’m a freelancer anyway.

I considered going in. I thought it might be interesting to experience being the subject of a protest, and there are various feelings of defiance – why should these guys stop me working? But when it came down to it, I decided I’d rather sleep in. I was also considering going into the city to check it out – take some photographs, maybe even a little vid. But I see it’s approaching 3pm and I’m still in my dressing gown, so I guess that won’t be happening.

I do get pissed off by these protesters, but it’s really a minor irritation. They’re just idiots. I get angry at the presumably intelligent politicians that want to jump on the bandwagon. Politicians and lawmakers have to deal with many complex issues. I don’t expect or want to be as informed as I expect and want them to be, so if I want to judge them and how representative I think they will be of my views I have to look at their stance on the few subjects I know and have spent some time thinking about. Like violent video games.

Obviously, I don’t have a problem with their existence as I worked on one and am currently working on others (except for today). The people who are against them feel this way for a variety of reasons, varying from the outlandishly ridiculous (They train people to be killers) to the plausible if unproven (Violent video games are bad for children).

I actually agree that not all games are suitable for children, just like not all movies are suitable for children. Goodfellas is one of the great achievements of modern cinema, but I wouldn’t show it to an 8 year old. Society deals with this by rating movies. In Ireland this is legally binding. Not so in the US, where anybody can see anything if they’re accompanied by an adult. Generally, people are happy with this.

Hey, I know! What if video games were rated the same way? Oh wait, they already are. But this doesn’t seem to be good enough. Why is this?

Personally, I think it’s because video games for adults are a relatively new phenomenon and most parents will have no experience of them. For a century people have grown up with movies. We all know what movies are like, and what they can be like. We have all been excited, moved and disturbed by movies, and you don’t have to explain to anybody the effect they can have and that maybe children should be shielded from some of them. But video games are perceived as toys, and toys are for kids, right? The simple fact is that most parents just don’t really believe that it’s possible for a game to be for adults only until they walk in on their child picking up a virtual prostitute.

So they’re shocked, and appalled, and offended. They look for someone to blame. For some reason, they blame the manufacturers. I don’t believe most people would have any sympathy for a parent who rented Goodfellas for their child, and then decided to sue Martin Scorsese because they didn’t think their little angel should be exposed to Samuel L. Jackson’s brains on a mattress.

The movie::video game analogy doesn’t hold up very well on many levels, but I believe it’s valid in this case. Some games are for adults, and some movies are for adults. Kids should not be allowed access to these. This requires (in the US) the parents to make a decision. This does not mean that all movies and games must be made suitable for kids in order to give parents one less thing to think about. My God, that would be a boring culture.

And it is the parents who are the problem. Most video game shops will not sell M rated games to kids. What happens? The kid gets the parent, who buys the game. There is plentiful anecdotal evidence of sales people trying to educate parents, and the parents just not being swayed. They cave to their kids, because they want to give them a treat and they fundamentally do not believe that games can be for adults.

I have personal experience of this. When I was home over Christmas I was talking to an intelligent former workmate who had bought GTA:SA for her twelve year old son as a present. I described to her some of the things you could do in the game, and persuaded her not to give it to him. I spoke to her after Christmas – she had given it to him after all, because the PS2 they had bought him now didn’t have any game to play with it and was useless, making for a very unpleasant Christmas morning. Basically, she didn’t really believe me. I sympathise with her, obviously – that can’t have been fun. But this is the pattern. This is how kids get the games.

I’m under no illusions about the video game companies. They talk about freedom of speech, but really they’re all about making money. They are not altruistic. But why should they be? Pretty much all good art throughout history has been created for profit. Most bad art too, but that’s life. Violent games sell. I actually think that sooner or later some company will make a video game that’s just too violent and the consumers will reject it. There’ll be a backlash, and non-violent games will become more poular. And that’s the way it should be. This should not be a political issue. Nobody’s freedoms are being infringed. Nobody is being harmed.

Anyway, I bring this up because most internet discussions on this issue are populated by illiterate fanboys indulging indulging in flame wars. I thought that by bringing it up here where there is an extremely limited readership I might hear some reasonable dissenting opinions to which I could respond with the mimimum of “OMG u r teh ghey game5 r0XX0r!!111!!One!!!”.

Anyway, I love my PSP. I downloaded the new Dr. Who overnight, and watched it on the train on the way in to work. When it was time to walk, I switched to MP3 mode and put it in my pocket. On the way home, I played a game. Truly, civilization has peaked. We may as well stop now.

I was impressed by the new Doctor. Go Ecclestone! I want Daleks! And Cybermen!


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Friday 25th of March 2005

The Award Winning

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A , posted by Anthony in the evening.

I have acquired a PSP. It’s research. For work. I actually have done some work for a forthcoming title, so I may get a free game, and it would be foolish not to be able to play it. Right? And I had to get it on the day of …

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Saturday 19th of March 2005

St. Paddy, 2005

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A , posted by Anthony in the early afternoon.

I didn’t make it to the parade this year, either. Unlike last year, it wasn’t snowing. It was a nice day. I just didn’t find the idea that attractive. People walking.

And it was far away, all the way up 5th Avenue at 44th Street. I started the day …

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Saturday 12th of March 2005

Whither?

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A , posted by Anthony in the early afternoon.

I feel I have to apologise for that last post. I was really just phoning it in. A week had gone by and I felt I had to put something up, but I wasn’t really in the mood. It was a particularly dull recounting of the previous few days. On …

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