1 / 11

Political Issues in the Video Game Industry: Violence and Gaming

Political Issues in the Video Game Industry: Violence and Gaming. Alisdair Owens. The Situation. Video games receive a lot of negative attention in the media. Particular emphasis on potential damage to children.

ganit
Download Presentation

Political Issues in the Video Game Industry: Violence and Gaming

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Political Issues in the Video Game Industry: Violence and Gaming Alisdair Owens

  2. The Situation • Video games receive a lot of negative attention in the media. • Particular emphasis on potential damage to children. • This presentation covers a history of violent games, the case against them, and the potential solutions to the perceived problem.

  3. Death Race • Arcade game based on the movie Death Race 2000. • Released in 1976 • Gameplay involved running over ‘gremlins’.

  4. Early 80s • Arcades wildly successful. • Violent games considered a useful tool for training children by the US army. • First game linking sex and violence.

  5. Early 90s • Games garner consistent public attention. • Mortal Kombat causes congress-level debate in the US. • Massively ‘gory’ fatalities • Less violent Nintendo version relatively unpopular. • Wolfenstein 3D banned in Germany for Nazi references. • Doom

  6. Late 90s-Current • Columbine linked to Doom. • Carmageddon • Grand Theft Auto 1-3 • Adult games massively popular among children. • Sex/violence link. • Manhunt linked to murder of a 14 year old in the UK.

  7. The Situation • Parents are worried that violent games negatively impact their children. • Some blame misbehaviour on games. • Politicians and the media have picked up on this concern, particularly in the light of Columbine. • Gamers blame parents for improper supervision.

  8. Evidence • Large body of evidence that links violent games to short term aggression increases. • Little hard evidence of this causing long term violent tendencies. • Largely theories based off work on other types of media.

  9. The Problem • Potential damage to children. • Violent games clearly attract children. • Disparity in SEGA/Nintendo MK sales. • Games are clearly getting both more violent and more realistic. • Little legal regulation. • Many parents unwilling/unable to supervise children sufficiently.

  10. Solutions • Greater parental education. • Limited efficacy? • Stronger regulation. • ‘Chipping’ consoles. • Differing regulations by country. • Doesn’t solve the issue of multiple age groups using the machine.

  11. Conclusion • Violent games are not going away. • Chipping consoles is inconvenient, and may cause difficulties for manufacturers. • Imperfect solution: • Parental education • Stronger legal regulation.

More Related