Sunday, September 02, 2007
Child targets raise the level of concern
JS Online: "Jesse Schell, a professor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University, said he couldn't think of any games that have featured this kind of interaction between players and childlike characters before."
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3 comments:
Having never playing Bioshock, I feel that i cannot make a fully informed decision about the game's interaction with child violence, however as someone who can appreciate a game (when I have time) I have also noticed that games such as "Grand Theft Auto" and "Def Jam ICON" involve violence between adults. The moral issues presented within the game strike me as something that almost outweighs the issue of child violence. The presentation of moral issues means that the game makers are aware of the ethics in the glorification of killing. It seems to me that in this way the gamer is required to face these issues and see the result of their actions as opposed to a game like GTA where havoc and mayhem are the internal premise of the game.
This article seems to be bridging a gap that I normally don't accept as a valid argument. I feel that the importance placed on videogames for "ethical" absorption is ridiculous. Whatever the stretch of imagination of exaggeration of boundaries may exist within a game I feel that parenting still has to play a huge role in the child's distinction between reality and a world that was created and exists solely in a video game. My biggest problem with this argument is it's polar opposite; the same people arguing this point encouraging the release of games like Wii Fitness, which is a game devoted to tracking and encouraging fitness virtually. If that's what it takes to make you get off the couch and move around there's something wrong with your values. Also on the Wii, due to complaints about obesity and cases of death from kids not getting up for days whilst playing a game, a screen is placed during gameplay asking the player to pause the game and go outside if it's a nice day.
It is interesting to see how BioShock seems to deal more with the emotional aspects of it's players and the characters in the game. From what I have seen from my brothers and friends playing games, it seems that usually you get in the game, exterminate whatever gets in your way and move on. But within this land of Rapture you are forced to see the feelings and emotions of the characters you are attacking. It puts a lot more emotional stress on the player, which is maybe what people need. Instead of becoming totally desensitized to their actions they are now actually contemplating which road to take.
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