So, I wanted to give you this list of games that I found as the “Top 12 Most Controversial“. This list has some very interesting/disturbing games. I can’t even pick one that is most disturbing because they are all disturbing for their different reasons. Most of these games (Rapelay, Ethnic Cleansing, etc.) should not have even been made. I am a fan of artistic freedom but I also think that the game designers should limit themselves to not create games that encourage the direct harm of the innocent. RapeLay (which I think we’ve talked about in class) puts gamers in the mind of a rapist. This has the possibility of encouraging a gamer to “find” the rapist inside himself and that gamer (if unbalanced) may take it to the next level and act it out on someone else. I know that putting regulations on game content could be considered as taking away personal artistic freedoms, but what do you think? Would it be for the greater good if games like these weren’t allowed to be released?
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No, it would not be for the greater good if these games were not allowed to be released.
Freedom of expression (artistic freedom) exists solely for cases like those in the list. Freedom of expression is not needed to protect ideas that are popular, but to protect ideas that are not.
In addition I find interesting the focus on rape in this post. I in no way mean to belittle rape. Rape is a horrible crime, but murder is worse. Many games involve killing a large number of characters. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has the player slaughter a large number of innocent civilians in an airport. In murder, unlike rape, the victim is dead. I find it interesting that this list seems to feel that it is better for someone to be dead than alive but traumatized.
Would you support banning the Bible? Or the Quran? These books, which depending on believes are either the divine word of god or are pieces of fiction. Millions of people have been killed in religious wars as a result of peoples reactions these texts.
A free society cannot ban material it deems unsightly. Any stimulus could cause someone who is mentally unbalanced to act out in horrible methods. Restricting society in this manner will lead to nothing good.
I do think that it should be noted that the CoD4:MW airport scene does not force the player to shoot civilians. The player controls an undercover agent, and thus many players shoot the civilians because they feel like not doing so would blow their cover. Also, the entire mission is skippable and there are no achievements or other bonuses to be garnered by playing the level.
Otherwise, I totally agree.
In my opinion, these games bring out the worst of their players. That’s why I think it would be better if they were not allowed to exist. No matter what warning/disclaimer you put on this game, it will inevitably fall into the wrong hands at some point. If it didnt exist, we wouldnt have to worry about it falling into those wrong hands.
I was not trying to focus on rape in this post, I also mentioned ethnic cleasing which is about wiping out an entire population because of their ethnicity. I think murder is absolutely on the same level as rape because it destroys the person either way.
Of course, I would not support banning the Bible or the Quran. These are religious texts. This has nothing to do with the content of this post at all. Religious wars happen when the words of these texts are taken out of context. Both of these texts have peaceful intentions. The games on this list however have harmful or malicious intentions.
I know I’m more conservative in my opinions, so I’m aware some of you guys may not agree. I’m not trying to be argumentative, just putting this opinion out there.
The main problem with censorship is who gets to decide what “brings out the worst in [the people who consume some media].” You could argue that the Bible or the Quran should be banned as they incite violence and hatred. The Catholic church waged the Crusades, and Islamic radicals are committing terrorist acts as a result of their interpretation of religious texts. If anything, I would argue that religious texts are more dangerous than games about rape because of their ability to be misinterpreted.
I agree with Mufasa that it would not be better for these games to be banned.
As an art major, I believe 100% in artistic freedom and putting restraints or bans on that is not what this country is for. Censorship is not the answer.
While I agree that these games are deeply disturbing, I think a reason they were made could have been for the shock response. Many artists create things specifically looking for a strong disapproving response from the mass public. Artists have been doing this for years. There was a time thousands of years ago that it was considered offensive to put a nude female figure into art. More recently, it was considered very controversial when artists such as Marcel Duchamp started making “readymades” out of things such as urinals, and many people tried to ban his work. But the government could not ban these “socially unpopular” things just because they were considered offensive.
It would be unfortunate if these games fell into the wrong hands. If a child too young to understand them, or an “unbalanced” person was to play one of these games, there could be negative effects. But no one can predict that and it is not the government’s job to control what children play. (that’s what parents are for). So these games should come with a disclaimer and a warning, but they should not be banned.
After reading through these list of controversial games I’m rethinking my stance on whether they should be banned or not. In class I mentioned that the Columbine game really struck a nerve with me because I remember exactly where I was when I learned about the shooting and I was only 9 years old, which may be similar to people who find the JFK so controversial because they remember where they were when he was shot. I decided that games, specifically the JFK one, is supposed to be used as a tool to discredit the conspiracy theories and to prove a point. I’m still confused as to what the goal of the Columbine game was. The reason why I’m rethinking my stance is because of the #4 game on the list, Baby Shaker. I find it absolutely repulsive that someone would design this game and/or buy it from the app store. Everyday babies are killed because of their parents shaking them to death and making a game of it is just unacceptable to me. I know people are going to disagree with me because they’re going to say what is the difference between that and a game where people are murdered because that happens everyday too. I just think there is a fine line that people walk with videogames and Baby Shaker is definitely one of them.
I’m not saying that Baby Shaker is a good game, but has anyone considered that the controversy surrounding the game could be a useful educational tool. The game shows that shaking the baby leads to death, which some people are unaware of. I doubt anyone got the Baby Shaker and said to themselves “This is a great idea, I’m going to go shake a baby.”
Thanks for posting this list! I want to point out that the screen shot included with the description of Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is NOT from that game. As we discussed in class, SCMRPG! is cartoony, and avoids graphic realism at all costs.
It’d be a good exercise to look at this list in greater detail and figure out what all the games have in common, and where they differ.