The long-running debate about violence in video games was rekindled over the weekend with reports that an 8-year-old boy who police say shot and killed his elderly caregiver had been playing "Grand Theft Auto IV," a game rated as appropriate for adults.
To be sure, there's
plenty of content in video games that's not for kids. Virtually everyone
agrees on that, and there's an industry-created ratings system in place
to help parents decide which games are appropriate and which ones
aren't.
The ratings, like those
at a movie theater, provide guidelines and create rules for game
retailers. (California's law, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down
in 2011, would have judged games differently though, making it a crime
if a retailer doesn't follow them.)
But even the current
ratings system was born out of controversy. And, as games get more
graphic and complex, it hasn't stemmed the tide of complaints about some
titles.
Studies have been
inconclusive about what role, if any, video games play in encouraging
real-world violence. But the argument isn't new.
In light of this week's
shooting, here's a look at 10 video games that sparked controversy with
their violent content -- and what it was that made them so polarizing.
1. 'Death Race' (1976)
At this point, it's downright quaint.
But when it hit arcades
more than three decades ago, "Death Race" (based on the cult movie
"Death Race 2000") may have been the first video game to spark
controversy for its violence.
In the chunky,
black-and-white pixilated graphics of the time, players ran down
"gremlins" in their vehicles. The targets squealed and cried, and were
then replaced by tombstones on the screen. It didn't help when word
leaked that the working title had been "Pedestrian."
It was enough to prompt
the National Safety Council to call the game "morbid" and earn it a spot
in a "60 Minutes" segment on violence in games.
2. 'Mortal Kombat' (1992)
The '90s classic has
spawned innumerable sequels that have found themselves pretty well in
the middle of the pack in terms of fighting-game violence.
But when it hit arcades
in 1992 and home consoles the next year, "Mortal Kombat" jumped out
because of the gore it depicted in digitized graphics.
Brandishing severed
heads, ripping out hearts and spines and the like helped put "Mortal
Kombat" at the head of a pack of games that prompted hearings in
Congress and, eventually, led to the creation of the Entertainment
Software Rating Board.
The gore also helped it to become one of the most popular video games of all time.
This year's reboot
(often called "Mortal Kombat 9") does its best to uphold the tradition.
Options include eating an opponent's head, pulling out their stomach
after spitting acid down their throat and slicing them in half with a
buzz saw.
3. 'Doom' (1993)
From the same gaming class as "Mortal Kombat" came "Doom."
"Doom" was the first time many people had seen a first-person shooter game.
It might not have been
the original first-person shooter game, but "Doom" certainly popularized
the style. And there was something about seeing the violence from the
viewpoint of the shooter that really got to folks.
There was also blood and
gore, shotguns and chainsaws. And when it emerged that the shooters in
the 1999 Columbine High School tragedy were avid "Doom" players, it was
pretty much assured that the game would move to the forefront of the
controversy of the time.
4. 'Grand Theft Auto' (1997)
If any one game inherited the mantle of violent game poster child from "Mortal Kombat" and "Doom," it was "Grand Theft Auto."
The game was
controversial from its very earliest incarnation because it let players
do just about anything as they portrayed criminals.
But it really ramped up
with 2001's "Grand Theft Auto III," when improved graphics made the
chaos even more realistic. Players could kill police officers, hire (and
subsequently kill) prostitutes and perform any number of other unsavory
acts.
In 2003, the family of
two shooting victims filed the first of what would become several
lawsuits against the series. That case was quickly dismissed.
5. 'Silent Hill' (1999)
When Konami released it
in 1999, no one had seen anything quite like "Silent Hill." A creepy
survival shooter, it took horror-movie style visuals to a new level,
complete with cut scenes that included disemboweled and crucified
bodies.
"Silent Hill" and its sequels use music, sound and sight for a horror-movie feel.
Future installments in the series kept it up, using music, sound and visual advances to boost the creepiness factor.
For the original, a
monster called "The Grey Child" -- a small, naked creature encountered
near a school -- had to be redesigned before the game could be released
in North America. The monster was eventually taken out of the European
release altogether.
6. 'Postal 2' (2003)
"Postal 2" figures heavily in Monday's Supreme Court ruling.
The game, in which the
player goes on a rampage as "The Postal Dude," was cited by California's
lawyers as an example of why a law was needed. Since Monday, the game's
creators have celebrated the ruling as a victory for free speech.
But while other game
creators try to reflect or explain away criticism, the makers of the
"Postal" franchise have wallowed in it. To be honest, their offering is
pretty much what the harshest critics see in their heads when they
imagine violent video games.
Abusing and killing
cats. Killing people who cut ahead of you in line at the bank. Urinating
on the corpses of victims. All are allowed, and much more.
(And if you forget
exactly how much your character has urinated throughout the game, don't
worry, its scoring system will keep track for you, in gallons, right
alongside stats like "Number of People Murdered," "People Roasted" and
"Heads Exploded by Shotgun").
In a move that probably seemed clever to someone, you can even kill people protesting against violent video games. Get it?
"Postal 2" was
referenced repeatedly by lawyers when the California case was heard by
the Supreme Court, particularly a scene in which the player can slam a
woman in the face with a shovel until she's decapitated.
The game was banned in
Australia and, in what we'll call another condemnation of sorts, is
featured in the Black Eyed Peas video for "Where is the Love?"
7. 'MadWorld' (2009)
Let's be honest;
Nintendo's Wii didn't become the best-selling console in the world
appealing to hardcore fans of hack-and-slash-and-shoot.
"MadWorld" caught flak for being on the family-friendly Wii console.
"MadWorld" caught flak for being on the family-friendly Wii console.
But "MadWorld" was an effort to reach out to those folks and break away from the Wii's largely family-friendly lineup.
When we say the violence
in "MadWorld" is cartoonish, we mean it literally. Think "Sin City."
The concept is straight out of a cartoon as well; you're on a game show
in which you earn points for slaughtering people.
"The release of MadWorld
for the Wii brings violent video games to a once family-friendly
platform," Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media
and the Family, said in a press release at the time.
The response from the
guys over at Kotaku: "Hopefully, though, concerned parents will notice
the 'M for Mature' rating on the cover, just to the left of the dude
wielding a bloodied chainsaw."
8. 'Bioshock' (2007)
"Bioshock" was a massive hit with gaming critics, and for good reason.
It is visually
sumptuous, thought-provoking and puts the player in a mind-bending,
futuristic world that has gone very, very wrong.
None of that kept the
complaints from coming, though, when word got out that the game gives
players the chance to kill little girls for in-game rewards.
OK, so technically they're little mutated monsters that used to be girls. But, still ...
"Bioshock" players face a moral dilemma: Kill the creepy "little sisters" or try to save them.
The little sisters got
the game all sorts of media attention that had nothing to do with its
multiple awards. The game's creators said the criticism oversimplified
what they were trying to do.
"What we want to do is
create a game which deals with moral shades of gray and doesn't try and
patronize us with two-dimensional cutouts -- like a Disney take on what
is right and what is wrong," Irrational Games' Joe McDonagh told gaming
site IGN. "I hope very much that people do focus on that with the little
sisters and not try and reduce it to something that I really don't
think it is."
9. 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' (2009)
The level of violence in
the massively popular "Call of Duty" title is probably what any
experienced gamer would expect from a combat title.
But it was the nature of
that violence that turned heads. Set in the "near future," the shooter
puts the player in firefights in Afghanistan and, at least once, lets
them join forces with terrorists. One scene puts the player in the
position of deciding whether to join in as an ally guns down innocent
civilians in an airport.
In fairness, that
mission, called "No Russian," is optional and players are warned of
"disturbing content" beforehand. But plenty of mainstream-media critics
condemned it, particularly with its release coming around the time of
the November 5, 2009, shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13
people.
In Japan and Germany, the game was altered to end if a player killed civilians.
10. 'Bulletstorm' (2011)
This one created a bit
of a fracas earlier this year and may speak, in its own way, to what the
dialogue on violent video games can devolve into.
Before it was even
released, the website for a certain cable news channel (hint: not this
one) ran a story under the headline "Is 'Bulletstorm' the worst video
game in the world?"
"The damage could be
significant," if a child plays the game, one psychiatrist said in the
article (which does not say whether the psychiatrist had seen the game).
Another told the site
that an "increase in rapes" could be attributed to sexual scenes in
video games like "Bulletstorm." Significant detail: There is no sex in
"Bulletstorm." (Sexually suggestive language, yes. Sex, no.)
To be sure,
"Bulletstorm" revels in a stream of nonstop profanity and rewards grisly
"skill kills" that include impaling opponents on a cactus and chopping
them in half. But the worst game in the world?
"I think of it as a
teenage shooter game that tries to get attention by being gross, obscene
and sexually charged," CNN.com video-game contributor Larry Frum wrote
when it was released. "It is funny at first, but after a while, it
becomes tired."
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