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Im just going to go out and say this: I don't like mature rated games. With the exception of Conker's Bad Fur Day, all mature rated games im beginning to see a patern in. If there not shoot 'em up war games than they are shoot 'em up spy games. I'll play mature rated games if there's nothing else to play (Or if the only other option is a Pokemon themed game) but I'd feel better and a lot more satisfied as far as games go if I were playing something on the lines of PIKMIN or Mario.

Anyone can make a FPS, a handfull of people can make a GOOD FPS, but it takes a special talent to actually make a game that makes you think 'Wow, this had a lot of thought put into it." It's not that im afraid of bullets or get queasey when I see fake blood, but if the elements of gameplay are 'see it? kill it' rather than 'trial and error' than I won't feel im having as much fun playing as I should.

And as long as we're on the subject of fun, who thinks a game where you kill things is fun? I beleive that for a game to be enjoyable it should be fun and different strokes for different folks and all, but who can find killing people fun? GTA3 makes the violence seem funny (And in that game, it is) but a game like that is so much more. There are different elements like driving and even cinemas that can make you laugh. Unless there's something funny or unique between the action than what's the real point of keep comming back? For fun?

A lot of people are afraid to play games like Mario because they don't want to seem like wusses... what? They're afraid that playing PIKMIN because they think people will believe them seem uncool... what? Let me tell you people about being cool (And I'll talk about this in my next editorial) Being cool has nothing to do with what others think of you. If you want to play something and not give a damn what others think of you? BAM, your independant and cool. If anything, being 'afraid' to play something as cuddly-wuddly as wittle itty bitty PIKMIN is enough to label you as a wuss. Afraid to play a game that Teletubbies think is too cutesy? Man your a wuss.

A lot of people I know claim to be the ultimate video gammer, I go to there place, they have one system only and about 5 games, tops, all of wich are shooters and Gran turismo. Im not an ultimate gamer, I still have my old SNES, N64 and even my old GB (All tucked away in a drawer under my new grand spankin' GC) and I have some games between them, but im not the ultimate gamer. The ultimate gamer would be probably someone who writes for a gamming magazine... or Codawg. Those people have every system and must play every game known to man... and Codawg claims he has all systems so... he's sorta there... I guess. Ultimate gammers play ANYTHING, regardless if it's kiddy or not.

Im 16 years old, and Im eagarly waiting the arrival of the cell shaded Zelda and Mario Sunshine. Does that make me a wuss? No that makes me someone who's willing to play those games because they seem fun and enjoyable. I'll still get Eternal Darkness and Metroid when they come out. So am I the ultimate gamer? I'll play almost anything given to me, I might enjoy it or I might not. Not everyone has the same views, some people like variety and some like vanilla. But to know where Im comming from: Im downloading GTA3 wich is a fantastic game, Im borrowing my friends Xbox so I can play Onimusha, Im asking for 'Black Hawk Down' when it comes on video, and Im renting PIKMIN again because it damn fun as hell.



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Im sure we've all heard this already, a young man was shot and a few days ago when someone he knew had killed him because he (The shooter) lost a game to him. Didn't catch that? here it is again: On Friday a Monmouth teenager was involved in a shooting incident and now remains in hosptial in a stable condition. The youths were playing a GC game on Friday evening just before the boy was shot. The altecation erupted after one of the juveniles lost the game and in anger shot the boy.

This situation in particular is bad, I won't disagree with anyone there. But I doubt that it was the content of the game that pushed the gunman to attempt to kill someone. The fact of the matter is that anyone that will shoot someone because they lost a game is insane. Insanity can twist the mind... even to the point where it breaks. This incident will probably get some parents into an uproar, so I'd like to ask that anyone who thinks that video games make people into violent monsters to read realated editorials and others like it.

Well, here's my version of the facts. Enjoy!

Violence in entertainment has come to be one of the most popular excuses for random acts of violence. The problem here is that people historically will blame ANYTHING or ANYONE but themselves. It's how humans interact. Like the parents of those kids who shot all of those people at Columbine High School a few years ago. "Uh... no, my kid wasn't crazy... he just played Doom... Yeah, I was a good parent. I was there for him two hours a day... what, like parenting is a full-time job?" Morons. I'm not saying that parents should go to jail for this, but somebody needs to give these people a good slap for blaming this.

It's not like there wasn't violence in America before violent games and movies came around. Television didn't even exist when Americans killed millions of Indians, enslaved millions of blacks, slaughtered 700,000 of their own people in a family feud and attained the highest murder rate in the world. Fake violence a bad influence? You say that limiting fake violence will stop real violence? Here's some violence for you: How about I pistol whip some sense into you?!

Don't blame Electronic Arts and ID Studios. We brought our violent tendencies from Europe and gave them our genuine North American twist. For example, violent American movies such as Die Hard, Terminator and Lethal Weapon do very well in Japan, Canada and Europe. But in Japan with a population of 170 Million, there would be 800 murders, but in New York City with a population of only 8 Million, there will be about 2500 murders. There are two possibilities here. Either New Yorkers hate eachother, or North America just has a higher crime rate than Japan. Japan with the same violent movies that we have has a lower crime rate. Yeah, fake violence REALLY turns people into violent killers... or hey, here's a crazy concept, maybe people can be violent sometimes. It just seems like people blame the first thing that comes to mind without really putting much thought into what it really is. Sound familiar?

Obviously anyone who uses entertainment as a scapegoat is ignorant to the facts. Games and movies are fake. They may look real, but when a "person" is "killed" in a game or movie they don't really die. Games have animation and movies have blanks, blood packs and makeup. Anyone that is of sound mental health can see the difference between Fake and Reality. In reality, when you shoot someone they die. In a game when you shoot someone, you've only eliminated part of the AI.

I also don't understand how killing armed guards in a FPS like Agent Under Fire or Perfect Dark translates into shooting 27 p eople at a McDonalds or 12 people at your High School. The guards in AUF are trying to kill you, so you kill them first... at a restaurant or at school, unarmed innocent people are running frantically from you in a bid to escape. There is no similarity here. The only game franchise that you can kill unarmed people without serious consequences is the Grand Theft Auto series. There's been some hype among anti-game individuals about it's most recent installment, Grand Theft Auto 3 in which you can do just about any illegal action you can think of. Murder, grand theft, hit-and-run, bank jobs, gang warfare the list goes on.

I could understand parents being a bit uncomfortable with their kids playing this game. After all, it has an 'M' rating (17+) and is not intended for little Timmy or Suzie. Some parents seem to be under the impression that they are not in control of what their kids play. This is the exact kind of thinking that started this nonsense. Some parents have convinced themselves that they don't have anything to do with what their kids get into. It almost is like they're afraid to confront their kids. This is not "the birds and the bees", this is something that should be relatively simple to do; yet it isn't always done. Kids without guidance are more likely to start plugging the innocent than kids whose parents play an active role in their lives.

For those of you who believe that games are inherently violent, take a look at this:

The ESRB Rating System

Of the more than 5000 products rated by the ESRB to date:
-73% have an E Rating (Everyone, ages 6 and over)
-12% have a T Rating (Teen, ages 13 and over)
-6% have an M Rating (Mature, ages 17 and over)
-3% have an AO Rating (Adults Only, ages 18 and over)
-6% have an EC Rating (Early Childhood, ages 3 and over)

79% of all games rated by the ESRB are fit for a 6-year-old.
There is no graphic violence, sexual themes, bad language, drug use or anything else that could be considered a bad influence. As you can see, violent games are limited to age groups. The ratings T, M and AO are where the bad stuff is. Parents should be taking more initiative and learning what the ESRB's rating system is and what E, T, M, AO and EC mean. On the back of the game's box they have also outlined details on what the game contains. Things such as Mild Violence, Animated Violence, Gambling, Suggestive Themes, etc. are on the boxes of every game rated by them. Parents not in control? My ass. Think of it as cause and effect: Do your job and your kid won't shoot his classmates. Could it be any simpler? Apparently not.

I've gotten my point across. The whole argument about games and movies turning kids into violent killers is pure, homegrown BS. If people would take responsibility for their actions, or in some cases their refusal to take action, there wouldn't be absurd excuses for violence... As a matter of fact, real violence could even be reduced. But how much can anyone really expect? It's much easier to blame others when it is yourself that is to blame.




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What does this have to do with violence? NOTHING... at least I think not. Some uptight bitties seems to think bad language, violence and other "immoral" acts (sex etc) seem to go hand in hand. I've made my points about how I see violence in video games, now it's time we take a look at my thoughts on the 'inacceptable language' in video games.

Conker's Bad Fur Day was my number one favorite game of all time... now it's my number two (Go Metroid Prime!) I loved Conker for it's cutesy look that could be found in all my usual platforming games, but with it's mature content (Bloody violence, over-use of bodily fluids, sexual themes and potty mouthing). Frankly Conker kicked major butt. I was drawn to the game because of it's combo of mature themes and cutesy environments, but I kept playing the game because it had a gameplay unlike any other platformer I've ever played.

But Conker wasn't perfect. Y'know what I really hated about that game? (No not the camera and no not the fact that Gregg the grim reaper didn't have a bigger role) it was the fact that the ESRB made Rare bleep the F word. Now I don't believe the F word can be used to enchance a sentance, but I don't think it's such a wrong word that it had to be bleeped. The game was intended for a mature player, so why were they keeping a "mature" word out?

And then I got to thinking, 'It's not just my favorite game they're cencoring, they censor lyrics from my favorite songs, TV shows and T-shirts when it's on camera. What gives?'. Bleeping the F word and a few others from songs and TV shows isn't just insulting to our audience, it's insulting to the artists who recorded the lyrics and the writer who wrote the script.

Does anybody not know what Eminem is saying in his songs? You don't have to hire lip-readers to figure out the word. And if everyone already knows what the word is, why bother bleeping it? It's like a fart in an elevator. Everyone knows what happened, but it just isn't something they talk about.

They call the F word bad language, or unacceptable language...but what is bad language? Is there really such a thing? It's like guns: guns don't kill people, people kill people. Words aren't bad, it's how they're used. So-called acceptable words are also strung together to form offensive comments. Does that make those words bad too?

Think about that old line, so do you still have a drinking problem? There's no good way to answer that, is there, and all because of the word "still". Does that make "still" an offensive word? And offensive to whom? At this point, the only people who find the F word shocking are the Amish, and they don't watch much TV.

Are so-called dirty words really offensive? Define offensive. I find the term "collateral damage" to describe dead civilians as offensive, but nobody bleeps that. So people use a colloquial term to refer to intercourse...so what? If the word "intercourse" isn't bad, why should any other word that describes the same activity be bad? It's the subject of words that should be considered, not the word itself, when determining if it's offensive.

Sure, words have power, and they can be coarse or even rude. Sometimes what you want to express requires a coarse or rude word. In songs, words are chosen carefully for their impact and resonance. Who says taking one word out won't deflate the impact? Would we tell a painter that he can't use certain colours, or tell a sculptor to avoid specific angles? Words are like tools to express feelings and thoughts. Maybe some will offend, but maybe that was the whole idea. Not all thoughts have the good housekeeping seal of approval, or should.

Besides, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and what words do you think this picture is saying? It seems pretty stupid to be worrying about a single occurrence of a four-letter word when the visuals would be far more offensive.

The bottom line aren't we mature enough as a society to stop worrying about the corrupting influence of four-letter words? The F word never caused homelessness, never hijacked planes, never hooked anyone on drugs, never beat or raped anyone. Aren't there real problems we need to address instead of wasting our time focusing on better living through bleeps?

Don't want kids to hear the words? Well, better put them in a soundless plastic bubble, because if you send them to school they'll hear it a dozen times before recess. You'd be better off teaching them that there are acceptable times and places for certain kinds of words, instead of trying vainly to keep them from using them. But that would require parenting, and isn't that what we have TV for now?



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Congress is passing (Or has passed) a bill that will make selling games to minors illegal, this is the first step in what im sure will be a spiral of events that will eventually lead to the order of ceasing production of mature-rated games wich will only roll out the red carpet to the law outlawing all video games. Am I exagerating? The way some of these senators are talking you're lucky they don't throw anyone born in the 1980's in jail. Of course none of these stupid laws would be in creation if God-fearing parents didn't blame video games for the wreckless behaviour of little Timmy. "No my son was a good boy, those video games brainwashed him into killing people. I was a good parent even though I saw him only twice a week."

Im seriously getting tired of old foggies blamming all of societies ills on video games. "This new law has been passed just in time, we're just sorry that we're too late to have saved the victims of these murder simulators." Kiss my ass. It's true that there are games that have the player play as a killer or a thief but those games, like most games, usually portray said player as a criminal constantly on the run from the law. Murder simulator? What game has players waiting outside a house in the dead of night with play-by-play tutorials on how to kill someone with the option of contrlling the level of skill or strength needed to finish the job? No game that's what. As per usual the video game world is the worlds biggest scapegoat. Now I ask you why?

I've addressed some of the more common reasons in my other editorials but today I hope to explore a new one: Art. To many video games are seen as a waste of time or as entertainment. The same would go to violent movies or songs with hateful messages. The only reason music and movies can get away with it is because it's considered a form of art. It always has been too. In the ancient times of the Greeks and the Romans there have been stories and sonnets fortelling the Gods of music and theatre. In modern times highschool art departments consist mainly of drawing, modelling, theatre and music. Connect this with the truth that the video game industry, compaired to the other two mediums mentioned, is a relatively new one. Hence, most of the worlds population don't know much about it.

Screw what Liberman says, video games are fun and I consider them somewhat of an artform. There's the designer who brainstorms an original idea for the public to see, the programmer who gives that idea motion and life, the artists who turns a picture in ones head into a picture we can see and develop feelings and understandings for and the sound engineer well you can imagine how much talent in must take to create original tracks for different levels on different projects.

So video games are regarded as Murder simulators, as something that should be looked down on by all and given the coldest shoulder. Meanwhile softdrinks, fastfoods and convenience stores around the world will be buying for the marketing contest rights to the next biggest action movie of the summer. Movies like Terminator, X-men, The Matrix and Hulk all featuring excessive fighting and rage-driven action scenes complete with explosions. In these gun totin' shoot em up movies will have movie goers sitting in a dark room while a big ass screen flashes pictures of hand to hand combat and gun fights for two-and-a-half hours. Don't get me wrong, I love action movies, but it seems to me that it's a greater tool for inflicting the moral sense than video games.

And are we to believe that music doesn't encourage fighting and murder? Ever hear of Eminem? How about bands like Rage against the machine wich encourages uprisings and riots to throw out higher powers. Regarding music you block out all sounds around you as biased messages are being drilled into your mind via catchy rythmic tunes.

Video games, like music and movies are forms of art and like any art it takes a certain audience to enjoying them and to comprehend them. No one has ever tried to ban looking at the Mona Lisa, but they've tried to outlaw Michelangelo's "David". Showing a point that certain forms of art in unecceptable. I sure as hell agree that there are art forms that are unecceptable (Two inhuman monsters recently skinned a cat alive and video taped it calling it art) but video games as an art are also like movies and music, art yes but entertainment also.

Remember that in video games you're in control. You can choose what you do and where you go. In movies and music the art has already been made and it's being projected to you. You have no control over what you see and hear except in video games, the only medium of art where you can decide what happens next. Most art is very straight forward leaving you to find the answer for yourself (I hate art like that) in video games not only are the answers unfolding as you go along you're free to decide how you find those answers. Video games may be murder simulators but movies and music are murder encouragements.



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