Task 2 - Effects Debates

Effects Debates:

Violence:
For as long as violence has been included in video games, there have been those who believe violence in such games can have real life consequences such as inspiring children to have more violent thoughts or even provoke them to do violent acts. There is truth in the fact that people get angry at video games, aswell as some video games can be very violent such as the Call of Duty scene: "No Russian" in which the player mows down hundreds of innocents in an airport. This was extremely scrutinized by many and it was questioned if the developers crossed a line by adding this scene. This opinion is most popular amongst the older generation, who seem to have double standards about violence in the media, when they never seem to complain about violence in movies or television. Could it be that these people have watched violent movies and therefore understand that watching a movie in which violence occurs does not instantly turn you into a gun wielding psychopath? Could it be that these people are being quite pretentious with the majority who have this view, have themselves never played a video game or at the most, spent very little time playing one. Either way, I believe that violence in video games does not have any adverse affects on people, but there will always be people who are determined to say that they do.


Explicit Sexual Content:
Explicit sexual content is another issue raised, that has a fair basis for its accusations. Plenty of games on the market are guilty of over-sexualizing female characters, with women who wear barely nothing going into battle, along side men who are armored from head to toe, and graphic sex scenes with nothing held back. These games however tend to have an 18+ rating, although people younger than that, do play 18+ games. In my opinion, this should be up to the parent on whether they allow their children to play the game.


Abusive/Inappropriate Language:
The use of "Inappropriate" language in video games has been common place in recent years with the shooter genre being very popular, and alongside the genres aggressive nature, comes aggressive language. The level of how inappropriate the language in games has been, is another question that has frequently been asked and the point has been made that over use of foul language can offend some people. As "full on" as some of the language can be, it is rare that language of that nature is ever unexpectedly or out of context with the exception of games thata re based on violence like shooters; Although, if you're a grizzled veteran fighting in a war zone, you'd expect some kind of swearing towards the enemy as explosion and gunshots ring past your ears. Not to mention also that games that involve abusive or inappropriate language states on the back of the case that it does aswell as usually coming with a higher ESRB rating than usual such as 18+


Addiction:
Gaming addiction  varies from person to person and what games they play factors in on whether they are addicted or not. However it doesn't quite ruin lives as other addictions may do. people most tend to get addicted when playing MMORPG's which take a very large portion of time to even get anywhere, with players forming vast communities and friendships in a virtual space. Inevitably if you start to invest any time into something like that, you're going to want to invest a fair amount of time into it. Cases like this however does leave peoples real social life lacking and they may put things off in order to carry on with their game. With pay to win games, players may spend overly large amounts of money in order to advance  quickly. Again, this is only certain people who face an addiction this bad.


Stereotyping and Representation:
Intentional or not, stereotyping has been a part of gaming since all the way back in the 8 bit era, with almost every notable protagonist being male and almost every female character being cast as the damsel in distress. Nowadays, the level of stereotyping has toned down with women playing more empowered roles however they can fall into another role; almost every female character has to have good looks, such as Lara croft, Claire Redfield etc... Certain races are also stereotyped in video games such as gang members being mostly black in GTA or Asian people being the "Martial arts master" in many games, including: Onimusha, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat etc... All of these stereotypes can be extremely offensive to those they are portraying, purposely or not.


Censorship:
Over the years, many games have been subject to censorship, mostly during the 8 bit era although some games are still being censored today. Back before games had ESRB ratings games had to be very careful about how adult or offensive in any way they made their games with  overuse of blood,violence, naked bodies or religious symbols being censored. Nowadays, many of those are commonplace although in some places they are still censored or even banned. In countries like Australia or Germany, many violent or 18+ games are heavily censored or even banned. In Germany, Saints Row 2 had every scene where someone took drugs or was killed or hurt, replaced with a black screen. People were very disappointed as it totally disjointed the game and took all the tension out of the cutscenes, actually encouraging people to pirate other versions of the game so that they didn't have to put up with it.