Violent Ignorance
I’m a big fan and avid reader of GamePolitics, a site dedicated to reporting the stories of when gaming and politics collide. Dennis McCauley, the main man behind the politically-charged gaming blog is to be commended for not only reporting all sides of the political spectrum when it comes to gaming, but also providing his own insight into some glaring personalities that partake in that political spectrum. The site frequently features personalities like Jack Thompson, Hilary Clinton and South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson. What’s the similarity of these personalities? Well… they are not big fans of adult-oriented games.
It is a well-known fact that the average age of the video-gamer is rising, in a recent study it was in the late 20s. However, to many people in the 40+ age bracket, video games are still foreign to them. And it just so happens that the majority of the people in power are in that bracket, the people who make the rules, the people who run countries, the people who manipulate media. Thus, the younger generation is never going to get the justice they deserve when it comes to videogame legislation whilst the older generation still lives.
Take, for example, South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, a man who has publicly stated he does not play video-games. Yet he is in the position where he can deny everyone else in Australia the opportunity to introduce an R18+ classification for video-games, on the age-old and, frankly, quite weak excuse that children could obtain and play the games. He, of course, misses the irony that regulating an R18+ classification would effectively KEEP children from playing those games
How about Jack Thompson, the self-proclaimed ‘worst nightmare’ for gamers out there. Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has, time and time again, legislatively attacked supporters and developers of adult-oriented games. He has frequently traded blows with Rockstar Games, the developers of the popular video-game series of Grand Theft Auto, this blog’s namesake, claiming them to be murder simulators. He has also used terrible tragedies to push his agenda, such as the Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres. I don’t know how Jack Thompson has come to the conclusion that video-games make people go loopy, he only has to interview my group of friends to find that we are hardly violent and we play many violent games. In fact, the person who is most violent out of this circle of friends is, in actuality, not much of a gamer.
It is unfortunate to us that we may have to wait many years until the older generation get old and die, in order for more informed people of the video-gamer generation to get into the position where they can actually do something about our sad state of affairs. I only hope I live to see the day that we finally get our beloved R18+ classification for games.
