I'm going to keep a spotlight on video games over the next days because of all the hype surrounding the April 29th release of Grand Theft Auto IV which is going to set a new sales record for entertainment product (perhaps $400 mil, way beyond the previous record-holder Halo 3). Again, I look to my video game guru Keith Boesky, whose company is responsible for selling the most intellectual property and developers into the game business, to answer the oft-asked question: is there more violence in video games than movies? Keith takes issue with my recent description of GTA IV as "loathsome" and compares the game's content to past and present violent Hollywood films and TV:
"I love Nikki, I love GTA, so I have to address the adjective. I could think of a lot of ways to describe GTA IV. Perhaps 'mind boggling in scope,' 'unbelievable achievement in game making,' 'more technologically complex than the NASA systems that put a man on the moon,' or just 'beautiful.' ...GTA IV is an 'M' rated game -- the industry equivalent to the MPAA's "R" rating -- and will not be sold to anyone under 17. The GTA series drives its medium forward and takes us where we’ve gone in films like The Godfather, Scarface, or more recently, The Sopranos.
"Isn’t the most troubling part of watching those movies feeling like you might do the same thing in the same situation? In GTA, you don't feel it, you do it. In each installment, you play a character, invited to prove himself to the bad guys. Instead of sitting and waiting to see whether Michael can take the gun out of the toilet and put a bullet in someone’s head, you do it. The game is not limited to large missions or tasks. Simple things serve to suspend your disbelief and move you further into the world than a film can. While the game is no better lodestone for your moral compass than Scarface, there are consequences to your actions. If you commit a crime in public, the police will be after you. Like Tony Soprano, it may get pretty hot, but also like Tony Soprano the heat may die down without your going to jail.
"GTA is violent, but like the movies, the violence is a reflection of our time. In 1972, Vincent Canby called The Godfather '... one of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment.' Today it runs regularly, unedited, on basic cable. Eleven years later Scarface took violence further to reach same point, and 15 years later, The Sopranos brought more sex and more violence directly into our homes on pay cable. In each case, it was ok to watch. GTA shows us, it is ok to play. The game is a fantasy, it is ok to pretend. Don’t be scared of the people doing this stuff in the game. Be scared of the people doing this stuff in real life...
"Games are constantly being attacked for sex and violence - even though we have none of the first, and strictly control the second. Politicians, media, parents and crazy lawyers all attack the industry with a broad brush, sweeping kids together with adults, and 'M' rated games together with 'E's. The industry is diverse enough to accommodate Mario and Snake Plisken but the media and politicians still portray our market as one for children. The average aged gamer, who is 33 years old, probably enjoys playing Mario, but he also wants to play some Halo, a bit of GTA, some Call of Duty and a touch of Zelda.
"Just to place some perspective on the market, I pulled some information from The Entertainment Software Association and the list of the top selling games from Next Gen. According to The ESA, 85% of the games sold in 2007 were 'E', 'E10' or 'T'. This equates to the 'G', 'PG' and 'PG-13' ratings in the film industry. (The rating system is administered by a self imposed oversight board called the Entertainment Software Review Board.) I went through the top selling games to see what people were buying ratings-wise. The three “M” rated games accounted for roughly 23% of the slightly less than 90 million units in sales represented by this list. Contrary to popular belief, there is no Hostel in there and no Debbie Does Dallas. In fact I challenge anyone to find a single naked boob. More significantly, I challenge anyone to find a single scene involving gratuitous violence.
"Game ratings are based on similar criteria to those applied by the MPAA. The number one title, Call of Duty 4, places you in the middle of a war zone. People are shooting at you from all over, your buddies are dying and you are killing bad guys who look an awful lot like Iraqi insurgents. Kids shouldn't play it. On the other hand, an adult gamer, would no more want to play an 'E' version of the game, than watch a version of Black Hawk Down edited to secure a 'G' rating. If you think these games are getting into the hands of children directly, you are just wrong. The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old and 80% of console games were purchased by people over the age of 18. I know statistics can be manipulated, so let's just look at practicalities. If a person under the age of 18 tries to purchase a game at Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Target, Toys R Us or Gamestop, a register prompt tells the cashier to check ID. Kids who are playing these games get them from their parents. In Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us, the games are locked behind glass. I don't think the bullets are locked up in Wal-Mart. A kid can't even get the game to the register unless someone hands it to them.
"I am not delusional. I know there are ultra violent games out there. I played the snuff film called Manhunt and saw the ESRB speech where Gail Markels showed the scene from Postal where the player lights someone on fire and pees on them, but these games just don't sell in volume. Don't take my word for it, look on the top 100. You won't find them. Based on the unit sales of the 100th title, if you don’t make it into the top 100, you don’t earn out your production cost.
"Like any other media, violence alone will not sell games. The game must be good. The Sopranos was loaded with violence and boobies on HBO, but they were able to strip out the violence and boobies and still have a hit on A&E. The same can be said for any best selling 'M' rated game. But as grown ups, why should we? So Mr. Politician, when complaining about in game violence, we are really asking whether someone over the age of 18 should be able to watch Black Hawk Down or Alien."
Amen, Mr. Boesky.
Comment by D.B. — April 24, 2008 @ 9:05 am
“Well they’re doing it, so why shouldn’t we?”
I don’t know why video games tend to attract a certain audience, and it is true that television and movies are no less guilty. I suspect it is because the only people who can afford to buy these $250 machines and $70 per game are bored suburban white boys. But it doesn’t make the issue go away.
Film, tv, and movies glamorize. They make what, in reality, is very unappealing and ugly, seem very attractive. It is all seduction. When you buy a ticket or a game or watch a show, you are being seduced, and part of the agreement when you sit down to watch is that you are ‘willing’ yourself to be seduced.
Henry Hill was dumb, ugly, and thick. A repulsive thug who did not question anything anyone ever told him to do. He lived a sad and pathetic life. Yet Goodfellas is an entertaining movie that seduces you into believing that there is glamor in living that kind of life.
Anyone who has any sense of reality knows the truth of real violence and the criminal world. The horror of it is in its baseness and cruelty. It is truly numbing and silent - the exact opposite qualities of entertainment. Sadly, it takes people to have some kind of experience with the realities of life and death that bring them to understand that there is little of value in spending your time shooting hookers and cops in a video game. These movies, tv shows and games love to feed on the bubble of the lucky few who don’t know this life firsthand. Spoiled rich kids making pretend for other spoiled rich kids.
Comment by TedB — April 24, 2008 @ 9:43 am
Equating violence in video games and violence in films, no matter how eloquently, doesn’t negate the fact that they are two different mediums. Each with their own separate affects on the human psyche.
You watch films and are a PASSIVE participant in the experience.
You play video games and are an ACTIVE participant.
Killing someone and watching someone being killed are different, and though NEITHER should be encourage in our society, one must differentiate the two. Even when the murders are fictional…
Comment by K.B. — April 24, 2008 @ 11:50 am
I think it’s misguided to claim that Goodfellas blatantly glamorizes the life of a thug… i.e. Henry Hill. Sure, it does glamorize this lifestyle. Blatantly. But there IS a glamour to the lifestyle in reality. Reading Wiseguy or any other non fiction about high level, rich and flashy mafia king pens (not all of which apply to Hill in particular) will teach you this much. In this regard, the movie is interesting by not presenting a black & white “crime is bad and ugly” message, that is more appropriate for an after school special. Guess what… a lot of times evil people live life’s full of parties, indulgence, sex and glamour. But there is also the last half hour of Goodfellas… the part that makes the film brilliant. The part that so accurately captures the cocaine fueled paranoid downfall of a man who had gone way too far. If all an audience takes away from Goodfellas is that it’s fun and glamourous to live a life of crime, doesn’t that say more about the audience than the art?
Comment by ckn8 — April 24, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
“Sadly, it takes people to have some kind of experience with the realities of life and death that bring them to understand that there is little of value in spending your time shooting hookers and cops in a video game. These movies, tv shows and games love to feed on the bubble of the lucky few who don’t know this life firsthand. Spoiled rich kids making pretend for other spoiled rich kids.”
Well-said. The lot of these movies/games are an absolute bore to anyone who’s ever lived a real life instead of sitting on the couch fantasizing about having one…
Comment by Layne — April 24, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
I guess the problem is never the one game or movie, it’s what becomes a legit texture in pop culture and children grow up with. In this sense MTV’s rap videos while just suggesting are just as harmful to a society as games or movies.
But opposed to that are common sense, education and good parenting that are more important than making a big fuss about something never intended for a child in the first place, or as in pop culture, the inevitable.
Comment by Daniel — April 24, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
“Equating violence in video games and violence in films, no matter how eloquently, doesn’t negate the fact that they are two different mediums. Each with their own separate affects on the human psyche.
You watch films and are a PASSIVE participant in the experience.
You play video games and are an ACTIVE participant.”
I would imagine that the activity involved in playing video games would actually make it even more obvious that the experience is not real. In a film, you can just sit there and watch and see all the horror unfold and take it all in. In a video game, you have to press buttons on this lump of plastic in your hands. Stop pressing the buttons and nothing happens. To me at least, having to think about what button to press next just reinforces the fact that it’s harmless entertainment.
“Sadly, it takes people to have some kind of experience with the realities of life and death that bring them to understand that there is little of value in spending your time shooting hookers and cops in a video game.”
I would argue that if that is true, then there is little of value in spending your time watching football on the TV. That there is little value in playing pool, or darts, or board games. To each his own, I find video games to be entertaining, my brother enjoys reading about cars and football. When the end result is that we are entertained, what difference does it make what medium it is achieved through?
Comment by Shoehorn O'Plenty — April 25, 2008 @ 6:14 am
In fact I challenge anyone to find a single naked boob.
Yeah, here’s the funny thing about that. God of War, God of War II and God of War: Chains of Olympus have a minigame in which our hero, Kratos, can get it on with two nude ladies (topless, no full frontal). The player is prompted with button commands until the inevitable climax (moans abound, ‘natch), where Kratos is rewarded with orbs to power up his weapons and magic.
What’s funny about this is that God of War moved completely under the radar by these self imposed crusaders of moral truth. Whenever there’s a debate about violent video games, the finger is always pointed to Rockstar because GTA is so easy to attack.
Why is there no public outcry and threats to boycott movies like Saw and Hostel while the mere hint of a new Rockstar product turns politicians and lawyers into brainless, hypocritical meat sacks? Because they’re lazy.
I’ve been gaming since I was about 10 years old and in my experience, video games are just as relevant and legitimate as Hollywood movies. In fact, there are many games that have come out that can really take today’s unoriginal, remake-loving Hollywood to task. BioShock, Half Life 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Beyond Good and Evil…the list goes on (ironically, BioShock is being courted by Hollywood to turn into a film).
@Layne
The lot of these movies/games are an absolute bore to anyone who’s ever lived a real life instead of sitting on the couch fantasizing about having one…
No disrespect intended, but that’s just silly.
Comment by SithLibrarian — April 25, 2008 @ 9:26 am
Hey Layne I realize you don’t know anything about my life so I’ll let you in on a little something, IT’S BORING.
Real Life is getting up every day and doing the exact same thing over and over again. WHY? Because I like to eat.
The fact of the matter is if I didn’t have entertainment to keep the dark thoughts at bay I’d have stuck a gun in mouth years ago. Your statements smack of both ignorance and elitism. Not everyone has the opportunity & skills for adventure. There is nothing wrong with a little vicarious living.
Comment by RealLifer — April 25, 2008 @ 5:00 pm
“Equating violence in video games and violence in films, no matter how eloquently, doesn’t negate the fact that they are two different mediums. Each with their own separate affects on the human psyche.
You watch films and are a PASSIVE participant in the experience.
You play video games and are an ACTIVE participant.”
Yeah because when I am pressing triangle, circle, square, x, up, right, down left to automatically get 50,000 round of ammunition for the 19 weapons my character is carrying while also getting a magical injection of $100,000 cash is a perfect analogue to real life.
IT’S FANTASY PEOPLE. No one ever started building time machines to off mad dinosaurs because they read a Choose Your Own Adventure book back in the day.
I know some people would like to think and in some cases legislate otherwise, but people do still have brains capable of reason, logic & judgement. It is incumbent on them to use it not you.
Comment by manny — April 26, 2008 @ 2:17 am
Comment by Dan — April 28, 2008 @ 4:05 pm