VIDEO GAMES have certainly come a long way since the 1980s, when Nintendo and Atari reigned undisputed at the top of the market. The people within the University's current age demographic have witnessed the progression of the home video game from the very beginning, and the amount of interaction involved in today's games is staggering when compared to the simple platform-jumping games of yesterday. Herein lies the problem that the video game market is currently facing.
In an attempt to give the consumer the most realistic experience whenplaying a video game, many companies have decided to release games that appeal to an older audience rather than the children that they originally targeted. These types of games have proved to be extremely popular, and as more games undoubtedly follow suit, there is a good policy for video game makers to follow: once a game is released, its designers should not be permitted to tone it down or self-censor it in order to make it accessible to an immature audience. By forbidding the video game companies from doing this, only the people who are mature enough to handle the games will be able to play them. Future game designers will feel free to follow their artistic visions and create what they want if they know that there is enough regulation in place to prevent their games from falling into a child's hands.
A couple of years ago, the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 on the Playstation 2 marked a revolutionary change in the video game industry. In this darkly humored and extremely violent game, the player takes on the role of a street thug who rises through the ranks of organized crime. The various missions given to the main character throughout the game include shooting other mobsters and rigging bombs to cars. Games such as these have inspired other game designers to be more daring in their design, and the impending release of BMX XXX, a biking game, has caused controversy among retailers and consumers alike. Although it does not contain the blatant criminal actions of Grand Theft Auto 3, BMX XXX includes topless women, prostitutes and pimps. Although this adds an edginess to the game that would not be present otherwise, retailers are not amused, and many of them refuse to carry it. The current Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system that is used on video games only exists as a recommendation of age group, and these retailers have decided that they do not want such choices to be available in their stores (www.esrb.org).
Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and KB Toys all refuse to carry BMX XXX, and if stores such as these ban the game from being sold because they want to maintain a certain image and family atmosphere, then there's nothing wrong with that. A Wal-Mart spokesman who spoke about the general policy of the corporationstated, "We're not going to carry any software with any vulgarity or nudity -- we're just not going to do it" ("Retailers Shun New 'XXX' Video Game," www.cnn.com, Oct. 15). A store such as Toys R Us has a very kid-friendly atmosphere, and their dedication to maintaining that atmosphere is admirable.
However, Best Buy has decided that instead of banning the game, they will instead sell a censored version of it, just as Wal-Mart does with explicit music. This compromise to sell censored versions of products is, above all, illogical. Best Buy prominently displays R-rated movies throughout their stores, and the content contained within this game is nothing worse than what a person would see in an R-rated film. There has been no attempt by Best Buy to censor classic films such as "The Godfather" due to violence and nudity, and until they do, they should not hold a double standard for video games and feel obliged to sell an edited version.
However, more importantly, Best Buy and the game designers who edited BMX XXX inherently undermine their goal to protect children by selling this censored version of the BMX XXX. By doing so, they are allowing the video game to be accessible to a wider audience, and unless the game designers manage to squeeze every last bit of offensive material out of the game in their censored version of it -- which is highly unlikely -- they run the risk of allowing an adult's video game to be put in the hands of a child.
Lastly, and most importantly, editing games undermines a designer's creative expression, and it hinders the development of an adult audience for video games. Games such as BMX XXX and Grand Theft Auto 3 are the pioneers for a new, more mature video game genre that is aimed at older consumers. The video game market is targeting a different demographic besides the young teenagers and children that it has exclusively focused upon in the past, and as such, games that are designed for adults should be exclusively available to them. Editing the games stunts the growth of the video game industry by discouraging the exploration of adult themes.
Stores need to decide for themselves whether they want to carry adult video games, and if they do, they ought to carry nothing less than the uncensored version. To make a compromise between the two options will compromise artistic expression and risk damaging those whom the censorship is trying to help.
(Kevin James Wong's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at kwong@cavalierdaily.com.)