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There's another great post at Vorpal Bunny Ranch, this one looking at the issue of female game protagonists and game violence — there seem to be different expectations placed on the reaction of female protagonists to violence that is par for the course for male characters. Oh, sure, violence may still be there, but it takes on a different tone. Is this societal expectations playing out on our consoles and PCs?:
For a celebrity whose past is filled with questionable choices — nearly making out with her own brother on camera, having "Billy Bob" tattooed on her arm, making two Tomb Raider movies — Angelina Jolie has taken a shocking turn for the normal. The UN goodwill ambassador has a decent head on her shoulders, at least in terms of talking to her kids about violence and video games.
Tom Endo has an interesting musing up over at the Escapist on the subject of guns, games, and game design — the issue at stake is what guns really mean in video games (his answer is 'not much, especially not compared to movies'). Dirty Harry may be a love letter to the .44 Magnum, but it's a more nuanced picture than we get in, say, Grand Theft Auto. Endo says we are not producing 'images of consequence,' and an overemphasis on pure mechanics has meant a stunted approach to violence:
In an attempt to avoid the censorship criticism that surrounded the European release of the original No More Heroes, Marvelous Interactive is to release two seperate boxed editions of the game - both with and without rivers of gore.
Grand Theft Auto strikes again! A 13-year-old boy who shouldn't have been playing the game in the first place claimed that he doused three cars in Lyons, France with petrol and set them on fire after playing a few hours of "GTA IV: Liberty City" on his PC. The Mail Online does a stellar job of reporting the incident, not only getting the game wrong (GTA IV isn't released on PCs yet and doesn't have a subtitle), but the details as well.
The game awards points (for) creating as much as crime and destruction as possible in a city.
That's right, Mail Online. You forgot to mention the cheat code you can only acquire by eating a live baby. I had to do it twice, because I forgot to write it down the first time. Man those babies are filling. I'm getting rather tired of seeing these stories. We need to call for a global ban on stupid children. They're a menace.
Teenager torches cars after watching Grand Theft Auto video game [Mail Online]
Trading Standards officers in Plymouth, England has used all the wit and wiles at their disposal to uncover a chilling fact - Plymouth merchants are selling children violent video games, and knives. Out of 34 shops tested using 16-year-old spies, five out of nine sold the underage teens violent games, while two out of twenty-five stores tested armed the teenagers with sharpened steel. Operation leader and Fair Trading Officer Lynda Braddock was understandably disappointed.
"The statistics for knife sales are encouraging but it's still disappointing to find some shops not on board with this issue especially bearing in mind the media coverage on knife crime in recent months...And we're disappointed that the games sellers concerned don't seem to have taken their training on board or recognised the fact that these games are given a high age rating for a reason."
Remember the recent news that Dead Space has been banned in China, Japan, and Germany? Well, GamePolitics isn't buying it, saying the news doesn't pass the 'smell test' for a variety of reasons. Dead Space cleared both Australia's 'notoriously censorious' OFLC and the UK's BBFC (the same commission that banned Manhunt 2); Germany perhaps makes sense, but "Japan? The home of Resident Evil?"; and, oh yeah, the lack of any word from EA on the issue:
Back in my days as a teen, my parents weren't afraid of anything as far as I was concerned, but not all 15-year-olds are 6'6" with a goatee. Today's parents have plenty to worry about in fact, though a recent survey performed at the family-focused consumer game site What They Play seems to indicate their priorities are a bit out of whack. They asked a series of asked over 1,600 respondents what they'd fear the most if their 17-year-old were to participate in a sleepover. The results, picked from single answers only - no multiple choice here - indicated that while 16% were concerned about pornography and 14% about beer, 19% voiced concerns that their child might end up playing Grand Theft Auto.
Proving that parents haven't gone completely crazy, the vast majority - 49% - were worried that their child would smoke a little chronic with their pals and then...I dunno, giggle for 8 hours straight, like we did back when i was a teenager. That's the real danger folks.
Heather Trujillo, the babysitter implicated in the death of 7-year old Zoe Garcia, has been given an 18-year suspended sentence, according to a report from Colourado NBC News affiliate 9 News. Trujillo, who was arrested along with her boyfriend Lamar Roberts, will instead spend six years in a youth offender program as part of a plea bargain. The two were charged with child abuse after acting out -- in their own words -- Mortal Kombat moves, kicking, punching and body slamming the young girl in December of last year.
Roberts' trial has not yet been set, but Trujillo will testify against him as part of her plea agreement.
Teen avoids prison time in sister's 'Mortal Kombat' death [9 News]
Oh hey, now steady on. Can't we all just get along?