I’m finding it increasingly annoying that there is an obvious double standard applied when it comes to games. Films are allowed to be as sick or racy they like, even mainstream films can be packed with sex, violence and dodgy political statements but games are a different matter entirely.
Konami have just announced that they will be canning their forthcoming third-person shooter Six Days in Fallujah. This is after protests from families and men who fought in Iraq offended by the idea of people playing a game based on their experiences. It’s ok if you thinly veil it in fiction like Call of Duty 4 or if it is based on a conflict which happened long enough ago like the endless streams of WWII games. For some reason this title was judged as a step too far.
As I see it this is censorship plain and simple. Konami should not have backed down over this, just as Rockstar ignored the idiotic ramblings and ravings about GTA and counted their money as the controversy drove sales ever upwards.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m not keen on playing Six Days in Fallujah but to paraphrase a famous quote, I dissaprove of your game but will defend to the death your right to release it. Except I won’t but you get the idea, censorship sucks, it is flat out wrong in a Nazi way and if we let these self appointed moral crusaders decide what we can and can’t watch or play then the world is going to get very boring.
Actually that’s not true either it will just be driven underground. Like the many sex based videogames that are out there that never grace a shop shelf or reputable magazine. Yes it’s a weak lead in to an article I just wrote about sex in games and dirty MMO titles where you can indulge your filthy fantasies you pervert!
Anyway the whole idea that these games have some kind of negative impact on gamers is the same tired argument that banned so called video nasties. According to the censors you have to be 18 to watch naked women having sex or to guide a crudely modelled approximation of a man to shoot another crudely modelled approximation of a man in the face but you can do those things for real at the age of 16. Does it really make sense to anyone?
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