Devs Challenge Video Game Violence Issue
Gears of War and Borderlands devs speak on the misconceptions of video game violence.
Violence in video games is always a hot topic, but until now, the debate has been largely one-sided. As part of the upcoming film Video Games: The Movie, leading industry figures discuss the issue of violence in video games and what effect it has on the children and adults consuming them.
In a brutal teardown of the mainstream media mindset toward the topic, Mikey Neumann, creative designer at Gearbox Software, Cliff Bleszinski, creator of Gears of War, and a handful of other important industry figures tore into some of the common misconceptions and misdirected blame that occurs during these discussions.
Neumann dug deep, calling attention to the fact that blame is often diverted from parents themselves and onto video games, “It's weird how when you watch the people and they go to Congress and they're angry: 'Our kids are being corrupted.' I'm like 'Yeah, exactly. Your kids.’”, he continued, “They're your children. You should be not corrupting them. 'I leave them alone ten hours a day, he's getting corrupted by this.' Well no s***. It's like finding your dad's Playboys under the bed and then blaming Playboy."
Brian Fargo, founder of InXile Productions, used the industry’s strict rating system as an example of how games are meant to defend against underage players, “We’re just like any other industry that we have these rating systems in place and there’s going to be something for everybody.” This echo’s Neumann’s point that the parent is responsible for the content that their child can acquire, not the industry.
Bleszinski spoke to the illegitimacy of the connection between video games and violence, saying that, “People like to make just kind of a causal link and say well video games cause violence. It's like, let's see, so, there's more crime in the summer and more ice cream is sold in the summer, therefore ice cream causes crime. That's not how legitimate scientific research works.”
With the discussion on violence in video games popping up every time a tragedy occurs, it’s reassuring to know that key members of the industry are ready to stand up and fight against misconceptions. Video Games: The Movie is expected to release in September 2013, and will continue to work against these misconceptions aimed at the video game industry.
