Feature Article

You turn on your newest game that you just got from the store, and the huge “M for mature” rating comes up on the screen for only about three long seconds. Even though you’re a minor you managed to get this game, but the question is; does it help you in any way?

It all started in 1992; Midway’s `Mortal Kombat had just hit the arcades as a response to Capcom’s Street Fighter 2. And it turned the video game world upside down, with the bloody violence, the different blocking system (by only blocking when you held the button reducing the damage), and the gruesome ‘fatalities.’ Mortal Kombat also introduced a new system of juggling. Once the player had knocked their opponent into the air, players could keep them in the air by hitting them. This caused copying of other developers in fighting games, but what else it caused were video game critics to start protesting and telling parents to not buy the game for their children. This eventually led to the ESRB (standing for Entertainment Software Rating Board) and Mortal Kombat getting stamped with the first M rating around. Some of the most notable copycats were Kasumi Ninja, and Primal Rage (which caused uproar from ESRB) and some others. Primal Rage probably being the best copycat since it involved creatures, but somewhere along the way Midway bought the rights from Atari for the game.

In 1997 Grand Theft auto popped up from the ground, spawning uproar since it depicted crimes and killing throughout. It even got stamped with the Parental Advisory on its PC (computer) cover. But for Grand Theft Auto II it got the mixed rating but mostly M (only T for the Gameboy and Playstation.) These games did not have any controversy really surrounded around them but the GTA III and Vice City however did. Due to it being brought out of sandbox view which is basically looking straight down so your character looks like a 2D circle with little sticks as arms to third person and 3D the violence seamed more realistic, the game also got controversy over the fact that you could kill prostitutes and steal their money in GTA III. The company Take-Two, Rockstar, and Sony, have sued over a series of three killings committed by teens that had been suggested that the game had influenced them to kill.

After that little brief history of violent games that have caused controversy I can guarantee there are more games than that that have very violent content. New breeds of violent games were released onto the next-gen (generation) game systems (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii.) Examples being Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, etc.

Kids have different opinions on the impact of violence to the videogame world. Bennett Briante, one of the 6^th Graders I interviewed at St. Paul’s School in Brooklandville, Maryland. “Well I think if [ESRB] wanted to stop kids from buying [violent games] they would. I think they just want the money and make it look like they care.” Matt Railey, another 6^th Grader at St. Paul’s, shared a similar opinion. “ESRB should be a little bit more grading wise tell the content on the game before the customer buys the game,” stated Railey. Some adults think differently however. Mr. Woods, a teacher at the school said, “Minors should be involved in arts not violent video games.”

Adult critics of the violent games would probably have an opinion similar to Mr. Woods’. But as you see like opinions on this subject differ with age or personality. But the main problem that the critics have is that kids keep managing to get their hands on the games when they’ve repeatedly told parents not to buy them for their children. But the parents that let the kids buy the game seem to almost not care and if they usually have one it seems that they’re bound to have others, which is a big heads up about what we’re leaving behind in today’s society.