Videogames have been accused of unnecessary violence, racism, sexism and homophobia in the past, but this is the first time I can remember someone warning that games could become too politically correct. First Amendment lawyer Lawrence Walters has issued that warning at GDC yesterday.
"Just when the decency police and moral values groups have been all but defeated in the courts -- both of law and public opinion -- a new threat has emerged from our left flank: political correctness," he proclaims. "The leftist thought police are now wanting to impose their view of propriety on modern cultural discourse...
"Think about [a New York bill that would prevent minors from purchasing games containing racial stereotypes] ... Would we ever in a million years tolerate the government passing a law that movies cannot have profanity, racial jokes, or derogatory language? That would eliminate practically every movie made.
"Now we can debate all day long whether racist stereotypes or derogatory language is even appropriate in video games, but that's for us to debate, and not for the government to decide ... [The video game industry] needs to reveal its enemies for who they are -- radicals on the left and on the right -- and marginalize them ..."
While I can't see companies like Rockstar ever feeling the need to tone down content, there might be some truth to his words. After all, we've already seen how some publishers are dumbing down their titles so as not to scare off the new "casual" market. A wave of new, politically correct games may very well pop up, but I think it'd have more to do with appealing to the mediocre mainstream rather than appeasing the radicals.
Contest:
9:20 AM on 03.27.2009
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Simple. Don't like it, don't buy it.
Would you kindly?
@Piellar
"I can't think of any artistic media that's as moderated and politically-corrected as video games."
Movies? TV? Video games are hardly the most vilified media.
I concede your points about TV though, if you remove movies, mostly includes series like Lost and Family Guy as interesting artistic content, and are mostly heavily moderated (well maybe not South Park and a few others :P).
I blame the swing music.
i hope that made sense.
i am pretty sure "unnecessary violence" is one issue, and the sentence should be read as unnecessary violence + racism + sexism etc, not unnecessary violence + unnecessary racism + etc...
i know the prospect of bringing up racism in a "witty" and sarcastic manner is one that makes most internet dwellers cream themselves in sheer joy (because they get to throw out some offensive nonsense and mask it as an ironic statement to get some major LOLZ), but it might be better to read the sentence more carefully and actually try to put 2 and 2 together / try to understand what the author meant.
Both of those movies were foreign made. Find me a mainstream American film that isn't heavily moderated or gets away with stuff like in games (not counting sophmoric "unrated" dvd releases). The most recent example is "Zack and Miri make a porno". We can't even use the word "porno" in the title of a movie.
Also I cant remember who said but isnt claiming every little thing as racist insensitive to people who have and do suffer through racism? (When i was in china i saw that some people didnt like me as i was white (only some) and it was amazingly affecting)
We need to address the issue of race as a subject where questions can be asked rather than simply condemning stuff. Also lets not forget about the real racisms that are still going on (ie. Caribians vs Africans etc)