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Similar to other forms of media, video games have been the subject of debate and censorship, due to the medium's depiction of graphic violence, sexual themes, substance abuse, recreational drug use, addiction, crime, nudity, profanity, or other provocative of offensive content. Among others, critics of video games sometimes include parents' groups, politicians, organized religious groups, and other special interest groups, even though all of these can be found in all forms of entertainment and media. Various games have been blamed for causing addiction and even violent behavior. In recent years, particularly notable controversy was generated with the discovery of a downloadable modification that unlocked a sexually explicit minigame in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Video game censorship is defined as use of state or group power to control the playing, distribution, purchase, or sale of video games or computer games based on an evaluation of the game's content. Video game censorship is a polarizing subject, with both proponents and opponents of censorship displaying passion for their views.

Causes of controversy

This article or section contains weasel words, vague wording that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be rewritten or removed.

Criticism of crime and violence in video games

Video and computer games are periodically criticized in the media by some parents' groups, psychologists, religious organizations, or politicians for the level of violence, and crime that some games allow players to act out. Examples are easy to find, including Mortal Kombat and its sequels, a series of fighting games by Midway. Since 1992 the series has rewarded players for beating up an opponent with martial arts moves, and then for executing a "Fatality" move. A Fatality is a killing of the defeated player.

It is particularly disturbing to some adults that some video games allow players to act out crimes, and reward them for doing so. A frequently-cited example is the extremely popular and controversial Grand Theft Auto III by Rockstar Games, in which a principal game activity is carjacking. Once a car is stolen, the player can run over pedestrians. The player may also purchase guns to shoot at and kill rival gang members (or pedestrians) as he completes missions for crime bosses. The game also became a center of controversy concerning attitudes toward women, because the player is able to pick up a prostitute, have sex to replenish health, then kill her to take back the money spent. It should be noted, however, that any activity of this sort in the game is done completely by choice and players are punished for committing crimes by the police. Considering this game allows one to freely choose, it could also be noted that the game is similar to real life. (A later game in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas goes a step further, with levels that require the gamer to murder corrupt police characters before the game will advance.) Many of the groups that object to the game also seem to think that it is disturbing that children play this.

The game's immediate prequel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came under similar criticism, also for implying allegedly racist hate crimes: The game, taking place in "Vice City" (a fictional Miami) in 1986, involves a gang war between Haitians and Cuban refugees, and the player often serves both gangs to plot against one another. Haitian and Cuban anti-defamation groups highly criticized the game for these actions, including using phrases such as "kill the Haitian dickheads" (a phrase used in the game, actually referring to the Haitian gang with which the character is having a shoot-out). After the threat of being sued by the Haitian-American Coalition, Rockstar removed the word "Haitians" from this phrase in the game's subtitles.

These concerns have led to voluntary rating systems adopted by the industry, such as the ESRB rating system in the United States and the PEGI rating system in Europe, that are aimed at informing parents about the types of games their children are playing (or are asking to play). Certain game publishers’ decision to have controversial games rated shows that they are not targeted at young children. They are ESRB rated as "Mature" or "Adults Only" in the US, or given BBFC ratings of 15 or 18 in the UK. The packaging notes that these games should not be sold to children. In the US, ESRB ratings are not legally binding, but many retailers take it upon themselves to refuse the sale of these games to minors. In the UK, the BBFC ratings are backed up by law, so it is actually illegal to sell the game to anyone under the indicated age, and many UK retailers go beyond that and also enforce the PEGI ratings, which are not backed up by law.

Lt. Col. David Grossman, a former West Point psychology professor, has written several books that pertain to the subject of violence in the media, including On Killing and Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill. During heights of video game controversy he has been interviewed on the content of his books, and has repeatedly used the term "murder simulator" to describe first-person shooter games. He argues that video game publishers unethically train children in the use of weapons and, more importantly, harden them emotionally to the act of murder by simulating the killing of hundreds or thousands of opponents in a single typical video game.

Video game violence critics generally agree that violent video games are at least as bad an influence on children as are television shows with the same level of violence and cruelty, and most seem to believe that video games are more threatening to a child's well-being, because the video game player uses the controller to make an on screen character act out the violence personally.^{citation needed} It was widely reported that the killers in the Columbine High School massacre were, like many teenagers, fans of first-person shooter games. They had recorded a videotape before the massacre in which they said they looked forward to using their shotguns just as in the game Doom. It can be argued, however, that these teenagers were already mentally disturbed before playing the game, and thus the game did not directly cause their actions.^{citation needed}

Some studies have shown that children who watch violent television shows and play violent video games have a tendency to act more aggressively on the playground, and some people are concerned that this aggression may presage violent behavior when children grow to adulthood.^{citation needed}

Most studies, however, reach the conclusion that violence in video games is not causally linked with aggressive tendencies. This was the conclusion of a 1999 study by the U.S. government, prompting Surgeon General David Satcher to say, "We clearly associate media violence to aggressive behavior. But the impact was very small compared to other things. Some may not be happy with that, but that’s where the science is."^[1] A meta-analysis by psychologist Jonathan Freedman, who reviewed over 200 published studies and found that the "vast and overwhelming majority" did not find a causal link, also reached this conclusion.^[2]

Controversy of speeding and evading the authority in racing games has surfaced when a copy of Need for Speed: Most Wanted found on one of the street racer's car in Toronto in January 19, 2006, when two street, named Alexander Ryazanov and Wang-Piao Dumani Rossracers, both aged 18 were involved in an accident resulting in a taxi-driver's death, named Tahir Khan. Nevertheless, the police did not find any connection between the game and the incident.^[3]

Criticism of sexuality and nudity in video games

Western video game publishers have not to date explored sexuality in video games to the degree seen in movies, books, or even TV shows.^{citation needed} Almost no American video games display full frontal nudity. Sexual themes are more common in some Japanese PC games, however, console companies such as Nintendo and Sony do not license adult only content games for their systems.^{citation needed} The following is a list of games containing sexual elements and nudity.

• Duke Nukem 3D The 1996 PC first-person shooter game, which features many topless women throughout the game, posters of nude women, strippers and prostitutes, and even a pornographic book store/movie house. The main character (Duke, whom players control) even offers prostitutes and strippers money and asks them to "shake it baby." In the case of the strippers, they will open their top and expose their breasts.
• Strikers 1945 Originally in the arcade version, if one beat the game by earning all gold medals on every level, the revealed pilots would appear topless.[1] This bonus feature was cut in most releases, which may explain the lack of immediate distribution in North America (as the sequel was released under the name of its predecessor in the US), while the Sega Saturn home version released in Japan avoided the issue completely by clothing all of the pilots and re-arranging their poses.
• God of War featured several scenes of big-chested topless women, including a particular scene where the character could have off screen sex with two half naked women in order to gain red orbs.
• Custer's Revenge was a game for the Atari 2600, released by Mystique under the brand "Swedish Erotica" that featured a naked General Custer advancing across the screen, dodging arrows, until he could reach a topless Native American woman who was apparently tied to a pole, and then rape her. The game was controversial for its racism as well as its sexuality, and, while television news coverage on the subject featured game animation, parts of the screen were concealed with black rectangles in order to avoid showing nudity.^{citation needed}
• Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry computer games were popular tongue-in-cheek adventure games for adults in which the protagonist constantly attempted, usually without success, to convince women to have sex with him. The games did not excite much controversy despite showing partial nudity with increasing graphical quality over the years.
• Eidos's Tomb Raider series were action-adventure games which featured a female protagonist named Lara Croft with extremely large breasts. The series did not explore sexual themes at all, but Lara was featured in video game magazines as a sex symbol, and it is generally believed that the success of the series over the years was partly due to the prominence of her appearance in the game's advertising and packaging (the game's appeal also inspired two movies based on it).
• Acclaim released a BMX game called BMX XXX in 2002 which included a topless woman as the game character riding a bicycle, and rewarded players with video footage of topless strippers. The game was originally intended to be a Dave Mirra title without nudity, but it is generally believed in the industry that the game was of low quality - its average review in the gaming media was about 55%, while in most gaming publications a 60% score is considered poor — and that Acclaim decided late in the game's development to attempt to create a controversy and hopefully prop up sales by including some nudity.^{citation needed} The attempt at publicity was rather successful, although the publicity achieved was of the wrong sort for Acclaim; with television reports that Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and most major IEMA retailers in the United States declined to carry the game in their stores due to the nudity.^{citation needed} Consequently, sales were poor: under 100,000 copies were sold. The game was not greeted with controversy or with much sales interest in Europe, while it was sold with the sexual content removed in Australia.
• In June 2005, an entire portion of unused code for an interactive sex mini-game was found within the main script of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game could be accessed in the PC version via a modification, and through Action Replay codes in the PS2 and Xbox versions.^{citation needed} The fact that the scene was left on the disc and could be accessed by altering a few bytes of the game's code via a hex editor prompted the ESRB to change the rating of San Andreas to "Adults Only" on July 20, 2005. The game was pulled from many stores; Rockstar Games posted a loss of $280.8 million that quarter. (see hot coffee mod)
• The US version of the game Fahrenheit (re-named as Indigo Prophecy for American audiences), published in September 2005; had scenes depicting sex and other "adult content" removed in order for it to be classified as a "Mature" title, as opposed to an "Adult Only" rating. This was probably done in light of "hot coffee" scandal (above).^{citation needed}
• The US version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was re-rated from "Teen" to "Mature" after it was discovered that a topless skin on female characters could be revealed through a Mod.
• The Sopranos: Road to Respect-Towards the beginning of the game, the player enters the Bada Bang, the strip club owned by Tony and the gang. During many of the scenes, women are seen topless. There is also an option that if the player walks up to the stripper area, he can watch the show. Also, the player allows a stripper to do a lap dance for him.
• Mass Effect: RPG Mass Effect was criticized for its several sex scenes on Fox News.

Counter-arguments

Response to controversies over sexuality is generally in the form of indignation that video games are singled out where movies, books, and television shows currently are not (despite the fact that Hollywood exercised the Hays Production Code to ban any movie which violated its strict moral regulations in the early half of the 20th century). Retailers have sold "R" and "NC-17"-rated (and in some cases "PG-13" and older "PG") movies showing nudity for several decades without generating an equivalent level of moral panic in doing so, and the moral problem they claim to have over video games with nudity is seen as hypocritical by some.^{citation needed} Because video games have a rating system roughly equivalent to the movie rating system, the two are analogous. Video games have also been seen to be singled out from other forms of entertainment when it comes, not only to violence, but also to nudity; hence the term pop culture pariah.

Criticism related to psychology and children's social development

Over two hundred studies have been published which examine the effects of violence in entertainment media and which at least partially focus on violence in video games in particular. Some psychological studies^[4] have shown a correlation between children playing violent video games and suffering psychological effects, though the vast majority stop short of claiming behavioral causation.

The American Psychological Association summarizes the issue as "Psychological research confirms that violent video games can increase children's aggression, but that parents moderate the negative effects."^[5] Craig A. Anderson has testified before the U.S. Senate on the issue, and his meta-analysis of these studies has shown five consistent effects: "increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior".^[6] Nevertheless, some studies explicitly deny that such a connection exists, most notably Anderson and Ford (1986), Winkel et al. (1987), Scott (1995), Ballard and Lineberger (1999), and Jonathan Freedman (2002).^[7] More recently, Block and Crain (2007) claim that in a critical paper by Anderson (and his co-author, Bushman), data was improperly calculated and produced fallacious results.^[8]

On March 6, 2005, the American television news program 60 Minutes took on the case of 18-year old Devin Moore, wherein plaintiffs have argued Grand Theft Auto: Vice City inspired him to kill three police officers that came to arrest him for stealing a car. In October 9 2005, a judge sentenced the convicted killer to death by lethal injection.

Some psychologists^{citation needed} and parents' groups have criticized video games because they believe they cause children to sit alone in the television room for many hours in a row, interacting with a machine (although chatting can be considered a more socially open environment) rather than running and playing outside as they exercise and improve their social skills by playing with other children instead of taking it upon themselves, as parents, to limit the time their kids play and making them go outside and play with other children. They claim that video games can be even more addictive to children than TV^{citation needed}, and therefore more likely to isolate them socially in this way. Some studies have purported that there is a correlation between depression and playing computer games.

For more mature gamers, however, such recent games such as BioShock provide "an entirely new tool through which to explore philosophy, psychology, and morality."^[9]

Counter-arguments

Many responded that video games can enhance children's social interaction because many video games are multiplayer games, where two or more players can have fun competing or co-operating on the same television screen, and that if a child is isolated and antisocial, this is not the fault of video games, but perhaps of the child's inborn disposition, or perhaps of the parents' lack of attention to making sure their child has enough opportunities for social interaction with other children.^{citation needed} Additionally, with the advent of online video gaming, it is not difficult for children to find others to play with, although these experiences are often anonymous.^{citation needed}

One response came from social critic and author J.C. Herz, who suggested that some criticisms of video game violence come from distinctly Marxist and socialist viewpoints from academia, and do not reflect the realities of modern life:

That's what we do in America: glorify autonomous individualists. What else would we possibly glorify? The autonomous collective? One can only imagine the kind of arcade game that would pass muster with the leather-elbow-patch set (leap over the running dogs of capitalism, liberate the oppressed proletariat, and accumulate enough petition power to defeat the evil Murdoch). (Herz, Joystick Nation, 1997).

Specifically, Herz claimed that such things as a "lack of cooperative behavior" and "aggressiveness" are both necessary and useful traits in a capitalistic society, but that academic psychologists tend to ignore this.^{citation needed}

Also, it should be noted that the majority of video gamers are adults. "The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years."[1]

"The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old. In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18."[2]

Some psychologists claim that while causation has been linked between playing violent video games and an increase in hostile behavior, the effect is very low.^{citation needed} They also claim the effect tends to increase depending on how angry the person was to begin with. Some also claim the effect violent video games have on adults is very similar in magnitude to the effect they have on the behavioral processes of children.[3]

While not a therapist, Brian Clevinger (author of 8-Bit Theater) opposes efforts to censor video games. He is critical of parents who fail to involve themselves in their children's lives. He argues that it is the parents' disinterest that hurts the intellectual development of children. Clevinger believes video games are just a convenient scapegoat: "It's not my fault my kid doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, or fantasy and reality, it must be those darn video games I kept buying him in lieu of parenting."[4]

Criticism from religious organizations

See also: Censorship by organized religion

Video games have received criticism from religious sources. A large percentage of criticism of video games originates from religious sources,^{citation needed} often in similar response to claims of violence, crime, sexuality, nudity, rebelliousness, materialism, occultism, and offensive references to religion in these games.^{citation needed}

Such content found in video games are often criticized by religious groups of specific denominations. Games such as Breath of Fire II, La Pucelle Tactics, Xenogears / Xenosaga, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy X, Castlevania,^[10] Tales of Symphonia, Grandia II and Shin Megami Tensei contain religious themes that some might find offensive. Often, RPGs in particular make use of a corrupt and powerful church as the game’s antagonist.

In response to potential criticism, religious content has been censored in some Western releases of Japanese-origin video games. Nintendo in particular censored many of its U.S. releases back in the NES and SNES era. Castlevania, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and other games containing such references as crosses, the words "holy," "monk," and names of biblical figures were censored for their U.S. release. One trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Tamagon, was locked out of the U.S. release of the game, possibly due to religious reference and the title of the game in which he originally appeared (Devil World). The trophy can be obtained via hacking, but the name of the game has been changed to "Demon World" in the description. It is interesting to note that the Devil from the game appeared as an assistant trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, under his original name.

Members of the Sikh came in action against the 2002 game Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, starting a petition that urged publisher Eidos to recall the game, because of a level in the game where the player was instructed to kill a group of "fanatical believers", which bore quite a resemblance to the Sikh. A couple of months after it's release however, the initial fervor and writer Jasvinder Singh Gulati stated that "after playing the version of the game released for PlayStation 2, I believe that us Sikhs totally overreacted."

In 2002, the Xbox fighting game Kakuto Chojin offended many Muslims with the use of religious chanting in background music. The Saudi Arabian government made a formal protest, and Microsoft pulled the game internationally in early 2003.^[11]

Many Muslims were also offended by the Nintendo 64 game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In one of the game's dungeons, Muslim chanting can be heard in the background music. This was changed by Nintendo in later versions of the game, with the older versions being discontinued.^[12] A prominent symbol in the game was the star and crescent, which is usually interpreted as a symbol of Islam. This was also replaced in later versions of the game, with a different symbol.

As in the film industry, many groups promote restriction on games children should be allowed to play, but do not believe that games themselves should be censored. These websites are directed at parents who want to avoid video games they consider too explicit and graphic for their children. Many of them (especially those that review games based on their view of the game's permissibility) receive criticism for being overly harsh, but some of them have large followings that appreciate their service.^{citation needed} Some of these websites have stopped reviewing "M" rated games, due to criticism from fans of the games upset at its low rating.^{citation needed}

Criticisms of the game play in and of itself

Some criticisms from both game players and non-game players alike are directed at the game play in and of itself. This primarily is focused toward RPGs, especially MMORPGs, and First-person shooter (FPS)'s, whose gameplay, critics feel, causes obsession or addiction. This is often joked about and admitted in the MMORPG communities^{citation needed}. A prominent aspect of RPGs is the immersion factor, or virtual reality, which is seen by critics as escapist^{citation needed}. Finally, as most RPG leveling mechanics allow for getting stronger by repetitive fighting of weaker enemies for a long time, this is seen as discouraging risk taking or instilling a fear of losing in the gamer. In fact, most MMORPGs place a level range requirement for getting experience points, in which the lower the enemy's level is relative to the player's, the less experience is gained (until it reaches zero).

The First-person shooter is the other type of video game, with arguably the highest immersion factor, since the player "sees through the eyes of the character the player is controlling". The 1993 first-person shooter Doom, a game that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris played a lot and mentioned in their suicide video, caused some activists and parents' groups to blame it (and other FPS games like it) for the shootings at Columbine High School. Critics of FPS games claim that the immersion factor is just too high, and that the U.S. armed forces uses them for training their soldiers.^{citation needed}

Criticism for alleged racism in video games

There have been a number of incidents in which a certain racial group felt their rights were violated by the racist depiction in a certain video game.

At least one video game, 2002's Ethnic Cleansing, has been based on an explicitly racist premise.

A number of games have been criticized purely for their settings, such as Total Overdose and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 in Mexico, or Resident Evil 5 in the African continent.

Nintendo was criticized for the design of the Pokémon Jynx, who according to children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford bore a striking resemblance to blackface actors, a racist image from America's past. Due to this complaint, Nintendo ended up slightly changing the colors in the Pokémon's design.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, one of the instructions that the player is given is to "kill all the Haitians", referring to the Haitian gang in the game. The group "Haitian-Americans for Human Rights" staged a protest outside of New York's City Hall, claiming that the game was teaching children to be racist.

Loco Roco was criticized by a gaming journalist who said that the similarities between the game's black Moja-characters and the 19th century Golliwogg dolls, was a "product of unchecked institutional racism".

The 2005-game GUN was the target of controversy when the Association of American Indian Development attempted to have it's release banned, because they felt that the game was being racist against Native Americans.

Publicized incidents

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Several incidents speculated to be caused by video games in recent decades have helped fuel controversy.

• On December 1, 1997, 14-year old American Michael Carneal had killed 3 and injured 5 others in the Heath High School shooting after playing Doom, Quake, Castle Wolfenstein, Redneck Rampage, Nightmare Creatures, MechWarrior, and Resident Evil, and accessing some pornographic sites. Carneal also owned The Basketball Diaries, a film which includes a high school student dreaming about shooting his teacher and some classmates, which sparked many debates on internet forums about whether the film about killing classmates, or the game where a character shoots aliens is more at fault.
• On April 20, 1999, American high school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and themselves in the Columbine High School massacre. The pair had been fans of Doom, claimed their mothers; however, later investigations by the FBI revealed that Harris' plan was originally to blow up the school. He started shooting when his bombs did not go off.
• In November 2001, 21-year-old American Shawn Woolley committed suicide after what his mother claimed was an addiction to EverQuest. Woolley's mother stated, "I think the way the game is written is that when you first start playing it, it is fun, and you make great accomplishments. And then the further you get into it, the higher level you get, the longer you have to stay on it to move onward, and then it isn't fun anymore. But by then you're addicted, and you can't leave it." It should be noted there is no proof Woolley's mother ever played the game.^[13]
• In February, 2003, 16-year-old American Dustin Lynch was charged with aggravated murder and made an insanity defense that he was "obsessed" with Grand Theft Auto III. Long time video game opponent and attorney Jack Thompson encouraged the father of victim JoLynn Mishne to pass a note to the judge that said "the attorneys had better tell the jury about the violent video game that trained this kid [and] showed him how to kill our daughter, JoLynn. If they don't, I will."^[14] Lynch later retracted his insanity plea, and his mother Jerrilyn Thomas commented, "It has nothing to do with video games or Paxil, and my son's no murderer."^[15]
• On June 7, 2003, 18-year-old American Devin Moore shot and killed two policemen and a dispatcher after grabbing one of the officers' weapons following an arrest for the possession of a stolen vehicle. At trial, the defense claimed that Moore had been inspired by the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,^[16] although some have later pointed out that the defender would have said anything to avoid blame.
• On June 25, 2003, two American step brothers, Joshua and William Buckner, aged 14 and 16, respectively, used a rifle to fire at vehicles on Interstate 40 in Tennessee, killing a 45-year-old man and wounding a 19-year-old woman. The two shooters told investigators they had been inspired by Grand Theft Auto III.^[17]
• On February 27, 2004 in Leicester, UK, 17-year-old Warren Leblanc lured 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah into a park and murdered him by stabbing him repeatedly with a claw hammer and knife. Leblanc was reportedly obsessed with Manhunt. The victim's mother Giselle Pakeerah has been campaigning against violent video games in the UK ever since.^[18] The police investigating the case have dismissed any link, as discussed in the relevant articles.
• In July 5, 2004, Cody Posey killed and buried his parents after supposedly being inspired by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, despite at no point in the game does the main character bury someone he has killed, nor does anyone in the game kill their parents.
• In October 2004, a 41-year-old Chinese man named Qiu Chengwei stabbed 26-year-old Zhu Caoyuan to death over a dispute regarding the sale of a virtual weapon the two had jointly won in the game Legend of Mir 3.^[19]
• On May 24, 2005, the four-month-old daughter of a South Korean couple died of suffocation after being left unattended for five hours while her parents played World of Warcraft at an Internet cafe.^[20]
• In August 2005, 28-year-old South Korean Lee Seung Seop died after playing Starcraft for 50 hours straight.^[21]
• In September 2007, a Chinese man in Guangzhou, China, died after playing Internet video games for three consecutive days in an Internet cafe.^[22][23]
• In December 2007, a Russian man was beaten to death over an argument in the MMORPG Lineage II. The man was killed when his guild and a rival guild challenged each other to a brawl in the real world.^[24]

Counter-criticism by proponents of video games

The most common argument against video games is that they promote violence. A counter-argument commonly expressed in the video game community is that playing these games does not motivate players to actually commit acts of violence in reality; playing a first person shooter does not cause most people to commit murder. A US Secret Service study found that only 12 percent of those involved in school shootings were attracted to violent video games, while 24 percent read violent books and 27 percent were attracted to violent films.^[25] An Australian study found that only children already predisposed to violence were affected by violent games.^[26]

Many gamers accuse critics of overreacting and imagining effects. As with Fredric Wertham's widely publicized crusade against comic books in the 1950s, the association of video gaming with youth crime can be at best seen as a correlation; because a very high percentage of adolescents and young adults play video games (analogous to youth readership of comic books in the 1950s), it would not be surprising that these video games show up in the possession of young violent criminals as well.

Within the video game industry itself, there is not much self-criticism about excessive sexuality or violence, as it is generally agreed that video games are for a wide range of ages, as with films and books, and are not always toys for children. The industry also argues that video game publishers have as much right to explore adult-oriented, mature themes as do movie studios or book publishers. Some developers and publishers find some of this type of content distasteful and do not produce it, but in general there is not much agitation to set limits on adult content for the industry as a whole. Nolan Bushnell once said in a documentary that violent video games, for the video game industry, are similar to what porn films represent for the film industry.

A tongue-in-cheek parody of a GTA clone was featured on a sketch on popular Adult Swim stop-motion sketch show Robot Chicken. The sketch, which is set out in the form of an ad, points out some exaggerated features that are commonly associated with violent video games but arent actually in any, such as the ability for the protagonist to shoot his parents, urinate on homeless people, run people over with a school bus, and date-rape an intellectually disabled person. But at the end of the ad, a voice says, "Rated E for Everyone".

A similar parody was in season 8, episode 16 of MADtv, with a "Grand Theft Auto" game show, exaggerating all of the controversial features: Frequent killings (two of the contestants, portrayed by Bobby Lee and Paul Vogt get "killed"); drugs; and prostitutes (though there was only one on the show.) The show ended with an apology for the excessive violence in the sketch, and a reminder to go and buy "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City".

Currently, some educators have begun to address "the controversy over the effects of violent gameplay on gamers" and have also discussed ways in which teachers might incorporate video games into their classrooms, as is the subject of the book Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom written by a Ph.D. at Brock University.^[27]

After conducting a two-year study of more than 1,200 middle-school children about their attitudes towards video games, Harvard Medical School researchers Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson found that playing video games did not have a particularly negative affect on the researched group.^[28]

Video game legislation around the world

In response to concerns about video games, governments around the globe have enacted or attempted to enact legislation regulating, prohibiting, or outright banning video games.

See also

• First Amendment to the United States Constitution
• Game addiction
• Greek electronic game ban
• List of banned video games
• Media controversy (disambiguation page)
• Media influence
• Media violence research
• Moral panic
• Nanny state
• Video games censored by Nintendo of America

References