A good day for posts today, the next one is about Mass Effect and that is harmful for kids. This statement comes from two people who are doing something in the US. Why is Mass Effect not good for kids (the game was rated M for Mature in the US and also here in Europe it got a high age rating)? Well because of the 15 seconds "sex" scene or let's say "a cutscene in which the characters copulate in full digital nudity". Wow seeing a naked ass from the side is now full digital nudity? There are just a few parts of the text where I want to make a comment.
"We never shy away from sexuality in the media.": As far as I know the US is not very open to that topic compared to other country's like Germany (where you could have naked girls in the game as long as you can not shoot anybody and there is no blood) or Austria (we are nice to games and there are almost no restrictions people could be naked and there can be blood and shooting stuff is always welcome).
"Allow homosexuality to be on par with heterosexuality and heterosexuality outside of its proper context of marriage": Welcome to the year 2008 we are not any longer in the year 1808. That's strange I don't know, but as far as I can remember Brokeback Mountain was received very well so that topic can be used in movies but by no way in games? In Mass Effect it's even only Man-Alien Woman or Woman-Alien Woman (technically the race don't have any gender). I don`t need to see Man-Man action, but people can do or be like they want so why characters can`t be homosexual in games? The second thing in that line is the lovely “outside of its proper context of marriage” and here again 1808 is long over. That's why I don't care much about religion because of things that where made up a few hundred years ago.
"when you expose children, whose brains and personalities are still developing, to degrading and harmful material, you've got to believe that's going to have an effect on the way that they view themselves, others, and the world.": First of all the game is rated M for Mature, second of all the “sex” scene is almost at the end I want to see a kid go that far in the game while having to make a lot of decisions and can choose between good and bad and can see the result of bad and good decisions.
"This is about [BioWare] making as much money as it can. It's putting elements in its games which they think will help them sell more games. They don't care about what they're doing to kids.": M Rated. Wow making money thats evil how can someone make money and even worse putting things in the game that gamers could like. Flower power, no power to the money and we need only air and love to life? It's a normal business sure they want to make money otherwise they lose there jobs and there so stupid things like food or rent that people have to pay, besides of that they are not doing that only for the money also because they care about games.
"People try to raise a straw-man argument and say that people from my perspective are saying that everyone who views something is going to go out and become a serial sex killer. Nobody's saying that,": Nobody is saying that? I at least once per week a Interview with some politician (mainly from Germany) where they say such stuff. What I know is that people from the perspective of this lady don't have any clue. Otherwise they would know that there is much more to Mass Effect than this 15 seconds "sex" scene. And really that's not a sex scene there is nothing to see and Bioware did it tastefully and there is a long prologue to that in the meaning of a romance. It's not like they characters are meeting and 5 minutes later the player has to watch a 40 minutes cutscene where you can see everything. There is a lot mor to the game and it's a shame that it is mainly in the media because of this "sex" scene. It shows good the impact that decisions can have, there are conversations where the player can try to convince a NPC to stop taking drugs even if the stuff is not illegal but it's not healthy for the NPC.
I really don`t like such useless comments from people who think they know about stuff. Not only because I work in the business, also because I play games since I was 5 or 6 years old and even games like Resident Evil when I was 14 or something like that and still I`m "normal". Games are not harmful for people (and parents need to know what there kids are doing), people are harmful for people.
Link to the complete article --> Here
So long and don't lissen to politicians who talk bad about games because they don't have any clue. I finish the post with a quote that fits to such people from a good movie, one of the best movies ever Groundhog Day: "Morons, your bus is leaving"
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