Free Speech and Video Games.
By Philip Andrew Wesley 1998

This editorial has been rated "PG-13" for language, and content.

Prologue: This editorial applies ONLY to the American culture and is regarded
as only for those who understand and appreciate the laws and virtues implied
by American law and privilege.

Chapter One: (Firsts.) I remember a time when I was in Germany. I read the
latest issues of "Gamepro" and "Electronic Gaming Monthly" in the "Stars and
Stripes" bookstores. I heard about a game called "Mortal Kombat". I saw the
game at the local military resturant and bars arcade. I remember seeing
images of people fighting and blood splatting on the ground. And you know
what? I didn't care. I had played fighting games before. The first fighting
game I had ever played was "Street Fighter 2" at the bowling alley. I always
picked Chun-Li or Blanka.

I had seen blood in a video game before. Street Fighter 2 had blood when
Blanka did his "face bite" move. But, I hadn't seen it so blantly overdone as
I had just seen in Mortal Kombat. I'm not a Mortal Kombat fan; I think that
the game's engine is too loose, easy, and unbalanced. I played Wolfenstien
3-D at a friends house and I thought it was great; I could have cared less
about the blood. I saw "Night Trap" on display at a local PX, I played it and
I thought it stunk. (A PX is a Post Exchange; or a Military Store. Think
"Wal-Mart for WACs".) Then I read about how the Government stood up, took
thier heads out of each others butts and decided that the Video Game Industry
was sending thier children to Hell with a Sega controller. This raised all
sorts of cain about how video games should be. This would explode into a huge
debate, Nintendo and Sega would lose and gain because of the foolhardiness of
our government.

This still rages on today EVEN after the formation of the ISDA, and the ESRB
ratings. But, you know what little faction has been ignored in this entire
debate? I'll tell you what has been ignored. FREE SPEECH. Amendment ONE of
the constitution assures FREEDOM of PRESS, SPEECH, and various other
liberties that we blow out of proportion with a complete misunderstanding of
our rights and responsibility. First off, I will tell you that this editorial
is 90% opinion, 5% universial truth, and 5% personal experience. Now that
this is cleared. Prepare for a ride through the underbelly of video games as
we know it...


Chapter Two: (Culture Shock.) What would you do if someone you have never
met walked up to you and called you a "Bast*rd", "Ch*nk", "N*gger", "B*tch",
"F*g", "F**ker", or whatever derogatory phrase you can think of. The first
impulse is to beat the crud out of them, right? WRONG. Sadly, what we don't
approve of is covered by Free Speech. THAT is the extent of our nations laws.
There is no definition of where Free Speech ends. Free Speech or Expression
of our beliefs are ALL covered by the murky First Amendment. Freedom of our
expression could be anything from telling the teacher that you don't want to
participate in a study of Evolution because it differs from your opinion; to
bombing a Community Center. That is how far that Amendment takes us. Does all
of this mean that we can do whatever we please and get away with it? NO!! And
a thousand times NO! There are laws, for without laws there can be NO freedom
or rights. So when does an expression of such opinion become wrong? This is a
matter of opinion. Here's how ratings are determined for a video game.

Example: "Goldeneye" is taken into the ESRB and the person working the demo
shows the board a video of the Player turning around a corner and shooting a
guard. The person working the demo then stops the tape; the board thinks a
little while and then says to rate it "T" for life-like violence. So when a
rating is given; the people who rate it are only shown a little about the
game. So those who are usually opposed to video games do not have a mutual
understanding of the game and base thier entire opinion of a game on a few
sections. What does this have to do with Free Speech? I'm getting to that.

New laws are going through legislation right now that would prohibit the
display of games with violent content and thier opinions are based on a half
truth. Is that scary? Yes it is. That is called ignorance. Have you heard a
preacher talk about how South Park is bad? You need to ask if they watch the
show often. Most likely they will say "No". This displays a complete lack of
knowledge about the subject. Without knowledge of the subject; we can not
determine a real opinion.

The blood and violence displayed in a video game is part of the expression by
the video games designer. When you play a game by Mr. Miyamoto; you are not
just playing a game. YOU are playing an expression of Mr. Miyamoto. Video
Games are, in my opinion, an expression of creativity for the most part. The
designer of the game has a message for you, the gameplayer. That is the
freedom of expression and that message is the REAL matter of importance here.

The creators of Mortal Kombat said that they wanted to create a gritty and
intense life and death story for Mortal Kombat. What has happened to that
story is another story. But the original idea was to create a homage to Bruce
Lee movies, and a story of the indomitable will of the human spirit to fight
against evil. The basic story is good versus evil in a fight to save the
world. The inclusion of Fatalities and blood was to give the player a sense
of fear for thier life and a savage nature to win and defeat. It was meant to
be a "kill or be killed" concept. Or as it is put on the arcade machines:
"Winner stays, loser pays." The message here was not to promote violence; but
to show a more realistic depiction of the true nature of fighting.

Wolfenstien 3-D was an extention of a side-scrolling PC game from the early
1980's that centers on a neo-nazi regime. The hero is supposed to be an agent
sent to infiltrate and destroy this evil. In a way; the game was created to
feed a sense that if National Socialism were to rise again; that America
would still defeat it. During the 1980's with the Cold War; the nature of
video games went through a period where games like "P.O.W.","1942", and
"Platoon" were the rage of the arcades. These games where born out of a
sense of fear and they display this fear and attitude of that time in thier
content. This is Free Speech. Games like "Thrill Kill", "Deathtrap Dungeon"
are born from a strange vein of our current culture that seems to be mired
in, what is considered by many, sexual perversion. This is a mirror of the
individuals that create these games. It is Free Speech. Or is it...

Chapter Three: (WWJD) "With great power comes great responsability". These
words graced the pages of the first Spiderman comic book; but they hold a
more profound meaning more today then they ever have. With the new technology
that we have; we must accept personal responsability. Just because you can;
doesn't mean you should. Let us say that I worked for a company and made a
game called "School Shoot Out". In this game you would buy weapons from the
back of a car and the proceed to use them in planned missions where you must
kill classmates, teachers, and innocent civilians. Let's say little Timmy
plays the game and decides that it's the coolest game ever and wants to act
it out. Now, the response to the game is at different levels with different
people. Johnny may play the game, say it's cool and not think about it any
more or ponder on it's theme. The theme of the game is to show people how
easy it is to cary such a thing out; and it shows the flaws in the current
public system. But, if you give a mouse a cookie... you know the rest. Little
Timmy takes a gun to school and kills three classmates before little Benny
tackles him to the ground and Timmy gets arrested. Who is at fault here?

The answer is Little Timmy for doing this, the guy who sold him the gun, the
parents who didn't catch it before it happened. The school for not having
tighter security and I am at fault too for not thinking about the consequence
of my expression. All actions have an equal or greater reaction. This MUST
be considered when you make a game. You DON'T make a game without thinking
about it's effects. You don't write a diet book without knowing the dangers,
you don't prescribe a drug without knowing it's effects. Why? Because it is
just plain idiocy for you to expect a game NOT to effect someone. Mind you
that if Timmy had just played my game ONCE; he can not be expected to go out
and commit a crime. You do not become fat for eating ONE doughnut; you must
be fed a doughnut or nine every day and not balance it out with excercise and
a diet plan. People learn by repetition. That's the way it works. You can be
taught to fear and to hate by daily supplements. Like the musical "South
Pacific" states; "You have to be carefully taught." The current trends in
video games seem to promote such things as mysogeny, sadiomaschoism, and
sexual identity displacement. The repetitive nature of these themes in video
games could teach the impressionable to become socially deviant in theory.

But, as it is a theory; it demands proof. Proof is hard to come by in todays
society. We place blame on everyone else. We say that media is a reflection
of society. WRONG. Society is a reflection of the media. You see, as everyone
can affect other people. We are not a society. We are a HUMANITY. The
operative term in HUMANITY is HUMAN. If we have one human who decides that
the world is Hell, and that he is really an alien named "Ti" and that he must
find people who will follow him to his rondevous with "Do". He is a human and
part of humanity. He finds people to follow him and they become his
"society". His society is a reflection of his media or ideas. Media comes
from the word "medium". A "medium" is a way to express an idea. When you see
the word media; you should think "Me-idea". So likewise the society is a
reflection of ideas. When we realise that we have an effect; we must ask
ourselves: "Just because we can do this; does that mean we should?" The
answer to this question is up to you. I will now shift the focus of this
editorial to the LEGAL side of video games.

Chapter Four: (Rape is rape is rape.) It is illegal in about 30 states for
you to practice sodomy, fellatio, cunningillus, S & M, and many other things.
Mysogeny is also a crime. If a video game is an expression of a developers
ideas; should a developer be held responsible for his expressions if they
break a law? In the case of Grand Theft Auto; a game which depicts armed
robbery, car jacking, wanton manslaughter, hit and run driving, premediated
murder and more; should the person who developed this game be held as a felon
for thinking of these and putting them in a game? NO! There's a real
difference between a depiction of a criminal act and the practice of it. If
you show someone shoot a female for no reason on television or in a video
game; that's a depiction of mysogeny. It is not an act of mysogeny; which is
wrong. There are exceptions to much of what has been stated above. I will
show those now.

Chapter Five: (Except on this ground.) When Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstien 3D
were released; a series of clones where created; these clones are an
exemption of the Video Games as Art idea. There must be a reason for there
to be gore in a video game. In many games; the gore is just there. When the
blood, gore, etc is just placed in there for no reason other then to attract
attention.... it is wrong. Art is NOT exhibitionism. Art is an expression and
if you can not express an idea without having to pepper it with gratuitous
elements that do not add to the idea; there is truly a problem. Many games
after "Mortal Kombat" featured excessive blood. Why? Because the people who
created them are not in the business to create art; but to make money off of
the unknowing consumer. It is too easy to splash red into a mediocore game
and sell millions of copies. That is when the industry becomes commercial.

Sadly, the American public just eats this up for some reason. We do not need
to put profanity into a movie, song, or book just to sell it. An artist
should not have to alter his/her expressions to fit a general public. Games
are an art form in my eyes. The greatest masterpieces barely contain these
elements. Did Super Mario Bros. have sex, gore an profanity? No. Did Tetris
need these? A game that is good can still sell without these. And if the
product can not sell without the addition of these elements.. then maybe you
are in the wrong business. An artist looking only to sell soon wastes away to
obscurity. Let us face it, fads come and go. If a game is given thought and
actual quality. It will be successful in the long run for years.

Sadly, I have seen many games rely on blood and flash to sell. Would "Tomb
Raider" be platinum without Lara Croft's "gifts"? Maybe.. The "Metroid"
Series is popular and the heroine isn't "gifted". Would games like "Mortal
Kombat" sell without blood? Probably. "Tekken" features flashy stuff instead
of blood and is wildly popular. The Virtua Fighter series contains no blood.

The point is that companies DO NOT need to pepper a game with blood, skin
flashes, sex, profanity, etc. IF the only reason is to make the game sell.
Shock may sell; but isn't remembered. In my psychology book I read that
whereas Sex in advertising may catch someones attention; they have trouble
remembering the product. Whereas violence, and questionable elements may
catch someones attention; if they are only there to attract attention; they
will soon be forgotten.

Conclusion: (Whatsoever things are pure..) So does the industry need to have
questionable elements? No, not really. But they can have them. It may not
be the smartest thing to do; but if you make a video game.. you are protected
by the First Amendement. But just because you can; doesn't mean you should.

The following information may not be removed from this editorial: The games
mentioned above are copyright of thier perspective companies and subject to
copyright standard laws. This editorial is copyright of Dmg Ice and Philip
Wesley 1998-1999. This editorial may not be redistributed without written
consent by the authour. This editorial is subject to protection under America
laws and is protected by the right of authourship Internet Act made in 1987.
The following site information and E-mail address may not be removed as well.
Visit Dmg Ice on the web at "http://members.tripod.com/cgb001/"
My E-Mail is wwesley@internetland.net
My other E-Mail is dmgice@yahoo.com