@darek006 said:
I don't want to get into a long discussion about this, but I will say that anybody who thinks that video games and politics are only being linked now is fooling themselves. Personal politics are visible in just about every instance of every medium of art. The topics covered in games, and thus the politics, are just getting more niche, divisive, and heterogeneous. It's a sign that video games are growing up.
I remember the fear, at least in my circles, when the US hearings on video game violence were happening. Though we would have defended this statement to the death, ultimately, we were a bunch of kids afraid that Congress was going to take away what we liked. Could I rationally and objectively explain why being able to rip someone's head off in Mortal Kombat was enjoyable? Not without sounding like a psychopath - and we KNEW that - so our arguments instead were more about "it's just a game," "it's just fantasy," "it's no big deal," and even tossing around some "freedom of speech" guff like we knew what the hell we were talking about at 14.
But the fact is, we liked the violence. It was "cool." Maybe because it was forbidden, maybe it speaks to something primal, who knows? Outside the scope of a dumbass forum post. We felt a positive reaction to it and we wanted to continue feeling that. That was the driving force behind wanting to keep out censorship, period. Everything else was just bullshit reasoning.
I bring it up, because I see a lot of parallels to that experience, and the reaction to the "social agenda" these days. I wonder how much of this is, not so much about refusing to let girls into the clubhouse, but that the boys are worried their toys will be taken away. The games they like will be forced to change. The polygon boobies they can't possibly rationally explain why the enjoy - they just know they do - won't be allowed anymore. Call of Duty is replaced by a dozen expressionist indies to be "more accepting to the female audience." Etc. Etc.
Maybe that's just an idealistic hope that people aren't shitty to women because they're women.
Still, I do wonder what it would have been like if Twitter and blogs had been around during the 1992 hearings. Would Lieberman and Col. Grossman have gotten anonymous death threats? (probably.) Would there have been a hashtag about how Night Trap was being misrepresented and it's all a conspiracy (definitely.)
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