The world of computer gaming seems to be taking a step in the right direction

By Jon, Conval High School

For years the computer gaming industry focused almost all, if not all, of their attention to the production of games that would turn out to be very controversial. These games depicted a lot of violence and vulgarity, but the producers didn’t seem to mind as long as they were being sold. Private organizations and groups have been trying to halt the production of such games for as long as they have been produced, for the children who play them end up acting out games like “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Combat.” The cause that those people were supporting has not yet stopped those games from being released, but steps are being taken to assure that parents have the ability to decide whether certain games are okay for their children to be playing. Games now come with ratings on them such as “Teen” and “Mature” to let the buyer know that the game might not be suitable for them. The packages also are printed with a small description of why the game has a certain rating. For example, a game that has a rating of “Mature” may also read, “animated blood and violence.” Most parents ignore the ratings on these games, or just let their child go to the store and buy them themselves, which means that they don’t know what kind of game their child is purchasing. The ratings help, but they are not the solution.

Recently, gaming companies have been coming out with more and more games that are less controversial, such as sports games and adventure games like “Rayman,” “Madden NFL” and many others. Other games that include violence, are toning it down, such as in the very popular Pokemon games, the characters are “knocked out,” and not killed. Many games are still being produced which show blood, such as in the hit game “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,” in which blood splashes up every time you fall. This kind of violence is not as bad as the kind found in fighting games because the child playing the game is not going to purposefully fall off of their skateboard to imitate the game, or at least I hope that they wouldn’t. As I go to the stores looking for games, for I sometimes enjoy playing computer games myself, I have been finding less and less fighting games on the shelves as I would have, let’s say, three years ago. 

One thing I want to say, because I know that you, the reader, has probably heard all of those facts a thousand times on TV and in magazines, is that the people who design these games have a very hard time making a game that is fun that does not involve killing or violence. I, having a little experience programming computers and designing simple games, know that in order to make games difficult, there has to be a conflict. The easiest solution to this problem is to make ‘bad guys.’ These characters always make it more difficult for you to make it through the game, so it is a longer and more interesting adventure, and if these ‘bad guys’ are going to exist, they have to be avoided, or killed in most cases. With all the new technology like advanced video cards and 3D acceleration, computers can run games that are much more complex, so they have more options then they did before on how to propose the games conflict. Computers with more memory and faster processors are capable of running games that can do more than just killing. Other conflicts are turning up in games, which makes the need to have the ‘bad guys’ less apparent. Don’t get me wrong, computer games still show a lot of violence, but at least the producers are taking steps toward fun, non-violent games. 

- Jon Betz, 1/3/02

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