Bruce Everiss, a veteran in videogame marketing, has some very interesting things to say about objectional content in today’s videogames. In his blog, Bruce on Games, he asserts that not only are most very tame relative to other forms of media, but also that the Holy Bible itself is guilty of far more smut than the often-targeted videogame industry.
The fact is that established old media have vastly more shocking content than video games. This is an irrefutable fact. And often that shocking content has no age rating and is available to children from birth. Books are a prime example of this. And a prime example of a book that children are encouraged to read is the Bible.
There is a handy website that allows you to search the bible for content. Using this we find that the King James version has “harlot” in it 48 times, “sodomite” 5 times, “fornicator” 5 times, “smite” 133 times, “kill” 208 times and “maim” 7 times. This is shocking, you have to wonder what any right minded parent is doing exposing their children to this stuff.
This is great stuff. The Bible is generally forced onto children, while videogames are beginning to be held as one of the most immoral, despicable things on the face of the earth by much of today’s conservative mainstream media. They are also restricted more and more with each passing day. Everiss simply asks for a level playing field.
Now I’m not a supporter of putting violent media into the hands of children, but I am against censorship, and furthermore, I’m very much against the special treatment of certain forms of media over others – especially when those receiving preferential treatment are…not…videogames.
