VIDEO GAMES REGULATION – HISTORICAL CONTEXT

http://videostandards.org.uk/MzCms/ContentImage.ashx?cpath=000%5C000%5C844%5C502%5CVIDEO+GAMES+HISTORICAL+OVERVIEW.pdf

This section highlights those games which managed to get themselves noticed for all the wrong reasons. 

DEATH RACE This game, loosely based on the 1975 film Death Race 2000, was an arcade game in which the player drove a car and gained points by running over "gremlins" within a set time. As the gremlins were struck a small groan would be heard followed by the sight of a crucifix denoting the death of the gremlin. Its notoriety was picked up by The National Enquirer and even featured on US television's Sixty Minutes which first began to probe the psychology of playing such games. As can be seen below, the graphics were hardly sophisticated or realistic, but this did not prevent an adverse reaction to the game.




CUSTER'S REVENGE Released on the Atari 2600 in 1983, this ill-advised game made by a US porn company, was subject to a tirade of protest most notably from the National Organisation for Women and the native American Indian community due to its highly questionable premise in which a naked General Custer, sporting only a hat, boots and an exaggerated erection, crosses the screen whilst avoiding a hail of arrows in order to attain his 'prize' - in this case a Native American Indian woman bound to a pole - whereupon he proceeds to have sex with her or, as many critics claimed, rapes her. 




A leading member of Women Against Pornography, Kristen Reilly, organised a mass protest against the game and told the author, Tom Moriarty: "The game features an enactment of a white male, General Custer, ravishing an Indian Woman who is tied to a post. Once there was a lot of furore over the game, the company (American Multiple Industries) denied that it was rape. They claimed that it was mutually consenting visual images, which is really asinine." Custer's Revenge never recovered from this attack and though the company concerned produced two more x-rated games it closed its operations shortly thereafter.

NIGHT TRAP Released in 1992 and probably the first video game to feature full-motion video (FMV) as opposed to digital sprites, Night Trap centred around a group of co-eds A screenshot from the 1976 arcade game, Death Race The rather questionable Custer's Revenge released in 1983 13 occupying a house that was being subject to attack by vampire-like creatures. The player, as a member of a special ops team, surveyed each room via a CCTV system and set traps in order to capture the creatures. The game played like a B-movie with the nightie-clad college girls screaming and running around at the appropriate point, but somehow the game was misconstrued and claims were made that the player was actually involved in killing the housemates. This was palpably untrue, but for commentators the fiction was more interesting than the truth. As a result, Night Trap was quickly pulled from the shelves and became a target of the 1993 congressional hearings into video games.


MORTAL KOMBAT Making its arcade debut in 1992, Mortal Kombat had managed to keep its head below the parapet of controversy until it was released on consoles. It soon became apparent that many commentators found it difficult to square the brutal, visceral nature of the gameplay with a console system that many thought was essentially aimed at children.

Using photorealistic images combined with the gruesome fatality moves, this gore fest of a game managed to survive calls for its ban, but was one of the games that the U.S. Senate debated during the congressional hearings into "offensive video games material." 


DOOM ID Software's Doom saw light of day in 1994 and was an instant hit with gamers who found it well-designed, pacy and thrilling. In the game, the user takes the role of a space marine trapped on Mars. In order to reach sanctuary he must first blast his way through hordes of assorted aliens hell-bent on destroying him. Fortunately, the hero acquires a range of increasingly powerful weaponry with which to eliminate the attackers and which also included the now mandatory and plentiful supply of bloody impacts as the aliens are zapped. 

Unfortunately for Doom it also found itself being linked to the Columbine High School Massacre which took place in 1999 when two students of the school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went into the school fully armed and proceeded to murder 12 students and a teacher. According to the Rocky Mountain News, which reported the case in detail: "His [Eric Harris] nickname, Reb, was inspired by a character in one of his favourite computer games, Doom, where the goal is to score high body counts." Politicians and the public alike wanted answers and it seemed that Doom was the only readily available target to hand. A number of lawsuits were filed against the game's makers and console manufacturers, but all were ultimately dismissed. 



CARMAGEDDON SCi's Carmageddon, released in 1997, was a car-racing game with a significant difference. Although a player could simply race against other AI controlled cars, the real 'fun' involved running over a variety of pedestrians (peds) which helped to increase the score. This was several gears up from the old Death Race game in that not only did the peds scream loudly when hit, but bled profusely too. In the UK and Germany, the classification bodies were less than impressed with this viscerally violent game and insisted that the human-like peds be turned into zombies and the Germans insisting that bloody effects were shown in green. In the UK, SCi appealed against the BBFC's refusal to issue a certificate. The BBFC’s refusal to Id Software's Doom 15 issue a certificate was revoked by the Video Appeals Committee and the game was finally granted its '18' certificate. 

CANIS CANEM EDIT (aka BULLY) Released in 2006, Bully (later changed to the less-than-snappy Canis Canem Edit, or Dog Eat Dog in English), was generating controversy long before it arrived in the stores. At that time, anti-social behaviour in schools was a key topic of public and political concern and when news started to emerge that Rockstar Games were developing a game set in a school featuring a protagonist who appeared to do little more than offer violence against other kids, it can be imagined how many commentators, and the press in particular, erupted into anger. In truth, few, if any, of these commentators had actually seen the game in action so the wide-spread condemnation was rather premature. The inevitable calls for a ban were directed at the BBFC who, the pressure notwithstanding, stood their ground and correctly pointed out that no decision would be taken until they had actually completed the examination of the game. This they did and, to many people's surprise, promptly classified the game at '15'. The effect of this decision was to take the sting out of the controversy immediately as the critics soon realised on viewing the game that it was not the monster they had made it out to be. The BBFC's decision was in line with many other video game regulators world-wide with the American ESRB awarding it a 'T' (Teens) rating and the Australian ACB giving it an 'M' (Mature) rating.



MANHUNT 2 Once again, Rockstar Games were at the front of video games controversy when, in 2007, Manhunt 2 was submitted to the BBFC for certification. The game put the player in the role of one Daniel Lamb, an inmate of an asylum who escapes in an effort to discover who he really is and why he was incarcerated. His only way out of the asylum is to despatch the various 'goons' who guard the place and in order to do this he must approach them stealthily and without alerting the other guards to his presence. From a BBFC perspective the violent action was considered to be incessant and sadistic and they noted that Manhunt 2 was: "…distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and Jimmy Hopkins the anti-hero of Canis Canem Edit 17 cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game." The game was, therefore, formally rejected, but Rockstar submitted a toned-down version of the game. These changes notwithstanding, the BBFC rejected this new version too and Rockstar went to the Video Appeals Committee (VAC) for a ruling. In December 2007, the VAC upheld Rockstar's appeal against the modified version of the game. Further complications arose when the BBFC sought a Judicial Review of the VAC's decision on the basis that their judgement was made on a misinterpretation the Video Recordings Act. The Judicial Review over-ruled the VAC's decision, but when the VAC reconvened to reconsider the appeal in accordance with the legislation they still found in favour of Rockstar and the BBFC finally gave the game an '18' certificate though the original version still remains technically banned. 




Q. What do you notice about the attitudes regarding the level of permissive/acceptable or offensive material over the years?