Public Perceptions of Gaming

As Nielsen's chapter 6 stated, "video game still are consistently considered to be: unsophisticated in their content; the cause of health problems- from obesity to addiction; and inculcated inculcated in amorphous cultural feats- like the seemingly ever-present scourge of anti-social, aggressive teenagers," video games have clearly been considered as problematic since it came out to the public. However, there are others who consider games as tools to help kids to learn intelligently about computer (p135).

However, although some people think video games positively, violent news that appeared on TV definitely made people rethink about this issue. Along with the murder that happened on April 20, people started to link violence with video game (p135). some publishing companies started to claim that game plays have not only been connected with aggressions and addictions, they have also been claimed as the cause of auditory hallucination, hand-arm vibration syndrome, and obesity, etc. Therefore, along with the negative effects of video game, the U.S started to rate games to the age group that are most suitable to.

There are definitely reasons behind the whole rating system. Unlike Nintendo's games that were mostly family friendly, "Sega tried to appeal to older audience by betting on adult themes and graphic violence" (p136). There is also the game "Grand Theft Auto" that not only shows violent scenes, but also shows sexual scenes. According to Nielsen the game "became infamous for a game mechanic allowing the player to have (off-screen) sex with prostitutes. Afterwards, the player could assault the prostitute and steal her money" (p137). Such violent and sexual games should be totally prohibited from teenagers.

Below is a GTA video that includes both sexual and violent scenes:



Question for you all: Although many argue that Grand Theft Auto is overly violent, I believe that there are still others who think of the game is exciting and fun. Do you think games like Grand Theft Auto should be totally banned in the society? or you think the rating system will simply work? Tell me what you think.