How Videogames Became the Bogeyman

Tom Leupold, writing for the Inside Bay Area site, explores why videogames have become an American bogeyman. Talking with prof. Dmitri Williams, he discusses the rise, fall, and resurrection of games as a part of mainstream society. From the article: "Today, as games have once again infiltrated the mainstream, a growing number of adults are again enjoying gaming and understand there are games that are appropriate for different age groups. But that hasn't stopped crusaders from trying to censor them in the name of 'saving' the children. Williams, 34, said those under 38 have a different view of games than their elders. Most have grown up with games and, like television for the previous generation, games are embedded in their culture. "

How Videogames Became the Bogeyman

[rob1980]

See: How Rock'n'Roll Music Became the Bogeyman in 1950. Bunch of wound-up old people that don't like change.

Some parent's don't like responsibility

[Eightyford]

First it was radio... then it was television, rock and roll and comic books. After that it was video games, rap, heavy metal, and goth music. Now it's the internet and more realistic games.

Message to parents! If your child screws up, it is probably your fault! Sucks, doesn't it?

Re:Some parent's don't like responsibility

[Anonymous Coward]

"Message to parents! If your child screws up, it is probably your fault!"

Or possibly the child's...

(That shouldn't seem like a radical idea, yet somehow always seems to be missed.)

Re:How Videogames Became the Bogeyman

[Gnostic Ronin]

You forgot comic books. People honestly thought Batman comics and True Crime comic books would make kids go out and kill people. Before that, I think Flappers were the end of Western Civilization.

In fact, I think everything that came along since the Roman Era has been the "End of Western Civilization". Kids have always been lazier and less interested in knowledge than privious generations. Evil currupting forces have always pulled them from the Straight and Narrow(TM). Even Christianity, when it first came along was a threat.

Lobbying Money

[WiseWeasel]

I'm willing to be it's because television, music a movie industry interests are lobbying our representatives to place restrictions on the games industry, which they see as a threat. The games industry just isn't ponying up enough money to counterract the rest of the entertainment industry's lobbying dollars and stay off the regulation radar, and now they're paying the price. It's a terrible way to run a country, but people in power are making too much money to change it...

38?

[Schemat1c]

Williams, 34, said those under 38 have a different view of games than their elders.

I think he needs to go higher than 38, I'm 41 and I too grew up with video games. I play HL2 deathmatch on a server where the majority of players are older than me.

Bogeyman is right

[digitalhermit]

Back in my time it was Dungeons and Dragons. You'd watch the news and see these "exposes" on the kids who are LEARNING TO LOVE SATAN because of the EVIL D&D game. Oh yeah, and Satanism was also a dire threat to our kids. Oh and Styx and Kiss too. Then 2 Live Crew. My neighbor tells me that in his day it was Bob Dylan that was symptomatic of evil.

Re:Some parent's don't like responsibility

[Anonymous Coward]

I would actually argue that Rock and Roll is the best comparison to violent videogames for one important reason; in the 1950's Rock and Roll was a musical format which was created to appeal to Teenagers.

As much as people will argue against this, the fact is that the majority of Mature games are targeted towards Teenagers and if they could no longer sell them to teens the sales would evaporate. Being 26 I believe that I'm reasonably representative of most adult gamers and I can honestly say that I purchase 1 or 2 Mature games in a year and the vast majority of games I own are Teen or Everyone rated; on the other hand, one of my friends (who was working his way through university at EB) claimed that 95% of people who were buying games like Soldier of Fortune and what not were 13-17 years old.

I don't know if there is any damage, but people who think they're adult forms of entertainment are delusional.

Control

[PresidentEnder]

The vast majority of what goes on in the world, from legislation to war, can be attributed to people's desire to control other people's actions.

Lower crime is who's fault then?

[nuggz]

People would rather blame than take responsiblity.

What can we blame for the lower per capita crime rates?
Particularly when we consider some things weren't crimes, or weren't widely reported earlier.

Yes we have had graphic headline grasping crimes lately, but there has always been something. I'm sure there were pissed off kids taking swords or clubs to each other before they invented guns.

Games? Oh yes...

[Criceratops]

Yes, games are a terrible waste of our time and money, and a contributor to drinking, institutionalized violence, and selling sex!

It sucks billions and billions out of foolish peoples' pockets...

More riots, beatings, and other assorted violence take place because of games!

During games, people are exposed to repeated messages selling them alcohol and sex as well!

Did I mention that hundreds of pro and amateurs are permanently injured or killed playing these "harmless" games?

In fact, there are numerous studies proving that these games suck money away from vital education programs and game-players often score lower on standardized tests!


Yes, they are evil.

Wait a sec, we *are* talking about sports aren't we??? ... ooops!

I never understood that...

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems like the media and some parents just point the finger to anything that there child loves. While I never enjoyed it, Pokemon was a good example. Some Christians found it to be Satanic and animal lovers found it supported animal cruelty. However if these people just sat down an watched an eposide of the anime, I'm sure that they would find that it was a good (as in good and evil) show.

Shifting the blame, that's all

[Opportunist]

You can usually find those claims at the end of some drama. Some teenager goes bonkers, goes on a killing spree, kills himself or just rapes the girl next door, THEN, and only then, you get those witchhunts for the culprit.

The parents? How DARE you! Those poor people gotta live with what their son did now! They cannot be the ones to blame. So it has to be... ... in the 20s, that aweful dances ... in the 30s, the damn radio ... in the 40s, that aweful swing music ... in the 50s, that godforsaken rock music ... in the 60s, that hippy music ... in the 70s, that disco music ... in the 80s, that devil's spawn D&D ... in the 90s, those gangster-rappers ... and today, violent video games

Glad we found a culprit.

Re:Some parent's don't like responsibility

[Nephilium]

And of course... an appropriate quote to refute:

'Juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms, one which gives a clue to their problem and failure to solve it. -- Colonel Dubois in Starship Troopers

One who is a child does need to be instructed on how to behave... the responsibility for this education does not belong to anyone except the parents... it is no one else's responsibility to teach a child how to act well...

The problem is that too many parents now (and most likely in the past as well), think that children can grow up fine with no supervision of their activities... no knowledge of what their kids are doing...

Without a parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle/sibling teaching/raising a child... it's a total crapshoot as to how the kid will turn out... the downside to this is it's actually WORK to raise a child, and not just let the TV turn into a babysitter...

Nephilium

The trouble is that things never get better, they just stay the same, only more so. -- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

don't blame all of us....

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an Old Person (tm), and a gamer. I've been doing it since line-printer lunar lander games on mainframes. Pac-man is newfangled :). I'm as against this idiotic blame shifting as anybody.

Blame it on stupid people, instead, some of whom happen to be old. We're not all like that.

Re:Some parent's don't like responsibility

[WilliamSChips]

Why did child X do it and not child Y? You can get to your conclusion but not through that logic.

Re:Some parent's don't like responsibility

[NetRAVEN5000]

Because they're two different children with different experiences and separate minds. Maybe one gets more attention than the other, maybe one wants a lot of attention. . .
We can blame the child but it would be useless because until a certain age, he doesn't know better and has no idea of the consequence of his actions. And once he's past that point he's already got his own personality and way of thinking, and his own set of experiences that are beyond his control which are affecting the courses of action he takes.

Re:Some parent's don't like responsibility

[DavidTC]

Just because they seem to be 12 doesn't actually make them twelve, it just makes them idiots.

Re:Music is the weapon. Retail is the defense.

[l0cust]

Well said. Though I think there is another aspect of why the hip-hop/rap thing did not get so much OPEN negative publicity. It may sound a bit NPC but the whole hip-hop/rap culture is generally associated with the black community and no politician or major public figure would risk commenting openly against it for the fear of being dubbed a racist. OTH calling games the reason for their sons/daughter indulging in sex/violences/whatever accomplishes two goals - It absolves them of the responsiblities of the actions of their children by providing a proverbial witch to be burnt at stake, plus it there is no obvious race/culture/demographic attached with the games so they can curse it all they want without fear of repercussions from potential voters etc.

I honestly don't know what to make of the current situation. It is really easy for me to imagine all old ignorant hags sitting in the position of power and trying to restrict my choices/actions/thoughts for monetary, power or whatever reason but then it may happen that when our generation comes to that stage and have the same kind of power in our hands, we may end up trying to restrict something which (some of us atleast) genuinely feel is wrong but is really popular with the younger generation. Oh well, I just hope the concept of karma works. Will suck really if things don't balance out in the long run.

Re:How Videogames Became the Bogeyman

[mgblst]

Really, what about if your kids go in for self-mutiliation future style?? Say, removing an arm or a leg, because all the kids are doing it.

What if they want to slice out a part of their brain?

What about when they want to listen to music that is jsut a high pitch whine, that gives you a headache in under a minute??

Don't ever think that you have seen it all. It will make it even more shocking.