A History of Video Game Controversy

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Sex, violence, animal cruelty, and scandalous pixels -- GameSpot has posted an in-depth feature examining the history of controversy in the video game industry. The feature examines several "major offenders" dating back as far as Death Race in the arcades up through more recent games like Grand Theft Auto III and Manhunt. Also included in the feature is coverage of the so-called "retail rogues" (games controversial enough that they were pulled from the shelves), as well as a docket of game-industry lawsuits and a look at the lighter side of game controversy. Who wants to bet that that the use-confiscated-drugs-for-short-term-benefit gameplay of Midway's upcoming NARC will make the cut in future articles about video game controversy?"

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Lost games: Loverboy

[AndroidCat]

I notice that Loverboy doesn't get any mention. (MAME has it on their Want These ROMs list.) Basically a maze'n'dots coin-op game, with a little perv in a park. After gobbling a pickup, your perv could gobble a ghost, er, woman (without getting arrested). At that point it switched to a fairly graphic screen showing one of several positions. The object was to, umm, get both bar graphs to top at the same time by rhythmic taps on the fire button.

I don't know if anyone ever distributed it, but it toured the trade shows (1984) as a back-at-the-room demo.

Re:I wonder why...

[corbettw]

nobody complains about movies

Um, you really need to get out more.

A quick search for movie violence [google.com] turns up over 1,750,000 pages. I'm guessing more than one of those is a complaint.

Also, where do you think the MPAA rating system came from?

Re:People, please.

[Anonymous Coward]

Too right. In my high school (Back in the 80's) we had a kid who threw stones through the science block windows before setting the place on fire one night. The school would blame all the usual things (anti-social loners, video games etc...). Real truth was other kids were winding him up about a telling off he got from a teacher - they were telling him things like he was going to be expelled, never get to university, spend the rest of his life as a dustman etc...

And why were they doing that. Because they were under stress from the school. Our school would have an assembly for each school year one morning every week. Instead of handing out awards and congratulating students, the principal would serve warnings from various sources, and at the end the session, the guidance tutors would form a line at the front of the hall and call out people who were guilty of various misdemeanors (to much cheering and whistling). Is it any surprise that if you create a prison atmosphere, you get prison behavior.

Re:Been there, done that

[Ayaress]

Fallout 2 went beyond stimpaks. In Fallout 1, all the drugs (while many were addictive) had a purpose in the game (raise strength, charisma, intelligence, purge radiation from the system, heal wounds, etc). Fallout 2 had Jet, which is probably the most realistic drug ever put into a game. It gives you some brief effect for about two minutes (I forget what it is. I think it was like +1 all stats), but when it wears off, all your stats get lowered and you're addicted. The addiction never wears off, and the only way to stop the slow stat loss is to take MORE jet. Over time, it takes more and more of the stuff just to keep your stats from going down the crapper, and usually once you're addicted, the game is more an excercize in trying to get enough jet to keep from hitting the minimums in all your stats until you can get the antidote (if you can even keep your intelligence high enough to handle that quest).

Re:More violence doesn't mean better

[Anonymous Coward]

I've played it, but I'm posting anonymously because I'm deeply ashamed of playing it.

Review: piece of crap.
It's a cheap ripoff of Dave Mirra/Tony Hawk/That Inline Skate Game With The Guy Who's Name I Can't Remember.

It plays like shit

Infantile humour and naked chicks are more of an embarrasment than an asset to the game.

Re:More violence doesn't mean better

[Ondo]

BMX:XXX tanked, to my knowledge, as did DOA:Extreme Beach Volleyball.

No, DOA Volleyball sold fairly well. A brief googling shows it sold 73,000 copies in it's first day in Japan, which I think is somewhere around a fifth of the number of Xboxes sold there. Last April it was "approaching 500,000" units sold worldwide.