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Censorship Entertainment Games

Brent Bozell on Nudity in Upcoming Video Games 92

Posted by CowboyNeal from the watching-the-watchmen dept.
Ant writes "Brent Bozell of TownHall.com wrote an editorial about the video game nudity trend. It covers games like 'Playboy: The Mansion' and 'Singles: Flirt Up Your Life' that are due out later this year." Ultimately, Bozell seems to distrust the ESRB, citing Eidos' decision to only sell Singles in downloadable form.
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Brent Bozell on Nudity in Upcoming Video Games More

Brent Bozell on Nudity in Upcoming Video Games

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  • Coming soon from Brent Bozell! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:13PM (#9243462)
    Weapons of Mass Distortion : The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media [amazon.com]

    Brent Bozell is Founder and President of the Media Research Center [mediaresearch.org], whose poll "Do any of the Pew Research Center findings (that 'Liberals Dominate Journalism, Think Media Too Easy on Bush' [mediaresearch.org]) surprise you?", had only three responses:

    Yes. I was surprised so many journalists would admit they're liberal.

    No. But it's nice to have more proof of what we already knew.

    Don't know.

    Talk about loaded questions? Everyone's entitled to their opinons, Mr. Bozell included, but before judging his article on nudity in videogames, be forewarned that Bozell's site [mediaresearch.org] makes the Simpsons' Fox News spoof ("Do Democrats cause cancer?") look like the friggin' New York Times...
    • Bozell is a media whore. If I recall, is he not the person behind the Parents Television Coalition? I remember the PTC, back when wrestling was a big thing (a few years ago) went after the then World Wrestling Federation, convincing sponsors to pull out of the show etc... The PTC were also responsible for getting wrestling linked to some cases of a child killing another with a "Wrestling move".

      If I remember the story correctly, in the end, the then WWF sued, won a substantial amount of damages, and the PTC
      • Bozell is a media whore. If I recall, is he not the person behind the Parents Television Coalition?

        Yes, he is [parentstv.org]. But I find the site very refreshing. They count the amount of times certain words are said, they have this "better-than-thou" attitude but come across only as homophobic, and if you want a collection of spicy lines for a given show, just look up its summary at the PTC site, they may have it with big red warnings like "extremely offensive content". If this is for real, these guys live in a differe

        • If this is for real, these guys live in a different world.

          Yes, they're for real. Yes, they live in a different world, and they want to force the rest of us to live in it with them as they apparantly lack the basic motor skills necessary to TURN THE FRICKIN' CHANNEL when they find something they disapprove of.

  • L. Brent Bozell = idiot (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:17PM (#9243493) Journal
    So he thinks that the fact that this game won't be on retail shelves is a bad thing? Would he rather the ESRB give it a T rating and allow Eidos to sell it at Walmart where any kid could get it? There should be a requirement that you know what the hell you're talking about before you become an activist for something.

    Rob
    • It sounds more like he would rather forbid them of publishing that kind of game at all. I mean, not on stores, not online, what's left?

    • Re:L. Brent Bozell = typical (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Syncdata ( 596941 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @10:45PM (#9244345) Journal
      Bozell like so many others are starting to realize that the internet is an end-around on many of the established ways in which commerce has typically been regulated/disrupted. He's upset because he doesn't have the freedom to restrict it's availablity, because it's on the internet for *Gasp* 20 dollars cheaper than a new game in the stores. And to add insult to injury, If the product is not a physical object, The gov, et all can't demand it be sold behind the counter in a brown wrapper.

      Just wait though, "watchdogs groups" will eventually get the interstate commerce clause to be inclusive of bits traveling across networks, and Bozell will have his way.

      Enjoy the frontier while it lasts.
    • What's easier? Getting Photoshop from a store without paying/ getting caught or downloading it off hotline.

      What's easier for a minor? Buying porn at a brick and mortar shop or doing a quick google.

      What is less intimidating- Stealing a CD from a retail outlet or downloading it online from the comfort AND UNREGULATED privacy of his own home.
      • What is less intimidating- Stealing a CD from a retail outlet or downloading it online from the comfort AND UNREGULATED privacy of his own home.

        OK, so how's he going to pay for it?

        And if he's not going to pay for it, that's no different from what the situation would be if it was on retail shelves.

        Rob (BTW, his home would be regulated by his parents)
    • "So he thinks that the fact that this game won't be on retail shelves is a bad thing?"

      Its funny because he claims that by not having it on the store shelves and only available over the internet, that this is in some way an attempt by the publishers to get their game past parents.

      I hope he doesn't have children.
    • What is this TownHall shite?

      Who is this Brent Bozo anyway?

      Why are Slashdot publishing this crap?

      Shame.

      • Who is this Brent Bozo anyway?

        L. Brent Bozell, head of the Parents Television Council and the Media Research Group, among other things. He's a big censorship nut. The thing I personally know him best for is his ranting about pro wrestling in recent years, most of which is outdated or just plain wrong.

        Rob

  • Obligatory Gamers' Refrain (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EvilSporkMan ( 648878 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:18PM (#9243498)
    Video games aren't just for kids anymore! 'Nuff said.
    • Uh, Nudity in computer games has been going on for a very very long time actually. Leisure Suit Larry has been running since, oh, before VGA even.

      This is only being drummed up because computer games are now more in the eye of the public.

      I would imagine the same groups that have been constantly telling us that video games turn all human children into psychopathic murderers are taking a break from that to assure us that video games turn them all into sex fiends.

      In reality, nothing will change, this will bl

  • Sensationalism! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nick_davison ( 217681 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:19PM (#9243504)
    It's digusting that game companies are using the sensationalism of sex to get people interested in their games.

    Why, it's almost as bad as journalists using the sensationalism of sex to get people interested in their articles.

    It's like the whole Janet Jackson superbowl thing: Any normal person saw a low res blur for a split second. The outraged moral majority had to spend hours scouring the net to download and print a good half dozen different pictures of what bothered them so much.
    • "It's digusting that game companies are using the sensationalism of sex to get people interested in their games."

      Why not just let them and not worry about it?

  • Thanks, Brent Bozell! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 2megs ( 8751 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:20PM (#9243510)

    I completely overlooked Singles: Flirt Up Your Life at E3. Now that this article has brought it to my attention, I'm definitely going to check it out! ...which pretty much drives the point home that self-serving "journalists" such as this care more about raising their own visibility than about the moral agenda they claim to promote.
    • Try before you buy!

      Demo download available here. [eidosinteractive.com]

    • Re:Thanks, Brent Bozell! (Score:4, Informative)

      by 1001011010110101 ( 305349 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @09:06PM (#9243834)
      I'll save you some time:

      It sucks.
      Its pretty innocent, besides some soft-penises and some kissing, not much more.
      AND, the game is boring too. Its really a sims ripoff (I dont understand how they managed to publish that piece of crap without being sued).

      And, what pisses me off, the only gay man alternative you get is ugly and a sissy. I was even considering hacking the sprites/models just to spice the game a little bit more :).
      • Wow that would kill the industry instantly. ID would own the FPS. Maxis the simwhatever. And if I was up to it I could go on but I am not.

        Anyway you missed a word. Its really a BAD sims ripoff. Everything that makes the sims fun is missing from singles. Everything that makes the sims frustating to play is enlarged a thousand times in singles.

        The fun part, designing and decorating a house is immensly reduced, with only a few pieces available and the lot sizes small.

        The frustation of your sims taking insan

  • Ratings (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Datasage ( 214357 ) <DatasageNO@SPAMtheworldisgrey.com> on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:25PM (#9243548) Homepage Journal
    Other than the fact that there is not much point to the game, singles. Its nudity is very modest. really its basically the sims with an option for sex and they dont fuzz the people out when they are in bed.

    Yet we give that an AO rating while games like Manhunt and GTA only get a M rating.

    Its kind of a double standard, but movies are more likely to get an NC-17 rating if they have alot of sex rather than alot of violence.

  • Hey, that's not cool. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by QuantumG ( 50515 ) <qg@biodome.org> on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:27PM (#9243571) Homepage Journal
    You, too, can be a sleazy pornographer like Hugh Hefner, who in this game's vision is about 30 years younger and resembles Superman more than the dirty old man he is.

    Damn, nice unbiased article there. If Mr Bozell wasn't such an ignorant jerk he'd know that Hugh Hefner is anything but a sleazy pornographer. He not only affected the way people perceived nudity, but he also popularized a way of life that was hardly known in the fifties. Hefner showed society that it was ok to shun marriage, kids and the picket fence. That both men and women could be sexual creatures without the shackles of moral expectations such as the presumption of family. The equility of the working couple would never have been possible without Hefner.

    • Hefner showed society that it was ok to shun marriage, kids and the picket fence. That both men and women could be sexual creatures without the shackles of moral expectations such as the presumption of family. The equility of the working couple would never have been possible without Hefner.

      Well that makes him a sleazy pornographer, obviously! Just like those evil homersexuals who are trying to ruin the sanctity of marriage! We should send them back to Africa where they belong!

      Rob
    • Damn, nice unbiased article there. If Mr Bozell wasn't such an ignorant jerk he'd know that Hugh Hefner is anything but a sleazy pornographer. He not only affected the way people perceived nudity, but he also popularized a way of life that was hardly known in the fifties

      Brent Bozell is an ignorant jerk, but Hugh Hefner is no saint either. The way of life that he popularized was defined by greed and selfishness. His great insight was to tie sexuality to money and power. I am all for throwing off the sh

    • Re:Hey, that's not cool. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by obeythefist ( 719316 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @09:22PM (#9243941) Journal
      Actually Hefner has done some atrocious things in his magazines.

      In order to sanitise his magazine to appease the moral masses (and sell more copy), his fake breasted women all have parts of their, well, lower body parts photoshopped out.

      This in turn causes hundreds of normal girls who see these magazines going to doctors and asking for plastic surgery because they don't think they're "normal".

      This is just plain wrong!

      • Re:Hey, that's not cool. (Score:4, Funny)

        by prockcore ( 543967 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @11:36PM (#9244576)

        In order to sanitise his magazine to appease the moral masses (and sell more copy), his fake breasted women all have parts of their, well, lower body parts photoshopped out.

        This in turn causes hundreds of normal girls who see these magazines going to doctors and asking for plastic surgery because they don't think they're "normal".

        Yeah, same with TV. That's why I went to the plastic surgeon because my penis wasn't as pixelated as the ones on TV.
      • Sorry, Hugh Hefner is not responsible for other peoples' stupidity and ignorance. If someone is so gullible that they get plastic surgery because a "magazine made them do it," then they have some serious problems, and the problem is not the magazine. It's a fundamental lack of judgment.
    • Hugh Hefner sells girlie magazines. Yes, Playboy helped make pornorgraphy more acceptable and more mainstream in the US. It probably contributed to the more open attitudes towards sexuality that emerged during the 1960s and 70s.

      However, Hefner was not the cause nor even one of the most influential factors. Some of those factors were beyond any one individual, like the trend from an industrial to an information/serivce economy and the Baby Boom. Some, however, were people. How about credit to Margare

    • Just a quick point here... it's not an article, it's an Op-Ed piece... written by a conservative... it's not going to be unbiased...

      Nephilium
      I do know that, if a man acquires too much money, presently it owns him instead of his owning it. -- Joan Eunice Branca in I Will Fear No Evil

  • Old people should quit hogging the oxygen and die (Score:5, Interesting)

    by veritron ( 637136 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:28PM (#9243575)
    Let us, for laughs, point out the assumptions this idiot has made in the article:

    The target audience for the Sims 2, and the Singles, is pasty white teenage boys.
    There is on-screen explicit sex in "The SingleS"
    Pornography is inherently evil.
    Exposing children to pornography is inherently evil.
    Video game players tend to be ignorant, smut-obsessed, teenage males.
    Parents are stupid and ignorant and are perfectly willing to lend their sons credit cards so that they can purchase an Adults-Only game over the internet.
    The ESRB is a toothless organization composed only of malcontent pedophiles who wish to corrupt our children's minds with sex and violence.
    Movies inherently contain less violence, filthy sex, and coarse language than videogames do, and are much harder for little kids to see/obtain.
    Homosexuality is a deviant lifestyle, and depictions of homosexual acts are somehow worse than ordinary pornography.

    Questions you might ask the author:

    Did you actually play the games in question?
    Are you aware of any of the earlier shit that came from Japan?
    If so, are you aware how it is sold, and what the sales volume for it is, and what the target audience is?
    If you're so morally pure, then why do you use such sexually charged language?
    Are you compensating for something by growing that thick, 1970's-style beard?
    Are you aware of the how much better the pornography industry is doing in terms of gross sales in comparison to the movie industry? Are you aware of how much more profitable video games seem to be in comparison with traditional feature films? Why do you think that is?
    Do you have a template or something for writing reactionary articles against bullshit you don't understand? Could you try using a different template next time, perhaps one more subtle?
    • Are you aware of any of the earlier shit that came from Japan?
      If so, are you aware how it is sold, and what the sales volume for it is, and what the target audience is?

      Wow, I never thought about that. He'd probably go insane if someone showed him Water Closet [somethingawful.com] or something.

      Rob

    • Let us, for laughs, point out the assumptions this idiot has made in the article:

      The target audience for the Sims 2, and the Singles, is pasty white teenage boys.

      Once upon-a-time, I used to think the target audience of "dating sims" really was paedophiles. That was until I witnessed just how many giggles a group of teenage girls get out of the kissing, hugging and "snuggle" (or whatever they called it) simulation in "The Sims".

      If Brent has such a problem with this sort of simulation, then he'll h

    • "Let us, for laughs, point out the assumptions this idiot has made in the article:"
      --and some responses

      "The target audience for the Sims 2, and the Singles, is pasty white teenage boys."
      --OK unfounded.

      "There is on-screen explicit sex in "The SingleS"
      --This is fact, not assumption. The ESRB gave it an Adults Only rating for it.

      Pornography is inherently evil.
      --Moral judgement, but common to most religions. If you have no moral committments, you will probably not think it's wrong.

      "Exposing children to porn
      • "--A lot of exposure to it is usually damaging to children's mental development. Most sex crime offenders and violent criminals have been influenced by long exposure to pornography."

        No doubt this is evidenced by catcthing the SEXUAL DEVIANT and finding SEXUALLY-DEVIANT pornography around the house. I submit to you that people who are criminal sexual deviants are influenced by long exposure to being crazy, and there's not a sex-crime around that wasn't more or less spelled-out in the Bible and works that
        • I had heard the interview with Ted Bundy, where he talked about being influenced strongly by it, and I thought that it was more widespread. I just did a lot of searching for scientific studies linking pornography to sex crimes or violent crimes, but most of the studies don't show very much of a link. You are correct there.

          One of the other effects the studies did show was it fostering a more promiscuous attitude toward pre-marital sex and multiple partners. I am morally opposed to those things, so I stil

  • Nudity?? What about violence? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:36PM (#9243647)
    If anything, parents should be more concerned about the extreme helpings of violence in video games. I'm not a nut who says that it makes neglected teens go out and shoot up their schools. Those are clearly cases where the parents were not nearly involved enough in their kids' lives.

    But this whole outrage about nudity is mostly ridiculous. American culture just can't let go of its Puritan roots. It's the human body, for fuck's sake, we all have one! The human body can be a very beautiful, artistic thing. Sexuality is a natural, healthy thing. It doesn't have to be lewd, crude, or demeaning, but we're so fucking afraid of the naked body that we assume kids will be scarred for life if they see one.

    Yeah, go ahead and let them watch people get killed every night on TV, see all the violence in the movies, and act it out in video games. No problem, we don't need to talk to our kids and explain how it's make-believe and that real violence is very, very wrong. But by god if they see one square inch of forbidden skin, they're damned to hell!

    It's like the whole Janet Jackson fiasco. What a bunch of crap. Sure, nudity can be associated with sexual harrassment situations, and that's all bad. But unlike violence, it can also be a very beautiful thing and associated with the ultimate love between two people. No, brush that under the carpet and KEEP IT AWAY FROM OUR CHILDREN! Will somebody please think of THE CHILDREN!!

    Insane.

  • Geez (Score:4, Funny)

    by exick ( 513823 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:47PM (#9243715)
    It's been a while since I read an article by someone that uninformed about the current state of video games. Kinda refreshing really.

    now easily downloadable PC porno games.
    As opposed to the good old days of the Internet when porn wasn't easily downloadable.

  • This is an American liberal? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by garyok ( 218493 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @08:52PM (#9243751)
    The most disturbing thing about the article for me was the way, right from the start, that Bozell wants parents to endorse violence, role playing as a calculating killer, or a vicious thug capable of rupturing organs with their fists in preference to playing a game that lets you hope that one day sex might be a normal part of your life. He's happy with kids putrefying in their bedrooms as long as it's only deliberate brutal murder they're planning, not getting to second base.

    That's perverse.

    What sort of person is happier with junior killbots than junior people?
    • This is an American liberal?

      No. [amazon.com] This idiot isn't a liberal at all. Just because someone is against nudity and/or violence in the media doesn't mean they are liberals. This is just a stereotype of liberals; the truth is, both conservatives and liberals pull this kind of stupidity.
    • He's happy with kids putrefying in their bedrooms as long as it's only deliberate brutal murder they're planning, not getting to second base.

      That's perverse.

      No, that's reality for the truly unsocialized. I know that I'm far more likely to end up pulling a Charles Whitman than getting laid. (Which isn't to say I'm likely to pull a Whitman, just more likely.)

      Playing a game where I score with women would be akin to taunting myself.
  • What ever happened to Leisure Suit Larry?

  • Singles Flirt Up Your Life (Score:5, Informative)

    by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @09:36PM (#9244030)
    Out of curiosity after seing a lot of articles about the game, I played Singles a little bit one evening. I'm not sure what the big deal is. Aside from it being a boring version of Sims, there was no nudity (not that I was hoping for it or anything). In fact, when your sims use the bathroom, huge toilet paper icons are plastered over them so youy only see their feet, neck and head. When they change clothes or shower, they are still in their underwear.

    I think the people who report on Singles have failed to do their homework (or have clearly made it much further in the game than I bothered to - but if you were going to have a game with nudity why would you bother to cover up going to the bathroom or shower?). It strikes me as being very similar to all the idiot journalists covering the "underage and pre-teen children wearing colored jelly bracelets to indicate sexual activities they're willing to do" whenever they need a news story in 2004. Clearly it's overstated or possibly even entirely made-up -- but they still run with it because it gets eyeballs.

    I don't mind nudity in games anyway. Nobody's forced to buy a game and there is probably a market for quality game play that includes some degree of sex or nudity beyond the old Leisure Suit Larry and Strip Poker products.

    • You do relise you can edit the scripts of the game to show everything. From nudity,erections, penetration,gay, lesbian. Most of the scripts work for the german version.
    • On the toilet there is censoring but not in the shower or when they are just walking around nude and certainly not when they are doing the nasty.

      It is not hardcore porn but about the lvl of playboy "porn" movies.

      • I played for about three hours and mine walked around in their underwear at the most. They even shower in it them. I didn't play long enough to see any "action" as the game really just bored me. I thought there might be some signficant twist on the Sims idea, but there wasn't. The "relationship" stuff was so cardboard that I can't see women playing it and otherwise than porn, I can't see any guys seriously wanting to play the game since managing relationships isn't typically a male interest.
        • I got tired of it as well. So a quick search and YES like a lot of current games most of the "control" files are just plain text files with a bit of pseudo code.

          Nothing a scripter can't handle.

          So up the "relief" on going to the toilet. (now improves all the stats and a lot more). Reduced hunger and toilet growth during work (they don't have lunchbreaks or toilets at work in germany?) and reduced the total number of points needed for stages in the relationship.

          Money I had increased before the first game.

          • As a man, I am just waiting for a SIMS Serial Killer edition. One where you can raise your sim from a young simling burning cats and torturing flies and beating up neighborhood kids to a grown adult commiting serial murders and tortures and evading the law and building a complete basement.

            Stats would have to vary, of course. Insanity meter. Perversion meter and so on.

            I'll take that over a dull relationship sims any day! :)

  • Free Marketing (Score:4, Funny)

    by Vengeance_au ( 318990 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @10:10PM (#9244195) Journal
    Damnit, p0rn was going to be my 2nd step in the 3 step process.

    1. Make a game with p0rn
    2. Mothers, family groups, right wing groups and advocates for less pink bits go rabid mad, being quoted all over the media, dropping the name of my game as the example of all that is wrong with the world.....
    3. Profit!!!!

    Doh! Ok, so what's left? School shooting simulations? Sim-Abortion-Clinic? Terrorist training - the game (buy the tin set, comes with authentic box cutter!)????

  • Eidos is at fault (...?) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday May 24, 2004 @10:17PM (#9244231)
    Blockquoth Brent (all emphasis mine):
    So what will all that playing accomplish? A parent can only hope the boys will spend a large chunk of the summer role-playing as heroic knights, dashing spies or glamorous power-hitters. But video-game manufacturers wouldn't mind if our kids imagined themselves as role-playing ultra-violent killers -- and now pornographers.
    A parent can only hope... A neighbor can only hope. A schoolmate can only hope. A second cousin can only hope. BUT PARENTS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HOPE. Hey, guess who didn't let Mortal Kombat into my house? My parents. Did I still play it? Yeah. And I play Vice City now. And I still like violent games (and they did me a favor, MK sucks as a series). But they were *responsible* enough to make that decision, not just "hope"...
    "We've been working really closely with the ESRB from day one," says the marketing director at Cyberlore, makers of the Playboy game. "Everyone knows what the limits are for violence because everyone has pushed that envelope. But no one knows where the limits are for sex and nudity." Doesn't that sum up the manufacturer mentality perfectly? We don't know where the limits are, and we won't assume any responsibility for locating them on our own. We're going as far off the deep end as they'll let us. Right and wrong are irrelevant.
    This is actually a very good and valid point, closely mirroring an earlier article about the use of privacy laws in US and Canada [slashdot.org]. Basically, it's up (in this case) for the government-like manufactuer's monitoring lobby to decide what is too much and what isn't. The manufacturers are policing themselves, but the specific manufacturer is not. He's basically letting the industry decide the limits. As opposed to what Brett is suggesting where the game is censored by the U.S. government (which, IIRC, doesn't happen a whole lot).
    After the ESRB gave this game an "adults only" title, Eidos decided to go around the retailers and sell the sex game starting this summer through Internet downloads for $30, as much as $20 cheaper than new video games at retailers. How many teenagers with their own computers are going to get around Mom and Dad to download that salacious content?
    All the teenagers who:
    • Aren't trusted by Mom and Dad (or "Dad and Dad" as Brett heinously suggests)
    • Have their own credit card
    • Can steal their parent's credit card and not have their parents realize what was charged
    If your teenager is sneaking around you to play "homo PC smut games" as Brett would love to call them, then it's not the fact that they are playing "homo PC smut games" (after all, they are biologically ready for sex), it's the fact that they choose not to involve you as a parent in their life. And THAT'S YOUR FAULT, Mom and Dad. It's not society's fault, it's not Rockstar Game's fault, it's not Universal Studio's fault, it's not UPN's fault. Brett, however, would have you believe it is Eidos's fault.

  • It's just sex... (Score:3)

    by Erskin ( 1651 ) * <erskin@@@eldritch...org> on Monday May 24, 2004 @10:42PM (#9244326) Homepage
    I suppose this goes without saying...but it's just sex, right?

    Where does the idea that sex is wrong, evil, or warping fragile little minds come from? Don't all these people who are complaing realize that sex is the reason they were born?

    I just can't wrap my brain around this. Nothing is an excuse for parenting, and certainly not blaming the entertainment industry.

    But, c'mon guys, it's just sex. It's been happening since the beginning. If it were somehow the root of all evil, don't you think we'd have found out by now?

    • But, c'mon guys, it's just sex. It's been happening since the beginning. If it were somehow the root of all evil, don't you think we'd have found out by now?

      You are aware that the whole forbidden fruit thing is a metaphor for sex, aren't you? And that, therefore, fundamental Christians really _do_ believe that sex is the root of all evil, in a pretty literal sense?
    • Your average parent doesn't necessarily think sex is evil, but does recognize that it's an issue that younger minds might not be ready for. Learning about sex before you're mature enough has the potential to be damaging. The largest problem, then, stems from the difficulty in determining when children in general have reached maturity. The same argument could also be said of violence, but as it's been said before, our society seems to accept violence more readily than sex.
      • younger minds might not be ready for [sex]

        I guess I don't really get this one either. Thinking that mass murders are common place and dealing with the pain and emotions of death that come from violence might be hard on a kid. Espcially when it might represent violence that doesn't really exist regularly in the real world.

        But sex exists. And it doesn't kill anybody. What sort of negative effects are kids supposed to get form knowing what sex is and that that people have it.

        Have sex? Maybe not. Know it i

  • I take solace in IGDA.org [igda.org]

    Its art! By all means, stop your kids from doing things that you dont approve of, but it'll be hard to condemn the statue of David as an evil pornographic thing, considering its based on the bible, of all things. Please, as is noted [igda.org], religion isn't the best justification for protecting your kids from awful, violent, pornographic videogames.

    Also, this is not an American liberal, as liberal is a four-letter word in America. He's a cheap-labor conservative =]
    • : it'll be hard to condemn the statue of David as an evil
      : pornographic thing, considering its based on the bible

      Definitely not pornographic, but one can consider the Bible evil! It has some extremely violent parts [ffrf.org], you know... but the really funny thing is: David's statue is not too faithful to the Bible, as it actually fits the greek ideal of beauty.

      Take a look [stanford.edu] at his genitals. David - a jew - is NOT CIRCUMCISED. I think Michelangelo did not give a damn about the Bible then, he simply tried to make
  • Isn't the real issue here the fear of kids learning sex from polygons and thinking we're all a flesh mesh of triangles under our clothes? This fear is well founded as our parents continue to preach abstinence without teaching "from what?" and the (American) schools' utter inability to teach kids what sex really is? Parents need to take a preemptive strike on this so their kids' aren't asking "what's that?" during their first real encounter.

    If your first exposure to sex is from a video game, someone has f
  • I mean if he gets this upset about the Singles wich has two people after long long courtship declaring their love for each other and then well, going about their christian duty of reproduction then I hate to think what he will make of any of the h-games. The Biko series should make him explode on the spot.

    For those that don't know Biko is a 3D game where you stalk a girl and you either rape her or follow her through the end for the nice ending (return something she lost and screw her).

    There are also a fai

  • Finally! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Something to take all the heat off the "violence in videogames" argument: bare nipples!

    Maybe *now* I can finally go back to murdering hookers in *peace*! ;-P
  • ...I don't think making adult-themed games downloadable (with a credit card!) increases the chance that kids with access to the Internet can get their hands on porn. I mean, outside of sports, 100% is still the max right?
  • Let me see according the ESRB Manhunt gets an M and Some silly game with slight sexuality gets an AO ?

    Whats the esrb tagline? "Horrible acts of violence are fine as soon as no one shows their privates?".

    And brent.. Hentai and porn games had been sold on PCs for over 10 years your "coming of the apocalypse, will you think of the children?" warning is 10 years off track.

    To the news poster, when you see this kind of "articles" please ignore it, slashdotting this sort of thing, only makes the article g

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