About a month ago I was reading through the letters section of EGM and came across a letter written by a mother who disapproved of the sexist advertisements in this magazine. She said that she did not want to stop her son from reading EGM and therefore simply colored over the scantily clad women depicted in the ads and screen shots. I was quick to dismiss her as a kook although I admired her solution. Her son was not into EGM for the odd scantily clad (and illustrated I might add) girls. He was reading it for the love of games. She recognized this and came up with a solution she feels was fair to both of them. I really did admire the fact that she didn’t forbid him to read it anymore. This was a mother who was genuinely interested in the material her son was reading. Before you write me off as a kook too, try and read this with an open mind and see where I am coming from. You might be surprised at your reaction.
This EGM letter got me thinking about the ads, which to be honest, I rarely read. So, I sat down with my wife after I told her about the letter, and we thumbed through piles of video game mags to peruse the ad content. Our intent was to "see through the eyes of the youth today" while reading the ads. I must interject here and tell you that we are not religious, we are very much for free speech yada yada yada, but we were horrified within seconds of beginning our task. Read on.
Depictions of "sexy" video game women were one thing, but it was the extreme violent nature of these ads that were the most shocking and unsettling. Below are a mixture of ad blurbs from games I found in a random sampling of game mags such as EGM, Next Generation, PSM, Ultra Game Players and Gamefan. I’ve thrown in some fake ones, so let’s see if you can tell the difference. Better yet, let’s see if you know what games they are from.
1. Get in touch with your gun-toting, testosterone pumping, cold blooded murdering side.
2. How will you avert decapitation and keep your entrails from spilling out over the kitchen floor?
3. You’re in control. So whip it out. Grab it with both hands. And watch your opponents soil themselves.
4. (For) avid porn fans...
5. Put your violent nature to good use.
6. Death. Life is squeezed out of a body, until nothing remains but a cold, inanimate corpse.
7. Escape. Dismember. Massacre. Precision killing. Lop off heads, sever limbs and bring your enemy to his knees (literally).
8. Maim, crush and devour your enemies in over 200 different ways.
9. Haven’t you always wanted to do it on the kitchen table?
10. Player 2 hears the metallic clank of the detonator as the first shards of steel rip through his flesh. Player 2 sucks his last breath through a gaping chest wound. Player 1 shuts his eyes to enjoy the orgasmic intensity of the kill.
11. More fun than shooting your neighbors cat.
12. You must decide who lives and who dies.
13. Butcher villagers or turn them into festering pools of decaying flesh.
14. Player 2 feels the sting of raw metal parting his skin and fatty tissue. Player 2 hears the grinding of his sternum as the spike passes through with ease. Player 2 lurches forward as rusty steel hollows out his chest cavity, bursting his inner organs. Player 1 despite himself, smiles.
15. No tearful hugs. No warm handshakes. Just a half pound of buckshot to the chest. Or a railroad size spike in the cranium. That’s how you say good bye to a friend. Because after all, nothing says you care like a load of screaming hot steel in somebody’s torso.
Well there you have it. Recognize any of these Madison Avenue slogans? Could you figure out the fake ones? Well, sorry but as disgusted as I am to say this, I lied. These are all from real ads. To make matters worse, a good majority of these came from magazines that either featured Mario’s non-offensive pal, Yoshi and Gex the Gecko on the cover. Who could guess what was lurking inside?. Please remember I didn’t hunt these out. I picked a stack of game mags at random and rifled through them.
I bet you wouldn’t find ads this violent in Soldier of Fortune magazine. If you aren’t the least bit concerned after reading that sampling of blurbs than you better give your head another shake. Young kids are reading these ads. The problem that I have is that the most violent ads are in my opinion # 10, #14 and #15. These graphic descriptions are from a Quake 64 ad. A game for the N64. A game system that is marketed for kids around 8 - 12 years old, and younger. "Orgasmic intensity of the kill." This is being marketed to 8 year olds?!! Now in it’s defense, the ad does have a ‘Mature" rating that states it’s for 17 years +. Okay that’s find for the game, but what about the ad? This ad was found in the April 98 issue of Ultra Game Players that featured a big picture of non-offensive Gex on the cover. A quick read through UGP and you know that this mag is aimed at a much younger audience than it’s sister publication Next Generation. In fact I haven’t seen this ad in any Next Generation mag. Hmmm? Is that because NG’s demographic is on average 24 years old and perhaps into more "adult" systems like PlayStation or PC? You betcha!
This brings us to the age old question: Are these ads affecting behavior in some children? I doubt it. Are the advertisements going too far? In my opinion, yes. The nature of advertising is to make your product appeal to your target audience so that they will purchase it. In almost every case presented above, the ads are much more descriptive than the instruction manuals that accompany the games. Why is this? Because the ad is usually the first thing you see, so it can "hook" you into buying the game. Most of you will agree that many ads sound a lot better than the games actually turn out to be.
What is it that makes an ad sound appealing when it talks about dismembering and killing? If 99% of us saw a body on the street that was mutilated we would probably have nightmares for years How many of us want to blow someone with a nail gun? Hopefully nobody. So why do we like games like this? It’s pure escapism. I know that. You know that. But what about the kid next door who doesn’t know that, and decides he’s bored with Quake and would like to see what his dad’s nail gun does to your chest?
It’s an unfortunate equation in human development that we easily get bored and must search out new ways to stimulate our minds and bodies. Many heavy drug users started on pot and ended up at cocaine, crack, heroin etc. The reason there is hard-core pornography is because we became bored with the softcore variety. Why can you get chocolate and vanilla swirl cones? Because we got bored with just chocolate or vanilla. We experience this at every stage in our development. Why wouldn’t video games be any different? No matter how realistic video games get, you still won’t be taking a human life. Maybe for some that just won’t be good enough anymore.
People have argued that games are no different than movies but I whole heartedly disagree. The biggest difference between movie violence and game violence is that in one medium you are an observer and in the other YOU are the perpetrator. You are pulling the trigger. You are dismembering your friend’s on-screen character.. As graphics become more photo-realistic (Goldeneye for the N64 is a good example with characters that have facial features and expressions) and programming collision detection improves (shoot someone in Goldeneye in the leg and they react to it) where does reality stop and fantasy begin?
In the light of all of these shootings in the States over the last few days, you have to wonder why there are so many young kids going on killing sprees. I’m not saying it’s because of the Quake ad but something is decaying society from the inside out. But again, we go back to the argument that it is escapism entertainment and that 99% of us wouldn’t go out and blow someone away. I totally agree with that, however I do draw strong objections to young children reading these ads and playing certain games. There is one solution to all of this. Parents have to become more involved in their children’s past-times. I know I’m going to get a lot of email from youngsters who vehemently disagree with that, but that really is the only solution. Remember I’m not saying that they should ban violent games. Hell, no. That would piss me off. I like a good blast every now and then and I bet you do too. It’s the responsibility of the parents to decide what is appropriate for their own children. It’s not up to the government to impose standards. The parents should look at take a good look at Goldeneye for example and say, "Hey wait a minute those are representations of human beings you are killing, not monsters like in Quake or Doom." and decide if their 10 year old should be playing that.
The other responsible parties are the game advertisers and to a bigger extent the game magazines themselves. They know what their demographic is. (Age of readers etc.) They should know that the Quake 64 ad is aimed at a higher audience, and yet they allow it in their magazine whose general readership is 10 - 15 year olds. This is unacceptable. I guess what it comes down to is "money talks." Without advertisements, all of the game magazines would fold up tomorrow. It would be nice to see them act responsibly and put advertisements in their magazines that reflect the ages of their readers. You don’t see ads for the latest Batman Playset in Playboy. Get my point? If the gaming mag’s don’t reverse this trend, then they should expect a lot more canceled subscriptions and angry letters from parents. If I were a gaming mag, I’d listen. It’s not the kids who are plunking down $4.99, $5.99 and $6.99 for their product. It’s mom’s and dad’s, like me.
If you have any concerns about ad content I would strongly advise you to email the game companies and the game magazine. If we don’t say anything now, I can tell you that problem isn’t going to get any better.