Child's Play

Copyright (c) Noelle Adams. All Rights Reserved.

Probably the most dangerous thinking about gaming is that it is an activity solely for children. Disappointingly, this seems to be the view that dominates South African society, as well as large, influential portions of the international community.  

Recently, a respected South African newspaper had a 13 year old reviewing assorted game releases. These included age-restricted titles like The Suffering: Ties That Bind. No wonder the reviewer found The Suffering ‘the scariest game I have ever played.’ He shouldn’t have been playing the No Under 18 game in the first place.  

You could argue that the irresponsible ignoring of age restrictions is simply the newspaper acknowledging that teens do play restricted games. Of course it happens. We’ve all been guilty of it at some stage.  

But the newspaper’s ignorance can just as easily be explained as stemming from a refusal to acknowledge the existence of adult-orientated titles. Far too many non-gamers view gaming as a pastime confined to children, and adults futilely trying to reclaim their childhood. If it’s a computer or PlayStation game, it has to be for kids.  

This thinking seems to be shared by American anti-gaming activists, Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton.  

In 2005, the discovery of Hot Coffee, a secret sex-themed mini-game in G rand Theft Auto: San Andreas, had Thompson and Clinton leaping onto their soap boxes. How dare Rockstar corrupt the world’s youth by publishing such a socially irresponsible title!  

It wasn’t as if Hot Coffee was hidden in Sonic the Hedgehog. San Andreas has an 18 age restriction. Forget secret mini-games. The game’s central storyline encourages you to run around in a gimp suit bludgeoning pedestrians to death with a pink, 15-inch, double-sided dildo. Clearly San Andreas isn’t for teens, but for adults. Maladjusted adults, but adults none the less.  

Thompson, Clinton , and their growing list of misinformed supporters, seem unable to realise that the gaming industry actually caters for people over 16. As the first few generations of childhood game-players have grown up, games have matured to suit their evolving tastes and personalities.  

Developers have realised that very few people want to play Super Mario Brothers into middle age. Of course the colourful, child-safe Mario games are still produced but they sit on shelves alongside mature material like Max Payne, G od of War and innumerable war-themed shooters like Battlefield 2. 

It’s rare for me to play anything that doesn’t have at least a 16 age restriction.  

Continuing to assume that all games are for children is as worrying as G eorge W Bush with his finger poised over a nuke-launching button. Unfortunately for gamers, a general change of non-gamer thinking involves that most underdeveloped human capability- discretion.  

Frustrated gamers are left then to defend a pursuit so often blamed for encouraging violence and other anti-social behaviour in contemporary society. And all this because of the myopic mindset of those who look at the snarling Hellknight on the Doom 3 box and still think that the game is suitable for a 10 year old.