Video Game Controversies

So lets talk video game controversy. The moment someone brings that up, you probably automatically think of the Grand Theft Auto series, due to all the violence and drugs. That isn't the only game though, pretty much every violent video game is under fire. Being blamed for violent acts carried out by young adults and teens.

Honestly, saying a video game causes violence is like saying rock music causes violence. Very rarely are reasons for violence traced back to games, music, books ect., but usually back to how the home life is. Video games are just a popular thing so its easy to blame.

Granted, there are very violent games out there, but that's what the cute little letter rating on the box is for. If its rated M and you are under 18, you shouldn't be buying it anyway. There are plenty of other fun games in the E and T ratings, just have to take some time and explore.

Besides the violence one, there are more controversies, mainly dealing with individual games. Lets take a look at some of those shall we.

• Hot Coffee: Oh if you've been around the Grand Theft Auto scene long enough, you have probably heard of this one. An unused code was found in the script of San Andreas, where you could simulate sex with one of the characters girlfriends. This caused the game to be withdrawn from many sale shelves, and earned an "Adults Only" rating. Rockstar also took a heavy blow with the loss of sales for that time.
• Rapelay: A Japanese porn game, where the main purpose was the players character stalking then raping a mother and her two daughters. This controversy caused it to be banned in many countries, and the publisher to withdraw it from distribution.
• Portrayal of Gender: So, this is mainly about how females are represented in games. Some don't even feature women at all. If they are there, sometimes they are portrayed stereotypically, highly sexualized, dependent, opponents and trivial.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: This game is honestly one of my favorites. Yet one of the main controversies with it is the ongoing gang war between Hatian and Cuban refugees. This gained criticism about racist hate crimes.

There are plenty other conspiracies out there, just do a quick search and see all that come up. A lot of these you don't even really think about or pay attention to, cause at the end of the day, playing a video game is just about relaxing and having some fun.

Before I go digging myself deeper into a hole by bringing this topic up, just know that I do love video games and I believe a lot of these are just cause people overly observe things and try to make games less fun. They want to take a lot of violence out of zombie games and fighting games. No that's the best part of it, those games are supposed to have violence. Can't kill a zombie by talking to it.

I'm a huge believer that video games don't cause violent behavior. If you can't tell the difference between the real world and virtual worlds, you don't need to be playing games. But that's just me. As for those controversies up there, yes the Rapelay game is awful and I don't even know how it was allowed to be released at all, but the others? Grand Theft Auto is known for pushing boundaries. There are games that focus mainly on male characters, with females being in the background. That's ok. That's just how creators make them.

Please do not start arguments in the comments about this, respect others views, and don't be afraid to voice your opinions on this, I'd love to read them, but be polite about it. That is all I ask.