Censorship and the Media

The video game industry has had a rough start when the media began to call it an “ill of society”. Games were deemed inappropriate by the media, which in turn sparked a controversy that caused parents to have a strong dislike for video games, so the Entertainment Software Ratings Board began rating video games. While the video game situation was getting worse in this country, other countries began to ban video games or forced developers to release a censored or less offensive version. While the past was disastrous to the video game companies, the situation has changed recently. Video Games, have been deemed appropriate by the media, which is a drastically changed stance by the media from ten years ago.
Nintendo used to be the only video game creator in the United States in the first few months. They had a very strict position with video games, censoring out even the least offensive material in this game. The media attacked video games but not because they encouraged aggressive behavior, but that they wasted time and made people lazy. However, when Sony and Microsoft began to create their own video games, competition between game developers caused some inappropriate games to be released in order to attract a different group of people to buy and play these games. However, the media at this time began talking about how inappropriate video games was becoming.
The most famous of these games includes Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which included a hidden sex game within it. Although the hidden sex game was actually a modified version of the game, a law suit filed by Florence Cohen claimed that the video game developer Rockstar had falsely advertised about this game in which her grandson was exposed to inappropriate material. She did not win the court case, but she did bring publicity to the video game which caused the media to talk negatively about video games throughout the history of video games, many bills have been created to block the sale of video games with inappropriate content. Not only has court cases been associated with video games, but other what?
The Virginia Tech Massacre was one of the first triggers that convinced the media to talk down about video games. Washington Post released an article claiming that the shooter had been a fan of the video game Counter-Strike which is a shooting game which involves saving hostages from terrorists. While there were no evidence that he played while in college, the media blamed video games for this act of violence. Due to this situation, many video games were forced to take extremely strong measures to not be offensive. However, this changed after a new revelation.
The Wii is a new gaming console developed by Nintendo that was released two years ago. This gaming console uses a motion sensitive remote than a standard controller that most consoles have been using. Therefore, this remote promotes the player to be more active when playing. Games released on this console have also been younger age oriented, even though the Wii is enjoyed by many adults as well. Due to this console, which has been deemed appropriate for all ages, many recent games are now being released even though they would be considered inappropriate for children. The media is now attacking video games less, because to argue against video games as a whole would be close to impossible. The recently released Grand Theft Auto 4 which contained partial nudity and large amounts of violence did not come under fire like the first game. However, even though censorship is gone, it is not forgotten.
Video game censorship laws are still being debated in the United States. While the most of the danger for video game companies has passed, some argument remains. Video games were a foreign form of entertainment which were alien to our society ten years ago, but now they are more better understood and accepted.