Mass Defect

When it comes to the mainstream media the events of this past week have proven more than ever that as a medium there is a long way to go before video-games become acceptable and talked about with the same level of criticism and knowledge that movies and music currently enjoy. In case you missed it the whole furore involves the game Mass Effect, Bioware’s epic sci-fi role playing game which sees you create a character and move through a huge and detailed universe building relationships, solving puzzles and becoming immersed in one of the most well crafted and involving stories yet found in a videogame. Oh and yes there is a short two minute non-controllable sex scene which can be a part of the story. The horror. Never mind the fact that the scene in question is far more tasteful than 90% of even pre-watershed TV, or that it is a scene crucial to the plot and characters, or the mere fact that it is something that has to be worked towards through genuine affection and relationships between characters, the media has chosen to side with the usual uneducated ‘video-games are corrupting our children’ line of enquiry, the typical knee jerk reaction to something they have little experience of or understand, and which leads to these scare mongering stories. This little debacle started out a couple of weeks ago with an extremely uneducated and alarmist post from political blogger Kevin McCullough who posted an article on the net basically condemning mass effect as videogame porn and condemning videogames in general, his post containing so many inaccuracies it was almost laughable. He later posted an apology of sorts for the misinformation (after the massive gamer backlash) but never fully rescinded his position. Naturally such an inflammatory piece garnered much attention in the media and gaming sites, however things dies down a bit until the other night when a fox special news report was broadcast focusing once again on Mass Effect, the staggering fact being that this national news broadcaster chose to re-iterate many of Kevin McCullough’s inaccuracies in a fluff piece that soon become clear had no bearing on reality. Videogame expert Geoff Keighley was brought in to bring some facts to the proceedings but that the piece itself made it to air or warranted such attention boggles the mind. You can watch the whole exchange here and there is a much better analysis and transcript of the piece over at Bill Harris’s blog here, it’s an excellent read and sums up my feelings 100% (but in better words.) Thankfully today EA have issued a statement and a letter to Fox news stating their disappointment and seeking an apology, whilst they are often seen as the corporate baddies of the videogame world this time I am right behind them, this kind of misinformed tripe needs to be monitored and corrected and the people responsible held accountable. All such news pieces do are bring the industry into disrepute and add more stains to an already blotchy history, and of course peddle misinformation to the general public who, shockingly, rely on the national news for information. If such blatant untruths were spoken about a book or film there would be an outrage, but somehow gathering people who have played the game in question to host a debate on it is acceptable and normal? I am glad however at the storm that the games playing public has caused around this issue and can only hope that it leads to sensible and well reasoned discussion in the future, there may well need to be questions raised about targeting games to children and the content of such titles, but with more violence and sexuality than ever before available on the internet and on TV it seems mightily hypocritical, not to mention ironic, that the finger ends up pointing at one of the few modern games to really try and push the medium as an art form and whose structure and ambition should be lauded as one of the best example of recent years of videogames finally growing up.