February 11, 2008
A veteran video game marketing exec claims that the Bible contains more mature-themed content than most games.Bruce Everiss, whose resume includes stints at Imagine and Codemasters, writes in his Bruce on Games blog:
Despite what some ignorant politicians and journalists might tell you, video games are fairly bland when it comes to how “adult” their content is. In fact they are usually too bland to emotionally engage and would be far better if they moved a bit in the “adult” direction...
Another reason for the blandness is the dull censoring hand of the platform holders who are amazingly prudish.
The fact is that established old media have vastly more shocking content than video games... a prime example of a book that children are encouraged to read is the Bible.
Everiss used a website known as Bible Gateway to conduct searches and found a number of themes which would be considered racy if they appeared in a video game:
The King James version has “harlot” in it 48 times, “sodomite” 5 times, “fornicator” 5 times, “smite” 133 times, “kill” 208 times and “maim” 7 times. This is shocking, you have to wonder what any right minded parent is doing exposing their children to this stuff.
Interestingly enough, University of Michigan professor Brad Bushman, a leading critic of video game violence, also found links between Biblical violence and real-life aggression in a 2007 study.
Bushman is one Jack Thompson's expert witnesses in a pending wrongful death lawsuit against Rockstar and other video game industry defendants in Alabama.
Comments
When violence is committed in the name of God, or God's name is envoked, or religion of some sort is used to justify the act, how many demands from politicians, organizations, and the "morally superior" amount to "protect the children" from exposure to that religion?
It's a sign of the hypocrisy of our society. It's all well and good to shout "family values" and "morality" when attacking any number of "pop culture" media. But when the shoe's on the other foot?
Moreover, some religions get the full brunt of attacks while others are ignored altogether. The Muslim faith, for example, is closer in treatment by society to gamers. While those associated with Christianity tend to receive little hits on it's overall system from crimes committed by individuals spouting Christian dogma (Eric Rudolph anyone?).
The fact is, individuals are responsible for their own actions. Yet, when it comes to personal, religious, and/or political agendas, whoever can get away with blind sweeping accusations will do so. And usually, they will only do so if it supports their alternate agendas (censorship, dictatorships, etc).
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
People claiming that the Bible is anti-violence are also completely ignoring large sections of the Bible.
Hell, a lot of the people who claim to be just pushing "good Christian morals & ethics" have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. The Bible has nothing about forcing any morals or ethics on the world (in fact, the opposite is proposed -- don't interfere with the world's opinion/take on ethics & morals). It isn't about controlling groups or populations at all. Thompson, as well as other "Bible-thumping Fundies" should spend less time sticking it into people's faces and making claims of superiority, and more time actually reading the damned thing and understanding what is actually written there. But, if they did that, they'd have no support to stand on, and couldn't parade themselves around in the media.
Also would not the link between the bible causing violence also come under attack from the gaming community or is this a case of selective outrage?
“O spiteful one, show me who to smite and they shall be smoten!!!"
*Bonus points to those who can correctly guess that quote
People.
A classic example of author-publisher miscommunication...
Then again, not too many other books have been used so often as an excuse for the likes of:
1. Racism
2. Genocide
3. Bigotry
4. Ignorance
5. Fanaticism
But yeah, the Bible has plenty of mature content. It was one of the reason Alex from A Clockwork Orange loved to read it. And he was a psycho...
What he was trying to get across about the Bible causing increases in aggression, is that it is not video games that cause the increase, but violence in general.
The opponents claim otherwise. They ignore these other studies just so they can attack us with the ones that focus strictly on video games.
Sure a lot more people would be outraged if someone cam along and suggested blocking child access to the bible, but it is just as justified as blocking access to games.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
If I remember correctly, public access to Bible was indeed forbidden until some time in the 1960s
...at around the time as the Second Vatican Council, I think.
For Catholics. Other denominations and the public in general didn't face that restriction. It would be illegal here in the States to "forbid" any book.
This whole argument is weak and played out. We all know that the bible has violence in it, that the god of the Old Testament is a vengeful god and that the "Good Book" promotes some pretty hateful things. Be it right or wrong, when you make this argument you go from "reasonable if frustrated gamer" to "internet crazy that no on listens to."
All that being said, I really don't want video games being defended with the "they're not as bad as X, and you don't mind X" argument. He makes some really good points until then, though.
That arguement is a desperate arguement from religious folly, of which the only hopes is to lessen the damage made by such statements and bring Christianity out in a good light, all the time.
The point of this article is not to attack religion, but to point out that this video games bandwagon going around western media is a load of hypocritical horseshit without so much as a leg to stand on.
Fair enough
Still the gaming community does not need "The bible is worse" card to win these kinds of arguments. Also the author makes vague and ambiguous points. I'm sure he has an argument in there but his use of language for example: "In fact they are usually too bland to emotionally engage and would be far better if they moved a bit in the “adult” direction… " this is not a fact and is completely subjective to his view on video games.
One more: "a prime example of a book that children are encouraged to read is the Bible" again, who is encouraging, how many children? there are to many holes here. After all the bible is not taught in schools, there is no state religion so the matter of children being encouraged to read this book is purely a private matter, very much like playing video games.
The gaming community needs to stay away form these kinds of arguments as much as we love games there are far better ways to defend them.
Why not? The main group who attacks videogames on the very grounds of imorality is the religious right. It is an injustice and fallacy to attack videogames on the ground that they somehow violate God's code as per the bible!
It doesn't MATTER who wrote the bible and whether it is MISTRANSLATED. What matters is that it exists and is here, present in reality. And the fact of the matter IS that the bible DOES contain material that almost every single person in existence would find totally revoulting if they were to experience it in real life rather than through text on paper.
I would prefer that we didn't have to defend videogames on the grounds of 'if you are okay with this then you must be okay with that', but when faced with such blatant hypocracy, what other alternative is there.
Bushman is one Jack Thompson’s expert witnesses in a pending wrongful death lawsuit against Rockstar and other video game industry defendants in Alabama. "
lol does anyone else find that amazingly ironic? surely if JT pushes for Bushmans testimony as anexpert witness to be belived he cant pick and choose... surely??
100% serious... i mean surely it would be a good thing as it would
A) leave people able to make up their own minds (at say age 18) about God rather then being indoctrinated in it from birth. And
B) it would prevent access to all the dangerous content that will 'cause violence' in our youth. (allegedly).
Or are books somehow magically different?
Sounds a lot like Ray from Call of Juarez :)
"In fact they are usually too bland to emotionally engage and would be far better if they moved a bit in the “adult” direction… ” this is not a fact and is completely subjective to his view on video games. "
he never says it is fact... he wrote it in his blog... so its not put forward as fact
Even God killed many people like in the story of Noah's Ark,
Sadly some arguments could say that these are the things that really happened in reality but all they are doing is just trying to defend the indefensible.
But there is some things that are good, for example King Soloman told his children to stay away from the house of the "Adulteress Woman"
Also think about Videogames and there are some Japanese Hentai games that explore these same details, sadly the Hentai games are banned from many places while the Bible has been accepted sadly all because, it is just a book that is about events that many Christians believe that really happened.
Also even though I am not a real believer of Christians, I do believe that we should look up the bible and read it before we try and bash it, other wise we will be no worse than Cooper Lawrence how she bashed Mass Effect without even playing it.
well, those are my words for today
;)
But of course that would be getting on God's wrong side, which none of us want to do- apart from Marlyn Manson
I don't mean to offend anyone (I manage to do it anyway though) but I really do think that when god gave us free will, he expected us to use it creatively and intelligently, instead we have used his teachings to bring war, fear and hatred to our fellow man, maybe we need to learn that religion should be a private thing, I mean it is tied to so many wars nowadays that it is insane, our own belief systems are holding us back from letting us take the necessary steps to defend them!
So thats why I am a Christian-Buddhist in the comfort and privacy of my own home, nowhere else.
Everyone here talked about sex and violence in media relative to context when the moron railed against Mass Effect. The guy's point is not that the bible will teach your kids to rape and kill; His point is that anybody can take violence and sex from any media away from it's context to make it look bad. Everyone here using this as a means to attack the bible are missing the point.
its a great book!
better even than Terry Pratchett and Tom Clancy!
Then again if Terry Pratchett rewrote it, it would sell a lot better
Even better: Get L. Ron Hubbard to rewrite the bible. :O
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
"Do you think kooks like Jack Thompson would be doing what they do if they weren’t christian? "
Yes. There are many anti-violence people who are not only non-christian but also atheists. Bigotry one way or the other isn't really helping.
If there's one thing I learned, people like Jack Thompson will ALWAYS find a way to be the way they are irregardless of religion or race.
Stupidity doesn't discriminate.
"This whole argument is weak and played out. We all know that the bible has violence in it, that the god of the Old Testament is a vengeful god and that the “Good Book” promotes some pretty hateful things. Be it right or wrong, when you make this argument you go from “reasonable if frustrated gamer” to “internet crazy that no on listens to.”"
Agreed sir. This argument will go nowhere. In all fairness video games are interactive, while books are not. This is where the whole debate truly lies.
@TB
"I do believe that we should look up the bible and read it before we try and bash it, other wise we will be no worse than Cooper Lawrence how she bashed Mass Effect without even playing it."
Well said. As both a gamer and a christian, it's sad that I find myself in the middle of this argument time and time again. When someone goes about and tries to use religious justification to ban video games, I am offended that anyone (even those I agree with) would ever try to make their beliefs LAW. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the gamers with retort with something along the lines of "oh yeah, well religion should be banned!!!11" which also rubs me the wrong way.
I'd like it if this debate weren't so polarized and I'm glad that there are some level-headed people out here that are willing to participate in constructive debate than closed-minded shouting matches.
Yet society dose it anyway through bans it imposes on itself,you can say censorship is illicit but if have if you have 70% of public outlets blocking it on moral grounds its practically banned.
But I do not think the bible was ever banned in post modern US, pre printing press you had "translation" and distribution issues as well as a church that had tight rules over who got them and how they could be used, around the time of the printing press the bible was seen as a tool of civilization as much as a religious device.
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On a side note in the bibles defense it has been read throughly everything has been dissected and debunked if you will, because it has so much refrance material and speakers to talk about the issues and story and show the merit of each story/phrase its fiction or setting isles damaging than current fiction/story/setting because modern life dose not have enough "orators" to show the merit and balance in it .
Of coarse society normally matures its "standards" keeping them for time frames of 50-500 years and indignation keeps radical thoughts, story's and settings from taking root outside its niche so "righteous indignation" becomes a oxymoron...
Those on the high moral ground do not see that normal people generally more kinder/humbler/forgiving than they they are and their lust to insert their way of thinking into everything can blind them.
Its not much of a debate when most agree that because of the interactivity Video games are less absorbed by the player than a reader or watcher who's merely absorbing the content.
The results on media are pretty much conclusive it dose not shape the masses into killers and thugs,yet to pander for votes they have to keep re asking the question to get the base inflamed...really they should take a couple aspirins and if it persists put some cream on it...inflammation is bad for you.....
But I think the concern is that the interactivity is some sort of bridge between the content and your own actions, causing the gamer to exhibit the behavior of the game. (I do NOT share this view AT ALL just so we're clear) And yes, I agree that all science to the subject has been lost to politicking and fear-mongering.
Saying "my stuff isn't wrong because this other stuff is worse" does not win the argument. This is like telling an officer who's just pulled you over for speeding, "But those other people are going faster than I was." The point is, you were still speeding.
But, turning this around on The Bible works because it's the one book a number of the would-be censors are using as a morality base for the rest of us is hilarious. (At least, those on the Right are...the Left just use the "protect the children" line to try to pretend to care so they can get votes.)
Parts of The Bible are definitely filled with atrocities, violence, ethnic cleansing and slaughter, sexual deviancy of all kinds, rape, pillaging and plundering, and mass murder. The problem is, this argument isn't going to win the debate. The debate needs to be one by turning the scientific studies inside out and debunking them. The debate needs to be one on the merits of the medium itself, just like movies, books and TV had to do (and still have to do, in some cases).
I'd say it's worth mentioning this, not because the Bible should be banned, but because of the blatant double standards that are being used between the two mediums.
Thats the failed argument they use to say otherwise, this bridge they say is a bridge is underwater funneling subversive ideas that media creates killers and thugs when at most it herds the populace off in a few mainstream directions.
Then we all should be wear aluminum foil hats to combat this effect! ;)
@Zerodash
"Attacking the bible is fair game in this debate."
I hope that gamers take the high road here. Rather than attack the bible, do something that will actually go somewhere and attack their hypocrisy or abandonment of moral choice. Again, polarizing the debate leads only to mutual hatred.
The Bible was written for adults, just like mature themed video games are written for, get this, adults. Children can learn the meaning and grasp some concepts, and real intelligent kids under 17 can sometimes get more out of it then some adults. Yeah, that goes for both games and the good book.
There will always be the deeply religious who will say that what is said in the Bible is intended for everyone, including children. That's fine. However, in the end, parents should be there to explain, be involved and monitor their child to the best of their ability. And, yes, that goes for video games as well.
Kent Brockman: "And this was before cartoons were invented? Fascinating!"
Exhibit B:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15699_9-most-badass-bible-verses.html
I couldn't resist.
lol, the link is blocked through my work sever.
@ everyone else,
does anyone remember the jaack thompson quote "there is nothing questionable in the bible" well , i now have a weapon that doesn't include 1 star reviews on amazon.=)
Look at Jack Thompson for instance. He's not violent but he sure as hell is aggressive. He quotes the more violent and aggressive parts of the Bible quite often and seemingly ignores the more humane messages that would suggest a person use restraint rather than wrath. He's more volatile than the gamers he constantly insults. Do I believe the Bible MADE him this way? Of course not, however I'm sure something happened to him or he developed some trait that made that aspect of his religion all the more attractive.
Won't someone please think of the children?