April 8, 2008 -
Video games, as every GamePolitics reader knows, have become a political football.
It is often easier for elected officials to target the virtual mayhem in games than the real causes of violence in society such as crime, drugs, poverty, mental health issues and the easy availability of guns.
But in the three years in which GamePolitics has been tracking the nexus of politics and video games, we've noted some truly remarkable displays of political hypocrisy. The five listed below especially stand out. After you take a look, please feel free to vote for your choice of "biggest political hypocrite." The poll is located in the upper right sidebar.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D): Mayor Menino led a 2006 movement to have ads for GTA: Vice City Stories removed from public transportation and got the local transit agency to commit to never again carrying an ad for an M-rated game. Now he is at the center of a legislative proposal that would equate violent games with pornography. In between attacks on video games, Menino hopes to lure game developers to set up shop in Boston. Because it's, you know, such a game-friendly city...
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R): The man who signed California's 2005 video game into law, and ordered the state to appeal a 2007 ruling by a U.S. District Court judge that the law was unconstitutional, is himself the star of many a violent movie. What's more, he appears in character in several violent games based on the Terminator films. Like the one pictured...
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D): Gov. Sebelius threw her support behind an unsuccessful 2006 attempt to legislate video games. Earlier this year it was revealed that Gov. Sebelius' son John created a Grand Theft Auto-like board game called Don't Drop the Soap and marketed it from the taxpayer-funded Governor's residence.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D): During his 2006 election campaign Spitzer railed against video game content, saying, "Nothing under New York State law prohibits a fourteen-year old from walking into a video store and buying… a game like ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ which rewards a player for stealing cars and beating people up. Children can even simulate having sex with a prostitute…" As everyone now knows, it was the "sex with a prostitute" part that brought Spitzer himself down in 2008. He shoulda played GTA instead...
British Labour MP Keith Vaz: Vaz got into the video game violence debate in 2004 when a 14-year-old constituent, Stefan Pakeerah, was brutally murdered. Vaz alleged that the controversial Rockstar title Manhunt inspired the crime. A Scotland Yard investigation, however, established no such link. Vaz would go on to criticize Rockstar's Bully and Manhunt 2 games. While he has attacked the make-believe crime of video games, Vaz, as documented by the BBC, carries significant real-world ethical baggage.
It is often easier for elected officials to target the virtual mayhem in games than the real causes of violence in society such as crime, drugs, poverty, mental health issues and the easy availability of guns.
But in the three years in which GamePolitics has been tracking the nexus of politics and video games, we've noted some truly remarkable displays of political hypocrisy. The five listed below especially stand out. After you take a look, please feel free to vote for your choice of "biggest political hypocrite." The poll is located in the upper right sidebar.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D): Mayor Menino led a 2006 movement to have ads for GTA: Vice City Stories removed from public transportation and got the local transit agency to commit to never again carrying an ad for an M-rated game. Now he is at the center of a legislative proposal that would equate violent games with pornography. In between attacks on video games, Menino hopes to lure game developers to set up shop in Boston. Because it's, you know, such a game-friendly city...California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R): The man who signed California's 2005 video game into law, and ordered the state to appeal a 2007 ruling by a U.S. District Court judge that the law was unconstitutional, is himself the star of many a violent movie. What's more, he appears in character in several violent games based on the Terminator films. Like the one pictured...Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D): Gov. Sebelius threw her support behind an unsuccessful 2006 attempt to legislate video games. Earlier this year it was revealed that Gov. Sebelius' son John created a Grand Theft Auto-like board game called Don't Drop the Soap and marketed it from the taxpayer-funded Governor's residence.New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D): During his 2006 election campaign Spitzer railed against video game content, saying, "Nothing under New York State law prohibits a fourteen-year old from walking into a video store and buying… a game like ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ which rewards a player for stealing cars and beating people up. Children can even simulate having sex with a prostitute…" As everyone now knows, it was the "sex with a prostitute" part that brought Spitzer himself down in 2008. He shoulda played GTA instead...British Labour MP Keith Vaz: Vaz got into the video game violence debate in 2004 when a 14-year-old constituent, Stefan Pakeerah, was brutally murdered. Vaz alleged that the controversial Rockstar title Manhunt inspired the crime. A Scotland Yard investigation, however, established no such link. Vaz would go on to criticize Rockstar's Bully and Manhunt 2 games. While he has attacked the make-believe crime of video games, Vaz, as documented by the BBC, carries significant real-world ethical baggage.
Comments
Re: Who is the Biggest Political Hypocrite? ...Vote in New GP
It's a tough call and I'll go with Governator. This is the same guy who was in violent movies and video games as well. Spitzer was stupid enough to get caught.
I still say he was pissed at "simulated sex with hooker" Because he wanted children of all ages to experaince said sex with hooker.
Oh and look at this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/The_Terminator_%28SNES%29.jpg
No rating on that game.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/08/toddler.beater.ap/index.html
But I finally voted Vaz because his relentlessly accusations against Manhunt, and his quote about raping women in games.
Menino's logic is pretty flawed.
Vaz is pretty icky, too.
Like I was saying in another post, I think the best way the industry can address that is by having the game dvelopment studios based there like 2K Boston pack up and leave and other studios considering moving there not to come in at all. It'd be kind of the video game industry equivalent of "not gonna play Sun City."
I hate the small minded pillock.
If he actually had facts to back what he says up then I wouldn't care.
He wants publishers and developers to move to his city to make their games then use the money he gets in taxes from those companies to draft legislation against them? Not going to work out well.
As for Spitzer? Meh, I think he was a fall guy for someone with more pull that uses the agency.
Vaz is not so much a hypocrite as a straight-up liar. He's been frequently told that what he's saying is factually inaccurate, but chosen to ignore such comments, instead choosing to play the victim in parliament (claiming to be "pilloried by the games media", while also refusing to talk to said media) to continue to further his political career, which, yes, is built on shady dealings.
Spitzer (not pictured) probably isn't so bad. He's always made a point of complaining that it's *children* who shouldn't be seeing prostitution in GTA, and for him as an *adult* to partake in it is not directly comparable. As well as that, he had the balls to step down from office when he was caught -heh- with his pants down. For the sake of this comment, I am disregarding any non-gaming positions he may have had politically, especially regarding prostitution. If he has vocally supported anti-prostituton laws, however, then consider him to be the most hypocritical of the hypocrites.
As such, I must select Sebelius and Schwarzenegger to tie for the prize- the former for criticising one media form for touching on a subject while actively encouraging another to do the same, and the latter for criticising something while he himself is profiting from it.
However, all five of them do not deserve their places in office. The first four for being so foolish as to pitch such clearly doomed laws, knowing full well that their laws would be struck down on First Amendment grounds, and the fifth for being slimy and deceitful, even by politician standards.
/b
He's not a politician (despite what he thinks in his deluded, rotting brain).
I went for Sebelius, over Schwarzenagger, as she just went on about how wonderful her son was, despite pillorying an industry for the very things he put in his game.
It's a good thought - I'm not sure if it would be very practical for the studios already camped in Boston, but I would think it would be a possibility.
@ beemoh
I fail to see how Menino's statements are in any way "fair". I don't see how the legislation he wants to put forward and the so-called invite to companies would be "giving back" to the gaming industry. In fact, I feel that's greedy.
I'm going to have to go with Arnie, he seems to have the most actual connection to the "violent" media he speaks out against, plus he's my governor.
In terms of hypocrisy relating to games? The Governator, hands down.
Yes, he should never have attempted the censorship bills in the first place, but at the very least he offered a sweetener to the whole deal.
/b
Spitzer runs second as while he is a hypocrite, he did clear himself out of the way when he got caught. Sort of a "Ok, you got me doing something bad, I'll go quietly now."
Vaz runs last as he hasn't really done anything hypocritical. Sure he's a liar, but I don't know of him actually doing something contray to his "violence in media is bad" stance.
Menino: here's someone so out of touch with the world around him. He probably doesn't remember doing one or the other, so it's not hypocrisy, it's political quagmire. I would choose him simply because of local ties and the fact that he's supposedly a democrat.
Schwarzenegger: Okay, he was an actor turned politician... republican politician. Here's someone who's been put into office by his party mostly with the "help" of Enron. Former governor Gray Davis was a scapegoat in which republicans capitalized. That doesn't neccessarily make Schwarzenegger a hypocrite. He's simply holding to the ideals of conservative views while in office.
Sebelius: It was her son, not her, that made the game... yes, it happens to be while she's in office. That doesn't make her a hypocrite.
Spitzer: Here's someone who was elected due to his "family values" ideology. So much for that.
Vaz: This guy's just a liar. If it was a matter of how despicable these people are, I think Vaz would be #1 or a close #2.
After examining each person, I have to conclude that Spitzer is, indeed, the biggest hypocrite of the bunch.
Client 9 and the High-Priced Prostitutes would be a great name for a band.
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Papa Midnight
So he really doesn't qualify as the most hypocritical on that list. :D