To paraphrase brother Cavil on Battle Star Galactica, "You know what really chaps my ass?". That quote could continue you on with the bit about manipulation just short of tyranny but I think either or would do just fine in this case. Censorship is what chaps my ass and its because it tyrannical manipulation of the media.
Sure you expect some level of censorship and grudgingly tolerate it, but here in America we are rather used to being able to express ourselves in a million different ways because freedom of speech is freedom of expression, weather it be through art,politics, or just telling someone higher up, to go fuck themselves. So you can imagine my reaction to Britain's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), forcing Eidos Interactive to pull some *shocking*, ads out of magazines and off television.
First it was confusion that Kane and Lynch was apparently still such a big deal in Europe. I mean we in the States have since moved onto bigger and better things...a couple of them at least. We've been in salivating mode for the past 2 months over the upcoming release of the far more controversial Grand Theft Auto's latest installment.
Besides the fact the game is old news and being censored by a country who's freedom of expression isn't clearly defined or even protected, that nations game industry and design schools also lag behind. It was the details of the ASA's case against the ads that caused me to do a double take.
Excerpt's from Briton's Guardians newspaper:
The ad was used a double-page spread in Future Publishing’s computer game magazine Edge, while a second version appeared in the magazine Total Film…
Ruling on the Kane & Lynch poster… the ASA said it was “likely to be seen as condoning and glorifying real violence”, and was also irresponsible and “likely to cause serious or widespread offence”
We noted that the demographic profile of the magazines that carried the ads was predominantly adult males and that only a small number of children were likely to have seen the ads.
We considered, however, that the graphic and shocking image, which would be seen as condoning and glorifying real violence, was likely to cause distress to some readers and was unsuitable for children to see. We therefore concluded that the placement of the ads was irresponsible.
Now while the girl in the ad may be tied up, its not suggesting anything particular is going to happen. I mean the Game came out in November of 07 and had lackluster reviews and a just ok storyline. Sure one of your buddies gets black outs that result in several people be dead or maimed for life when he comes to, and yes Cops and inoccent bystanders get shot up. But I don't for a second assume the game is telling me to go kill someone just as I don't assume Harry Potter is telling me to practice magic or attempt to go airborne via broom out my second story window.
Of the hundreds of thousands of gamers in the UK and a total population of over 60 million, only 26 felt so shocked by the ad so as to file a complaint. If anything I'm assuming they probably belong to the same demographic that makes up people who join groups with "values","Concerned" and "Parents", in the name and then proceed to pass laws against something they don't understand. Which is an odd little repeat of history considering they belong to the generation of rock & roll and drug induced hippie flower power.
We just want to play our video games for a an hour or two (or 5), a day to relieve stress,explore a story or just enjoy ourselves and those around us. But with no real evidence other then 26 annonymous complaints of either shock or distate, the ASA believes these *controverial*, Kane and Lynch ads are "likely to cause widespread offence"
Censorship of idea's often has the opposite intended effect. When freedom of expression is curtailed, we see people being limited and ideas not being tried out for fear of some dystopian government imposing its moral standards upon we the people. Sales for a game thats largely fallen off the charts and out of the news in the US, could see a slight spike in the UK, though UK gamers have probably already had their jollies with the game and decided it was only mediocre at best.
I wonder if Jack Thompson has european relatives.
Sourecs: CIA world factbook
GamePolitics.com
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