Mass Effect: “Star Wars Meets Debbie Does Dallas”
You’ve undoubtedly seen some of the garbage from the recent “Mass Effect is an interactive porn game” meme invading conservative media. I saw one commentator perplexed that such a full-on sex simulator didn’t get an AO rating (having just been told that the game did not, in fact, feature graphic sex scenes).
I think the entire flap is firmly within the realm of harmless amusement. The outlets involved aren’t known for being reality-based, and they tend to flit from one phantom threat to another. This may reinforce the fears of some uninformed, anti-game parents, but let’s be clear: it’s not Mass Effect that’s the whipping boy here, it’s games. These outlets will manufacture a scandal out of any video game content fed to them, no matter how wholesome or enriching. Can you blame them? Games are a perfect fear-mongering target: the viewers have almost no knowledge of the subject, and yet tons of people (even their own kids!) are playing them.
January 26th, 2008 at 1:13 am
I suppose fear-mongering has often been a successful “rally the troops!” political tactic. I’m honestly more disappointed that the sex/nudity angle gets these people more riled up than the violence. I guess I just think seeing some boob is a more normal experience than a headshot - given the two, I know which one I expect (and hope) Johnny Teenager does more often in reality. Well, until a class 5 Zombie outbreak, then every survivor needs to learn to aim for the head.
My rational mind wants to tell these people about the ESRB, and how they can purchase games from responsible vendors that card young people when buying games over a certain rating. Its usually then that I remind myself that they have no interest in having a rational discussion, and are just trying to get some segment of the population riled up. In the end, it is more important to have people all upset over a trivial things than focused on solving real problems I guess.