In the several years I have spent on this website, I have seen many stories about attempts to censor video games in many countries. From seemingly censor happy Australia to the relatively censorship free United Kingdom, the world seems engulfed in a debate over the role of video games in society. Fortunately for American gamers, the U.S. Supreme Court recently declared video games to be protected under freedom of speech. This article (and accompanying video) will focus on attempts to demonize and censor video games in the United States. More specifically, we will be focusing on how Fox News repeatedly demonstrate an anti video game bias. This bias is shown by the guests that they have on the air, the "discussions" that Fox News employees have during their shows, and the numerous times that Fox has lied about video games. What lies you ask? Read on and watch the video to find out.
Fox is probably best known for the "Mass Effect sex scene scandal". This interview is included in the video, but the gist of it is that Fox anchors made up that the game featured a full sex scene that gamers were forced to play though. They claimed that the scene was interactive and showed full nudity. In reality, the sex scene was optional. Gamers had to follow a specific dialog tree in the game to access the scene. The scene was entirely in a cut-scene, and there was no interactivity at all. Finally, the ESRB would obviously rate the game AO if it had full nudity. The game featured some partial nudity, which is not at all unusual in games with an M rating (see God of War, GTA). The sensationalist title "se"xbox also does not help. Ironically games that actually do have interactive sex scenes (God of War series) have never been mentioned on Fox.
On the show Red Eye (also featured in the video) it becomes even more evident that Fox News anchors did very little research going into the show. One of the hostesses actually asks what happened to pinball and other classic arcade games, suggesting that she has missed every change in gaming after 1980. They seem to be entirely unaware that video games now commonly have a plot. This type of ignorance leads most of the people on the show to come to incredibly unrealistic conclusions about video games in general, with several suggesting bans.
This opinion piece and the video are all my work and/or protected under fair use. I decided to make this video and write this article because, despite the success of the recent court ruling in the US, many other countries in the world are facing censorship of video games. Even in the U.S. I fear that that battle over video games has not yet quite ended. People like Jack Thompson are unlikely to give up in their endeavors, especially when they are paid so well to do what they do. I hope that my articles and video will continue to inform people about this issue, as gamers around the world must come together to stop groups who wish to slander or censor video games.
Why did Sony push Shuhei Yoshida out of his role leading PlayStation's first-party games? He'd overseen some huge successes. Well, apparently, he didn't listen.
Yeah I can see that for sure. Shuhei Yoshida should have been in charge not Jim Ryan.
It should be free highway for him now.. but Sony are too stupid to see this, especially that moron Hulst
More confirmation that Jim Ryan is the culprit for what has happened to Sony. Hulst needs to go too. What sucks is that a lot of the good top heads at Sony are no longer there. I wish that guys that were forced out prematurely by Dumbo Jimbo like Shuhei and Layden came back.
Makes you wonder if MS even thought about hiring him after Phil and Sarah were leaving. He certainly couldn't make their situation any worse.
All the gamer/consumer lead heads are gone across PS and Xbox. shuhei gone phil's gone (questionable) but gone. The future of gaming is somewhat uncertain across the board.
Replaced is a staggering visual achievement, blending 2.5D retro-futurism with a captivatingly grim premise.
Pragmata has sold 1 million copies in two days, Capcom has announced.
I didn't know it came out last Friday, or I would have bought the game. I will try again for this upcoming weekend.
Im really digging it. It reminds me of games from the PS2 era, not visually or how it plays, but like the spirit of it. If you were around for that golden age of gaming, you’ll get what I mean when you play this.
Have you tried Kanitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess (also Capcom)? That feels like a PS2-era Capcom game.
Agreed! The art style is amazing in that game. I bought it immediately after I played the demo but haven't started it lol
I want a physical copy of that game sooo bad. It seems like it won’t happen and I may have to use some of my Xmas PS gift cards I always get this winter but I’m still holding out with very little hope.
I know what you mean. I think it really feels like Vanquish, with some Dead Space and Binary Domain thrown in. So maybe more PS3 era but yes it is great.
The next thing I'm mine when I've had my fill of crimson desert. A nice linear action game to contrast the open ended 😗👌
Fox is trying to force their views on everyone just like the other news companies like MSNBC, CNN, etc... Although sometimes I think they are just trolling.
Its Fox News, since when did anyone with a brain care what they say?
One thing ill pick you up on though is that Australia isnt censor happy at all, its just that we have stupid laws in place that mean we currently dont have an 18+ category for games, and in order to get one the attorney generals for all the states have to agree that we need one. There has only been a push for the 18+ rating recently, and for most of that time a nutter (AKA fairly hardcore Christian) has been one of the attorney generals and voted it down. He's gone now, so hopefully we will be getting an R18 category soon.