Play Meter

fROM THEEDITOR Living in aglass house in a world of rocks I got a phone call the other day, one of many such calls lately. A newspaper reporter was researching the detrimental effect of violence in video games on today's young people. I use the word "research" loosely because many of these reporters are not doing research at all. They have predetermined what their stories will be and are simply trying to get someone to say something to back them up. In a period of about six weeks, I've taken at least five such calls. Managing editor Bonnie Theard has fielded about the same. We've been sent some of the final stories and the distortions of our conversations are appalling. While we scratch our heads wondering how they got that out of what was really said, we know that the reporters are already on another subject and don't now, nor did they ever, really care about the industry. One thing I always do is discuss the industry-the whole industry first. "This is an industry made up of many other things besides video games," I brag. "Oh, we don't care about that, just tell us about how the video game industry is corrupting today's youth," is a typical response. The most recent call was from a Christian parenting magazine. The caller explained that he was doing an article on Mortal Kombat. His angle was that he wanted to instruct parents on how to keep their kids out of the arcade and pointing out extreme violence in games seemed as good a way as any. After a lengthy discussion on the positive aspects of the industry and pointing out how many non-violent games there were on location, he only wanted to know one thing: "Are violent video games desensitizing young people to violence in general?" Nothing mattered to him except the focus of his story. But it mattered to me. How can anyone think a harmless video game could be the culprit in an already violent society? I sincerely believe it's the other way around: the violence in the world has corrupted values in today's youngsters. Therefore, playing a violent video game is nothing out of the ordinary. No amount of violence could exceed what kids see on the news. I'll admit that if we saw a game like Time Killers back in the '50s, it would be a shock. Parents would be banding together to boycott all locatio ns that housed the offending game. But come on, there's a lot more to worry about today than a video game. Since the beginning, video games have mimicked world events and interests. Why were Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Galaxian so popular? They represented the public's attention to space; movies like Star Wars and the sequels were number one at the box offices. Please don't think that I'm condoning violence in video games. I also don't advocate violence and explicit sex in movies. However, when newspapers all around the country are PLAY METER 10 JULY 1993 focusing attention on video games, they seem to lose their perspective on events happening all around us. I think that violence in movies is worse than any violence a video game could ever display. Where's all the attention to that? There's one key point that seems to be overlooked: the violent games consistently are making the most money. As long as people play them, the manufacturers would be crazy not to keep them coming. When players begin seeking other avenues for their entertainment quarters, the manufacturers will be there to cater to them with something else. Violent games are not a cause, they are an effect. We made a decision recently because of the way our comments and quotes have been mishandled: we will no longer spend valuable time with newspaper reporters. We can't change their thinking no matter what we say and what we do say comes out very distorted. We've learned our lesson. Just like with anything else, you learn from experience. Perhaps the industry will learn, too, that we are truly living in a glass house with plenty of people willing to cast that first stone. D Valerie Cognevich Editor