Family oriented website What They Play recently took a poll on their site for parents asking which content they feel is most offensive in games. The results not only shocked What They Like Inc. co-founder John Davison to W.T.F. on his own personal blog, but they make us epically shake our heads and roll our eyes.
According to the poll parents found sexual content, such as the sex scene in Mass Effect, and two males kissing, which is possible in Rockstar's Bully, more offensive than a sequence that involves a graphically severed human head. Really? Come on. Seriously folks, is it April Fools' again?
[via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-11-2008 @ 4:53PM
Sev said...
Id rather have them watch what there going to do when they grow up then a severed head. I would just start crying though
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4-11-2008 @ 4:54PM
Sev said...
Ooops, my message got cut off,
'if they started reenacting bully'
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4-11-2008 @ 4:57PM
Captain Obvious said...
I think this is a very, very poor poll. Why don't we take a poll of WWII movie-watchers and ask whether they'd find it more offensive to see decapitated bodies or two guys dorking. Given the subject matter, two guys dorking is probably more offensive. You know what you're getting into when you watch a WWII movie, just like you know what you're getting into when playing Gears of War. (I can't quit you, Dom!)
And really, why do we have to chose only one that we find offensive? Can't we select all of the above and say that we wouldn't let our kids play games with any of the choices in them?
Finally, whether it's right or wrong, society has always been more open to depictions of violence than sex, especially homosexual intimacy. Kids are exposed to violence on TV, in comic books, and at the movies. A little more violence in video games isn't going to hurt them.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:00PM
Xav de Matos said...
In the west yes, but in Europe this isn't the case most of the time.
4-11-2008 @ 5:06PM
Tony said...
I don't think all of those qualifiers really matter. The question is which of these is MORE reprehensible to these people. Even ignoring the homosexual topic (which on top of all of this, wasn't even explicitly about sex), more people still voted for a completely consensual (and barely explicit) sex scene as being a problem.
There's quite a lot of sex in comics and television, particularly in ones that would depict violence involving severed heads.
I think it is pretty remarkable that dying gruesomely isn't a problem to a lot of people (granted this is not a scientific poll to begin with) as long as that person wasn't showing his penis or kissing a boy.
4-11-2008 @ 5:05PM
Trekster_Gamer said...
When I let my kids play the violence they know is fake in the game, but when it is sexually explicit they don't get to play, most likely we won't purchase the game.
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4-11-2008 @ 6:25PM
Charles said...
Really? You know exactly what your kids are thinking? So I guess when they grow up to have all kinds of problems because they were brought up to think sex is somehow more deplorable than severing another person's head, you can blame a video game? I realize this is a very hot topic, and there is no empirical evidence to suggest what effect sex or violence in video games or any other media for that matter has on the development of children, but if I for one would rather have my children desensitized to a woman's breasts or what's under her skirt than fantasizing about what her head would look like on a fucking platter. But that's just me. I hope you have a therapy fund parlayed into that college savings account.
4-11-2008 @ 5:05PM
Captain Obvious said...
Xav,
Really? In Europe, kids are more likely to open a comic book and encounter sex than violence? I wasn't aware of that. Is it the same with Saturday morning cartoons and kids movies? I don't intend to be (too) sarcastic, but I can't believe that.
I get that Americans are all uptight about sex and Europeans are so properly open-minded. But that mentality doesn't extend to what the kids are watching, does it?
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4-11-2008 @ 5:33PM
Xav de Matos said...
You misread.
I was saying that in Europe sexual content is not considered more offensive than violence.
Not that they are more likely to encounter it.
Also, I'm not American so your point has no validity to me or my previous statement.
Personally I wouldn't want my kids to see either (sex or violence), but I think graphic violence can harm them more in the long term.
4-11-2008 @ 5:34PM
Xav de Matos said...
Also our reply function is back so the "@ Someone" thing isn't necessary.
4-11-2008 @ 7:04PM
ZEBRA NINER said...
@ Xav, Thanks for fixing the replying function. :P haha! @ Everyone, the reply function works.
@ The reply function, I missed you.
4-11-2008 @ 11:18PM
Intentless said...
In europe shampoo/soap commercials don't show people only washing their hair and legs... They actually wash the rest of their body in commercials too. It isn't taboo like here in the states. Its more everyday respected aspect. Not something to be hiding in the closet...
4-11-2008 @ 5:10PM
Jonman said...
@ Captain Obvious
Xav is not only correct, but hugely correct. Witness the furoure over Janet Jackson's nipple at the SuperBowl.
I've lived most of my life in England, and spent some time living in Germany. Trust me when I say that America's uptight attitude to sex is a laughing stock in Europe, especially in light of the hypocrasy of the USA being the largest producer, and consumer, of porn in the world.
That said, that's not to say that Europe is perfect by any means, they just have different things to get uptight about.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:18PM
ZEBRA NINER said...
Yeah, if we had more porn on TV... then maybe we wouldn't be the largest consumer of it.
Man... I need to get some porn, brb.
Seriously though, this poll is interesting but not surprising at all. Most Americans are uptight about sex, but violence is run of the mill. Now... combine the two, and you've got one hell of a Saturday night.
Then you look at a place like Germany, and Gears of War isn't even sold there... but nudity of TV is A-OK! Oh well, I like my violence... won't ever give it up.
4-11-2008 @ 5:11PM
Captain Obvious said...
@Tony,
Why can't we have those qualifiers? If someone asks "Which is most offensive to you: getting hit by a bus, getting hit by a Ford, or getting hit by a Chevy?", can't I say that I'd rather just stay at home and not get hit by anything? But, if forced to choose, I'd choose the Chevy. What does that prove? Nothing.
The fact is, is that parents don't want their kids playing video games where every other word is f***. Just because only 10% found it "most offensive" among the choices doesn't mean that the other 90% are out there letting their kids play these games.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:13PM
grigdog said...
I think the biggest issue with the poll is that the questions related to the sexual situations give no context. A severed head is pretty easy to comprehend, but when you say a man and a woman having sex, does that mean the implication it occurs or a graphic scene? Additionally there is a good chance that most of these parents have no idea what their kids are playing anyway and would therefore think of the worst case scenario.
At the end of the day the poll is garbage and can't be used to draw any meaningful conclusions due to the fact that it wasn't random and therefore does not accurate represent the target population. Sorry that is my business school statistics coming out.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:14PM
diamondxp said...
Violence is preferred over a natural human healthy act? Wow Society is messed up.
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4-11-2008 @ 5:31PM
Jason said...
What you determine to be a "natural act" is an area of contention for many people. Surprised to hear that you didn't know this. It's as if you have been on the moon for the last 20 years.
4-11-2008 @ 8:14PM
Ian said...
How can sex as a natural act be contested? If you don't have sex, the species fails to repopulate, and dies. Sex is a natural act, since you can watch primates to just about everything that humans do. Homosexuality, anal sex, vaginal sex, recreational sex... monkeys do it all.
4-11-2008 @ 5:17PM
Captain Obvious said...
@Jonman,
I don't follow you on the Superbowl. My question is whether kids are more likely, when absorbing entertainment designed primarily for kids, to see violence or sex. In America, the answer, clearly, is violence. When a child in Germany or Spain opens a comic book (and not some graphic porn), which is he more likely to see - a naked boobie or some dude getting stabbed?
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