THE Double Standard

Hello people, this article is about the thing that makes me angry. THE thing. It makes me angrier than most things, and it is the double standard between games and other forms of media. Let's face it, games are still viewed as for kids by most of the world. Even though the average gamer is an 18-35 year old male, the mainstream media ignores this; unable to believe games are more complex than Pac-Man nowadays. Because of this, anytime a game does anything out of the norm and anything seen as "adult", the media is completely shellshocked, jumping all over the games industry and ripping to shreds the hard working people who create games. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the INFAMOUS Fox News segment on the coverage of the incredible RPG Mass Effect's sex scene. You can see this scene on Youtube (just type in "Mass Effect sex scene"). You should watch the scene to know what I'm talking about, trust me, it isn't anything bad or disgusting, and there's no frontal nudity at all, and only about a two second camera shot of a woman's back if you haven't seen it. I've played the game and seen the scene. It's the result of an over thirty hour game, during which you have the choice of falling in love with one of two characters on your crew. Trust me, this isn't a stupid insulting one night stand. And if you aren't the type for commitment, you can choose to not pursue the romances and never even have to see the scene at all. Now the scene would easily be allowed in a PG-13 movie. According to the MPAA guidelines, nothing in this scene would push it to an R rating. Yet naturally, because it's a video game, the media goes bananas. Fox News ran a segment on it with the caption of "seXbox?" which is just insulting. The caption stated the game showed full frontal digital nudity, which is a complete and utter lie. Both Geoff Keighley (host of Gametrailers T.V) and Cooper Lawrence, a psychology expert that no one has ever heard of, were brought on to discuss the scene. You can find this segment on Youtube (just type in "Mass Effect Fox News), and you should watch it before reading on because it would take too long to describe the whole thing. After watching it, you see what makes me so mad, especially if you've played the game. Cooper Lawrence admits to not even playing the game, yet goes on to say it is about a man deciding about how many women he wants to be with. It's just insulting, and none of what she said was true at all. I will say Geoff Keighley's voice annoys the heck out of me, and this segment is the only reason I have any respect for him. When will the mainstream media stop babying us and holding us to the strictest of standards, when most movies are allowed to do anything they want without any reaction, just look at Saw for pete's sake! Mass Effect got an M rating, and you cannot buy M games without I.D, or if you don't have one without parental consent. Same with R movies, yet of course, games get the short end of the stick. It's time for the media to recognize games as entertainment for all ages, and time for them to stop treating the industry like a seven year old kid that they can punish when they do something "bad".

-Smith