The New York Times ran an interesting article on Saturday, looking into how Hillary Clinton may be using her opposition to adult videogame content as means of garnering support for the Democrats:
"Dick Morris, formerly a political strategist in the Clinton White House, said of the drive against games, 'It is a political effort by Hillary and other Democrats to try to create a morality issue, a 'values' issue, that they can use.'"
There's nothing like a moral crusade to get worried voters on your side - especially where technology is concerned. Most parents still don't quite understand what their children are actually doing in front of those mysterious consoles all night. They may have vague memories of playing Pac-Man in eighties arcades, but possibly didn't realise - until they watch little Johnny play for a few minutes - that you can beat realistically detailed people to death with crow bars these days. Oh the fear, the horror.
Are videogames important enough to become a political hot potato? Of course they are. We live in confusing times where supposedly backward terrorist groups conduct incredibly sophisticated attacks on global targets, in which the weather itself has turned against us. Indefinable, unpredictable, unexplainable - these forces are beyond the control, beyond the very comprehension of most parents. But their techno-fear finds a solid, stable nemesis in the violent videogame. This is a battle that can be won, or at least understood.
The NYT feature earmarks EA's Godfather conversion as a possible blue touch paper for a new, more fervid attack on adult videogame content. We've seen games used in this way before - the profile of Senator Joe Lieberman has been significantly enhanced by his history of run-ins with the videogame industry. But now there's a Clinton onboard and a whole generation of confused Americans looking for answers, for scapegoats.
What exactly do they want? Tighter classification? Censorship? Or for the world to be understandable again, bit by bit, enemy by enemy...
Update: The California State Assembly has just passed a bill to prevent the sale of violent videogames to minors. Find out more about Senator Leland Yee's bill here, and the IEMA's (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) response here.
Follow other developments in American videogame legislation at Gamepolitics.com...
