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Death Race Controversy
The game was the very fist game the caused controversy over its violence. The gameplay consisted over you controlling a car, running over gremilns. However, the "gremlins" looked a lot like humans, thus massive amounts of outrage were circulated. A lot of the arcade machines were taken out and burned, thus production of the game ceased.
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Wolfenstein 3D Released
This is regarded as the first first-person shooter and was another game riddled with controversy. The main focus of the game's controversy was of the violence, as well as all of the Nazi imagery and scenary. Most infamously is a final boss in which you fight Adolf Hitler in a mechanical-suit.
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Mortal Kombat Released
Video game violence reached a new level of controversy with the release of the arcade classic, Mortal Kombat. The game caused huge levels of outrage from politicans and parents, due mainly for the finishing moves, the fatalities. Some of them included burning a body, ripping someone's heart out, and most infamously, ripping someone's head off with the spine attached.
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Night Trap Released
This was a full-motion video, interactive video game released for the Sega-CD. The player essentially switched cameras and interacted with the rooms in order to try and trap and defeat a bunch of criminals from stealing young girls' blood. If you failed, the game will show a pre-recorded movie of a girl getting the blood sucked from here. Needless to say, many parents were not too happy with the game and was pulled from shelves not long after its release.
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Congressional Meetings
After the release of many of these controversial games, Congress began holding meetings in resposne and how to handle selling these games. One man, California Attorney General Dan Lungren said that video games have "a desensitizing impact on young, impressionable minds."
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Doom Released
Doom was another game that was both revolutionary for the industry as well as a lightning-storm for controversy. The main focus of the controvesy was the detailed and high levels of violence that was in the game, especially during the last part of the game where the player fights and kills demons in Hell.
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ESRB Created
After these Congressional meetings, as well as pressure by the government to start controlling the sell of video games, the video game industry created the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board). This basically runs the same way as the film industry's ratings board. They are responsible for rating the games and tell what content is in each one of them.
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Columbine Massacre
In the wake of the terrible Columnine Massacre, it was revealed that the two teenage shooters were avid players of Wolfenstein-3D and Doom. This caused many to believe that, including 176 newspapers across the country, the games were the ones to blame and that there is a correlation between violent games and real-world violence.
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credit to procon.org for the information. -
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Released
The video game series, Grand Theft Auto, has always been a lightning-rod of controversy ever since it deputed. However, the backlash of this game was the most extreme. Not only did many people hate the high levels of violence, but there was a secret mini-game in which the player could have sex vividly...called the "Hot Coffee Mod." Rockstar had to recall the game and re-release the game after the game was actually rated A for adults by the ESRB.
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Jack Thompson
Thompson is a Miami attorney and a personal hater of violent video games. He consistenly spoke out and tried to get violent games get banned from store shelves or away from minors. He has also blamed violent video games on almost all violent crime and shootings. On this day, he spoke to CBSNEWS on what he thought of violent games.
credit to cbsnews.com for the information.
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California's Law
California passed a law on this day requiring all violent games have a "18" label on the cover and criminalized selling the games to minors. However, both the US District Court for the Northern District of California and 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law in February 2009. They claimed that it violated first amendment rights and cited that there was no direct correlation between violent games and real-world violence.
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Virginia Tech Shooting
In the aftermath of the terrible Virginia Tech Shooting, attorney and anti-video game activist, Jack Thompson quickly came out and blamed violent video games, particuarly the game, Counter Strike for the shooting. Dr. Phil and Mitt Romney also blamed games. However, it was later revealed that the shooter did not play games.
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credit to procon.org for information. -
U.S. Supreme Court Ruling
The U.S. struck down the law in a 7-2 vote in the case Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association. The consensus was that the law violated free speech rights.
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President Obama Speaks
On this day, the President announced a 500 million dollar, 23-point plan into reasearch on violent video games. Obama allocated 10 million in funds to the CDC to conduct research into the Newtown shooting.
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CBS News
On this day, CBS News began to report that violent video games helped motivate the killer. However, Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance, said that is was "mere speculation" and that they did not find a motive yet for the killer.
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FBI Profiler Speaks Out
On the CBS show, Face the Nation, former FBI senior profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole said that she does not believe that video games cause violence. She instead said that video games are only one variable "in a much wider spectrum" of risk factors who may act violently.
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Katie Couric Special
Katie Couric released a special talking about the problems of video game violence. Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden, and many other officials have spoken out at video games. Back in 2005, 60 Minutes aired an infamous episode detailing the effects of video game violence on youth.
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Video Game Agression Study
Researchers at the University of Oxford conducted their own study on violent games. They suggested that feelings of aggression after playing games can be linked to gameplay mechanics themselves, rather than the actual violence in the game.
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Video Game Violence Study
A study was conducted by Drs. Christopher Ferguson and Cheryl Olson and was published in Journal of Youth and Adolescence. They said that violent games do not cause violence in high-risk teens, such as with attention-deficit disorder and depression. They also said that the games can have a calming effect to them and reduce aggressive behavior.
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New Study Emerges
A study was conducted by researchers at Villanova University and Rutgers University to find a link between video game violence and real-world crime rates. This study was called, Violent Video Games and Real-World Violence: Rhetoric Versus Data. To their surprise, they found that there was no evidence between violent video games and a positive correlation between real-world crime rates.
credit to Gamespot.com for the image.
credit to Gamestop.com for the information.
