Gaming in Black and White

There's an excellent article over at The Escapist about what seems to be the bitter animosity between the gaming community and the "media experts" that talk about the effects of violence and other graphic content. It's written by a Dr. Karen Dill, and discusses, among other things, the response to the public press release about the National Summit on Video Games, Youth and Public Policy.

The problem with the press release was not the quote, but the word "devastating" that preceded it. Those who had signed on to the statement had not agreed on the characterization "devastating" and I seriously doubt they would have had they been asked. You can see what an opportunity this was to polarize all over again. Media experts appear to be extremists. Gamers can respond with "I told you so," and "we knew they were the enemy." Since then a new press release came out calling the word "devastating" a mistake and removing it, but some damage had been done.

Gamepolitics.com carried an article discussing the "devastating" wording. Another discussion about the Summit, also on gamepolitics.com, carried the following observation about the media experts who attended the Summit: "find someone from the real world, not an ivory tower, to talk about the true effects games have on real life, which - besides a little wasted time - is not much." Other comments characterized the experts as yes men, idiots, and agenda seekers.

It is true that Zeus and the eternal universe have granted me the power to wear a name tag that reads "expert." This does not mean, by the way, that I am not a real person or someone who cannot understand the real world. I am a regular human being. I have a real son and daughter and two real dogs. I like to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 and to sit at my desk laughing at Strongbad and Ask a Ninja. And yes, I have played video games, I have become engrossed in video games, and I allow my son to play video games. (My daughter is only two, so she prefers to stand on the kitchen table, or go through the garbage can in her free time.)

It's definitely worth a read, especially if you follow the whole "Vido Gamez r Bad" situation. Check it out!