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Video Games Get Censored
Accuracy in Academia ^
| September 20, 2010
| Deborah Lambert
Posted on 09/20/2010 5:57:13 AM PDT by AccuracyAcademia
Its a well-known fact that the $20 billion dollar video gaming industry is producing products that glorify guns, car theft and gang violence that make parents cringe, according to Peter L. Knudson in the Harvard Crimson.
A game developer recently had to come up with $20 million because of a sex scene in the highly-publicized Grand Theft Auto game, already loaded with violence and drug use.
In this highly politically correct environment, charges of racism are increasingly surfacing as Mafia 2 was tagged as a pile of racist nonsense by members of an Italian-American service group who pointed out gamers might link those with Italian backgrounds to organized crime. And a Houston Chronicle blogger recently charged that by including African-American zombies that a player has to shoot, you make the game unpublishable and racist.
& & & & & &
Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: college; stereotypes; videogames
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To: AccuracyAcademia
by including African-American zombies that a player has to shoot, you make the game unpublishable and racist.
Most zombie portrayals are predominantly WHITE! So it is HIGH TIME we had some even handedness in the zombie area. Don't even get me started on the portrayal of vampires. I for one applaud this game publisher's attempt to being balance to the racist world of the white undead.
2
posted on
09/20/2010 6:05:23 AM PDT
by
TalonDJ
To: AccuracyAcademia
I've played the demo of Mafia II.
It's set in the 1930s. Surprise, surprise, most people living in the suburbs are white, have modest homes, drive period cars, and wear nice clothes when walking around town. The men wear hats, the women wear dresses.
Many of the gangsters are of Italian descent. They have filthy mouths.
If you venture into the run-down sections of the cities, there are tenement homes, and the vast majority of the residents are black.
Just like in the 30’s. The horror!
3
posted on
09/20/2010 6:09:09 AM PDT
by
ConservativeWarrior
(In last year's nests, there are no birds this year.)
To: TalonDJ
... gamers might link those with Italian backgrounds to organized crime.And that would hurt them, how? If I thought the old Italian guys in the Knights of Columbus were retired Mafiosi, it would just make them a little cooler ;-).
4
posted on
09/20/2010 6:09:25 AM PDT
by
Tax-chick
(Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, Luna Lovegood. Get it?)
To: AccuracyAcademia
by including African-American zombies that a player has to shoot, you make the game unpublishable and racist.
He is referring to 'Left 4 Dead two'. There are mostly white zombies, with a smattering of black ones. Is it racist bacause there are several races of zombies, not just white ones?
5
posted on
09/20/2010 6:11:53 AM PDT
by
Celtic Cross
(Pablo is very wily)
To: AccuracyAcademia
Well, I don’t see any of this stuff in my Wii Fit! :)
6
posted on
09/20/2010 6:12:18 AM PDT
by
brytlea
(Jesus loves me, this I know.)
To: Celtic Cross
I've played "Left For Dead 2" a whole bunch, and I never noticed that any of the zombies were black.
I'm going to check more carefully next time I'm looking through the scope of a sniper rifle. I wouldn't want to commit a hate crime :0)
What's more noticeable is that two of the four playable heroes are black. It's very counter-demographic in that respect.
7
posted on
09/20/2010 6:20:01 AM PDT
by
agere_contra
(...what if we won't eat the dog food?)
To: agere_contra
The normal zombies are white. The big chubby zombies are white. The ‘jockeys’ are white. The ones that spit tentacles are white. The witchy ones are white. Those dudes in hoodies, the ones that pounce and then pound you, are blackish.
8
posted on
09/20/2010 6:33:25 AM PDT
by
Celtic Cross
(Pablo is very wily)
To: Celtic Cross
Those guys are called Hunters.
They're almost impossible to spot as being black - I certainly never noticed. If they're the only black zombies in the game then the race-baiters criticizing it need a serious attitude readjustment.
LfD2 bent over backwards to be nice to the black demographic - and it looks like they needn't have bothered. The race-baiters would have criticized it as virulently anti-black even if the whole game was full of Eskimos.
9
posted on
09/20/2010 6:47:29 AM PDT
by
agere_contra
(...what if we won't eat the dog food?)
To: TalonDJ
Killing the White representations of zombies is just fine. But kill representations of non-Whites and that’s racist. Welcome to the insane world of liberalism.
To: AccuracyAcademia
To prevent calls of racism, the game writers should make sure all Mafioso and gang bangers are white, blond hair and blue eyed. WWII Nazis can be black or Hispanic. KKK members will henceforth be Asian.
11
posted on
09/20/2010 6:56:51 AM PDT
by
Boiling point
(Beck / Palin 2012)
To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged
Welcome, and please leave your brain at the door.
12
posted on
09/20/2010 7:05:14 AM PDT
by
Celtic Cross
(Pablo is very wily)
To: Boiling point
WWII Nazis can be black or Hispanic Wolfenstein got it wrong then
13
posted on
09/20/2010 7:05:39 AM PDT
by
Gordon Pym
(2+2=4)
To: agere_contra; Celtic Cross
I've played "Left For Dead 2" a whole bunch, and I never noticed that any of the zombies were black. Last time I played the game, all of the zombies were a sickly pale green.
14
posted on
09/20/2010 7:07:53 AM PDT
by
Alex Murphy
("Posting news feeds, making eyes bleed, he's hated on seven continents")
To: Alex Murphy
I’m going to change the game’s sound files, so that every time a hero spots one of those disgusting wobbly blob zombies that explodes all over you, he yells “Rangel!”
15
posted on
09/20/2010 7:14:48 AM PDT
by
agere_contra
(...what if we won't eat the dog food?)
To: Alex Murphy
Yes, but most are tinted white, and a handful are tinted blackish. Not black, just darker.
I just don't understand why anyone could even consider making a fuss. You got some bad guys, and you shoot them. I didn't even consider what color they are until I read about this 'controversy'. Who cares? Its just a game.
16
posted on
09/20/2010 7:15:13 AM PDT
by
Celtic Cross
(Pablo is very wily)
To: AccuracyAcademia
Want contrevesrial? Try the airport level in Call of Duty 2 Modern Warfare. You are playing the part of an American Spy infiltrating a Russian gang. The 5 of you go to an airport and slaughter a couple of hundred civilians. Its brutal. Shooting people in the back as they are trying to drag other wounded to safety. I played it once the first time through to see what it was all about. No when I replay the game on higher levels of difficulty I just skip it. Its distasteful. It definitely a no win scenario. Shoot the Russian bad guys - Level Failed start over. Participate and in the end get shot by head Russian bad guy to frame the US for the airport massacre. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMnnMRWJ-0
17
posted on
09/20/2010 8:02:15 AM PDT
by
Syntyr
(Happiness is two at low eight!)
To: agere_contra
Im going to change the games sound files, so that every time a hero spots one of those disgusting wobbly blob zombies that explodes all over you, he yells Rangel! LOL! True story: in the Sega CD game "Eternal Champions", one of the hidden playable characters you can unlock is....
Senator Joe Lieberman.
18
posted on
09/20/2010 8:18:20 AM PDT
by
Alex Murphy
("Posting news feeds, making eyes bleed, he's hated on seven continents")
To: AccuracyAcademia
Mafia 2 is a great game. It isn’t PC...because it wasn’t made in America. The “stupid foreigners” who made it weren’t aware of all our PC rules...so they just told it how it was, for the most part.
To: AccuracyAcademia
Thats OK on violence and sex, but don’t have anyone smoking, it might influence them to start....Hollywood says, and they are too stupid to know they are laughable.
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