Violence in Videogames on the Verge of Going Too Far

When Rockstar Games first released the sadistic, edge-of-your-seat videogame horror experience of the original Manhunt, things were just barely acceptable for people to accept the game and it's brutal premise. With September 11, 2001 three years past in the minds of most people and critics of videogame gore and violence rife with anger towards such extremes in interactive material, it's no surprise that the game was kicked out of so many places in the world, perhaps most notably in Austrailia.

But after the Virginia Tech massacre, such sadism in videogames is no longer acceptable no matter where you live. Incidents like this, combined with even those nonlethal ones involving Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Don Imus, bring such glorified extremes into an entirely diferent reality where they are just not excusable anymore - much less even tolerable.

So it comes to pass that the British vote to outright forbid release of the even-more-violent Manhunt 2, and the ESRB here in the 'States esentially does the same thing by slapping an Adults Only sticker on the game - making it essentially illegal to buy the game even in the American marketplace due to retailer rules that practically forbid sales of such erotic material off of any videogame shelf! Clearly, it is evident that violence in modern videogames has gone way too far - and this it's about time somebody draws the line on what is acceptable in videogames.

Now I'm not saying we must ban violence outright on this or any other entertainment media. That would be siding to a suicidal extent with such lunatics as Jack Thompson who clearly I don't give a [expletive] about. After all, violence works in many other forms of entertainment and nobody complains about what goes into movies, television shows, etc. because limits have already been placed on those formats with some success. For example, you won't find anyone playing reruns of Jackass or The Sopranos on CBS because the FCC would have Les Moonves' head if they did. But these shows can be safely shown on TNT or USA, or in some cases on essentially free-rein, pay-per-view services like HBO, because those channels play exclusively of subscription-based cable and satellite services. Likewise, radio stations operated by Clear Channel can no longer run Opie and Anthony shows without running afoul of decency limits, but XM and Sirius (read: per-fee satellite radio providers) don't have this problem. So why not apply a similar principle to videogames?

After all, someone has to draw the line somewhere. And if the ESRB cannot at least make this kind of efort, then everything in the videogame industry will end up with an overhaul that is much worse than that, kind of like that of foriegn countries that specifically forbid ratings to such sadistic games as Manhunt and it's sequel. Adn if that ever comes to pass, then our basic American principles of free speech and free reign are soon to be lost as well... and then we'll all end up in a draconian society much like that of China or the former Soviet Union. And if that ever comes to pas, it will be too late to save our national identity and the principle of freedom will be dead forever.

And that's a scary thought.