Results tagged “violence” from Birmingham Mail - Technobabble

A political row broke out over levels of violence in a video game as shops opened early for its release today.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which went on sale at midnight, is expected to break sales records.

Crowds gathered in London's Leicester Square for a "premiere" complete with tanks and military costumes ahead of the epic hitting the shelves.

Described in press material as featuring "gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse", the game reportedly allows players to plot terror attacks against civilians.

Modern Warfare 2, developed by US company Infinity Ward and published by Activision, is rated as mature, for its "blood, drug reference, intense violence and language".

Labour MP Keith Vaz called for action to ensure the 18-certificate game did not end up in the hands of children, while fellow Labour former digital minister Tom Watson said it would be better to support the UK's video gaming industry.

Mr Vaz, the Home Affairs Select Committee chairman, told MPs during Commons question time: "It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes."

He asked what steps ministers were taking to ensure that violent games did not fall into the hands of children and young people.

"It's not about censorship, it's about protecting our children," he added.

Junior culture minister Sion Simon said the clearest recommendation of the Byron review - which last year looked into the risks faced by children from inappropriate video games - was that content suitable for adults should be labelled and sold as such.

"The game you refer to is a Certificate 18 game," he said.

"It should not be sold to children and the Government's job is to make sure that adults ... can get what adults should be able to and children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content."

Mr Watson said he had seen the game and it "wasn't pleasant, though no worse than many films and books".

Yes another study and amazingly this time it's pro-gamers.

I've never heard the like before, and one presumes the Daily Mail won't be reporting on it.

According to Patrick Kierkegaard of the University of Essex in the International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry (a tome I'm sure you all subscribe to) video games are 'harmless' and don't lead to real world aggression.

He based his conclusions on research papers published since the 1980s, and claims previous studies were unfairly biased against video games.

Well it certainly makes a change - I must admit the only time I've felt a touch of aggression is when I've wanted to nut the screen after a 12-year-old from Germany has shot me in the face for the 13th time in a row in Counter Strike!