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Video games often get a bad rap, usually from parents and those ‘experts’ that feel most games are too violent and too real to not be considered a part of art or even the average afternoon activity. However, sometimes video games are too real; real enough that they could even fool an unsuspecting public in believing something that isn’t true.
This article isn’t exactly about video games; it’s really about journalism and it’s decline.
Even if you aren’t a big video game player or even one that knows all that is going on within the world of gaming, you’ve no doubt heard the reports in regards to some video games causing the downfall of our youth and how, just like comic books, video games will rot our brains. Many of this controversy is in regards to a video game’s violent story line or even the abilities that players have to control the game to their own version.
However, there are times – many a time – that journalists will just jump on the band wagon and instead of giving us, the public, and unbiased view on the world at large, they skew it. Take the recent documentary on the Irish Republican Army (IRA); the film called “Exposure” actually used footage from the war based video game called ARMA 2. In fact, not only was the footage from a video game, but the footage was actually taken from a You Tube that the player had posted.
This of course is just the recent event in the sometimes, “speak before thinking” that has helped to taint video games. Mass Effect came under heavy criticism because of a supposed ’sex scene’ that took place (which was actually a fade to black), as well as the one that can take place within Dragon Age; journalists who latched on to the claim made by former Florida attorney Jack Thompson immediately began to report this, until they were questioned with the most basic of journalistic concepts – did you play the game yourself?
The answer was always no.
