It's Only a Game

What's with this video game fixation? Everytime you turn around, it's video game this and video games that.

In yesterday's blog, for instance, I mentioned how the researchers at the University of Southern California are developing user-testing tools for games that capture and analyze play experience to automatically detect design weakness and flaws.

Not to be outdone, another program at USC is trying to use video games to promote world peace. In this case, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy hosted a competition to design a prototype or modify a game incorporating the fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy. First place, and a $5000 check, went to PeaceMaker, a cross-cultural political video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict . Second place went to Hydro Hijinks, a project designed to promote discussion about international water issues, and third place to Exchanging Cultures, a diplomatic game to facilitate the creating virtual communities and relationships based on the exchange of cultural items.

Then there is the Cornell University all-female team that recently took first place with their interactive game "Green, Eggs, and Pan" at the Games4Girls programming competition. Why games? Why not word processors or spreadsheets?

Okay, while one group is promoting video games, another is helping video game addicts get over their jones. Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, an addiction treatment provider in Amsterdam, has opened Europe's first treatment center for video game addicts. According to reports, nearly two dozen addicts have seeked help from the center, prompting the center to kick off a new gaming program next month. The program will apparently be associated with the center's gambling treatment since, according to a BBC report, counselors "saw enormous parallels between problems with gaming and alcohol and gambling." Those seeking treatment are almost always adolescent males, and they must commit to up to eight weeks of in-house treatment.

Then there are our elected officials, who want to solve the video game "problem" once and for all. In Minnesota, lawmakers have decided to go after consumers. Minnesota bill HF1298, which goes into effect on August 1, 2006, mandates a $25 civil penalty against any underage person who purchases a M or AO-rated game. It also makes mandatory for retailers to put up signs that explain the ESRB rating system to customers. Likewise, Maryland has passed video game law that centers its definition of what is "obscene" around nudity and sex, to the exclusion of violence. A law was proposed in Tennessee to the ban of the sale of violent videogames, regardless of consumer age; it was ultimately withdrawn. California's video game legislation restricts the sale of violent games to minors and requires manufacturers, distributors, importers, and retailers to put extra labels on such games. It's under review by the courts. And China’s Ministry of Culture has taken steps that a lot of U.S. legislators wish they could--outright banning of games they don't like.

Sometimes it's worth remembering that, as the old saying goes, "it's only a game."

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:57 AM  Permalink