By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Video games have come a long way from those early days of “Pong” and “Pacman” and while some of today’s sophisticated games can be good skill-builders for kids, others are dangerously violent.
Writing for the Catholic News Agency, Thomas L. McDonald, a catechist from the Diocese of Trenton who has been writing about video gaming for 20 years, says the video game industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry and is having the same effect on the culture as movies and television.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” he writes.
According to the Entertainment Software Association, 72 percent of American households have a video game machine. Consumers spent $25.1 billion on games in 2010, with those numbers projected to hit $48 billion for 2011 and $70 billion by 2012. By comparison, worldwide motion picture ticket sales for 2010 were approximately $31 billion.
In studies of children ages 12-17, 99 percent of boys – and 94 percent of girls – play video or computer games, with no variables for race or ethnicity. And it’s not just the kids who are playing: The average gamer is 37 years old, with 29 percent of them over age 50. Though gaming numbers had skewed heavily male for most of the industry’s existence, by 2010, 48 percent of its audience was female.
But there’s more to this industry than numbers and people need to be aware that these games are not necessarily a harmless pastime for kids.
” . . . (M)odern interactive entertainment can be every bit as mature, and even sophisticated, as its cinematic counterpart,” McDonald writes. “The challenge lies in sorting out the diverse types of games and machines that characterize the industry’s output, so parents and consumers can make informed choices.”
The Nintendo Wii is the most family-friendly option available. However, the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 are marketed for teens and adults and have a lineup that is dominated by violent games.
“The violent content of games has been increasing for years, driven by improved graphics and the perceived need to be more outrageous than the competition. Once a teen-friendly World War II action game, the ‘Call of Duty’ series radically ratcheted up the level of explicit gore on display with last year’s ‘Modern Warfare 2.’ This iteration even included a sequence in which the gamer participates in a bloody massacre of unarmed civilians.
Kids obviously have a taste for this kind of violence because “Modern Warfare 2” was the most successful media launch in history, earning $310 million in 24 hours, with final sales in excess of $1 billion.
But gratuitous violence is certainly not the whole story, he says. Other games, such as “Bioshock” explores issues of bioethics, morality, responsibility, politics and the limits of personal freedom. ” . . .(I)ts sometimes violent action thus unfolds within a morally consistent world,” McDonald writes.
He believes the decision to let a game machine enter the household is one that has to be carefully considered by parents with young children.
Father Shane Tharp, a pastor and high school teacher, who has been gaming for most of his life, told McDonald he doesn’t see any unique issues or problems for Catholics regarding the use of games, other than what is obvious. “A game’s value must be measured on its content and context. Just as a Catholic should steer clear of a film which includes sexual material or violence for the sake of being shocking or without consequences, the same would be said of a video game.”
For more information about a disturbing new trend in anti-Christian video games, see this article.
The Entertainment Software Ratings Bureau (ESRB) has published these helpful hints for parents about video gaming.
Focus on the Family also has a website full of resources for parents who want to know more about the games their children are playing.
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