Less violence, more relevance = M?

Thursday’s lecture on violence in video games was one I had been looking forward as it is a topic that’s always been interesting to debate though always quite difficult to disprove. The idea that violence was a direct result of video games has always held a certain amount of logic and reason in my mind, simply based upon personal experiences with younger siblings and the like. Much like the belief that television was poisoning the minds of the young, it’s not surprising with some of the content that games are being thought of in the same way. As a Video Ezy employee of just over 2 years I’ve had a number of memorable instances of young gamers trying to hire out games like Grand Theft Auto, The Godfather and Assassin’s Creed. When these adorable 8-13years olds attempt to convince me that they are indeed 18 and man enough to play, I turn them away and say to come back with their parents. Yet, while I’m turning them away from games such as these I have also found that games like Bully aka Canis Canem Edit have ratings of M. I discovered Bully while testing the games and realized it is focused on a troubled student who has the option of roaming his fictional English boarding school and bullying people. It seems to me that as far as a comparison between Bully and say Grand Theft Auto goes, the themes within Bully are far more relevant to the everyday lives of the younger gamers who tend to be hiring it than the pimps and Cadillac’s of GTA would be. The context of the games plot (being in school) and the options the gamer had to influence other students seemed slightly odd, too close to home in a way. In the games defence, the point raised within the lecture that many games (in this case, Bully) give the option of ignoring the main mission, refusing to bully, or apologizing to the police for your petty crime may act as a redeeming quality for your character. It becomes your choice to bully, to help the new kid, to back-chat a teacher and even to stop playing. Somehow despite all this ‘choice’ (and based on my eavesdropping on the kids hiring when they get to the counter) games like Bully don’t seem to be inspiring the high moral standards we might hope for.