Controversial Games

What Doom's Storyline?

The player takes the role of an unnamed space marine called "Doomguy", who has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting his commanding officer, who ordered his unit to fire on civilians. The Martian space marine base acts as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation, a multi-planetary conglomerate, which is performing secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Mars is considered by space marines to be the dullest assignment imaginable. This all changes when the UAC experiments go horribly wrong. Computer systems on Phobos malfunction, Deimos disappears entirely, and "something fragging evil" starts pouring out of the gateway, killing or possessing all UAC personnel.

Doom (1993) Cover

Responding to a frantic distress call from the overrun scientists, the Martian marine unit is quickly sent by ship from Mars to Phobos to investigate, where the player character is left to guard the perimeter with only a pistol while the rest of the group proceeds inside. The marine hears assorted radio messages, gunfire, and screams, followed by silence: "Seems your buddies are dead." The player cannot navigate the ship off of Phobos alone and sees that the only way out is to fight through the Phobos complex.

Gameplay

What Happened?

Doom is considered to be one of the pioneering first-person shooter games, introducing to IBM-compatible computers features such as 3D graphics, third dimension spatiality, networked multiplayer gameplay, and support for player-created modifications with the Doom WAD format. Since the release of Doom in 1993, the series has spawned numerous sequels, expansion packs, and a film.

Doom was released in 1993 science fiction horror-themed first-person shooter (FPS) video game by id Software. It is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in the video game industry, for having ushered in the popularity of the first-person shooter genre. The original game was divided into three nine-level episodes and was distributed via shareware and mail order. The Ultimate Doom, an updated release of the original game featuring a fourth episode, was released in 1995 and sold at retail.

After the release of Doom and having a popularity gain attention from the Congress. The reason was Doom was notorious for its high levels of graphic violence and satanic imagery, which generated controversy from a broad range of groups. This bough attentions from scientist, religious groups and obviously the developer as well its fans. This was one of the biggest of controversial discussion about any media in the Congress history.

This was because the graphics was most realistic as it was picturing murder and violence to young kids. But the other side of the group saw this as contraindicating. As they were violent and bloody comics, TV shows and movies that can be seen by kids. The Congress was full of people who had not raised with games, they saw it as a form of artist violence picturing to the younger generation. In thinking that they would learn from what they had learned from the game.

Gameplay of DoomGuy Vs Demon

Doom for the Sega 32X was among one of the first video games to be given an M for Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board due to its violent gore and nature. Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten most controversial games of all time. It was criticized by religious organizations for its diabolic undertones and was dubbed a "mass murder simulator" by critic and Killology Research Group founder David Grossman. Doom prompted fears that the then-emerging virtual reality technology could be used to simulate extremely realistic killing. When receiving the M rated, they though it would be the end of them. As it would require a person to be 18 years old, or an adult to acquire it. Instead this opened a new doors for new games like Grand Theft Auto (GTA) to be made, because of the age restriction.

What is PAGI and ESRB?

Creating is a system PAGI (Pan European Game Information) and ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) that system used to ensure that entertainment content, such as films, videos, DVDs, and computer games, are clearly labelled by age according to the content they contain. Age ratings provide guidance to consumers and particularly parents to help them decide whether or not to buy a particular product for themselves or for someone else.

PAGI's Icons

ESRB's Icon

What was the aftermaths?

The game again sparked controversy throughout a period of school shootings in the United States when it was found that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, were avid players of the game. While planning for the massacre, Harris said in his journal that the killing would be "like playing Doom", and "it'll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, Duke Nukem and Doom all mixed together", and that his shotgun was "straight out of the game". A rumour spread afterwards that Harris had designed a Doom level that looked like the high school, populated with representations of Harris's classmates and teachers, and that Harris practice for his role in the shootings by playing the level over and over. Although Harris did design Doom levels, none have been found to be based on Columbine High School. While Doom and other violent video games have been used as a "escape goats" for the nationally covered school shootings,

Eric Haris

Dylan Klebold

By 2008 research featured by Greater Good Science Centre shows that the two are not closely related. Harvard medical school researchers Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner found that violent video games did not correlate to school shootings. The U.S. Secret Service and Department of Education analysed 37 incidents of school violence and sought to develop a profile of school shooters, they discovered that the most common traits among shooters were that they were male and had histories of depression and attempted suicide. While many of the killers - like the vast majority of young teenage boys - did play video games, this study did not find a relationship between game play and school shootings. In fact, only one eighth of the shooters showed any special interest in violent video games; far less than the number of shooters who seemed attracted to books and movies with violent content.

Dr.Lawrence Kutner and Dr.Cheryl Olson The Researchers

What Death Race's Storyline?

Death Race, also known as Death Race 2000 is a controversial arcade game, released by Exidy in the United States in 1976. Approximately 500 copies of the game were made. The game is inspired by the 1975 cult film Death Race 2000. It continued Exidy's series of chase and crash games, following Destruction Derby from 1975.

Death Race's Poster

What Happened?

Although the graphics are primitive and monochrome, the "gremlins" resemble stick figures, and the game's working title had been Pedestrian. In spite of Exidy president Pete Kaufman's denial that the intent of the game was to promote violence, Death Race provoked media criticism. The National Safety Council called it "gross". The CBS news program 60 Minutes broadcast an investigation into the psychological impact of video games, and the game was covered on NBC's Weekend news show, and in the National Enquirer. Death Race is rated on several "most controversial video game" lists.

What Rule of Rose's Story about?

Rule of Rose is a survival horror video game developed by Punchline for the PlayStation 2. It was first published in early 2006 exclusively in Japan by SCE Japan Studio. After Sony did not express interest in localizing the title, it was published later that year by Atlus in North America, and 505 Games in Europe. Set in 1930 England, the plot revolves around a nineteen-year-old girl named Jennifer, who becomes trapped in a world ruled by young girls who have established a class hierarchy called the Red Crayon Aristocrats.

Rule of Rose's Cover

What happened?

At E3 (Entertainment Electronics Expos) 2006

Atlus announced that it would be releasing Rule of Rose in the United States, following Sony's decision to pass on an American release. This was on the grounds of the game's erotic undertones involving a cast of female minors. The developers disagreed with this, saying that the sexual themes are only a small part of the game.

The Developers of Rule of Rose

In November 2006, three French deputies introduced a bill asking for the game to be banned for sale, arguing that the goal of the game was to "rape, beat up and kill a little girl", and that if nothing was done, video games could become an "uncontrollable factor of decadent violence in our society." That same month, 505's Australian distributor, Red-Ant advised that the game's Australian and New Zealand release would be cancelled. The game had yet to be rated by the Classification Board.

European Union justice minister Franco Frattini attacked the game as containing "obscene cruelty and brutality." He also called for changes to the PEGI rating system in place across Europe and for government officials to engage in discussions with industry representatives.

Franco Frattini

Frattini received a letter from Viviane Reding, commissioner for the information society and media, who criticized Frattini's actions "It is...very unfortunate that my services were not pre-consulted before your letter to the Ministers of Interior was sent out," reminding him of the commission-backed self-regulating ratings system called PEGI that has operated across the European Union since 2003. The PEGI system of classification, according to reading's letter, offers "informed adult choice" without censoring content: "This is in line with the Commission's view that measures taken to protect minors and human dignity must be carefully balanced with the fundamental right to freedom of expression as laid down in the Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union." On March 7, 2007, a group of Member of the European Parliaments presented a Motion for a European Parliament resolution on a ban on the sale and distribution in Europe of the game and the creation of a 'European Observatory on childhood and minors'. The publisher has chosen to cancel the release of the game in the United Kingdom following complaints by Frattini and other EU officials, and "largely misleading"