EA's decision to make Dragon Age: Inquisition unavailable in India is just the latest in a series of video game panics that have periodically swept the world.
The difference, this time, was that it was the publisher who made a pre-emptive decision, before any external pressure was applied on it. Usually, it's the other way around. Politicians or pressure groups fix upon a game and issue statements about how damaging the game is, how deleterious its effect on youth and how it leads to violence.
In some cases, the outcry is well deserved. Take the case of the horrendous Custer's Revenge, a 1982 release for the Atari 2600. The objective of the game was to get a tumes cent naked male have sex with a Native American, tied naked to a stake.
Noted feminist Andrea Dworkin claimed that the game was a direct cause of gang rapes of Native American women. Women's groups and Native American groups protested it. Canadian customs officers refused to let the game cross the border. All this worked well for Mystique, the game's publisher, who sold around 80,000 copies of Custer's Revenge.
Another horror was the Japanese game Rape lay, where the player was a stalker whose objective was to rape a woman and her two daughters. Rapelay was banned in multiple countries, and deservedly so.Unravelling video game 'bans'
But not all controversial games have been so unequivocally repellant. In 1981, a UK MP named George Foulkes introduced a bill titled "Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games". Foulkes told Parliament "That is what is happening to our young people. They play truant, miss meals, and give up other normal activity to play "space invaders". They become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to everything around them, as they play the machines... a 17-year-old boy was so desperate for money to feed the machines that he turned to blackmail and theft, demanding £900 from a clergyman with whom he had previously had sexual relations."
Despite Foulkes best efforts, the bill did not pass. But after the text of his bill went belatedly viral last month, Foulkes, now a member of the House of Lords, admitted to Buzzfeed,"It's not a problem now".
The difference, this time, was that it was the publisher who made a pre-emptive decision, before any external pressure was applied on it. Usually, it's the other way around. Politicians or pressure groups fix upon a game and issue statements about how damaging the game is, how deleterious its effect on youth and how it leads to violence.
In some cases, the outcry is well deserved. Take the case of the horrendous Custer's Revenge, a 1982 release for the Atari 2600. The objective of the game was to get a tumes cent naked male have sex with a Native American, tied naked to a stake.
Noted feminist Andrea Dworkin claimed that the game was a direct cause of gang rapes of Native American women. Women's groups and Native American groups protested it. Canadian customs officers refused to let the game cross the border. All this worked well for Mystique, the game's publisher, who sold around 80,000 copies of Custer's Revenge.
Another horror was the Japanese game Rape lay, where the player was a stalker whose objective was to rape a woman and her two daughters. Rapelay was banned in multiple countries, and deservedly so.Unravelling video game 'bans'
But not all controversial games have been so unequivocally repellant. In 1981, a UK MP named George Foulkes introduced a bill titled "Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games". Foulkes told Parliament "That is what is happening to our young people. They play truant, miss meals, and give up other normal activity to play "space invaders". They become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to everything around them, as they play the machines... a 17-year-old boy was so desperate for money to feed the machines that he turned to blackmail and theft, demanding £900 from a clergyman with whom he had previously had sexual relations."
Despite Foulkes best efforts, the bill did not pass. But after the text of his bill went belatedly viral last month, Foulkes, now a member of the House of Lords, admitted to Buzzfeed,"It's not a problem now".
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