Video Games as ‘Kid’s’ Toys - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 46

made out to be. 34 They also argued that the Mature rating of the game
means that Mass Ef ect was most defi nitely not targeted at children. Elec-
tronic Arts, the parent company of the game's developer, outlined a variety
of factual errors in the reports, concluding that the arguments presented in
these pieces were “insulting to the men and women who spent years” creat-
ing Mass Ef ect when plenty of programs on the Fox network were more
graphically explicit and seen by more children than Mass Ef ect . 35 Some
were less decorous, of ering to “pay $100 for the version of Mass Ef ect he
[McCullough] played. $200. Come on BioWare, cough it up. Of course the
version of the game McCullough played doesn't exist, mainly because he
obviously didn't touch the game.” 36 Gamers argued that the critics assume
“the game is marketed towards children, because why the hell would full-
grown adults play video games?” 37 Gamers also directed their outrage at
those who critiqued Mass Ef ect , sending emails to the authors and review-
bombing psychologist Cooper Lawrence's new book. 38
Both McCullough and Lawrence responded to the criticism, with Law-
rence retracting her earlier comments after watching more of Mass Ef ect
as she regrets “saying that, and now I've seen the game and seen the sex
scenes it's kind of a joke. Before the show I had asked somebody about
what they had heard and they had said it's like pornography . . . But it's
not like pornography. I've seen episodes of 'Lost' that are more sexu-
ally explicit.” 39 On the other hand, McCullough refused to back down,
issuing a response titled “Life Lessons: Gamers 'Rights' to Lesbo-Alien
Sex!,” complete with insulting and vulgar emails he received from gam-
ers. 40 Later, after opening up his radio talk show to gamers, 41 he apolo-
gized for two points: that the Federal Trade Commission had documented
a reduction in the number of underage buyers able to purchase Mature
rated games and that the amount of play time required to reach the scenes
in question means that the percentage of objectionable content in Mass
Ef ect is minimal. 42 However, he maintained his “original position that
the objectionable content in Mass Ef ect is still of ensive, and should be
kept out of the hands of those under age.” 43
The debate surrounding Mass Ef ect demonstrates how important the
role of children as the idealized potential audience of video games is to
those that do not actively play video games. Mass Ef ect was controver-
sial not necessarily because of the scenes in question, but because those
scenes were placed in a video game and could subsequently be seen and
processed out of context. As Lawrence notes in her apology, Lost could be
more objectionable, but the same critics do not necessarily think of Lost
as a show aimed at children, likely because they watch the show or bet-
ter understand the dynamics of marketing television shows. Should similar
content appear in Dora The Explorer the same forces are likely to fl y of of
their hinges, perhaps for very good measure. However, even with a Mature
audiences rating, the perception was that the target audience for Mass
Ef ect was children and adolescents, rather than the thirty-four-year-old,