Politicians call for Modern Warfare 3 censure
Will no one think of the children (who shouldn't be playing it anyway)?
Four MPs have tabled a motion calling of Parliament to express "deep concern" about how videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 allows players to "engage in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public".
The MPs are Keith Vaz (Labour, Leicester East), Bob Russell (Lib Dem, Colchester), Sir Alan Meale (Lab, Mansfield) and Jeremy Corbyn (Lab, Islington North). All four yesterday tabled an early day motion on the matter in the hope that it will be debated by Parliament in the near future.
The four said they note how the game depicts "harrowing scenes in which a London Underground train is bombed by terrorists, bearing a remarkable resemblance to the tragic events of 7 July 2005".
Paris, actually, but you get the idea
Vaz, for one, has a long record of complaining about violent videogames as one of the causes of society's ills, so it's no surprise the motion also claims "there is increasing evidence of a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users".
In fact, the jury is open. It's generally held that it's not a good idea for adult-oriented games - of which MW3 is one; its only certified for sale to folk over the age of 18 - to fall into the hands of nippers, but there's no clear-cut evidence that virtual violence engenders it in the real world.
Mind you, it does happen, kind of.
Still, some take such allegations too far, claiming games like MW3 are terrorist training videos.
The motion "calls on the British Board of Film Classification [BBFC] to take further precautions when allowing a game to be sold".
Short of banning the game, there's not much the BBFC can do but give MW3 an 18 certificate which, er, it has. But Vaz and co. would probably prefer the stronger sanction. ®
COMMENTS
I've been playing these violent games since kicking off in about 1985 with Spy vs Spy on the spectrum
So far, I've not murdered anyone
not one single person
Maybe I'm lucky
So...
They obviously haven't bothered to watch that Tube scene then (there being no chance they would actually play it).
In a rare moment of self-censure by Infinity Ward, IIRC there's not a single civilian in the firing line throughout the whole chapter - either on the train, or in the tube station.
In fact, rather than the 7th July bombings (I detest the 'say 7/7 so it sounds like 9/11' shite), the basic blowing up Parliament plot-line is a bit over 400 years old with the tube-bomb angle added in more recently by V (for Vendetta).
AC for iconic reasons.
heh shock, Labour and lib dem's demanding more censorship and believing the peasants to thick to be able to cope with fantasy.
oh dear
"remarkable resemblance to the tragic events of 7 July 2005"
Hold up - the 7/7 bombings involved an SAS team in a pick-up truck chasing a train being used by Russian Ultranationalists to transport chemical weapons in to the West End? I was under the impression that it was suicide bombers....
Really though, this is no more "engaging in gratuitous acts of violence against members of the public" than reading a Tom Clancy novel, where there's all sorts of baddies being very naughty indeed. Depicting acts of terrorism is fine if it's a novel but a big no-no in a game?
Yawn...
.Wake me up when there's a game that allows players to engage in gratuitous acts of violence against attention seeking Members of Parliament.
