"Watch, this is funny. I saw it in a game once..."

Games are funny things are they not? In one of my other articles I talked about how games allow us to do things we wouldn’t normally consider doing in the real world, and it seems even little things that we do in games, we do without thinking. What I mean is, the way we feel the need to smash a line-up of bottles on a wall! Seriously, who can resist it? You’re standing there with a gun in your hand and you see a set of pretty bottles all in a row sitting on a shelf, the maths is easy; Gun + Bottles = A smashing good time! That’s maybe too obvious for what I’m trying to put across here though, let me explain; there are little urges at work in our brains that persuade us to do some really odd things in games sometimes.

WARNING! Office boredom can be hazardous to others around you

The first time I became fully aware of these strange urges was whilst playing through GoldenEye on the N64. At one point you find yourself in a big Siberian control room full of TV screens, spotlights, surveillance cameras and glass partitions, and all of them shatter or explode with a satisfying burst of colour and sound. I re-played that level quite a few times, not for a better finishing time or a higher score, but purely for the sake of trashing the place. Seeing all that shiny reflective glass just made me think it would all look better in bits on the floor! As most little boys know, destruction is fun and most of us (as young lads) probably needlessly destroyed a lot of toys, I know I did! There are games that focus particularly on our destructive nature too, such as Pain. If you’ve been hiding under a rock (on Mars) perhaps some of you’ve never heard of Pain before. The idea is simple; you pick a person to load into a giant catapult and fire them off into the scenery, causing as much damage and mayhem as possible before you finally run out of momentum. Sounds a bit dumb right? Well it is, but it can be quite a hoot too.

Now that's what I call a Pain of glass! *groan*

Anyway, I digress. Strange urges in games range from anything from feeling you have to shoot things right in the head, to jumping off really high places knowing fine your character is going to die horribly. Quite often I find myself walking/running down a street in a sandbox game and I spot a ladder or scaffolding going up the side of a building, and I’m compelled to climb it, I just can’t help myself! I need to know where it leads, it’s usually nothing at all and after scaling the very high building/crane/construction site ladder, I find myself very high up with nowhere to go. Well I don’t want to have to come down the same way do I? And so the urge to jump comes upon me like a clinically depressed lemming. Which is fine if you’re Cole McGrath, Alex Mercer or a cop from Crackdown, but Nico Bellic should not be considering such options. Ah yes, GTA. Now there’s a game packed full of odd urges; I drove for miles in GTA4 to make pigeons explode over and over again, just to hear that distressed “Baa-koo” as a shower of blood and feathers filled the screen! Much more satisfying than hidden packages (though I gave up after about 90 of them) I think. A lot of people said Assassin’s Creed was too repetitive and I agree with them in a lot of respects, but I found myself going back to that game just for the suicidal (read: leaps of faith) jumps into haystacks. Finding the highest possible ledge to leap off became a sort of weird addiction to me, and it didn’t stop there. Those ‘simpletons’ roaming the streets that attack you for no reason, I found them very fun to punch in the face! I’d stalk around on ground level for ages just waiting for one to come along and throw a fit near me, just so I could belt him! Strange urges indeed.

Xtreme Crowd-Surfer 2

Driving like a maniac seems to come to us all naturally too, have you ever tried to be a sensible driver in a sandbox game? Just try it for ten minutes, I can guarantee before you know it you’ll be running red lights and knocking over mailboxes like a crazed ambulance driver on his last day of work. It just seems to happen to us, we do uncontrolled schizophrenic stuff as if we’re on an unforeseen day-release fresh from the loony bin. The other strange compulsion I’ve found I have is crashing a car on purpose! Call me mad but sometimes I just want to see how crumpled it can get before giving up the ghost. So what if I’ve just managed to drive the last ten miles of road at over 100mph without getting so much as a scratch on the paintwork, I want to see if the guy inside can exit through the dash-board! And yet there never seems to be any proper kind of provocation for it, except that deep and basic impulse.

"Hi, is that the AA?, I've had a bit of a hiccup"

The need to hoard ridiculous amounts of pointless items also seems to come upon me subconsciously too, and I never really notice it until my inventory is stuffed full of crap I don’t need. But can I get rid of all the junk? Hell no! I’ll squirrel it away somewhere under a generic rock in the futile hope of somehow finding it later on. If I can’t do that then I’ll spend twenty minuets re-arranging my inventory so I can carry that extra pointless item I’ve found, I don’t need it (I don’t really want it) but damnit, I’m going to have it. So often have I found myself stuck at a locked door in a game that refuses to open until I bring it that ‘odd smelling cheese cake’ (or any other unthinkable item) I walked straight past half an hour ago, that I’m always (always) procuring a large quantity of useless tat on a continual basis, in fear of being stopped dead in the future. Seriously, I’d steal the lint out of an NPC’s pocket if I thought it might help me later in the game.

Why oh why can't I just carry my 25 swords?

What can this tell us though; that deep down gamers are really a bunch of psychotic, kleptomaniac nut-jobs that need locking up? I think not. See, what I think is that we all have these impulses within us, it’s just that gamers have found a release for them. Granted there are some of us that find it hard to tell the difference between real life and a virtual playground, but the majority of us see it for what it is; a chance to be an entire wicker basket short of a picnic.

What causes violence? If you are a fan of George Lucas then you know that ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to anger, and anger to violence. I ask this as currently we are going through the yearly attack on gaming, largely caused by Modern Warfare 2; but most probably an attack which would have attached itself to another game had MW2 not been released. It’s the time of year when everyone wants a game and hence gaming is big. It used to be films which were attacked at this time of year, but hey, compared to games they are so small fry.

It's the fault of these guys. If only they had gone by Easyjet and left the guns at home. Stag parties are getting too complicated these days.

Now whenever I see a news report discussing evidence of how games might make a player violent, I see quotes relating to how those who play games demonstrate increased adrenalin and hence are ‘pumped up’. I can accept that. I can also accept that the same symptom might be displayed by those watching or taking part in football, rugby, boxing, X-Factor, Crufts, ballroom dancing, viewing the news, horse racing, motor sports and, for those who get a kick out of it, fishing.

Are we suggesting we ban those? Of course those commentators who are either stupid or just set out to be, might argue that their point is that only games have you committing acts of violence. I would point out that the violence though has to be triggered through some kind of condition or state of mind. Adrenalin is an indicator normally associated with such a situation. There is little evidence out there of players actually going to commit violence having just played a game. The research instead relies on indicators which might lead to violence, such as adrenaline. Well doesn’t that mean many activities have the potential to turn quiet, peace loving individuals into maniacs?!

In a month where six pupils at a school almost poisoned themselves for copying a plot line from the the pre-watershed BBC drama Waterloo Road, it’s amazing that the industry that got attacked was gaming! Now Waterloo Road is popular, but in the big scheme of things many more millions of young and old people are gaming than watching Waterloo Road. I would suggest that perhaps gaming is less dangerous compared to other activities such as watching EastEnders, Coronation Street, or possibly Countdown. It’s certainly worth examining on that level – i.e. looking at its effect on behaviour proportionally to the amount of gaming content consumed.

What is even more amazing is that the media have no problem with allowing lies about games being circulated. They seem to feel that it is fair game to drop all journalistic training and principles when it comes to attacking gaming. Hence, we see repeated quotes about how MW2 allows you to play as a terrorist – most shockingly played out on Fox TV. For those that have not played the game I have something to say. No you cannot!! You play a CIA operative embedded into a terrorist cell. You witness an attack and, if you feel it’s part of the character, can take part in a massacre; but ultimately you are a bystander to such an attack with limited control over the game at that point. It is crucial to the plot and at the end (spoiler alert) you yourself are then shot dead. It’s dramatic and has been seen in countless movies before. So why the problem now? You even get the choice to skip the scene – ever been offered that by a TV show or movie?

Now this isn't potentially violent at all? He is actually a member of the National Association of Local Butchers

Perhaps it’s because we call them games? Games are meant to be fun, and for children – right? That’s another lie the media propagate of course. They continually allow commentators to remind us that most people buying or playing the games are children. For sure, some are – but most people playing these games are 18 or above, and many are 25 years plus.

In the USA we hear people say that even if a game is bought by and for an adult, if there is a child in the house then they are sure to gain access and play it. Perhaps they are right. However, if they are, perhaps they should start by not keeping handguns in their house! I’m thinking (and correct me if you feel I’m missing something here) that this may be a more immediate and dangerous problem. And you know, you can even lock out your kids from your console very, very easily if you choose to.

I’m not saying there are not games out there with bad taste, nor am I suggesting there should not be age limits or even some games banned. If you can ban a film, then you should be able to ban a game. However, there should be parity between the art forms. In the UK the BBFC initially banned Manhunt 2 and fought to try to stop it being released. Why?

Now, apart from the pictures of men in masks holding guns AND this picture of a fist, what actually IS there on the packaging to alert parents to the fact that some games might contain shooting and violence?

Their own research concluded that players do not think that events in a game are real. We no more think we are really scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup than we think that we too have three heads and live on the planet Zog whilst playing a fantasy game. Indeed, they found that the fact they are interactive and we have to push buttons often brings us out of the drama and narrative, reminding us they are only games. This is something movies cannot do, and we can get lost in them and become ‘pumped up’ in a sustained way without having a release until the end of the film. So, why oh why, when it comes to violent games, suddenly all that research goes out of the window? What is the logic and reasoning for this? When films like SAW and Hostel are released, why then fight to ban Manhunt? Are the individuals in charge of these organisations stupid?

"I see stupid people, they're everywhere. They walk around like everyone else. They don't even know they're dumb!"

I don’t think they are. Well, I hope they aren’t anyway. I think it’s far more likely they are running scared. Those that are in the industry and those that are associated with it, such as the BBFC, still lack the self confidence to describe and communicate what gaming is to those that do not yet play them, as we do. This is a huge problem as it allows the issue to be hijacked by the Keith Vazs of this world. There are people, often important and influential people, who latch onto these issues without first thinking them through. People who, fuelled by their own ignorance, let their own emotions get carried away, eating away at their fear until they explode violently against an industry, artform and past-time which contributes greatly, in a positive way, to millions of people’s lives.

Maybe George Lucas had it right all along.