The Opposing Side's Views

The opposing side believes that video games are a waste of time.  They believe that video games can be training tools for murder and criminal activity.  Pundits such as the disabarred Miami lawyer, Jack Thompson have said that violent games such as Counter-Strike are "murder simulators", designed to train people to kill.  He says that games like Grand Theft Auto train people to commit violent criminal acts.

The first outcry for violent video games legislation was the release of a game called Death Race by a company called Exidy in 1976.  The game's objective was to run over stick figure like "gremlins" to earn points.  The depiction of the enemy characters were blocky humanoid stick figures.  The implication sparked an outrage and protests across the country occured which were led by an activist named Ronnie Lamm.  She appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes decrying the evils of video games.

The next controversy arose with the release of Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.  Mortal Kombat was a fighting game in the vein of Capcom's Street Fighter series but unlike Street Fighter featured large amounts of blood when fighters were struck by attacks.  The highlight of the game were the fatality moves. Fatalities were gory finishing moves that depicticted gruesome actions like ripping out someone's heart or spinal column.

Night Trap was a Full Motion Videogame that used footage of real actors and scenes.  It was criticized for being sexist and degrading to women.  Marilyn Droz, president of the National Coalition on Television Violence said:"The only thing I can say is shame on you.  How would you like your teenage daughter to go out on a date with somebody who just played three hours of that game." she said.