The Hot New Trend in Gaming

December 5, 2005 1:30 PM

Sometimes you just have to wonder if there are quotas the mainstream press needs to fill in singling out potentially harmful content in video games. There have been countless lawsuits and attempted pieces of legislation relating to violent and sexually explicit material in games, but recently the accusations have been getting even more ridiculous. Case in point: mainstream media outlets all over the country are warning of a cannibalism trend in games, spearheaded by titles such as Wideload's Stubbs the Zombie (Xbox, PC) and Monolith's F.E.A.R. (PC). It started when MediaWise put out its list of titles released this year that parents should avoid. Then, the media picked up on "cannibalistic" scenes in those two games, and it spread like wildfire. I think it goes without saying that Stubbs the Zombie is a zombie, and as a member of the undead is generally not considered a cannibal. (Developer Wideload has more to say about that.)

Games featuring graphic scenes of cannibalism, "F.E.A.R." and "Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse," were among the 12 "games to avoid" listed Tuesday by the National Institute on Media and the Family.
"It's something we've never seen before," said institute president David Walsh, warning that today's games are "more extreme" and more easily available to underage kids than ever before.

Game Politics has been tracking the phenomenon, with links to more than 35 local and national news sources covering the story. This one has a video feature available for your perusal, calling the games thare are "all about cannibalism" a "disturbing new trend." None of the reporters seemed to notice that there have been far more films about zombies in recent years, just about all of which feature zombies eating human body parts, than games. The difference, I suppose, is that after playing a cannibalistic video game, kids would be much more likely to go out and attempt to eat their friends than they would be after seeing a zombie movie. Right?

Chris Remo

Filed Under

From The Chatty

Refresh Go To Thread

Haku-Jin

 reply
December 5, 2005 1:39 PM

I'd say a zombie eating human flesh is still cannabalism. Why not?
- Sideways Bob
  
   reply
  December 5, 2005 1:40 PM
  
  I'd say it depends on if you consider a zombie human or not.
  - Haku-Jin
    
     reply
    December 5, 2005 1:44 PM
    
    The whole fear of a zombie is it's cannabilistic nature imo. The things that freaks me out is that they are US. I think that's what Romero was trying to convey in his films. The zombies are essentially us in our rawest and most pure form. It's all about survival of the fittest and we basically do the same to each other in a slower/nicer way.
- dopefish
  
   reply
  December 5, 2005 1:40 PM
  
  is a zombie still qualified as human? i wouldn't really think so. it's not like the zombies are eating other zombies. That would be cannibalism.
  - Steve Gibson
    
     reply
    December 5, 2005 1:45 PM
    
    now THAT would be just icky.
  - pillzer
    
     reply
    December 5, 2005 2:08 PM
    
    While I agree these actions are totally ridiculous, I'm not entirely sure we should react. I mean let's consider those actions as cases of Trollism. What's the best way to deal with a troll? To ignore it...
    Now, those people are also filling in lawsuits and writting laws maybe that need a reaction.
    That's too bad cause for the last months it seems we have just has much regular gaming action on the net has we have lawsuits action and other shit. While that was fun and new for a while it starts to be aggravating.
    Can't some people just get their heads out of their asses? guess no.. :(