It has been nearly a decade since we last heard from a parent’s advocacy group or a politician raising concerns over the video games industry. The relative silence has been welcomed because for as long as I have been alive and certainly years before, there was an uphill battle for video games to gain artistic and economic legitimacy. Heralded as the downfall of American youth since the 1970’s video games have been blamed for everything from social anxiety and depression to mass killings and devil worship. The list of tragedies that video games are blamed for still hang heavy over the heads of developers and the need for solidarity among industry professionals and gamers created an atmosphere of us versus them that thankfully, has been dormant
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There is no tipping point, let me assure everyone there is no cusp of doom on the horizon, there is no wall about to crumble and no one is at risk, however, just like any chronic disease, earlier detection and treatment is a way to ensure a long healthy life.
So how can there be such a treatment plan? Thanks to socially responsible industry groups such as Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group and GameSIG, there is already a solid foundation for self-policing, so what of an ethical audit?
I say ethical audit because there is still a lingering question that I never paid much attention to as a kid, “What do we do about the children?” That is an incredibly easy question to answer but incessantly difficult to implement, we educate the …show more content…
Now, don 't misunderstand, these are products from a business that is trying to expand its brand and keep interest alive and so on and so forth. However, confusing parents who are already having a hard time understanding just what "action" means on their kid 's copy of Metroid: Other M without having the conflicting messages sent from the toy department and the nervous cashier in electronics who doesn 't want to over step their bounds by telling a parent they probably shouldn 't buy a copy of The Last of Us for their seven year old daughter.
Education and responsible business practices may be asking a little too much from an already cynical world, but the video game industry has a long history of surprising everyone, not just from a technological perspective but from a innovative customer relationship angle as well. There is hope for this relatively new independent industry to safeguard it 's future customers and maintain the freedom from the irritating politician who needs to make their name with ridiculous causes to rally already fearful people around. There is hope, it rests with a little knowledge and a few return receipts, just in
There is no tipping point, let me assure everyone there is no cusp of doom on the horizon, there is no wall about to crumble and no one is at risk, however, just like any chronic disease, earlier detection and treatment is a way to ensure a long healthy life.
So how can there be such a treatment plan? Thanks to socially responsible industry groups such as Video Game Studies Scholarly Interest Group and GameSIG, there is already a solid foundation for self-policing, so what of an ethical audit?
I say ethical audit because there is still a lingering question that I never paid much attention to as a kid, “What do we do about the children?” That is an incredibly easy question to answer but incessantly difficult to implement, we educate the …show more content…
Now, don 't misunderstand, these are products from a business that is trying to expand its brand and keep interest alive and so on and so forth. However, confusing parents who are already having a hard time understanding just what "action" means on their kid 's copy of Metroid: Other M without having the conflicting messages sent from the toy department and the nervous cashier in electronics who doesn 't want to over step their bounds by telling a parent they probably shouldn 't buy a copy of The Last of Us for their seven year old daughter.
Education and responsible business practices may be asking a little too much from an already cynical world, but the video game industry has a long history of surprising everyone, not just from a technological perspective but from a innovative customer relationship angle as well. There is hope for this relatively new independent industry to safeguard it 's future customers and maintain the freedom from the irritating politician who needs to make their name with ridiculous causes to rally already fearful people around. There is hope, it rests with a little knowledge and a few return receipts, just in