The 'Moral Dilemma'

Yeah, it's got a nunchuck attachment used for bashing spectators sitting behind you...

     What happened to our morals? I mean, what happened to America's morals? It seems as though we've taken a nose dive as a nation. This degradation of our morals has penetrated pretty much every part of our entertainment. It's hard to go anywhere or do anything without running across people screaming profanities aloud or seeing something that's morally questionable. It's even gotten into video games.

     "But don't you love video games, Goongala?" Yes, absolutely. I love video games. My problem is with certain video games; video games that have bad morals as their focus. The games I'm talking about are games like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row. These games are terrible, morally. "But what does that mean?" Allow me to explain...

     Take Halo for instance. What choices are you given? One, save the world from a terrible alien menace, or two, let humanity be obliterated by said menace. The choice is simple: stop the Covenant. This is a morally right choice; saving the world and all of humanity. The Covenant's reasons for destroying humanity are wrong,and so stopping them is morally right. You're never told to do anything morally questionable. It's like stopping Nazi's. Nobody would blame you for stopping them.

Especially in this situation...

     Even Dead Space is morally right. "No way!" Yes way. Your choices are to kill zombies to survive, or have your guts torn out and eaten. It's obvious which is the right choice. Even though Dead Space is filled with language and violence, it never puts you in a position where you're doing wrong.

     Then there are games like Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. These are open-world games which include many different quests, and in which the main quest is a quest to save the world. The side quests vary greatly, and many have multiple outcomes depending on how you try to complete them. There are few morally complicated quests, and most deal with helping those who have been wronged. Don't get the wrong idea: it is violent, and there are quests that put the player in a moral dilemma. But they are set in a fictional world of elves and cat-people. The morally questionable quests aren't even required to beat the game, they're side quests.

     Now we come to Grand Theft Auto. This game is filled with immoral choice opportunities, and you're expected to follow them. You team up with gangsters and drug dealers, and kill and capture people for your own greedy gain. There is nothing meaningful in any interaction you make in the game. All of the quests, be it main quest or side quest, are either morally questionable or downright wrong. This goes for almost any game Rockstar Games develops. This includes Bully, which gives the player the opportunity to run amok in a school yard and, as the name suggests, bullying the students there. As if there aren't already enough problems with children these days, now games are teaching them these things. And parents aren't doing a thing about it, blaming the games for their children's terrible behavior.

See kids? It's okay to shoot cops!

     Which also brings us to another point. Parenting. "Oh no, not this can of worms." Oh yes, it has been opened. Whenever I pick up the controller to play COD: Black Ops, I have to mute any and all of the 12 year-olds in the game lobby before the match starts. If I don't, I have to endure high pitched profanity and whining throughout the entire game. I have to ask, parents, did you see the rating on the front of the box? Did you read the back? Did you, by chance, do any research on the game you gave your kid?

Is it not obvious?

     The 'M' stands for mature, and there are very legit reasons for that rating. It's upsetting to go to Gamestop or other gaming stores and see parents buying their kids these games. It's not the fault of the cashier; they did their job. Because the parent is buying it, they have no choice to sell it. I couldn't work at Gamestop. I would point out every problem within a game when the parent tries to buy it. I would make sure they know what the game contained, and see to it that they have some kind of reaction. They would probably fire me within the first day. I was there at the Halo: Reach release. At the front of the line were a dozen 12 year-olds with their moms. My parents would never have done that, but that's not the point. The point is these kids are getting an 'M' rated game, and the parents are more concerned with getting home as soon as possible than with looking at the rating information. I remember when Halo 2 came out, and how several people were absent from school so they could stay at home all day and play it. This was high school, and not a single one of them was over 17 (the age you have to be to buy an 'M' rated game). I've heard stories that make my blood boil, and I've seen such things with my own eyes.

You shouldn't even be touching that...

     This is a travesty. These indifferent parents are not paying enough attention to what their doing. They're contributing to the moral degradation of the next generation. This story is about video games, so I won't go into the other problems I have with parents these days. But, I will agree that video games are impacting the youth of today. Idiot lawyers and fear-mongering Senators have tried to link video game violence to every school shooting that's happened since Columbine. Unfortunately, there is some truth to it. (Note: I am a strong defender of violence in video games. Not in real life mind you, just in video games. I defend "good violence" wholeheartedly (Halo, Left 4 Dead, etc.). I don't think video games are to blame here, but, depending on the circumstances, these accusations can be right.) Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two teens who went on the shooting spree at Columbine were said to have played Doom, a very violent video game. I don't believe this was the deciding factor in their choice to shoot up the school, but I do believe it had a small impact on the "violence can solve our problems" factor (I think it had to do more with the movies they were watching, Natural Born Killers and such, as well as bullying that occurred at their school, but that's a story for another time).

     Kids are not being taught the difference between right and wrong, nor the difference between reality and fiction. The culmination of the ignorance from these two has concluded in the stupidity of teenagers, end even adults, across the world. I play many violent video games: Dead Space, Halo, Call of Duty, Left 4 Dead, etc. However, I have never once thought of going on a shooting rampage. It's because I was raised right, I was taught the difference between right and wrong at an early age. I took my education seriously, which allowed me to separate fact from fiction. My point: don't blame video games, it's your own inability to be a good parent that is ruining your children. Stop letting them play these games, and take more of an interest in their lives to make sure that this immoral behavior isn't being nurtured by TV and movies. There's a reason games and movies are rated for content, and these ratings should be followed. Good morals are being forgotten in a sea of bad entertainment.

Here's a picture to lighten the mood of this 'heavy' post... Is this not awesome?

(Thanks to Games Radar and the Interwebs for the pictures.)