Misinformed reporters unable to tell difference between fantasy and reality

This past January, Fox News's program The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum held a discussion on the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect. The word on the desk was that the game featured full frontal nudity, and the freedom to fashion a variety of sexual scenarios with your protagonist and other non-player characters. Psychologist Cooper Laurence described the game as desensitizing teenage boys to concepts of sexuality and gender."They're seeing them as these objects of desire, as these, you know, hot bodies," said Laurence. "They don't show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it's a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with."

Geoff Keighley, host of Spike TV and Gametrailers.com's gaming news and reviews shows, was also present to call on the multiple errors. Mass Effect does have a 'sex scene,' but it is no longer or more explicit than those found in many PG13-rated films. Neither is it the pivotal moment of the game, as the sweeping narrative covers dozens of hours of gameplay with several paths and choices to the player, only one of which is to engage this scene using your male - or female - protagonist. When Keighley asked Laurance if she had played Mass Effect prior to the interview, she laughed dismissively, and said "No." Keighley was cut off mid-sentence several times by Laurence during the 'debate,' which prompted the host to end discussion entirely, and refuse rebuttals on either guest's side.

More troubling was the program's claim that the M-rated (ages 17+ in North America) Mass Effect was being marketed to teenage boys, with no source whatsoever. One member of the follow-up panel (summoned after Laurence and Keighley had left the conversation) seemed to lament that children are often at home unsupervised, and gone are the days "when there [were] a lot of moms at home the majority of the day...what do you think a young boy's going to do? 'I want to play my dad's video game while he isn't home.' And I think that's dangerous. We really have to watch this."

Must I expend energy to elaborate on this statement's mind-blowing ignorance? The misinformation on the game in question - described as "Star Wars meets Debbie Does Dallas" by another panel member - is atrocious. Gamers responded, en masse, as it were, by bombarding Laurence's book The Cult of Perfection with one-star ratings on Amazon.com (the lowest rating possible). Many pointed out that while they had never read the book, they have heard that it was terrible and thus it must be true. Ah, what wonderful examples of the tongue-in-cheek sarcasm typical of our online generation. The online reaction is still overwhelming; in searching for the video in preparation of this article, Youtube instead provided me pages of gamers' 'rants' on the matter, including some rather acidic criticism towards Ms. Laurence.

The antics proved effective, as Laurence later noted that she had not played Mass Effect prior to the interview, has since done so, and apologized. I must give credit to Laurence's reply, as she was under no obligation to do so. She almost made up for her decision to talk on national television about something she had no knowledge about in the first place.

Keighley, who grew up in Markham, Ontario and started writing for the video game press as a Grade Nine high school student, spoke with The Strand on the matter. "They contacted us because Mass Effect was nominated for a number of the Spike TV Video Game Awards [2007]." It also won the best role playing award, so their insider opinion would have been valued - if Keighley was given sufficient air time, which he wasn't.

"They tried to frame it as a debate, but it quickly became quite clear that it wasn't...the people on the other side of the debate [were] brutally misinformed on the content of Mass Effect." Keighley's brief yet valiant effort won him thousands of thank-yous from the gaming community, as well as writers from Bioware, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts.

"I received a lot of thanks from the gaming community... for at least going on there and trying to set the record straight... I think that segment [had it run] without me would have just been completely off the wall. The panel afterwards was just absurd. The people who were talking clearly didn't know anything about video games, and that speaks to a greater cultural divide that's out there between people who know about games and those who don't... [Fox News] didn't do their research, and they should have egg on their face [for it]."

"Writing one-star reviews on Amazon is a relatively harmless way to respond, so I think everyone was relatively civil about it."

This cultural divide between those who play video games and those who do not is a bit different from the previous generational gap between film and music. People are now suspicious of the technology behind games, as it is progressing right along with the content. I've never heard of anyone cowering over the moral implications of louder and clearer music, but increasingly interactive video games are frequently charged for becoming murder simulations or similar diabolic devices, thanks to the flick of a joystick or Wiimote.

Talented video game journalists who grew up along with the medium are few and far between. New York Times columnist Seth Schiesel and Keighley are among the few of this generation. Keighley enjoys a healthy amount of attention from both the mainstream viewers and hardcore gamers thanks to Gametrailers TV, which airs both on Spike TV and the Gametrailers website. Until video games enjoy the same amount of coverage from major newspapers and magazines that feature film, music, and other outlets do - until editors can also attest to their positive experiences growing up next to a Super Nintendo or Playstation 3 - it will be an uphill battle to educate those around us about the rising digital medium. It is a frightening thought that those who know absolutely nothing about the medium are taking it upon themselves to tell parents about what impact video games can or cannot have on their children and themselves.