In defense of Gamers

Henry Jenkins, direttore del Comparative Media Studies Program all'Emmaittì di Boston (ndr: il Carli è busone) ha recentemente rilasciato una interessantissima intervista all'Hollywood Reporter; tema, ovviamente, i videogiochi e la violenza. Mi permetto di quotare un passaggio particolarmente interessante:

The Hollywood Reporter: You've consulted for the Entertainment Software Association, testified before the Senate after Columbine on youth culture and violence, and written the book, "From Barbie To Mortal Kombat -- Gender And Computer Games." What makes you defend gaming when everyone else is criticizing it?ù

Henry Jenkins: I'm always very careful to say that I'm a defender of games as a medium and not a defender of the games industry per se. Most of today's criticism goes back to the Columbine shootings ... and what worries me most is that much of the backlash is not against the games industry but against gamers. What I saw was that schools across the country were starting to do things like profile kids based on their cultural preferences. Kids who played games were thought to be more at risk or more of a threat to the schools. So while the Senate was going after the industry -- or claiming to go after the industry -- it was pretty clear that it was never really going to regulate the games industry. But that was giving moral cover to principals, to teachers, to parents who were going after the gamers.

Dall'altra parte della barricata, MediaFamily (che poi è una delle famigerate Associazioni di Genitori Paranoici) afferma bellamente che "60-90% of the most popular video games have violent themes". 60-90%!? Sessanata O Novanta? Va bene un certo margine di errore/dubbio, ma 30 punti percentuale sono un bel po. Senza poi contare che MediaFamily non si preoccupa minimamente di informarci su cosa renda, secondo il fantomatico Mr. Anderson (fonte della loro statistica), un videogioco violento - se vogliamo fare i rompicoglioni, pure PacMan è violento...poveri fantasmini :***(

Il caso vuole poi che i fatti dicano che, negli USA, "only 18 percent of them (games) were rated “M.” ". Per i profani, significa che l'organo di tutela competente (l'ERSB) ritiene che un buon 82% dei giochi in commercio non siano cosi violenti da essere inadatti ai minori.

Credete a chi volete, io vado a farmi una partitina a Warhammer 40k: Dawn Of War.

Out.