Matthew Tyrrell

Moral Kombat

Video games are lightweight entertainment, a valuable educational tool, an exciting new art form, and a threat to society breeding a generation of zombified child thugs: It just depends who you ask.

Through online magazine Yoosk, members of the public had the opportunity to ask expert interviewees whatever they wanted about video games. Facilitating this discussion about video games ran the risk of descending into a verbal brawl as a hubbub of different views and opinions drowned each other out. Recently, however the topic has found a focal point and potential watershed with the UK government commissioned ‘Byron Review’. Prominent psychologist Tanya heads the independent review tasked with examining the effect of inappropriate material in video games and on the internet on children

Video games’ short history is characterised by suspicion and controversy. In 1976, Death Race became the first game to be banned; branded “sick and morbid” for its vehicular homicide theme. 30 years on video games are still the subject of outrage and this year Manhunt 2 was banned in the UK for its “sustained and cumulative casual sadism”. However, the UK is the third largest games producer in the world, and games production is a multi-billion dollar business that is purportedly bigger than the movie industry.

Games don’t hurt people; parents do

Yoosk participants seemed aware of the erratic perception of games. Across the range of viewpoints evident in the questions, a consistent theme were attempts to pin down the image and role of video games – beginning with the term ‘video games’ itself. A participant asked digital safety expert Anne Collier; "Does the label