Violent video games have long been a source of contention, but a new one throws misogyny into the mix, writes Fionola Meredith
There's nothing like the release of a bloodthirsty, violent or sadistic computer game to get both parents and politicians in a state of outrage. The latest moral panic, which comes as thousands of computer games fly off the shelves in the run-up to Christmas, is over a new Sony Playstation 2 game, Rule of Rose.
A psychological horror game, Rule of Rose is set in a rambling house in 1930s England, which is inhabited by a posse of sinister little girls. These freakish young minxes torment the player's character, Jennifer, with cruel and unusual punishments, including binding, gagging, and dousing her with liquids, as she tries to escape their clutches.
In Europe, the outcry has already begun. European Justice Commissioner, Franco Frattini, said that it "shocked me profoundly for its obscene cruelty and brutality".
Rule of Rose has been given a 16+ rating by the independent Pan European Game Information body (PEGI). In Ireland, the Film Censor's Office (IFCO) reserves the right to prohibit a game that PEGI has already classified, but in the case of Rule of Rose, IFCO told The Irish Times that it agrees with the PEGI rating.
Yet Frattini believes that the voluntary ratings won't prevent younger children getting hold of Rule of Rose and other inappropriate games, and he plans to raise the issue with a meeting of EU home affairs ministers (including Tánaiste Michael McDowell) next month. He added that the existing measures are "not sufficient because anybody can buy [ these games]. In practical terms, it is not like when you go to a movie and they don't sell you a ticket."
According to Sony, the game won't be released in Ireland before Christmas. And although the game was due to be released in the UK yesterday, the game's publishers, 505 Games, pulled out at the last moment. But Rule of Rose is freely available to buy on the internet: in fact, on the popular game retail site Play.com (which is marketing the game with an 18+ rating), it has sold out already. Perhaps that is evidence of the huge amount of free advertising that controversies like this create for games manufacturers. Stuart Fallis, a former worker in the computer games industry, says: "This is publicity they couldn't dream of - and the projected revenue will have shot up."
So is the outcry justified? Many members of the gaming community are frustrated by what they see as yet another bout of needlessly hysterical hand-wringing over computer games. PC Advisor magazine points out that "it appears to be the youth of the central character that has struck a disproportionate chord with the censorship brigade. As far as we are concerned, the age of the gamer, not the sprite, is a more pertinent concern".
Over at Spong.com, an online database of computer games, they are equally fed up: "We're making a collective groaning-type noise at another politician jumping to completely uninformed conclusions. This same sensationalist rant has been rattling around the mass media since the dawn of pop-culture. Video games have been dragged into the debate ever since programmers could code something faintly resembling blood."
There have always been plenty of male computer gamers eager to defend their right to immerse themselves in a bloodbath - in a virtual world, of course. But in the case of Rule of Rose, it's female gamers who are voicing their enthusiasm for the game.
Tracey Whitelaw, of ThumbBandits.com, one of the biggest independent female-run gaming sites in Europe, says, "With Rule of Rose, for once you get the chance to be a female hero - and that doesn't happen too often. Of course, there are plenty of sexist games out there, but this isn't one of them."
Dr Helen Kennedy, senior lecturer in cultural studies at the University of the West of England, and an expert on female gaming, agrees that it's that exhilarating sense of personal agency that games like Rule of Rose offer young women. "There's an empowerment in acting the role of the problem-solving female protagonist."
Yet it seems that the world of computer games remains saturated with violent, misogynist or highly sexualised images of girls and women. "It's the newest medium, yet it's the one where you will see the most retrograde and titillating representations of women," says Kennedy.
"The marketing of computer games - apparently geared towards the adolescent male - is where the very worst excesses occur."
At the root of most controversies over video gaming is the lingering perception that games are essentially for children, not adults. Yet according to a recent BBC survey, the average age of a gamer is 28. Perhaps lulled by benign memories of innocent games such as Pacman and Pong, many parents allow their young children access to unsuitable age-restricted computer games, when they would never dream of taking them to a 16-certificate film. Yet the interactive nature of these games means they are potentially far more engrossing and insidious than film. After all, as Audrey Conlon, chair of the Irish Internet Advisory Board, says: "You are the protagonist. You are the one being asked to fire the gun."