British Tabloid Claims MadWorld Will Ruin the Wii’s Reputation

Gotta love Britain’s favorite tabloid, The Daily Mail. Among the gossip and pictures of pregnant celebs in “killer red stilettos”, they have jumped on the violent videogame bandwagon once again. This time, it is regarding SEGA and Platinum Games’ MadWorld.

MadWorld, as you are all aware, is the upcoming Wii Exclusive where gamers are thrust into a world where “The Running Man” meets “Sin City”. Being hailed as more art than game by critics since its big debut at E3 2008, The Daily Mail has taken it upon themselves to dub the game the “most violent ever” and are standing behind watchdog Mediawatch-UK, as a campaign to preemptively ban the game goes into full swing.

The paper is supposedly shocked that a mature rated (read violent) game is slated for the Nintendo Wii, and feels that it will ruin the consoles reputation as a “family friendly” entertainment outlet.  Because of this, John Beyer, director of Mediawatch-Uk has called upon the BBFC to step in:

“This game sounds very unsavory. I hope the British Board of Film Classification will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification. Without that it cannot be marketed in Britain. What the rest of world does is up to them. We need to ensure that modern and civilized values take priority rather than killing and maiming people.

“It seems a shame that the game’s manufacturer have decided to exclusively release this game on the Wii. I believe it will spoil the family fun image of the Wii.”

I take umbrage with Beyer’s statement because basically what he is trying to say is that the rest of the world can do what they like because unlike the UK, our values do not match the “modern and civilized” priorities of those in the UK. HA!

First off, this was posted in THE DAILY MAIL for crying out loud… it has never been known for harboring any sort of journalistic integrity. It is a TABLOID. It ranks up there with the National Enquirer and the defunct Weekly World News. The paper’s main focus is to show photos of celebrities taken with telephoto lenses atop a neighboring building. They discuss cleavage, Beckham and Posh’s restaurant choices, interviews with warring neighbors over not taking the trash bin to the curb, ad nausea.

Pot, meet kettle.

It is in fashion to jump on the violent videogame bandwagon, and I for one am starting to see the humor in it instead of getting angry about it – you know why? Because I cannot change it, and neither can you dear readers. It will go away eventually like any other fad, and personally, I am THRILLED that a mature game is headed to the Wii. Not everyone who owns a Wii has a family or children in the household, nor is everyone interested in cute, wide-eyed games aimed at a causal or younger audience. If Nintendo did not think this was true as well, they would not have given it the green light for their console.

So, instead of getting pissed off about it, we should laugh, revel in our barbarianism and just go out and buy the game. Nothing boosts sales like controversy.

Thanks: GamesIndustry