Survey Says: Parents Prefer Violence to Sex and Gay Kissing in Video Games
By Jonathan on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 3:09 PM PST In Gamer Life, Games Industry
The gaming site for parents, WhatTheyPlay.com, runs a “Question of the Day” poll that asks visitors to the site (i.e. mostly parents) a question that usually reveals something about people’s general attitudes towards games. Recently, the poll asked “As a parent, which would you find most offensive in a video game?” The results, as you can see to the right, found that more parents would be okay with cursing or even a severed head in video games over hetero-sex and “two men kissing.” Yep, horrific violence just ain’t so bad compared to two adult sharing a passionate moment together. It makes we wonder just how freaky some parents are getting in the bedroom. Interestingly enough, after these results were posted, a Norwegian gaming site decided to run the same poll. Their results were almost the exact opposite, with 65.8% of people saying they’d be most offended by a severed head. Go figure.
Is sex considered taboo in Norwegian countries like it is in the United States?
“Yep, horrific violence just ain’t so bad compared to two adult sharing a passionate moment together” it doesn’t say passionate, if i had kids I’d rather they see violent than 2 people having sex in a game,
P.S. people having sex should definitely be more accepted since we all will do it someday, other than all of us killing someone by ripping their head off. Only V.I.P.’s in life get that privilege.
Gays are fags.
This poll is ridiculous because it is a case of “choose your poison.” A more thoughtful and revealing poll would have had the participants rank the choices or at least have had an “all of the above” choice.
RE: Strikerzex911
Thank you Captain Obvious.
Sad
Pretty much what I expected. In general Europeans are casual about sex and uptight about violence, while Americans are the other way around. I don’t think either way’s better or worse. Do you want to get shot or AIDs?
“Freaky in the bedroom,” my ass. It’s got nothing to do with that and everything to do with the attitudes toward sex and violence that the initial English settlers in the U.S. brought with them. A horrific loathing of bodily pleasure, a lot of which is based in misogyny — remember, the xtian tradition always considered women more “embodied,” with weaker minds and “spirits,” than they did men. And indifference to at best, and acceptance of at worst, casual violence as a way of “solving problem” — and, more specifically, to “preserve the social order” (i.e., keep them uppity wimminz/homoseckshualz/cullud people/heathens in line).
When the fundies start bleating about how sex is saaaay-kred, they’re full of it. They’re terrified of sex, because it’s all about the body and it reminds them that they’re mortal. The ones with strong libidos are the worst, because despite their belief that they should “control themselves,” they can’t — and that’s why they want laws enacted to prevent people from having sex unless they’re married and “trying for a child.” They project their prudery and their “lack of willpower” onto other people.
Sex is concidered taboo in the US? Seriously? I suggest you take a walk to your local shopping mall on a weekened evening, around 8 or 9 pm. Movie theaters as well. If the clothing and general ‘look’ isn’t enough to convince you otherwise, I suggest you watch anything dealing with pop-culture. Video games are about the only thing out there that really doesn’t have much to do with sex anymore.
Video Games, sex and violence are free speech. Let parents control and let’s not follow the gov’t down the path of censorship. After all, censorship is becoming America’s favorite past-time. The US gov’t (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like “America Deceived” from Amazon and shut down Ron Paul. Free Speech forever (even for games).
Last link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0
Strikerzex911 says:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Gays are fags.
———Very insightful. Just goes to show the mentality of people answering this question. Americans are the most useless people on the planet.
RE: Strikerzex911 says:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Gays are fags.
Oh leave him alone. he just discovered that water is wet, the sun is bright and his mom drank heavily when she was pregnant with him
Id have to vote for Fags Kissing.
Then sex
Then Fword
God, you’re a bunch of homophobic dicks. Just admit you’re secretly attracted to the cock already. Real straight guys don’t have a problem with gay people. Here’s scientific proof:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8772014
J Abnorm Psychol. 1996 Aug;105(3):440-5.
Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?
Adams HE, Wright LW Jr, Lohr BA.
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-3013, USA.
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.
If that is what the parents, that is what they are to going to get in return. You cannot separate the eye from the mind, what the kids see, will be acted out. So, when little junior goes on a killing spree because of a video he saw, that you the parent purchased, I don’t wanna hear any “oh, my goodness, how DID that happen?” Duh, people, how do you think that happened? You cannot divorce fiction from reality……..but they will try, to our dismay
Well, they asked and now they know. I don’t see the point of complaining about this. Haven’t you heard “the customer is always right?” Or do you want to use games to socially engineer different morals for the parents?
well actually the parents look like they never even touch a vidogame except when they buy it
first of all: A game with a graphically severed human head or a man and woman having intercourse or multiple uses of fuck would easily get an “M” rating which means its ILLEGAL for little junior 2 buy it without their parents permission (or if their 17+) and it should clearly state on the back of the game box if any of the said content was in the game (even at that its the parent who has to make the purchase)
second:if there is any homosexual kissing then the game is in 4 a definite “T” rating or HIGHER which means your kid needs 2 be 13 or older 2 buy without consent, and really by that age they really should know what a homosexual is and therfore be able to view mild homosexual content
Honestly some of you are mindless little assholes that think that everything that goes against what you stand for is evil. Oh & there are some useful Americans, just not many of them, but yes sex is something that has been & will continue to be a topic that most ppl just aren’t comfortable disscussing. I don’t know why that is the case though. I’ve tried searching for an answer but i’ve found nothing.