The Wii Game and Mainstream Media Agenda

The man who founded The Daily Mail as the world's first people's tabloid once said this about journalism, "A profession whose business is to explain to others what it personally does not understand".

He would, therefore, be proud of the recent coverage given to SEGA's MadWorld Wii title by his own newspaper - which has also been picked up by Rupert Murdoch's ever reliable The Sun. The game is due out in 2009 and as such does not need to have been sent to PEGI or the BBFC for classification and rating.

The Mail's angsty rage is summed up as follows, "A new computer game tipped to be the most violent ever is being released exclusively on the so-called 'family friendly' Wii console."

The paper , which headlines the story as "Parents horrified as most violent video game ever to launch on 'family friendly' Wii" follows this up with the statement that "The decision to release a violent game on a console which has based its reputation on family fun has shocked anti-violence pressure groups."

Nowhere in the article are any 'parents' quoted. In fact only one pressure group is quoted: Mediawatch-UK. This group was set up in the 1960s by Mary Whitehouse and, although able to comment on video games, places itself in the role of moral guardian for the United Kingdom's viewing and listening habits.

Northcliffe's paper quotes Mediawatch UK director, John Beyer as stating, "This game sounds very unsavoury.

"I hope the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification."

It 'sounds' unsavoury? Obviously Mr Beyer has not yet seen the game, yet he still wants it banned by the BBFC. That's what we call moral guardianship. In case we're wrong and for some reason The Daily Maul (sic) has misquoted the watchdog, we contacted Mediawatch-UK to clarify.

We were told by Mr Beyer, "I can confirm that the remarks attributed to me in the Daily Mail online are accurate. Thank you for asking."

We've also had a quick look at MWUK's recent watchdogging to discover what it's made of a recent BBC Radio production of a Gaius Suetonius book. This contains incest, knife crime, the castration of a man so that another man could have sex with him as a if he was a woman and much, much more. It is also being paid for by British tax payers and played out on national radio! It's called 'On the Life of the Ceasars'!

According to Mr Beyer's next quote, "I believe it (MadWorld) will spoil the family fun image of the Wii". Surely, allowing such Ceasar-based filth and violence to be broadcast when EVEN CHILDREN can hear it, must surely decimate the reputation of your domestic wireless and of the BBC in general!

Back to the Maul itself, Of course nowhere in the article itself is the tipster or tipsters actually named. Therefore, we can only assume that this should read, "The Daily Mail tips..."

Let's get some Daily Mail context shall we? A quick search of its website brings up the following fair and balanced coverage of 'video games', glancing over it you might stumble over the thought that some kind of rabble-rousing, curtain twitching agenda is in place:

'Violent video game that 'encourages players to kill' is banned again' - Manhunt 2 related - October 2007.

'Babysitters kill girl, 7, with Mortal Kombat video game moves' - the murder of Zoe Garcia - December 2007.

'Teenager stabbed in queue at midnight launch of ultra-violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV' - self-explanatory - April 2008.

'Man stabbed queueing for midnight launch of ultra-violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV' - self-explanatory - April 2008.

'Violent video game that features beatings and drive-by shootings 'set for huge success' - the possible success of GTA IV - April 2008.

'Europe opens first detox clinic for video game addicts' - self-explanatory - June 2006.

'Cathedral officials' outrage over terror video game' - regarding Koch's War on Terror game - May 2006.

It has to be said that the makers of the game aren't helping the cause with their confused justification for the game's violence. Says the website blurb, "Often times, brutality is expressed in a spiteful nature. There are already plenty of games out there that hit this mark; however, we decided that MADWORLD’s brutality should be aimed at providing the user with a sense of exhilaration during play.

"To give you an example from gameplay, we have a scene where you can pull a street sign from the ground and shove it into a enemy’s head. However, I thought that it is much more fun to stab someone with a sign that actually has some sort of meaning as opposed to a knife. We tried the idea out, and the reaction amongst the team was so positive, I knew this was the way to proceed."

Erm, right. Stabbing someone with a sign is more fun and with a knife.

The debate continues...

^{Sources:
The Daily Mail.
SEGA}