So, it's come to my attention that there's a lot of controversy surrounding the release of Manhunt 2. Not that this is surprising; its predecessor was also controversial. But a lot of people are singling out the Wii version as being worse than any other violent game ever released, simply because of its more immersive motion controls. Now, this is something I find myself very opinionated about, so I decided to ramble about it over here. :P

First of all, let it be known that I don't buy into the idea of violent media influencing people to go out and be violent. If you're the kind of person that's going to kill someone, then you are that type of person regardless, and even if you do nothing but play Nintendogs and watch Disney movies that will still be the case. And if you're a stable person who's not going to kill anyone, then you're that regardless too, and no amount of watching Saw movies and playing Manhunt is going to turn you into a psychopath. People killed people long before violent media existed, and violent crime among youths has actually DROPPED since video games became popular.

Now, I can understand where the people against Manhunt 2 on the Wii are coming from. One of the big arguments against people like Jack Thompson blaming violence on video games is that using a controller to perform violent acts is nothing like doing them in real life. With the Wii remote, this is no longer the case. Suddenly the things you do to perform violent acts are a lot more realistic than ever before.

I can understand how someone would have a problem with that. I can understand how someone would hate and be disgusted by the mere idea of Manhunt games in general. And if they want to do so, express their opinions, not play it, tell their friends not to play it, keep their children from playing it, whatever--that is all perfectly fine because that is their right. What gets me are the people saying the game should never have been made in the first place, that it shouldn't be on the Wii, that anyone who wants to play it is a psychopath.

First of all, I would like to know why these people find Manhunt so much worse than other games. I'm quite sure that some of the people criticizing Manhunt 2 are people that have played war games, that have enjoyed chainsawing people in Gears of War and blowing people's heads off with a shotgun in Resident Evil 4. Yes, the violence in Manhunt 2 is extreme, but why is it any more wrong than the aforementioned games? Why is it morally acceptable to chainsaw someone's head off, but not to rip their testicles off with a pair of pliers?

Either violence in video games is bad and shouldn't be allowed, or it is no problem because the vast majority of people can distinguish between real life and fantasy. It's either one or the other, and you can't try to take a middle stance. That's like saying racial slurs are perfectly acceptable only if used by the race they're against--but that's another rant entirely, and one I won't get into here. :P And if you take the stance that all violence in video games is bad, then that includes almost every video game ever made. Even Mario kills those poor Goombas, after all.

Take Dead Rising, for example. A game I just got the other day, and am massively enjoying. In that game, you can take a coat hanger and stick it in a zombie's eye socket and watch them stumble around with it embedded in their eyeball. You can take a scythe, hook it around a zombie's neck, put your foot on their chest, and behead them in a spray of blood. How is this any better and more morally acceptable than Manhunt 2? Is it because they're zombies and not actual human beings? But they still look more or less like (very screwed up) humans, and the gore is even in high definition.

Is it because of the controls on the Wii? What's funny to me is, I bet the majority of people saying the realistic controls on the Wii are bad for Manhunt are people who have gone to arcades, played light gun games, and were perfectly fine with it. How is that any better? You're taking a realistic gun controller and shooting it at people. No better or worse than taking the Wii controller and making realistic violent motions with it.

I believe that the vast majority of people can tell the difference between fantasy and reality--and that includes children. People tend to underestimate children MASSIVELY. Now, I'm not saying young kids should be playing Manhunt 2 by any means. I would be the first to agree that it should probably be restricted to legal adults--18 and up. But even if they do, the vast majority are still going to know it's just a game. If kids were so terrible at distinguishing fantasy from reality, then why would we let them watch cartoons? In cartoons, people get rolled over by steamrollers and are perfectly fine, they just have to blow on their thumb and they reinflate. If violence had as much of an effect on children as people would have you believe, then your average cartoon would be FAR worse for their minds than a video game that actually shows the real, grisly, terrible results of violence.

I played the original Doom when I was five or six, with the full knowledge and permission of my parents. My dad actually sat down and played it with me. I was also raised in a house that had more than one fully loaded gun where I could get to it if I really wanted to. Did I play Doom and then go grab a gun to try to shoot people because I did it in the game? No. It never even occurred to me. Why? Because I actually had a brain stem, and I knew Doom was JUST A GAME. I was told from birth that you do not play with guns, they are not toys, they are very dangerous--and I never touched them, even after Doom. And I think 99% of children in my position would have been the exact same way.

Now granted, there is going to be a small percentage of people that are unstable and DO have problems distinguishing fantasy from reality. And yes, there is the possibility that Manhunt 2 could, if nothing else, give them ideas. (Although I stand by what I said earlier--if you're the type of person who's going to kill someone, then you're going to regardless.) Does that mean Manhunt 2 shouldn't have been made, just because there's a small chance that it might bring someone to violence? No. That's like saying that cars should be banned because people are killed in automobile accidents every day. You can argue that cars have contributed worthwhile things to the world whereas Manhunt won't, but point me to one video game that has. Just one.

The point is, I think people are blowing the Manhunt on the Wii thing massively out of proportion. You're entitled not to like it and to avoid it like the plague, of course. And if you're a parent, feel free to prevent your kid from playing it. That IS why we have the ESRB ratings, after all. Just because parents don't spend time with their kids and people have no personal responsibility anymore doesn't mean people should stop making violent games. The vast majority of people that play and enjoy violent games, including me, have never harmed another person in their life, and never will. You could even make an argument FOR violent games--they both show you the results of violence realistically (as opposed to cartoons, as I mentioned earlier), and they give people a perfectly safe and acceptable outlet in which to let out their violent urges. (And psychopath or no, we all get violent urges sometimes. You can't tell me you've never been irritated by someone and wanted to just smack them upside the head one time. :P)

In conclusion: you don't like Manhunt, that's fine. Don't play it. But for the sake of the rest of us, don't say it should be banned when it isn't harming anyone. First it will become acceptable to ban video games simply because some consider them morally unacceptable, then it'll be music with explicit lyrics, and before you know it we'll be living in the world of Fahrenheit 451. (VERY good book, by the way. I highly recommend it to...well, anyone. It'll make you think.)

P.S. Nintendo really can't win, can they? First their console is too kiddy, now it has a big M-rated game and the Wii controls shouldn't be used for violence. :P