Games 12 Jun 2007 01:52 pm
RTD’s Game Ads Controversy
This starts with a letter from the Parents Television Council to the Denver Regional Transportation District, which calls for a ban of M and AO rated games on RTD Buses and Trains. They state that these advertisements are for games which promote violent and illegal behaviors. The PTC has also petitioned Portland, Oregon and Boston, Massachusetts for similar bans.
GamePolitics picked up on the story on Februrary 22, saying there is a New Mass Transit Ad Controversy in Denver. Westword had a pretty good article titled ‘Bus-ted‘, with a short interview with George Robinson, PTC Denver chapter president, as he plays GTA. George Robinson also wrote an editorial for the Rocky Mountain News calling for ‘No more violent video game ads, RTD‘, mentioning ‘countless research studies’ and the irresponsibility of RTD to accept advertising dollars to promote violent video games. RTD was still considering the issue a month later (RTD weighs parents’ pleas to ban violent video game ads).
The RTD Board eventually voted it down (’RTD won’t ditch video-game ads‘). Kotaku editor Brian Crecente (a Denver resident) interviewed the National Grassroots Director for the PTC, Gavin McKiernan about the whole process. At least RTD did not decide to wrap entire trains in ads as mentioned in a Westword article.
All of this generated plenty of discussion in the gaming news/blog arena as well as more mainstream press. The Rocky Mountain News states that RTD has the freedom to say ‘no’, choosing whatever advertisers they want. Crecente fires back about the editorial (as he used to work for the RMN) saying it missed the point, that the more interesting issue here is that they decided to go after games specifically, not all violent media. Joystiq mentions Throwing free speech under the bus.
Enough with the summary and linkfest. Though this is an issue a good few months old, I still had the links in my ‘to write’ category because I think its still an interesting issue to discuss, and I do have some thoughts.
I mentioned in one of the GamePolitics posts’ comments that RTD can certainly advertise who and what they want within the usual reason. There is certainly some controversy around violent movies, music and video games being advertised in public places, and I do understand that. I don’t think that any free-speech argument is going to hold up for these sorts of things (nevertheless that advertisements are not protected speech in the first place). They would be able to pull ads from any advertiser at any time (they just would no longer be paid for those spots, obviously).
I am a Denver resident and I’ve ridden RTD many times - both the light rail and bus systems. Round trip ticket prices already started to raise - and I know that advertisements can bring in a lot of revenue to offset rider costs. I’ve never seen a game related ad myself - but I haven’t ridden regularly in a few years. As long as ads aren’t distasteful or annoying, I don’t see any other reason to keep a specific ad off a bus. The GTA ads in the pictures in the links above don’t even depict many of the things that are so ‘evil’ to the complainers.
What is of concern, though, is that agencies may choose where to draw their line, as far as what ads they will show, on medium over actual content. They may show ads for The Departed and The Sopranos, but not show GTA: Liberty City Stories. This just seems odd to me. There is discussion in the above link with PTC Grassroots Director, Gavin McKiernan who specifically says games may be more influential because of the medium, where motion pictures are not as bad.
This brings up the global ‘violence in videogames’ discussion, which I won’t get into very deep in this post (I’ve got a couple more topics in my queue that cover this). What I will say here, though, is that the studies for video game violence have not conclusively shown that it is any different than movies, TV or music. This is a topic of ‘moral panic’ concerning a specific medium which is new and insanely successful. Motion Pictures, Television, and Music have all gone through much of the same criticism at one point or another - so its really nothing new.
My final word on the matter is that if one medium is going to be not shown because of content, it should apply to other mediums as well - so if theres not going to be GTA on busses, I shouldn’t be seeing The Departed, The Sopranos or KMFDM advertisements on buses either. Not showing them in the first place, of course, is silly to begin with, but at least be consistent!
