Video game

{{Video games}}
{{cquote|The only legitimate use of a computer is to play games.|||Eugene Jarvis<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17123094-300-supercade-by-van-burnham/|title=''Supercade'' by Van Burnham|last=Fahey|first=Fin|date=September 22, 2001|publisher=''[[New Scientist]]''}}</ref>}}
'''Video games''', or '''computer games''', are electronic games played on a personal [[computer]] (PC), a portable device (smart/dumbphone and tablet), or a dedicated device (console). The devices range in complexity from watch-like devices with inexpensive LCD screens all the way up to full-immersion devices such as flight simulators and virtual reality pods, and the games themselves cover every possible [[Essay:Video game genres|genre]] of gaming, including puzzles, action games, and major league [[sports]] fantasies. Video game consoles come in models intended to be used at home, like [[Microsoft]]'s Xbox Series X/S, Sony's PlayStation 5, and [[Nintendo]]'s Switch (and its successor the Switch 2), or handheld systems that can be played anywhere,<ref group=note>as long as the battery isn't dead; fortunately, today's handheld systems come with internal rechargeable batteries, so they don't eat up AAs like older systems</ref> such as Nintendo's 3DS, Switch and Switch 2 (again), along with Sony's PlayStation Vita{{efn|Sony developed a handheld called the PlayStation Portal in 2023, but it was merely an (overpriced) Android-powered thin client which streamed games from a nearby PlayStation 5 and does not run game software on its own.}} In the early to mid 2020s, x86 and ARM-based handheld gaming computers such as Valve's Steam Deck and ASUS' ROG Ally melded the portability of a traditional handheld console with the openness of personal computing platforms; what initially amounted to an attempt to capitalise on the success of the Nintendo Switch eventually codified a new gaming computer subcategory.

The first "real" video game was a tennis simulator called Tennis for Two, created in 1958 by American physicist William Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory,<ref group=note>The "ur-game" remains disputed to this day; "{{wpl|First video game|Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device}}" just isn't as catchy.</ref> which used a dedicated analog computer as a control system and an oscilloscope for output.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k</ref>

==Moral panics==
{{main|Moral panic}}
[[File:Pong.gif|right|thumb|Ahhh, the [[good old days]]!]]
Like most new technologies, video games have spent the last fifty years being accused of corrupting the youth, joining [[Comics Code Authority|comic books]], television, [[radio]], recorded [[music]], [[role playing game]]s and comprehensive [[sex education]] on a dubious list of moral panics created by people who forgot or maybe never knew what it was like to be a kid.

Making the issue worse, moral guardians (such as the infamous ex-attorney [[Jack Thompson]]) take the "kid stuff" concept to ridiculous extremes, failing to distinguish between games marketed to [[children]] and games marketed to adults, and making hysterical judgements on the effects of video games on players.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has a very, very long list of advisories — while most deal with [[sex]] and violent content, there are applications such as electronic cookbooks that include advisories for "[[alcohol]] references" and a few other similar sillies. However, the main rating is usually more than sufficient to determine the suitability of the product for your eight-year-old.

===Moral guardians===
[[File:Bongbong Marcos plays Mobile Legends.jpg|thumb|190px|right|When your dad tried to ban ''Space Invaders'' in the 80s but you're now defying his orders.]]
[[Liberty University]] prohibits students playing games rated AO (Adults Only) or RP (Rating Pending) by the ESRB. They also prohibit games with sexual content, alcohol/[[drug]] use, or strong [[language]] listed on the back (well, shit, those are all the best ones). Games containing violence may only be played at the discretion of Resident Directors. [[Bob Jones University]] takes things a step further and prohibits music games like ''Guitar Hero'' and ''Rock Band'', since [[rock and roll]] is essentially the voice of Satan (literally, according to some religious nutjobs).

Outright bans are more common than many people are comfortable with. In [[English]]-speaking countries, [[Australia]] has banned several games, and at one point [[Greece]] tried to outlaw all public video gaming in a massive overreaction to a political [[gambling]] scandal.<ref>{{wpa|Law 3037/2002}}</ref> An earlier all-out ban on arcade games and pinball machines was enacted by [[Philippines|Philippine]] dictator {{wpl|Ferdinand Marcos}} under Presidential Decree 519<ref>[https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/presdecs/pd1974/pd_519_1974.html P.D. No. 519]</ref> and Letter of Instruction No. 1176, s. 1981<ref>[https://mirror.officialgazette.gov.ph/1981/11/17/letter-of-instruction-no-1176-s-1981/ Letter of Instruction No. 1176, s. 1981]</ref> following pressure from parenting groups, viewing the likes of ''Space Invaders'' as a [[Bullshit|"destructive social enemy"]] and existing "to the detriment of the public interest"; the ban was rescinded following Marcos's ouster after the People Power Revolution.<ref>Dillon, Roberto (2011). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pq6-X1fTm2oC&q=marcos+bans+video+games&pg=PR17 "Timeline".] The Golden Age of Video Games: The Birth of a Multibillion Dollar Industry (illustrated ed.). Boca Raton, FL: A K Peters/CRC Press. p. xvii. ISBN 978-1439873236. Retrieved 15 November 2015.</ref> Perhaps in an [[Irony|ironic]] twist, Ferdinand's son Bongbong Marcos went on to make a vlog video reminiscing about the very same medium his father once outlawed as a social menace, even trying out a round of ''{{wpl|Mobile Legends: Bang Bang}}'' for himself.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzdOU6z9gy0 BBM VLOG #102: Mobile Gaming - Bongbong Marcos]</ref> Though while no new games have been banned in the country since 1986, a localised ban on ''{{wpl|Defense of the Ancients}}'' was enacted in a ''barangay'' (village) in Dasmariñas, Cavite due to a similar moral panic of youth delinquency, brawls and murders ensuing from heated ''DOTA'' matches.<ref>[http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/413042/news/regions/dota-banned-in-internet-shops-in-cavite-village "DOTA banned in internet shops in Cavite village".] GMA News. 21 January 2015.</ref><ref>[https://kotaku.com/filipino-village-bans-dota-after-multiple-murders-1681132049 Filipino Village Bans Dota After Multiple Murders - Kotaku]</ref>

In gaming circles, [[Germany]] has developed a notorious reputation for its strict [[censorship]] laws regarding violent content in games, as well as for banning or censoring any game with [[Nazi]] references in it, even if that game is set during [[World War II]] and actually involves killing Nazis, such as the ''[[Wolfenstein]]'' series, although this "long-running and frequently ridiculed"<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45142651</ref> practice has since been relaxed, now allowing games with Nazi imagery to be released without having it removed or censored (though this has to be approved on a case-by-case basis), as the authorities came to their senses and realized that video games are an artistic medium as opposed to being a children's toy (not to mention that banning media just for a mere sliver of Nazi or Hitler references to it regardless of context would make them look no better than the political party they outlawed before)<ref group=note>For example, to play a {{wpl|Silent Hunter III|submarine simulator}} that puts you in command of an [[World War 2|WWII]] U-boat doesn't mean you're a Nazi, or will transform you into one.</ref>. This resulted in ''[[Grand Theft Auto|Grand Theft Auto V]]'' being released uncut in Germany<ref>[https://twitter.com/rockstargames/status/370198536538685440 @marvdedash GTA V has been rated for Germany at USK18 (Keine Jugendfreigabe) in its complete, original form.]</ref> while the [[Japan]]ese release of the game was extensively neutered due to CERO's draconian content restrictions which was spurred by a [[moral panic]] caused by a series of violent crimes in the country.

===Sex===
There are a good number of games that feature varying degrees of sexual content, from the relatively mild partial nudity in ''The Sims'' to the explicit sexuality of the Hot Coffee minigame in ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas''.<ref group=note>Which, technically, was game content that had been rendered dormant in the shipping game's data files due to (perceived) difficulties with outright excising the code; the controversy was over the fact that modders had been able to reinstate the minigame in question.</ref> Game developers and modders also add their own sexual content, such as nude skins for characters, explicitly sexual third-party content, most notably the ''Nude Raider'' mod for ''Tomb Raider'' and mods for ''The Sims'' which removes the pixel blur whenever a Sim takes a leak or hits the shower,{{efn|This was done not just out of humour but also out of necessity; after all, only a sick bastard would want to see naked children running around the screen, right?}} or even entire NSFW games like ''{{wpl|Custer's Revenge}}'' for the Atari 2600 by American Multiple Industries, a defunct erotic game publisher who licensed the ''Swedish Erotica'' brand from porn studio {{wpl|Caballero Control Corporation}}. The premise of ''Custer'' is the crude simulation of rape of an Indigenous American woman by an equally crude depiction of {{wpl|George Armstrong Custer}} with a visible erection, garnering outrage from both women's rights groups and Native Americans<ref>Paschal, Jan (October 27, 1982). [https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1982/10/27/council-slaps-custers-revenge-game-as-distasteful/62869021007/ "Council Slaps "Custer's Revenge' Game as "Distasteful'"]. The Oklahoman. Retrieved April 8, 2023.</ref> and the highly controversial ''RapeLay'', a literal [[Rape culture|rape simulator]] developed and subsequently banned in [[Japan]] where players get to stalk and rape a family consisting of a mother and her two daughters: [[Child sexual abuse|12-year-old Manaka and 17-year-old Aoi]]. ''RapeLay'' gained further notoriety overseas when legislators took note of grey-market listings of the game on Amazon, who has since removed the game from sale.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fennelly |first=Gary |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/amazon-selling-3d-rape-simulator-game-14183546.html |title=Exclusive: Amazon selling rape simulation game |access-date=2009-02-12 |work=Belfast Telegraph |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830033247/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/amazon-selling-3d-rape-simulator-game-14183546.html |archive-date=2012-08-30 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sex in video games has therefore long been a subject of both controversy and amusement. The game ''Mass Effect'', despite being rated M (17+) by the ESRB, caused a moral panic in the [[conservative]] media because of one mild [[Extraterrestrial|alien]] sex scene that would be just fine on an evening network television show; this culminated in a [[Fox News]] shitfest where [[irony|''feminist'' undertones]] were used to criticize it.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/arts/television/26mass.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cooper%20lawrence&st=cse Author Faults a Game, and Gamers Flame Back] (January 26, 2008) ''The New York Times''.</ref>

===Fanboys===
Fanboys, as extremely dedicated gamers of a particular console, game series, or genre are derogatorily called, frequently have their own moral mishaps that sometimes even make it into the mainstream media. For example, on November 17, 2006, ''Gamespot'' reviewer Jeff Gerstmann received death threats after awarding the high fantasy action-adveture game ''Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'' an 8.8 out of 10 ("Great"), which apparently wasn't enough for fans of the series.<ref>[http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/zelda-twilight-princess-8-8-from-gamespot.131448895/ Zelda:Twilight Princess, 8.8 from Gamespot] (Nov 17, 2006) ''IGN''.</ref> Given that nearly none of the fanboys knew that any review is an opinion and therefore biased, multitudes of angry ''Zelda'' fans messaged death threats to the reviewer, and the ''Gamespot'' building was locked down in response, meaning that nobody could enter or leave the building due to fears of being lynched in the street over an opinion. Gerstmann vowed never to review a ''Zelda'' game again.

However, if that wasn't enough fanboyism for one gaming website, on December 19, 2013, another ''Gamespot'' reviewer, Martin Gatson, made the same mistake by reviewing another ''Legend of Zelda'' game. Again, the building went on lockdown after Gatson nominated the game ''A Link Between Worlds'' for the Nintendo 3DS ''Game of the Year,'' which, for batshit fanatics, was too much praise for a ''Zelda'' game that apparently broke the formula by being a top-down game, despite the fact that ten previous titles in the series had done the exact same thing.<ref>https://zelda-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Top-down_perspective</ref> Gatson was one of the few employees that interviewers could get a hold of, considering all communication within the staff was limited:
{{cquote|I was advised not to even write a review for the game in the first place. They apparently did not want a repeat of the 8.8 event but nothing seemed to go wrong after the review went up. So when I placed my vote for A Link Between Worlds to be game of the year, I thought times had changed. I was wrong. I was dead fucking wrong. Video game fanatics are by definition, fanatics. Nintendo fans, Sony fans, Microsoft fans. They're all insane for devoting themselves to something so trivial.|||Martin Gatson, while the building on lockdown had limited communication.}}
The staff received one death threat every five minutes.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20140101003047/http://www.p4rgaming.com/gamespot-receives-death-threats-and-locks-down-entire-office-after-naming-zelda-game-of-the-year/ GameSpot Receives Death Threats and Locks Down Entire Office After Naming Zelda Game of the Year] by Jack (December 19, 2013) ''Play4Real'' (archived copy from January 1, 2014).</ref>

Of course, this isn't limited to just games, as the actual hardware used to play the games became a subject of nearly endless debate among video games players. In the transition between the third and fourth generations of video games, the Console Wars began between users of the famous consoles Sega Genesis and Nintendo NES (later it was the SNES, triggering the [[Megahertz myth#The "Bit Wars"|"Bit Wars"]] over 16- vs. 32- vs. 64-bit technology, ''ad infinitum'', ''ad nauseam''), but more recently, due to Sega having left the console market in 2001 and Nintendo focusing more on novel hardware gimmicks and broader demographics such as families, casual gamers and non-gamers (e.g. seniors who are normally uninterested in video games but would otherwise be encouraged to play family-oriented titles such as ''Wii Sports'' and the ''Just Dance'' series due to their motion controls), it has switched to the Sony Playstation 5 versus the Microsoft Xbox Series S and X. Vicious attacks on both sides have ensued, but near its release the Xbox One had the greatest controversy due to its supposed invasion of privacy, which requires an online connection every 24 hours; as a result of the controversy Microsoft dropped its plans for DRM shortly before launch. Along for the ride are PC fanboys who detest consoles in general, many referring to themselves as the "PC master race" and to the console players as "console peasants".

===Modding===
[[File:CJ, Kratos and Snow White in Guitar Hero.png|thumb|250px|right|Screenshot from ''Guitar Hero World Tour: Definitive Edition'' where CJ, Kratos and Snow White are jamming to "Bohemian Rhapsody". Custom character models are among some of the most popular mods for video games as it allows for humorous, personalised or even [[porn|perverse]] additions to a game.]]
{{wpl|Video game modding}} has been a hobby among players especially those on personal computer platforms for almost as long as the video gaming scene existed. One of the first known mods to have gained notoriety was ''Castle Smurfenstein'', a total conversion of ''[[Wolfenstein|Castle Wolfenstein]]'' themed after the popular Franco-Belgian comic book franchise ''{{wpl|The Smurfs}}''.<ref>[https://www.evl.uic.edu/aej/smurf.html 'Official' Castle Smurfenstein Home Page]</ref> ''Castle Wolfenstein{{'}}s'' spiritual successor, ''Wolfenstein 3D'', was also the subject of mods, though it wasn't until ''{{wpl|Doom (1993 video game)|Doom}}'' where id Software modularised their games' internals and designed them to be freely editable by players through its use of WAD files where key game assets are stored. This paved the way for future game engines and the modding scene, where games from that point on have occasionally come bundled with tools to edit new levels and other assets.

The scene isn't without controversy however: while ''Smurfenstein'' was done in good fun by a bunch of bored teenagers despite it flying in the face of ''The Smurfs''{{'}} copyright holders, others such as nude mods<ref>[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916373-pc/78363462 Uploader of "sexy" mods for Tomb Raider gets hit with DMCA from devs]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegamer.com/original-tomb-raider-developer-gavin-rummery-on-inspirations-cut-concepts-and-what-killed-core/ Original Tomb Raider Developer Gavin Rummery On Inspirations, Cut Concepts, And What Killed Core]</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/299040.stm "'Nude Raiders' face legal action"]. [[BBC]] News. 18 March 1999. Retrieved 17 September 2022.</ref> and especially the "Hot Coffee" mod<ref group="note">In a stricter sense, this is considered more of an unofficial patch than a mod; contrary to initial claims by Rockstar that "Hot Coffee" was an extensive modification to the game by "a determined group of hackers who have gone to significant trouble", all that's done was to patch the game's script file to reinstate the minigame which was in ''San Andreas'' all along.</ref> for ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' gained notoriety and scorn from parental groups concerned about adult content creeping onto children's media.

Unauthorised portrayals of characters and people are also seen as a concern: a humorous tradition exists of {{wpl|Thomas the Tank Engine}} being modified into games, usually as a boss character. Mattel, who owns the rights to the ''Thomas'' media franchise, took umbrage and issued [[DMCA]] takedown notices against an ''Elder Scrolls'' mod featuring the train character.<ref>Hernandez, Patricia (May 15, 2019). [https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/15/18625132/skyrim-mod-thomas-the-tank-engine-fallout-nexus-mattel "Thomas the Tank engine mod got Skyrim player in legal trouble".] ''Polygon.'' Retrieved 17 September 2022.</ref> The law enforcement conversions ''LCPDFR'' and ''LSPDFR'' for ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' and ''V'' respectively made news in Australia in 2017, when New South Wales Police Minister Troy Grant denounced the mods on Seven News, calling the ability to install addons based on the NSW Police and harm in-game NSW Police officers or potentially commit police brutality as them "perverse" and "inaccurate". Grant's statements were met with criticism from the LSPDFR community, including a developer of one of the NSW Police mods, who said their content was harmless and that they "inspired kids to think of a career in the emergency services field".<ref>[https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/02/nsw-police-minister-complains-about-7-year-old-australian-gta-mod/ "NSW Police Minister Complains About 7 Year Old Australian GTA Mod"]. Kotaku Australia. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2022.</ref>

Some developers have expressed hostile attitudes towards modding communities, such as [[Nintendo]] whose incessant litigation against fan games and console modding has left a sour taste in many a ''[[Fun:Super Mario|Super Mario]]'' fan's mouths, going so far as to banning users in the now-defunct Miiverse community forums for mentioning the ''Super Smash Bros.'' mod ''Project M'',<ref group="note">And as if they couldn't get even more oppressive towards their supposed fans, even mentioning the [[code word]] PM will garner a ban.</ref> deeming it to be "[[bullshit|criminal activity]]" as well as filing a rather petty cease-and-desist order against the video game YouTube channel ''Did You Know Gaming'' over a documentary on the rejected ''Zelda'' pitch entitled ''{{wpl|Heroes of Hyrule||,}}'' all despite its developers having given the channel their blessing for documenting a game they developed to begin with and that ''Did You Know Gaming'' had already covered cancelled Nintendo content without any apparent legal responses from the company.<ref name="Eurogamer2">{{Cite web |last=Phillips Kennedy |first=Victoria |date=2022-12-08 |title=Heroes of Hyrule video report receives copyright strike from Nintendo |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/heroes-of-hyrule-video-report-receives-copyright-strike-from-nintendo |access-date=2025-06-18 |website=Eurogamer.net |language=en}}</ref> Take-Two Interactive also joined in on the wannabe copyright troll club with their draconian stance towards ''Grand Theft Auto'' mods and conversions,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46aQHnBXDYM Take-Two VS Modders: The Grand Theft Auto Inquisition]</ref> though others such as Valve and Sega have openly embraced modders and in some cases hired these modders to work for them in an official capacity, the best known example of which is ''Counter-Strike'' for ''Half-Life'' by Vietnamese-Canadian developer Minh "Gooseman" Le, which spawned its own franchise, as well as ''{{wpl|Sonic Mania||,}}'' whose development team was composed of members known for their work in the ''Sonic'' fangame and ROM hacking community. Sega even took a belated potshot at their erstwhile rival by leaving a cheeky comment on a gameplay video of a ''Sonic'' fan game encouraging its developer to keep up their good work.<ref>[https://www.techdirt.com/2016/09/14/sega-takes-potshots-dmca-happy-nintendo-while-being-cool-about-fan-games/ Sega Takes Potshots At DMCA-Happy Nintendo While Being Cool About Fan Games]</ref>

[[File:Nexus Mods homophobia.png|thumb|160px|left|The childishness of the [[alt-right]] at work here.]]
The cultural zeitgeist of the 2010s and 2020s have also crept into the modding space when trolls attempted to disrupt popular modding site {{wpl|Nexus Mods}} by way of a texture mod for the Windows release of ''{{wpl|Spider-Man (2018 video game)|Marvel's Spider-Man}}'' replacing the rainbow flag with the flag of the United States,<ref name="wp">[https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/08/19/spider-man-remastered-pride-flag-mod-nexus/ ‘Spider-Man’ modification scene turns into Pride flag battlefield]</ref><ref name="judy">[https://www.gamesradar.com/mod-site-deletes-anti-pride-mod-for-spider-man-encourages-angry-users-to-delete-their-accounts/ Mod site deletes anti-Pride mod for Spider-Man, encourages angry users to delete their accounts]</ref> along with the description "changes the stupid pride flags with american flags"{{sic}} in an apparent effort to sow controversy over the perceived [[Homosexual agenda|gay agenda]] by the game's creators. The mod was taken down soon after, but not without outcry from some users who were butthurt by the ban; Nexus later stated "we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it," also frankly advising users who disagreed with the ban to "move on".<ref name="judy"/> A similar announcement was also made by ModDB when a [[Twitter]] user informed the site that the flag modification was also mirrored on ModDB, which the site's moderators promptly removed.<ref name="garland">[https://www.spieltimes.com/news/spider-man-remastered-anti-lgbtq-controversy-explained/ Spider-Man Remastered: Anti-LGBTQ controversy explained]</ref> As if that wasn't enough, edgelords and sockpuppets of the banned user went further by uploading  the so-called "Extra Progressive Pride Mod" which juxtaposes both the gay and transgender flag colours with the [[Nazi]] [[swastika]], only for it to be deleted not long after for obvious reasons (along with a thinly-veiled mirror thereof by another troll<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20220912024019/https://www.nexusmods.com/marvelsspidermanremastered/mods/1883 They Live New York (archived)]</ref>), as well as the [[Joe Rogan]] Podcast t-shirt texture mod which edits the Empire State University shirt into a sardonic design of Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow kissing each other and "THE JOE ROGAN PODCAST" scrawled on the shirt, likely as a veiled reference to Rogan's homophobic views in an effort to dodge censorship by the site's moderators.<ref>[https://www.nexusmods.com/marvelsspidermanremastered/mods/744 Joe Rogan Podcast T-Shirt] [https://archive.is/J2uq3 (archive)]</ref> In response to perceived "woke" bias on mainstream mod hosting sites such as Nexus Mods, some wingnut "gamers" have taken the effort of coming up with pro-[[Freeze Peach]] alternatives to Nexus, ModDB and Gamebanana, such as Basedmods and DEG Mods who tout themselves as "censorship-resistant" and anonymous and will accept any and all mod submissions, no questions asked.<ref>[https://x.com/DEGMods/status/1842891417422528867 DEG Mods on X]</ref> Unsurprisingly, practically all of the content in those sites are vile, hate-filled trash, ranging from ''Doom'' WADs mocking mass shootings, in particular the [[Christchurch massacre]], to neo-Nazi and Holocaust denialist skins as well as "tweaks" that remove any semblance of non-white skin colours in games such as ''Hogwarts Legacy'',<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/Gamingcirclejerk/comments/16i7udg/did_yall_know_basedmods_was_a_thing/ Did yall know "BasedMods" was a thing?]</ref> which in itself is a whole can of worms considering the views of the ''Harry Potter'' [[J.K. Rowling|series creator]].

==Impact on attitudes==
{{cquote|If Pacman had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.|||Marcus Brigstocke{{fact}}}}
{{#ev:youtube|C8G8cdbPmp8|230}}
[[Irony|Ironic]]. [[Correlation does not imply causation|Or not.]]
 
Video games have mixed impacts on players' attitudes towards violence, [[sexism]], and [[racism]].

===Violence===
[[File:Видеоскриншот из игры S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mobile.gif|thumb|180px|left|[[Jack Thompson]] claims children may develop violent tendencies due to video games.{{efn|Footage from ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mobile'', a spinoff of the popular ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'' franchise by [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] developer GSC Game World.}}]]
During the first surge of video game popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a somewhat widespread belief that the use of multiple lives in a video game could lead players to not value their own lives (very much in the same spirit as the idea that video game players were allegedly detached enough that they wouldn't understand [[A Clockwork Orange|violence was wrong]]).

There's no getting around one point — ''many'' video games are violent. Some violent games such as ''Mortal Kombat'' and ''God of War'' are very successful. The former effectively sparked the entire violent video game panic,<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27620071</ref> while the latter was particularly notorious in the early 2000s for offending various parenting sensibilities (it included, amongst other things, extreme violence, strong language, and general [[nude]]y themes, including a literal sex minigame). Games such as ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] (GTA)'' and ''Max Payne'' transpose graphic violence into [[Mafia|gangster]] and [[police]] procedural settings, and first-person shooters (a genre dating to the 1980 arcade game ''Battlezone'') gained a reputation from their 1990s flagbearer ''Doom'' for immense amounts of gratuitous and often supernatural violence.<ref group=note>BFG-9000: When you absolutely have to 
frag
 incinerate every mofo in the room, accept no substitutes.</ref>

Needless to say, like any other new media panic, the old media loves to feast on these things — Eric Harris, one of the [[Columbine]] shooters, for example, was a modestly talented ''Doom'' level designer,{{efn|It goes without saying that the maps Harris made were included in Doomworld's "Top 10 Infamous WADs" list.<ref>[https://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/infamous.php Top 10 Infamous WADs]</ref> Many in the ''Doom'' community have naturally distanced themselves from Harris and fellow Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold, such as when former ''Doom'' community member Scott "Covaro" Cover represented the community in a ''Good Morning America'' round-table meeting with [[Bill Clinton|Bill]] and [[Hillary Clinton]].}} so many people blamed their gaming rather than their social isolation or [[fascist]] political leanings for the slaughter. [[Pop psychology|Pop psychologist]] "Doctor" Phil McGraw has been known to do shows on the alleged danger of video games, as have police procedurals such as ''Criminal Minds'' and the ''Law and Order'' franchise. In the [[United States]], in response to the 1993 congressional hearings on video games (where [[Joe Lieberman]] "famously blamed video games for violence"),<ref>https://fortune.com/2019/08/10/trump-video-game-violence-joe-lieberman/</ref> the [http://esrb.org Entertainment Software Rating Board] was organized to provide MPAA-like content ratings for video games; [[Canada]] uses the same system, while [[Japan]], [[Europe]], and Australia have their own rating systems. However, the perception (by and large a ''[[post hoc ergo propter hoc]]'' confusing of [[Correlation does not imply causation|causality and correlation]]) continues that excessive video game violence can cause bad behavior in youth, presumably on the [[PIDOOMA|assumption]] that video gamers have a somewhat tenuous grasp of [[reality]]. The fact that this has been said about role-playing games, comics, and (in a recent case) horror novels ''without'' being borne out by studies on the subject really doesn't faze anyone involved in the moral outrage industry.

According to the American Psychological Association, existing research has established a connection between violent video games and an increase in aggressive behavior in children. While the APA have stated that children playing video games in general do not show an increase in violent or aggressive behavior, they did find that children who played violent titles saw an increase in "aggression".<ref>American Psychological Association, [http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-video-games.aspx APA Review Confirms Link Between Playing Violent Video Games and Aggression"]</ref> They have also claimed that there is a link "between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior ... and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement."<ref name="CNN">APA/CNN, [http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/ "Do video games lead to violence?"]</ref> The APA has called on the industry to design video games that include increased parental control over the amount of violence such games contain. However, other researchers have contested these findings. Whitney DeCamp, an associate professor of sociology at Western Michigan University, says the evidence points to either no relationship between playing video games and violent behavior or an "insignificant" link between the two."<ref name="CNN" /> According to psychologist Christopher Ferguson, "newer studies "with better methods" have typically failed to find much evidence of a connection between brutal games and even minor aggressive acts, let alone violence";<ref name="CNN" /> in his analysis of their findings, he "concluded that evidence warrants a more cautious interpretation of the effects of violent games on aggression than provided by the APA technical report or resolution statement."<ref>Christopher J. Ferguson, Allen Copenhaver, Patrick Markey, [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691620927666 "Reexamining the Findings of the American Psychological Association’s 2015 Task Force on Violent Media: A Meta-Analysis "], ''Perspectives on Psychological Science''</ref> Further studies have also challenged the assertion that video games affect empathy or cause "desensitisation".<ref>Simone Kühn, Dimitrij Tycho Leon Kugler, Katharina Schmalen, Markus Weichenberger, Charlotte Witt, Jürgen Gallinat, [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323063000_The_Myth_of_Blunted_Gamers_No_Evidence_for_Desensitization_in_Empathy_for_Pain_after_a_Violent_Video_Game_Intervention_in_a_Longitudinal_fMRI_Study_on_Non-Gamers "The Myth of Blunted Gamers: No Evidence for Desensitization in Empathy for Pain after a Violent Video Game Intervention in a Longitudinal fMRI Study on Non-Gamers"], ''Neurosignals''</ref>

In the wake of the 2018 Florida school shootings, the old, outdated canard of video games being responsible for the deaths of children was brought up again by then-[[Fun:Kentucky|Kentucky]] governor Matt Bevin and several other Republican governors.<ref>Wartman, Scott (Feb 16, 2018) [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/02/16/florida-school-shooting-kentucky-governor-blames-violent-video-games-movies/344336002/ Kentucky governor blames violent video games, movies, not guns for school shootings.] ''USA Today''. Retrieved February 23, 2018.</ref> [[Donald Trump]] has blamed both violent video games and violent movies and has called for an age regulation system for them, even when both ''already'' have an age-rating system.<ref>Jamieson, Amber (February 22, 2018) [https://www.buzzfeed.com/amberjamieson/trump-video-games?utm_term=.rsXp8GOn5#.ypAJewxM8 Trump Linked Violent Video Games And Movies To The Florida School Shooting.] ''Buzzfeed''. Retrieved February 23, 2018.</ref> A meeting was scheduled with the Trump administration and members of the video game industry, but with absolutely no psychologists nor scientists (i.e. the people who are qualified to talk about the links between violence and video games) in attendance.<ref>Beck, Kellen (Mar 08, 2018) [https://mashable.com/2018/03/08/trump-violence-video-games-meeting/#JkWBbUCfgPqX The White House is already bungling its meeting about video games and violence.] ''Mashable''. Retrieved March 15, 2018.</ref> During the March 8, 2018, meeting with the video game executives, Trump showed a cherry-picked montage video of violent video games in order to cause shock about the content in such games. The video is currently unlisted, though other channels have picked it up and reposted it.<ref>IGN. (Mar 8, 2018) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o36-byW6ZTo Watch President Trump's Violence in Video Games Highlight Reel.] ''YouTube''. Retrieved March 15, 2018.</ref> Trump has relied on blaming on video games again after the El Paso and Dayton shootings in 2019, demonstrating that his earlier important meetings discussing video game violence in 2018 were totally effective and that minds were changed.<ref>Griffin, Andrew. (August 5, 2019). [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/trump-video-games-toledo-shooting-8chan-el-paso-press-conference-today-a9040066.html Trump to launch crackdown on violent video games after mass shootings]. ''The Independent''. Retrieved August 5, 2019.</ref>

Less controversially, the violence inherent in most video games gave the medium a rather stigmatised reputation in the eyes of some organisations with respect to competitive gaming, such as the {{wpl|International Olympic Committee}} (IOC), who in 2017 acknowledged the growing popularity of esports but are deeply troubled with the violent imagery prevalent with the likes of ''Counter-Strike'' and ''Rainbow Six''–being mostly based on contemporary military and police procedural scenarios–leaving a barrier to entry for esports' inclusion in top-level Olympic competition, though the IOC did admit that many of the traditional games in the Olympics are at least somewhat derived from violent combat.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/olympic-committee-open-to-esports-but-only-without-violence/ | title = Violent video games not welcome for Olympic esports consideration | first = Kyle | last = Orland | date = 13 March 2018 | access-date = 14 March 2018 | work = [[Ars Technica]] }}</ref><ref name="ap 2018 asian games">{{cite web | url = https://apnews.com/3615bd17ebb8478ab534691080a9a32a | title = Bach: No Olympic future for esports until 'violence' removed | first = Stephen | last = Wade | date = 1 September 2018 | access-date = 3 September 2018 | publisher = [[Associated Press]] }}</ref> To this end, many of the video games included in esports events sanctioned by the IOC are only those seen as consistent with the Olympic values, e.g. genres which don't involve realistic depictions of gun violence such as sports simulations, fantasy-themed multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA) or martial arts games such as ''Street Fighter'', as well as specially-modified versions of existing action games such as ''Peacekeeper Elite''{{efn|A version of ''{{wpl|PUBG: Battlegrounds}}'' which is bowdlerised to be cleared for release in certain countries where depictions of violence and other sensitive content is verboten.}} with the battle royale mode removed in favour of an off-road racing-slash-target shooting mode.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bila |first1=Leticia |title=No person-to-person shooting in PUBG Mobile's Asian Games version |url=https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1121273/pubg-mobile-asian-games-version |access-date=30 September 2023 |work=Inside the Games.biz |date=31 March 2022}}</ref> Curiously, esports events at the SEA Games ''did'' involve games seen by the IOC as anathema to their values, such as ''Valorant'' and ''PUBG Mobile'' in the 2023 edition,<ref>[https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/4/5/valorant-xipto-esports-reigns-vs-kohaibi-team-boba-for-gc-sea-title-2011 Valorant: Xipto Esports claims Game Changers - SEA title]</ref> even though the SEA Games is supervised by the IOC who previously nixed shooter games in the 2019 edition due to aforementioned violence concerns.<ref name="fox1">{{cite news |title=Esports will be a medal event in the 2019 SEA Games |url=https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/986197/esports-will-be-a-medal-event-in-the-2019-sea-games/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130050247/https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/986197/esports-will-be-a-medal-event-in-the-2019-sea-games/|access-date=15 December 2018 |work=Fox Sports Asia |archive-date=30 November 2018|date=28 November 2018}}</ref>

On the other hand, while censorship in general is indeed wrong, there are instances where some games have been so abhorrent that they deserve to be taken out of circulation, case in point mobile games which not only portray caricatures of [[Rodrigo Duterte]] and his lackeys mowing down (suspected) criminals through violence but also normalise the [[War on Drugs]] especially amongst the youth who have easy access to such trashy apps; the objection isn't so much with the video game violence in itself but rather with how real-world issues are treated with the sensitivity of a live grenade, more often than not oversimplifying the issue and [[woo]]ing youths into a {{wpl|copaganda}} festival of state and [[law enforcement]]-sponsored [[vigilante]] carnage. ''Fighting Crime 2'', ''Duterte Knows Kung Fu'', ''Duterte Running Man Challenge'', ''Tsip Bato'', and ''Duterte Vs Zombies'' have been criticised by watchdog groups for their tactlessness in portraying the War on Drugs amidst the horrors associated with it, especially as the games in question do fall afoul of [[Apple Inc.]]'s content guidelines; many of them have since been removed from mobile app stores following pressure from watchdog groups.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mateo|first1=Janvic|last2=Tupas|first2=Emmanuel|title=Apple takes down Tokhang mobile games|url=http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/11/29/1763516/apple-takes-down-tokhang-mobile-games|access-date=November 29, 2017|work=The Philippine Star|date=November 29, 2017}}</ref><ref name="beeb">{{Cite news |date=2017-11-29 |title=Apple removes Philippines leader Duterte execution games |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42165328 |access-date=2025-03-14 |work=[[BBC]] |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="Hardwick">{{Cite web |last=Hardwick |first=Tim |date=2017-10-13 |title=Activists Urge Apple to Remove App Store Games That Play Up Philippine Drugs War |url=https://www.macrumors.com/2017/10/13/activists-apple-drop-games-philippine-drugs-war/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=MacRumors |language=en}}</ref> Other similarly abhorrent games, notably the racist slop that is ''[[Ethnic Cleansing (video game)|Ethnic Cleansing]]'', received intense criticism for glorifying [[white supremacy]] and violence against minority groups and [[Jewish]] people.

===Sexism===
{{main|Sexism}}[[File:VG Primary Character.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Primary character by gender, race.<ref name=NS>https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17819-video-games-need-a-more-diverse-cast-of-characters/</ref>]]
Sexism has long been a problem, both in games and in the gaming community itself (which [[Self-fulfilling prophecy|in turn influences the content]] in the games due to [[consumer]] demand).

Despite a substantial and growing number of female gamers,<ref>[http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2012.pdf Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry: 2012], Entertainment Software Association</ref> there is still an overwhelming tendency for games to star male characters and neglect females, as well as an imbalance in the treatment of male and female archetypes.<ref name=NS /><ref>[http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/video-game-industry-haunted-by-lack-of-female-characters-1.2680786 Video game industry haunted by lack of female characters: Technical issues, lack of female gamers blamed] (Jun 19, 2014 11:08 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 19, 2014 11:13 AM ET) ''CBC''.</ref>

Female gamers themselves are seen as [[Other|special]] and denoted as such with terms like "girl gamer" or the arguably worse "gamer girl" in online multiplayer video games. That issue may devolve into harassment where the female player gets insulted or griefed (Gaming term for people who target their allies in multiplayer games).<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/sports/toxic-online-culture-women-esports/ Online culture can be toxic. These women gamers are fighting back.]</ref>

Various excesses of immature behaviour (i.e., [[nativism]], racism, sexism, and [[heterosexism]]) are normal in most gaming communities.<ref>[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2011.642401 Intersecting Oppressions And Online Communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox Live] by Kishonna L. Gray (2012) ''Information, Communication & Society'' 15(3):411-428.</ref> Many of the more vocal gamers are not happy to be faced with [[women's rights]] issues within the scope of their "light-hearted" medium and display behaviour ranging from rude to overtly violent, such as the "Beat Up [[Anita Sarkeesian]]" game,<ref>[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118310-Flash-Game-Makes-Players-Beat-Up-Tropes-vs-Women-Creator Flash Game Makes Players Beat Up 'Tropes vs Women' Creator] by John Funk (6 July 2012 11:35 am) ''The Escapist''.</ref> which manages to do both of those with a heaping spoonful of immaturity thrown in.

The issue has been a major source of outside ridicule<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQnIJ-ljctk XBox Girls Get Revenge ] by CollegeHumor (Sep 8, 2010) YouTube.</ref> and an excuse [[argumentum ad cellarium|not to take gamers seriously]]. This wound is one that even developers admit is self-inflicted.<ref>[http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/24/5835822/survey-poor-work-conditions-and-sexism-give-games-industry-a-bad-rap Survey: poor work conditions and sexism give games industry a bad rap] by Tracey Lien (Jun 24, 2014, 12:00pm EDT) ''Polygon''.</ref><ref>[http://archive.is/e3OeM Women in Games] by Gabe Newell (July 10, 2014) ''Imagur'' (archived from June 10, 2015).</ref> Inaction in the face of blatant sexual harassment in official gaming events is especially notable.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/02/is-pervasive-sexism-holding-the-professional-fighting-game-community-back/ Is pervasive sexism holding the professional fighting game community back? Sexually charged language toward a female competitor at the Capcom-sponsored, …] by Kyle Orland (2/29/2012, 10:26 AM) ''Ars Technica''.</ref> Further incidents like [[Gamergate]] don't make it any better, as they not only intimidate female players and developers, but also make games appear more the playground of immature misogynists than a true art form.

There have been several scientific studies which examine the possible link between video games and sexism:

*Deskins 2015 ("The Effects of Video Games on Sexism Attitudes in Males"), sampling "117 undergraduate participants (41 men, 76 women)", found evidence that playing violent video games correlated with finding "screen shots of a series of sexist chat messages sent to female gamers" to be amusing (though this doesn't prove causation):

{{quotebox|1=The relationship between amusement and offensiveness ratings were also examined for how much participants reported playing violent video games. [....] As can be seen in Table 1, a correlation of amusement with violent video game play was also (r(117)= .184 and p= .047). That correlation showed that as people who reported playing more VVGs they also reported finding the images more amusing. [....] In order to examine the suspected differences of Hostile sexism, gender and whether or not participants played Violent Video Games (VVGs) or not, a 2(Hostile sexism split: above, below median) X 2(gender: women, men) x 2(Violent Video Games played: yes, no) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the mean amusement scores. That ANOVA indicated a marginal main effect for VVGs, F(1, 109) = 3.436,p = .067. That effect occurred because individuals who play VVGs reported more amusement across the images (M = .988) than did individuals who do not play VVGs (M = .635).<ref>[http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=honors The Effects of Video Games on Sexism Attitudes in Males] by Troy Deskins (2015)</ref>}}

*Breuer ''et al.'' 2015 ("Sexist Games = Sexist Gamers? A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Video Game Use and Sexist Attitudes"), sampling 4,500 self-identified "active gamers" (in the first wave of the 3-wave longitudinal study), found no evidence that video games increase or decrease sexist attitudes:

{{quotebox|1=The current study addressed this issue by examining the influence of video game exposure on sexist beliefs and attitudes over a 3 year period. However, no evidence for a cultivation effect on sexist attitudes was found. [....] Although the findings from the present study are certainly not conclusive, the absence of any longitudinal links between video game use and sexist attitudes at least suggests two things. First, similar to what has been suggested for aggression,38 it is likely that there are factors, such as personal experience and family and peer influences, that affect the development, proliferation, prevention, or reduction of sexist attitudes more strongly than (fictional) media content. Second, general and broad cultivation effects of video games are somewhat unlikely, as players differ in the games they play, and the interactivity of the medium also causes the experience of the same game to differ between players.<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20150611201033/http://a.pomf.se/qqecrh.pdf</ref>}}

*The abstract of Fox ''et al.'' 2015 ("Lifetime Video Game Consumption, Interpersonal Aggression, Hostile Sexism, and Rape Myth Acceptance: A Cultivation Perspective") reads:

{{quotebox|1=In this study, we conducted a survey (N = 351) of male and female adults and used structural equation modeling to analyze relationships among video game consumption, trait interpersonal aggression, ambivalent sexism, and first-order (percentage of false rape accusations) and second-order cultivation effects (RMA). We found support for the hypothesized cultivation model, indicating a relationship between video game consumption and RMA via interpersonal aggression and hostile sexism. Although these findings cannot be interpreted causally, we discuss the implications of these associations and future directions for research.<ref>http://m.jiv.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/02/12/0886260515570747.abstract</ref>
}}

Studies have also been conducted which examine the idea that objectifying people (i.e. perceiving people as objects, such as when a woman is nothing more than background decoration), and women specifically, dehumanizes them and makes it easier to cause harm to them:

*Loughnan ''et al.'' 2010 ("Objectification leads to depersonalization: The denial of mind and moral concern to objectified others"), sampling two groups (A:) eighty-six people (54 female, 32 male) and (B:) eighty people participating as part of a course requirement (40 female, 40 male), found that objectification did indeed lead to dehumanization:

{{quotebox|In two studies we have demonstrated that objectification influences depersonalization, specifically the attribution of mind and moral status. As objectification increased, mind attribution decreased and moral status was withdrawn. Although this emerged as a main effect in almost all analyses, Study 2 revealed the important qualifying role of target gender. [....] A particularly worrying original finding of this research is that objectification diminishes a second aspect of personhood, perceived moral status. Whether this reduction precipitates less moral treatment of objectified others is an important question for future research. Study 2 demonstrated that the objectified are assigned more pain tablets, a finding which may indicate that they are seen as less sensitive to pain or that we care less about their suffering. Feminist theorists have argued that objectification plays an important role in facilitating violence against women (Dworkin, 2000).<ref>https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nick_Haslam/publication/229920077_Objectification_leads_to_depersonalization_The_denial_of_mind_and_moral_concern_to_objectified_others/links/02e7e5253cf290b078000000.pdf</ref>}}

*The abstract of Heflick ''et al.'' 2011 ("From women to objects: Appearance focus, target gender, and perceptions of warmth, morality and competence") reads:

{{quotebox|Research on perceptions of humanness and the stereotype content model suggests that humanness is linked to perceptions of warmth, morality and competence. Merging these insights with objectification theory, we hypothesized that focusing on a woman's, but not a man's, appearance should induce objectification, and thus reduce perceptions of these characteristics. In three studies, females, but not males, were perceived as less competent (Studies 2 and 3) and less warm and moral (Studies 1, 2 and 3) when participants were instructed to focus on their appearance. These findings support our position and help rule out stereotype activation as an alternative explanation to dehumanization. Further, they generalized to targets of different races, familiarity, physical attractiveness and occupational status.<ref>https://kar.kent.ac.uk/40444/</ref>}}

Interestingly, another study found that male gamers who were better at ''Halo'' tended to be significantly nicer to female gamers, and bad gamers were meaner. In other words, online [[misogynist]]s are literally losers.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/07/20/men-who-harass-women-online-are-quite-literally-losers-new-study-finds/?wpisrc=nl_az_most Men who harass women online are quite literally losers, new study finds] by Caitlin Dewey (July 20, 2015) ''The Washington Post''.</ref>

The conclusion of a 2017 paper by Ferguson & Donnellan sums up the issue quite succinctly: 

{{quotebox|"[There is] an increasing body of literature that suggests there may be little link between sexism in games and sexism in real life. However, this perspective does not mean that moral concerns about sexism in games are unimportant. Our concern is that claims about the power of scientific evidence to support moral agendas may backfire, especially when the evidence is equivocal."<ref>https://www.christopherjferguson.com/Sexist%20Games%20Reanalysis.pdf</ref>}}

====Riot Games lawsuit====
Riot Games, a studio famous for the online multiplayer game ''{{wpl|League of Legends}}'', is undergoing a lawsuit filed by Jessica Negron regarding gender discrimination in the workplace in 2018.<ref>Chalk, Andy (November 6, 2018) [https://www.pcgamer.com/riot-games-sued-for-gender-discrimination/ Riot Games sued for gender discrimination.] ''PC Gamer''. Retrieved November 12, 2018.</ref> The allegations range from an illegal wage gap between genders to sexual objectification of female employees, including an alleged "Riot Games Hottest Women Employees" email chain, as well as requiring female workers to tolerate it. In terms of hiring, female applicants were generally excluded for not being a "core gamer" (heavens knows what that actually means). Negron's former supervisor told her that, "diversity should not be a focal point of the design of Riot Games' products [[Ethnocracy|because gaming culture is the last remaining safe-haven for white teen boys.]]" Translation: this the last place where we can act like discriminatory, bigoted assholes. Negron alleges that she had took a managerial position at Riot Games and had no increase in pay and was even discouraged from seeking higher positions, despite her male employee receiving a promotion for doing the same job. Riot Game's response to the lawsuit was a rather generic non-response of "While we do not discuss the details of ongoing litigation, we can say that we take every allegation of this nature seriously and investigate them thoroughly. We remain committed to a deep and comprehensive evolution of our culture to ensure Riot is a place where all Rioters thrive."

===Racism===
{{main|Racism}}
[[File:VG Character Race.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Characters by race.<ref name=NS />]][[File:VG Character Age.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Characters by age.<ref name=NS />]]
Racism is common in video game culture. Be it on Xbox Live where the word "[[nigger]]" is thrown around as much as frag grenades in a first person shooter (FPS) or in the highly stereotyped characters of fighting games, video gaming culture has its own issues of racism on both the developer and consumer sides.

Western video games frequently face criticism for more or less portraying the same type of hero (heterosexual white males) all the time. Here's a fun image that actually illustrates this point quite well.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20150104073454/http://www.twinfinite.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/video-game-protagonists-kids-love-brown-haired-30-something-white-males-500x377.jpg</ref> This is so obvious that even large corporations like Ubisoft are developing videogames that openly try and break this trend as much as possible such as ''Far Cry 4''.<ref>[http://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-far-cry-3s-dude-bro-led-to-changes-in-far-cry-/1100-6421181/ How Far Cry 3's "Dude Bro" Led to Changes in Far Cry 4: Creating the "anecdote factory"] by Laura Parker (July 18, 2014 at 2:05PM) ''Game Spot''.</ref> Despite this, ''Far Cry 4'' has been accused of racism against Asians.<ref>http://www.vg247.com/2014/06/24/far-cry-4-ps4-pc-xbox-one-cover-art-assumptions-were-uncomfortable-says-ubisoft/</ref> This form of racism is based on exclusion, where minorities and people of color are either erased, stereotyped or objectified. For example, a study by the ''European Journal of Cultural Studies'' showed that Arabs and [[Muslims]] were frequently linked to terrorism in video games, promoting vicious [[stereotypes]] about both groups.<ref>[http://www.digitalislam.eu/article.do?articleId=1704 Digital Arabs: Representation in Video Games] by Vit Sisler (2008) ''European Journal of Cultural Studies'' 11(2):203-220.</ref> Despite claims to the contrary, black and Latino American gamers are statistically proven to buy more video games and play them more frequently than white American gamers, showing that this erasure isn't an issue of ''sales''.<ref>[http://newamericamedia.org/2011/09/gamer-to-game-makers-wheres-the-diversity.php Hispanics and Blacks Missing in Gaming Industry] by Damon Packwood (Sep 13, 2011) ''New America Media''.</ref>

Unlike television and movie media of the past, the racism in video games generally results from ignorance and erasure rather than outright malice. However, as with sexism, gaming culture itself makes it very hard to bring up the issues of racism. For example, when gamers playing the obviously racist video game "Ching-Chong Beautiful," complete with racial slurs against Asians and highly offensive portrayals of Asians, said, "Hey, this is pretty racist", other gamers told them to calm down because [[Red herring|it was fun to play]].<ref>[http://www.salon.com/2013/12/11/video_games_race_problem_goes_all_the_way_to_the_top/ Video games’ race problem goes all the way to the top: What we really need to fix is an insular industry, and a gaming culture that punishes people for bringing up race] by Sidney Fussell (Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013 5:57 PM UTC) ''Salon''.</ref>

Non-white gamers who comment on racism on video games are often brutally attacked through social media or are ignored. For instance, when black gamers asked Bioware why there weren't any black characters in Dragon Age, Bioware's response was an incredibly condescending and borderline bigoted [[strawman]] of what the gamers asked, complete with the good ol' fashioned "Why aren't you asking if there aren't any [[vegetarian]]s in Bioware" line of bad logic.<ref>[http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=3784 BioWare on Racial Diversity in Dragon Age 2] by Cuppycake (Jan 5, 2011) ''The Border House''.</ref> Many gamers make the claim that they themselves aren't racist for playing a game that is racist. This is also a nasty form of [[strawman]] as it tries to individualize an issue that is intrinsic to an entire culture. (In other words, your individualism isn't relevant.)

While the subject matter of video games may be racist or exclusionary, video gaming as an activity isn't. Studies show that when people of different ethnicities and races play video games in teams, racism and prejudicial attitudes actually decrease.<ref>[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/lovesick-cyborg/2014/10/24/can-video-games-curb-racism/#.VIDk6Ml5Xh8 Can Video Games Curb Racism?] by Jeremy Hsu (October 24, 2014 11:16 am) ''Discover Magazine''.</ref> Racism in Western video games is really a larger reflection of Western culture, as long as racism is in Western culture, there will be racism in our media.

==Health issues==
Another common concern about video games is health &mdash; most children consuming games are usually sitting in front of the computer, TV, and/or handheld game console and not being active.

Other known health issues include:
*Dizziness and motion sickness (the most common)<ref>[http://xbox.about.com/od/buyersguide/a/vgmosick.htm Video Games And Motion Sickness]</ref>
*Back injuries and chair posture<ref>[http://www.spine-health.com/wellness/ergonomics/office-chair-posture-and-driving-ergonomics Office Chair, Posture, and Driving Ergonomics]</ref>
*Blistering, bruising, or cuts<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101004101126.htm Interactive video games can cause a broad range of injuries], ''Science Daily''</ref>
*Epileptic seizures<ref group=note>Warning stated in practically any modern game manual. Related is the infamous [[Pokémon]] episode.</ref>
*Heart attacks<ref group=note>Multiple anecdotal cases; this is generally a given risk for anyone who doesn't take some time out of their day to exercise.</ref>
*Migraines / Headaches

Some see{{factoid|Who?}} it as a case of [[correlation does not equal causation]]&mdash;suggesting that video games are the cause of developmental, attention and social issues in individuals does not address the actual problems that an individual might have, such as more sedentary lifestyles.

===Warnings===
Nintendo's systems (as well as newer games on the now-discontinued GameCube and Game Boy Advance) used to display notifications related to health and safety when starting up for the reasons listed above. However, since the 3DS and Wii U, they do not show the warning every time; the Switch never shows any warning mandatorily. Notably, its 3DS has a parental control option to turn off the 3D effect (which works differently from 3D TV and movies; for example, it doesn't require special glasses) on settings for young children due to safety concerns. As noted on the boxes of 3DS games, the 3D effect is only enabled if the parental control settings are set for players seven years of age or older (likewise, turning parental controls off entirely leaves use of the 3D effect unrestricted). Up until the 3DS (including the original DS and the Wii), the notifications could not be turned off, but they only required a press of a button to get past and only appeared when the system was turned on, so it ends up less annoying than it sounds. The 3DS only displays the warning when the system is first set up (i.e. when it's fresh out of the box), but includes health and safety application on the system's main menu.

Sony's PlayStation Portable, as well as its successor the PlayStation Vita also has health and safety notifications along the lines of what Nintendo has. While general health warnings for Playstation 3 software is generally relegated to game manuals, the PS3 itself displays a warning about photosensitive epilepsy on startup [[irony|while little white dots of light flash on screen]]. Microsoft didn't seem to have added any to its Xbox 360 system or any subsequent generation, however.

===Brain development===
"Game brain" is the theory that playing video games for a long period of time affects a player's frontal lobe, inhibiting creative and emotional development (among other things). A relatively new theory, it is generally disregarded by science.

One study by Prof. Ryuta Kawashima suggested that video games impacts the development of the brain by not stimulating the [[Brain|frontal lobe]], which the researcher concludes will result in an increasingly violent society.<ref>[http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-271849.html Researchers: Video games hurt brain development], CNET</ref> Details of the research are vague and do not show much promise in terms of methodology, as the study compared 30 minutes of adding numbers non-stop with playing a Nintendo game.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20120719141829/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/BUSINESS/asia/08/20/london.gamebraindamage/index.html Computer games 'cause brain damage'], CNN</ref> Beyond the obvious ambiguity, this leads to issues of not considering the unstructured nature of most video games, and the wide range of video game types, both ''within'' and beyond Nintendo. The researcher appears to be using beta wave activity as a proxy for frontal lobe activation. A more robust way of collecting this data would be to use an actual fMRI scan. Lack of frontal lobe activation also does not automatically mean that less attention and conscious activity are inherently associated with video games. Individuals who have practiced at a specific task for enough time generally show less activation as the task is "farmed out" to unconscious mental processes.<ref>[http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2538-video-game-brain-damage-claim-criticised.html Video Game Brain Damage Claim Criticised], ''[[New Scientist]]''</ref><ref group=note>Kawashima, by the way, did endorse a series of Nintendo DS games – ''Brain Age'' – that claim to train your brain with several activities, such as the aforementioned speed-adding of numbers. Regardless of any actual scientific effect, they can be considered "not bad" as games go, and were popular enough to inspire several clones, including the very transparent ''The Professor's Brain Trainer''.</ref>

Some recent research, conversely, seems to indicate that games are (gasp) good for your brain!<ref>[http://www.npr.org/2010/12/20/132077565/video-games-boost-brain-power-multitasking-skills Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills], NPR</ref> Scientists in Berlin conducted an experiment in which they instructed a group of adults to play Nintendo's ''Super Mario 64 DS'' 30 minutes a day for 2 months; subsequent [[MRI]] scans show increased brain matter in areas involving spatial navigation, [[memory]] formation, strategic planning, and fine motor skills of the hands compared to a control group who didn't play video games. The researchers involved in the study concluded that video games could be used as a form of therapeutic treatment "for patients with mental disorders in which brain regions are altered or reduced in size, e.g. schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s dementia."<ref>[http://www.mpg.de/7588840/video-games-brain How video gaming can be beneficial for the brain], Max Planck Institute</ref>

===Addiction===
Concerns have also been raised by medical professionals, psychologists and politicians regarding video game addiction, based on the assumption that video games cause people to become socially introverted rather than being a release for people who already are. There is considerable unease in many nations over the disproportionate time (and sometimes [[money]]<ref>[http://www.dorkly.com/post/65536/how-every-awful-video-game-thing-was-born#!bmulLX How Every Awful Video Game Thing Was Born]</ref><ref>[http://www.wired.com/2014/02/eve-online-battle-of-b-r/ Inside the Epic Online Space Battle That Cost Gamers $300,000], ''Wired'' (Though this was probably worth it.)</ref>) some players spend gaming. In one extreme case, a [[Korea]]n baby died of malnutrition and neglect while her parents spent roughly 12 hours a day raising a "fantasy child" online.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/28/south.korea.virtual.baby/ Jail for couple whose baby died while they raised online child], CNN</ref> Approximately 3% to 8% of gamers are "pathological players," associated with anxiety, depression, problems with social and family interaction, poor school and career achievement. Establishing which is cause and which is effect is difficult.<ref>[http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2014/02/electronic-entertainment What makes video games addictive?], ''The Economist''</ref>

MMORPGs and other subscription-based games sometimes take advantage of [[Skinner box|Skinnerian operant conditioning]]<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/21/candy-crush-angry-birds-psychology-compulsive-casual-games-mobile-flappy-birds My favourite waste of time: why Candy Crush and Angry Birds are so compulsive], ''[[The Guardian]]''</ref><ref group=note>This is the same thing that can cause both [[rat]]s and people to become compulsive gamblers.</ref> to ensure a steady cashflow, but by and large, the question of gaming addiction comes down to whether a game is interfering with normal life functions and the related question of whether it's being used as a substitute for other interaction. The second is not an inherently bad thing; social gaming such as ''Second Life'' or MMORPGs often serves as a highly effective social outlet for people who find [[real world]] interaction difficult or uncomfortable. The first, however, is potentially very destructive; unfortunately, people do confuse the two issues regularly.

There has been controversy over the classification of video game addiction as a mental disorder. Despite recognition by the World Health Organization in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), "[t]he American Psychiatric Association (APA) did not include video game addiction in its most recent edition of the [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]] (DSM-5), published in 2013. At that time, the APA said there wasn't enough evidence to determine whether gaming disorder is a unique mental health condition, but recommended further research in the area."<ref>https://www.livescience.com/65580-video-game-addiction-mental-health-disorder.html</ref>

[[China]] was the "first country to label online addiction a disorder".<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/28/electronic-heroin-china-boot-camps-internet-addicts</ref> To combat what has been described as "excessive gaming"<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58384457</ref> amongst young people, the government of [[China]] enacted restrictions which introduced time limits on Massive Multiplayer Online games; players that had been playing continuously for three hours or more began to receive in-game penalties, such as loss of currency.<ref>https://www.engadget.com/2007-04-10-china-imposes-anti-addiction-limits-on-kids-gaming.html</ref> However, this was only effective at discouraging players from spending too much time on a single MMO, since they were free to switch to another game that did not assign active penalties. In response to this, the Chinese governent have "barred online gamers under the age of 18 from playing on weekdays and limited their play to just three hours [on] most weekends",<ref>https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/31/tech/china-ban-video-games-minor-intl-hnk/index.html</ref> while Chinese state media have described online gaming as "spiritual opium"<ref>https://news.sky.com/story/tencent-shares-slump-after-online-games-branded-spiritual-opium-and-electronic-drugs-by-chinese-state-media-12371450</ref><ref>https://www.ft.com/content/1ee4f40b-cad8-45f7-b8dd-de25b89736d3</ref> (although they're hardly the first nation to make such an absurd comparison; in 1993, US Senator Fritz Hollings referred to television as "a narcotic").<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lobkzXRt-o</ref>

In addition to these measures, numerous treatment camps which claim to be able to cure "video game addiction"<ref>https://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/06/chinese-internet-addiction-center-photos/</ref> have been established throughout the country. Their methods range from solitary confinement and beatings to electroshock therapy (although the latter was officially banned by the Chinese Ministry of Health in 2009).<ref>https://mashable.com/article/internet-rehab-abuse-china</ref><ref>https://nypost.com/2017/08/29/inside-the-brutal-world-of-chinese-internet-addiction-camps/</ref> "Several young people have reportedly died at the camps, according to state-sanctioned media in China. [...] [S]upervisors at a camp in China's Henan province reportedly beat a 19-year-old girl to death when she failed to ask permission to use the bathroom, The Beijing News reported. Other reported deaths at Internet addiction camps across the country include a 14-year-old boy struck with a baton and pipe for being unable to do push-ups, according to the Los Angeles Times, and a 15-year-old beaten less than a day after arriving at camp."<ref name="ABC">https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/dark-deadly-side-chinas-internet-addiction-camps/story?id=24282781</ref> An 18-year-old teenager died due to the abuse they received at a facility in Anhui;<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-40920488</ref> the owner was later sent to prison.<ref>https://www.inkstonenews.com/health/internet-rehab-center-operator-jailed-over-teenagers-death/article/3000899</ref> Although these facilities claim a high success rate ("[o]fficials at the Daxing treatment center said that 70 percent of their patients overcame Internet addiction"),<ref>https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/can-boot-camp-cure-internet-addiction/2442322.html</ref> the evidence is dubious at best. ""For a treatment to work, it needs to last," Jenny Taitz, a clinical psychologist at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York, told ABC News. "And the very nature of a camp is that you can only stay there temporarily." [...] "I'm a clinician who bases my entire practice on evidence-based treatment, and I've never heard of a boot camp treatment in my scouring of evidence-based research," Taitz said."<ref name="ABC" />

==Societal issues==
{{cquote|I did expect it [mobile gaming] to get as big as it did, but what I didn't expect was the prolific rise of free to play gaming and hyper casual, which sadly destroyed the art of game design for me. F2P has turned game design into tracking player analytics and tweaking the design to keep player retention as high as possible, which doesn't equate to fun experiences necessarily - more a grinding/farming culture of game playing.|||Neil Rennison, former artist at Ideaworks<ref>[https://needforspeedtheories.boards.net/thread/2433/nfsug2-nfsmw-mobile-brew-versions NFSUG2 and NFSMW mobile BREW versions.]</ref>}}
{{cquote|There will be those people out there, who try to say that [trading card game] booster packs are just like the loot boxes found in video games. […] No, they’re not. And anybody who tries to say otherwise probably has a loot box to sell to you.|||Kohdok, board and card game reviewer<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nCypjL3ats Building Better Boosters!! Seven Deadly Sins of TCGs, Errata Text #3]</ref>}}

===Gambling===
[[File:Overwatch loot box.gif|thumb|200px|right|The ostentatious use of animations and imagery in this lootbox sequence in ''Overwatch'' is clearly designed to induce a lifetime's supply of dopamine.]]
Apart from actual [[gambling]] games (slot machines, casino games, etc.), there are some disturbing trends in the gaming industry regarding the practice of loot boxes. A loot box is a prize pack that can be acquired in-game that gives random rewards. The examples we will focus on are available for purchase with real-world cash, which can compel people to gamble on these boxes, as they can sometimes be acquired by paying with in-game currencies or merely by watching ads in mobile games. In 2007, a Chinese free-to-play massively multiplayer game invented the modern loot box, where you would earn the boxes but have to pay for keys to open them. The first notable hit in the West to include this was ''{{wpl|Team Fortress 2}}'', but over the next decade or so the concept would evolve to include pay-to-play games, such as the traditionally single-player series came with ''{{wpl|Mass Effect 3}}''. This game contains a player-vs-enemy (PvE) multiplayer element. Multiplayer characters and weapons must be obtained or enhanced with loot boxes which when completing multiplayer games enhanced the single-player experience.

The issue came to a head with the success of 2016's ''Overwatch'' from Blizzard Entertainment (one half of the Activision Blizzard conglomerate), a pay-to-play game with cosmetic loot boxes occasionally handed out for free or available for purchase. This change caught on like wildfire within the industry with many major titles for 2017 now adopting both cosmetic- and power-based loot boxes. Previous games in some series that relied almost exclusively on acquiring items through leveling up were now being fed through loot boxes, while consumers were upset about game balance. In 2017, with the release of ''Star Wars Battlefront 2'', Electronic Arts was set to tie multiplayer powers and progression that would devastate game balance (including some power-ups that allowed abilities to be used twice as often) to these crates until the rights holders (Disney) stepped in and told them to stop. For a while. this system continued, with in-game credits being required for purchasing crates, meaning that players still had to grind upwards of 40 hours to unlock and upgrade one hero (Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, etc.). Post-launch, this has become a catalyst for political figures to get involved in games once again, as the system is psychologically exploitative and could prey on unsuspecting children who just want to play Star Wars (the game is rated for teenagers, meaning its easy to buy anywhere with no age restrictions). Thankfully, EA changed the progression to a more conventional system where playing a character gave points that could be used to upgrade said character.

Selected other titles with these elements:
*''{{wpl|Halo 5: Guardians}}'' - (Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries) Certain modes (all labeled as Warzone) in the game have one-use or permanent cards to gain a tangible advantage that can be earned or bought with real currency. Stated in other terms, a fresh player starts with an unscoped assault rifle and a handgun, whereas tangible upgrades to these exist including scopes, bigger magazines with other guns (marksman rifles, SMGs, etc.), and all game vehicles (from the ATV to the tank) being locked behind these crates. On the other side, Arena matches puts all players on equal footing regardless of unlocks and give rewards much like Warzone. So you could play Arena to unlock goodies for Warzone then switch when comfortable. Another argument would be that the game is designed in a way that the average player will acquire three to four bronze packs, or one silver pack per play session, meaning a player will have cards to use next time.
*''{{wpl|Middle-earth: Shadow of War}}'' (Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, Monolith Productions) - Some critics have noticed that the true ending to the game is locked off from players unless they repetitively grind for a very long time or bunker down and buy the crates. As of July 2018, it is now impossible to buy loot crates as the "marketplace" has been removed from the game, and the true ending was made easier to achieve.
*''{{wpl|Payday 2}}'' (Independent, Overkill Software) - A pay-to-play title on Steam added locked loot <strike>crates</strike> safes (with $2.49 <strike>keys</strike> drills) that contained random cosmetics. Related, a previous pack that had been on sale for $20 that provided unique masks as part of an investment pack that would provide items down the road was just revealed to be a unique safe. The backlash was so heated that community moderators threatened to quit their jobs, the review rating tanked, and bad press all around with the player base seeming to tumble out of control overnight. The only way the developer would fix this was to buy the game (as in the intellectual property of the game) from their publisher 505 Games to go independent for $30 million and a cut of the eventual sequel, Payday 3. The safes were not removed, but the drills from all future safes came at no cost.
*''{{wpl|Call of Duty: WWII}}'' (Activision-Blizzard, Sledgehammer Games) - You can earn progress by watching other people open loot boxes. Compulsory behavior training? It's ''simply common knowledge'' that our troops during the D-Day invasion in [[World War II]] had randomly spawning crates fall from the sky open up, reveal cards, and they gather around that crate to see what they got.
*''{{wpl|Forza Motorsport 7}}'' (Microsoft Studios, Turn 10 Studios) - All of your unlockable cars, car mods, suits, etc. that were once part of the game in previous entries can now be obtained only through lootboxes-er I mean, "Prize Crates"! As of November 2018, this system was removed in favor of a "buy what you want" model instead of random chance.
*''{{wpl|Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered}}'' (Activision-Blizzard, Raven Software) - A beloved classic remastered and available by purchasing a deluxe edition of ''Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare'' or eventually standalone for $40. Originally the game featured no microtransactions or loot boxes. Then new guns were put in as microtransactions and loot boxes were added anyway, and the DLC was sold again rather than being free! You can get the original cheaper than all of this.
*''{{wpl|Counter-Strike: Global Offensive}}'' (Valve, Hidden Path Entertainment) - Formerly a pay-to-play game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (commonly abbreviated as CS:GO or CSGO) added a cosmetic system in the game with lootboxes and skins sold via the Steam Community Market & by in-game "drops". The system was so effective that Valve made the game free-to-play in 2018 focusing on revenue of these items exclusively. Several websites exist online just for the primary purpose of gambling said items for money or more rare skins, and have faced many legal actions from the European Union and the United States. These websites now require visitors to be 18+ or reside outside the United States.

Compared to a similar item, booster packs for collectible cards or trading cards such as those of ''Magic: The Gathering'' (''MTG'' or ''Magic'') generally have well-known odds, and thus the outcome of any trade is much more predictable. The typical ''Magic'' booster pack contains 15 cards consisting of one land, ten common rarities, three uncommon rarities, and one rare card. Across packs, a mythic rare comes in about one in eight packs, while a foil card comes in one in seventy cards (or one in five booster packs). These statistics are easily available from the game's publisher, ''Wizards of the Coast'', and is also printed on the packs themselves, so calculating odds is a far easier matter, and gives you a better idea of what to expect. In addition, since these cards are physical items, a secondary market for them exists: One can, in fact, feasibly acquire their entire collection of ''Magic'', or ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', or ''Pokémon'' cards without ''ever'' having to touch a single random product. Similarly, if one has lost interest in their card game hobby, they can recoup some of what they spend on it (or they could repurpose their cards as, for instance, bookmarks or drink coasters). When it comes to video games and associated loot boxes, the odds are often not published anywhere unless required by law or developer agreement. In ''Halo 5'', you can buy packs in three flavors, with each stating which rarities are included (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra-Rare, Legendary and Mythic), but nothing is guaranteed in any one individual box, and none of these items can be resold or traded to other players, and even in the rare instances where it is possible to sell or trade items from loot boxes on some kind of (secondary) marketplace (such as with Valve’s Team Fortress 2 or Roblox Corporation’s Roblox), these things happen entirely at the discretion of the publisher, who can put the kibosh on it any time they want—“The house controls everything”. Incidentally, ''Magic'' also has several video game versions, with the most recent being ''Magic: the Gathering Arena''. Not only is it based on the exact same rules as the physical game, but it is also free to start, gives you five decks of cards to play with and is completely upfront and honest with its drop rates<ref>https://magic.wizards.com/en/promotions/drop-rates</ref> and costs.<ref>https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena/faq</ref> To compensate for the lack of a secondary market, if you get a fifth copy of a card (the game locks you at a maximum of four per deck), it is automatically replaced with another card from a set of the same rarity. If none are available, you are instead granted either premium in-game currency (in other words, the game pays you as compensation) or access to rarer cards. On top of that, as you open packs, you can eventually access "Wildcards", which can be exchanged for any card of the same rarity.

A common rebuttal from the industry and gamers alike is that the features and items involved are simply cosmetic, and therefore do not directly impact gameplay, an excuse which even the slightest bit of scrutiny reveals to be nonsense. Due to how people play video games in personal settings, options that cater to how a player wants to enjoy the game causes them to enjoy the game more, and arguably, these enhancements, no matter how minor they may seem, increase a player's enjoyment of the game and is therefore considered a viable part of the experience. Worse tends to be the low or limited value of some of these cosmetics. ''Overwatch'' has limited-use sprays (allowing players to decal walls with a picture) while ''Destiny 2'' has textures (coloring) that can be used only once and only on a single piece of armor, limiting the ability to skin a whole character. Additionally, if these cosmetic items weren't important, greedy publishers wouldn't gate these items behind these chance paywalls to begin with (and these items aren't easily ignored) and wouldn't have developed a lucrative system behind scamming people who have gambling impulses to purchase loot boxes in hopes that it may contain a skin they would wish to use. Furthermore, many of these items used to actually be '''part of the game''' (see ''Forza Motorsport 7'' above) and were already in-game rewards (before being artificially removed from the base game and placed behind a paywall), and many games to this day use aesthetically pleasing costume pieces as rewards for playing the game rather than asking players to play upfront, with recent examples such as ''Super Mario Odyssey'' and ''Sonic Forces''. This doesn't take into account supposedly cosmetic features which do in fact end up affecting the game's balance or fairness, which is a particularly crucial component in multiplayer games.<ref>https://metro.co.uk/2017/10/13/star-wars-battlefront-ii-loot-box-system-will-change-says-dice-6997260/</ref>

Another common rebuttal is that loot boxes are simply up to the discretion of the player to buy them, and all of the negative consequences are up to the individual player weighing the risks and rewards and coming to their own conclusion to make that decision. The problem with this argument is the psychologically manipulative tactics used by said games to get players to part with their money, such as repeatedly badgering them with notifications, or forcing them to go through endless amounts of tedious and artificial grinding in order to gain access to the item they want without paying extra. In many of these cases, most players have already paid $60 for the game they are playing; the last thing they want or need is said game nagging them to part with even more cash. This is about as much choice the player has as with people who have psychological problems with gambling, and this is the main reason gambling in casinos or on the internet is restricted to adults only. Going back to kids for a second, ''Fortnite'', which is popular with children, has an out-of-game bullying problem for in-game outfits that are used. Essentially, not having spent money on outfits is seen as an excuse to bully someone.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hernandez |first1=Patricia |title=Fortnite is free, but kids are getting bullied into spending money |url=https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/7/18534431/fortnite-rare-default-skins-bullying-harassment |website=Polygon |language=en |date=7 May 2019}}</ref>

Beyond that is the derogatory language used to describe the player base, derived from casino terminology. The most common word is "whale," referring to someone who spends large amounts of money on any particular game (casinos also call them "high rollers", who make large bets); similar terms are "dolphins" for those who spend a moderate amount on a game and "krill"<!--I think?--> for those who spend nearly nothing or none at all. Whales tend to share similarities to people with gambling addictions, making it very obvious the ingrained problems with these models.

===Pay-to-win===
{{wpl|Freemium}} games and others with {{wpl|Free-to-play#Pay-to-win|similar business models}}, very prevalent in mobile platforms as Android and [[Apple|iOS]], in which the game is free to download but in order to progress on it one will sooner or later have either to grind ''a lot'' or open the wallet to buy what is needed to progress further are also related to the above including the usage of the same terminology for the player base<ref group=note>Either to progress or get new gear. For example, ''{{wpl|Real Racing 3}}'' has ''hundreds'' of licensed cars to choose from and on top of what costs a given car there's the (in-game) money spent both to maintain and repair it after a race or challenge as its performance degrades, and to tune up and improve that car. If you're a completist and/or want to have fully upgraded, top-of-the-line, vehicles plus in-game currencies and lack patience for ''a lot'' of grinding you're for quite a ride (and a bank account left trembling considering the costs in real-world money terms of what ultimately are just a bunch of 3D models of a car, the coding required for it to work, and numbers existing in a server and/or your device totally useless outside the game)… assuming you don't simply download a modded (pirated) version that gives you for free many of these cars and money especially if you're going to play only offline</ref>. 

Such mobile games are also often advertised with ads that show gameplay that is at best just minor part of the actual game and at worst doesn't exist<ref>[https://yourstory.com/2024/08/ugly-truth-mobile-game-ads The Ugly Truth of Mobile Game Ads]</ref><ref group=note>Including those transparently generated with [[artificial intelligence]], psychological tricks as playing with the feelings of viewers, plain fanservice (of course, of mostly women), and/or those with graphics there's no way even high-end smartphone's hardware could move fluently and/or for long (and were them real, the game would eat a significant amount of your phone's storage). Infuriatingly enough, some put at the end of the ad in [[fine print]] you're unlikely to find what you saw on it.</ref>, and base their business model on both how while a number of people who download the game just to find the same Candy Crush clone or base-building game of identical mechanic to others alike but as the former skinned with different assets/game of poor and ''very'' different graphics to what was promised that were ripped off from Unity's library, and in both cases full of ads, will uninstall it (and possibly hate mobile game companies in the process too), some will play and try it before deleting the game, and some will not uninstall at all, become hooked, and will begin to pay, and how as the game is free to download a case against the companies that release them would have little possibilities to prosper (as the only things that have been lost are time, the amount of data spent downloading the game, and a bit of wear in the hardware), with {{wpl|Playrix}} being one ''big'' offender in such regard having been sued in the [[United Kingdom]] for false advertising<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54509970 Homescapes and Gardenscapes ads banned as misleading.]</ref>, and those of {{wpl|Evony}} not being far off.

==See also==
*[[Essay: Video game genres]]
*[[Social media]]
*[[Brainwave woo]]
*[[Moral panic]]

===Games with articles===
*''[[Ethnic Cleansing (video game)|Ethnic Cleansing]]''
*''[[Grand Theft Auto]]''
*''[[Grezzo 2]]'', a total conversion mod for ''Doom'' (1993)
*''[[Pokémon]]''
*''[[Roblox]]''
*''[[Wolfenstein]]''

==External links==
*[https://effectiviology.com/cognitive-benefits-of-playing-video-games/ The Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games]
*Pretty much every title in Wikipedia's {{wpl|Video games as art#List of artistic video games|list of video games as an art form}} should probably be stored in the equivalent of a [[Svalbard]] Seed Vault (psst... starting with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGcXI_BaR2Y ''Journey''])
*[http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted_p1.html 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying To Get You Addicted] - Basically, open-ended multiplayer games, such as ''World of Warcraft'' and ''[http://www.cracked.com/article_18709_6-devious-ways-farmville-gets-people-hooked.html FarmVille]'' are just great big digital Skinner boxes.
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZM2jXyvGOc Slow Down the Violence] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwAo8lcAC4 Tragedy and Video Game Violence]
*[[Charlie Brooker]]'s [http://vimeo.com/86920129 ''How Videogames Changed The World'']
*[http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/11/5402178/goat-simulator-bleats-it-way-to-steam-this-spring-now-with-licking The greatest game of all time.]
*[http://steamcommunity.com/groups/rationalgamers RationalWiki's unofficial Steam group]
*[https://www.darkpattern.games/ A site listing the psychological tricks used to cause addiction present in games, and what games have them or not.]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Video games| ]]
[[Category:Moral panics]]
[[Category:Stereotypes]]
[[Category:Japan]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Woo]]
[[Category:Science woo]]

Categories: Video games, Moral panics, Stereotypes, Japan, Pseudoscience, Psychology, Woo, Science woo