It can be argued that video games, whether inadvertently or intentionally, may include or introduce one or more of the following themes: discrimination, profanity, and sexuality. The following paragraphs show why this is a valid argument.
As a result of the advancement in technology, there are now more than several forms of video gaming. These forms can be separated into two types: arcade games and personal home consoles. A major difference between these two formats is cost: arcade games charge a relatively low price per round of video game, but the consoles carry an expensive initial price tag. This leads to an issue of discrimination, where the more affluent parts of the population can afford their own consoles but the gamers that play at video game arcades are from poorer backgrounds.
Discrimination is also found inside the games themselves. A study from several years ago pointed out that many games feature mostly men and have very little females of importance. In fact, 92% of games have no female roles at all, while 6% of games feature a female as “damsels in distress” and the final 2% have women with active roles in texts.
Furthermore, just like movies and books, many game developers have been including profanity and sexual references inside their games. Games like these typically including sexy, voluptuous animated female characters. Some examples are Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series and the beach volleyball players/ fighters in the Dead or Alive series. It is even possible for some games, like Virtual Valerie, to have content that borders on pornography, but this is rare. Some say that these games even hint to those who play these games (mostly males) that men are supposed to “control” women, such as telling her what to shoot and with which gun
Delving deeper into Tomb Raider, a Japanese storekeeper that was interviewed as part of a research on video games reported that the heroine of the game, Lara Croft, was extremely popular among the Japanese males. They find the “exotic Caucasian female” attractive and exciting, perhaps relating to sexual fantasies. In general, this games shows that there all kinds of sexual fantasies generated by men when they play video games that depict beautiful, provocative women.
This kind of sexual pleasure deprived from looking at characters like Lara Croft is considered “scopophilia”, from looking (scopo) and loving (philia). Specifically, the form of “scopophilia” that gains pleasure from looking and not the form that gains pleasure from being looked at, which is considered exhibitionism. One may consider these exaggerated and voluptuous characters as animated, video game versions of Barbie dolls which also have extremely unrealistic bodies consisting of large breasts and tiny waists.
Others theories that have sprung up include the possibility of males with transgender behaviours playing these games in order to feel the transgender elements without losing any of their sense of male potency in the real world.
Because of the widespread profanity and sexuality in video games, all games are required to be rated, according to their content, for different age groups. The job of these ratings are carried out by organizations such as the Entertainment Software Review Board based in the United States.