Enter the X-Zone

Eighteen-year-old Anupam Deshpande has been a fan of the shooter game,Counter-Strike,and the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series,ever since he was in high school. He is glad that the games aren’t banned here. “Playing these games is a perfect way of giving vent to one’s frustration,” he says.

The debate over violence depicted through such media is decades old. A research paper published by Dr Craig A Anderson of the American Psychology Association (APA) in 2007 states that the violent streak in children becomes evident through games that depict a lot of blood,gore,violence and sexuality. On the APA website,an excerpt from an article written by him states,“Recent video games reward players for killing innocent bystanders,police and prostitutes,using a wide range of weapons including guns,knives,flame throwers,swords,baseball bats,cars,hands,and feet.”

Actually,all video games come with an international ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating,which specifies the age-group for which the game is intended. “Despite the ratings,anyone can buy them here in India,unlike in the West,” says Atindriya Bose,country manager-India,Sony Computer Entertainment. These games are sold openly in major bookstore chains,as also in smaller stores. While an original CD or UMD (Universal Media Disc) can cost anywhere between Rs 750 and Rs 2,500,the cracked version that can be directly downloaded on a memory card and the pirated CD versions cost anywhere between Rs 80 and Rs 200 per game.

Most of these games are manufactured by foreign companies like Santa Monica Studios (a subsidiary of Sony),Rockstar Studios and Ready at Dawn studios. Very recently,Sony India launched the indigenous Ra.One-The Game,based on the movie,but it is meant for players aged 12 and above. Through its stores in India ,Sony is selling games such as Manhunt 2,God of War 1,2,3,Metal Gear Solid,Duke Nuke’ Em ,the GTA series,Final Fantasy series and the Mortal Kombat series.

Some of these games are already banned in other countries for various reasons. For instance,in Germany,Manhunt 1 & 2 ,Mortal Kombat and Condemned have been banned for high impact violence and cruelty while games like The Darkness,Wolfenstein 3D and Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines were banned because of Nazi references. In 2007,Manhunt 2 was banned across Europe while in 2005,China banned Football Manager because it recognised Tibet as a separate country. Fallout 3 was banned in Japan because of a historic reference to the atomic bombing in Japan during World War II. Saudi Arabia banned the GOW (God of War) series and GTA games for their explicit sex scenes.

There have been random attempts at censorship in India but nothing concrete. In 2008,Sharmila Tagore,the-then chairman of the Censor Board,moved a petition to bring in censorship for video games. The I&B ministry reportedly gave its green signal for the same. But that was it.

Jitendra Pratap Singh,regional officer,Mumbai,Central Board of Film Certification says,“The most important thing as far as video-game censorship is concerned is whether they come under the purview of the Cinematography Act of 1955,falling under the same category of movies. As of now,there is no regulation in place for their censorship and we have not been informed about anything from the government. However,as these games are banned abroad and are freely imported and sold here,we would definitely be taking up the issue in the board meeting soon.”

Singh,however,argues that there are a lot of issues involved in the censorship. “Since they are for personal consumption we cannot impose strict laws on their sale. Secondly,we also need to check where all these games are sold,who are the importers and what channels are they being bought into in India. And we will take up all these issues seriously in the meeting,” he says. Meanwhile,the popularity of these games is only escalating. “Parents purchase these games for their children because they are not really aware about the content. Most parents haven’t been exposed to the gaming culture,” says Bose,adding,”Interactive entertainment is here to stay. Instead of a heavy censorship,these games should be sold through the right channels. Banning them will only fuel the grey market,monitoring which will will be quite impossible.”