Some interesting quotes from Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez on news wire AFP today. Speaking out on his weekly radio show as part of his continued drive against the perceived westernisation of his country, Chávez has pinpointed videogames as one of the main corrupting capitalist influences on young people today (though strangely omitting Microsoft and Nintendo from his ire).
"Those games they call 'PlayStation' are poison. Some games teach you to kill. They once put my face on a game; 'you've got to find Chávez to kill him.'"
Chávez was referring to Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, a game featuring a villainous Venezuelan tyrant that bore more than a few similarities to the outspoken leader. It no doubt angered him further when the game turned out to not be very good.
He went on to say in his broadcast that any games that "bomb cities or just throw bombs," are sold by capitalist countries to sow violence so they can "later sell weapons."
They "promote the need for cigarettes, drugs and alcohol so they can sell them. That's capitalism, the road to hell," he added. Something the thousands of us that became addicted to Buff Out after playing Fallout 3 can probably sympathise with.
Venezuela, Chávez said, should be making "educational games," and also suggested designing "little indigenous dolls" to sell in place of dolls "like Barbie, that have nothing to do with our culture."
Venezuelan lawmakers in October passed a law outlawing the sale of "bellicose" videogames that can be punished with up to five years' imprisonment.
Bad news for any Venezualan Modern Warfare clans, and especially bad news for PlayStation owning Barbie collectors. Saying gaming makes us violent is something we've all heard before - but making us capitalist drones? Has Chávez taken it too far?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/jan/19/hugo-chavez-games-poison
Comments