Cody Taylor

Gamasutra is running a feature by game developer Brian Green on how he and his colleagues are still striving for legitimacy and respect as part of a medium that’s still commonly thought of by many as “for kids” and “potentially harmful to kids.” He notes that while financial legitimacy is no longer in question, artistic and cultural legitimacy are taking more time. Green makes some interesting parallels to the early movie and comic book industries, and points out that moral outrage against comic books did significant damage to the medium’s growth in the US. “… in the United States there was a ‘moral panic’ about the corrupting influences of comic books on children, as there often is with many ‘new’ media. The government threatened to enact laws to censor comic books, for the good of the children. (Does that sound familiar to game developers?) The industry reacted by enacting their own regulations, the Comics Code Authority (CCA). The Comics Code Authority heavily restricted the content that comics could contain. For example, the words ‘horror’ and ‘terror’ were not allowed in the titles of comics. Werewolves, vampires, zombies, and similar creatures of the night were forbidden.”

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