Nerve put together a fun set of Q&As about sex, violence and the future of video games featuring a panel of seven well known gaming experts.

The panelists are Steven Johnson, Brenda Brathwaite, Ian Bogost, Eric Zimmerman, Henry Jenkins, Rob Levine and Katie Salen.

There are five questions that the group will discuss and it looks like that while the Qs are already up on the site, the As will be coming over the week. The first discussion is already there for all to read.

A taste of the goodness:

Question 1: Is the sexual and violent content of video games a legitimate social concern? Or are Hillary Clinton et. al. criticizing video games for easy political points? And why is there so much more violence than sex in games, anyway?

Henry Jenkins III
First, lets put the question in some historical perspective. As we look across the history of popular culture and new media in the twentieth century, we see the same pattern recurring: each new medium is embraced by young people who are seeking out experiences which they can call uniquely their own and are often drawn towards material which shocks and titilates; parents and adults express a growing dismay because this medium was not part of their own childhood experience and they do not know how to protect their young; some kind of incident occurs which can be loosely tied to the emerging medium and we enter an era of moral panic during which people seek to "do something even if it is wrong" and end up doing the wrong things; the medium withstands a storm of controversy and attempts at regulation which go counter this country's stated support for free expression. At the end of the cycle, the generation which grew up with this medium ends up looking back nostalgically at their misbegotted youths and take as given the place of that form of popular culture as the standard against which new media experiences will be judged and this cycle starts all over again.

Did I ever tell you Jenkins is my hero?

Voicebox [Nerve]

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