Fox News attacks again... but what can WE do about it?

The only thing surprising about Fox New's most recent attack against Duke Nukem Forever and the game industry in general is that it took so long. I think the gentlemen at Penny Arcade said it best in this comic from last week. Here's the thing, as much as Fox News and people like Jack Thompson just plain don't get it or us, we, as an industry and a culture, invite this sort of contrevorsy that art(paintings and sculpture to clarify), books, music, and movies have long since shrugged off.

Why is it okay to have a naked woman or man sculpted to perfection in public viewing, or an Alien vs. Predator movie that is PG-13, or a rap beat with more racial slurs in it than otheres, but we can't have a simulated slap by an admited chauvinist by design to a submissive woman? It's because video games are afraid to tackle difficult issues in a mature fashion.

To end the Duke Nukem debate I don't think there is a single rational adult who would play through Duke Nukem Forever and not see it as an ironic commentary rather than an attitude to aspire to.South Park always manages to tackle very sensitive and difficult issues in fun and (duh) cartoon-ey ways, but video games still don't have any mature, grotesque art in our culture (that is relevant).

I have obviously bitched about it before, but we are an industry where the primary consumer base is males 25 to 40and the second largest consumer base is women similarly aged. We are mostly adults who, more often than not, have jobs, spouses, own property, pay taxes, and who are generally contributing, mature (debatably) members of society. We also read, have social groups, watch movies (it's always the comic book movies and Sci Fi that make the most money), and some of us even have children. I am 28 and the panel at PAX East 2011 that the most of my friends were most excited about was the Geek Parenting panel. So why is it all games that get the M+ or AO rating are so immature and blatantly trying to offend?

Now let me be perfectly clear; I am not saying that Duke Nukem is bad (I think the reviews will say that) or that it shouldn't exist, or that Fox News is or is ever remotely close to being correct on the issue. Hell anyone who plays the game and decides that it is then okay to objectify and/or batter women is just stupid. To think that a video game, or any other piece of art can perform inception or do anything else than inspire is just plain ignorant. With that said the video game industry is all cartoons and no Shakespeare. There needs to be, and I would argue there would be a lot of profit in finding a middle ground between ironic and mistivous comentary and "mature" drama.

There is room in my heart for the movie Dumb and Dumber, Love Actually, Gattaca, Pan's Labyrinth, and Sin City. Why can't we have a game industry that represents those same broad subject matter as fiction, art, movies, and music? When our industry is so one note, are we really suprised that's what the harpy's will dwell on?