UK game industry attacks ‘games lead to death’ campaign

Before the weekend we talked about the UK health campaign Change4Life, which had caused controversy in the gaming community for strongly implicating videogames in premature death. UK game industry representative Tiga has officially lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority, which has been reproduced for the Internet to read.

“This advert is absurd and insulting in equal measure. To imply that playing a video game leads to a premature rendezvous with the Grim Reaper is a non-sequitur of colossal proportions. Alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, obesity and involvement in violent crime are forms of behaviour that risk an early death.

In contrast, many video games are mentally stimulating, potentially educational and social and some involve physical exercise. Brain Training, Wii Fit, Civilisation, Singstar and Buzz are cases in point.

This advert is offensive to the 30,000 people who work in the UK’s video games industry, particularly the 10,000 who work in games development. Game developers are typically intelligent, very qualified and creative individuals who work to produce high quality games for people’s entertainment. They are not in the business of driving people to an early grave.

With nearly a quarter of men and women and almost a fifth of two to five year olds in England obese we clearly need to encourage a more active lifestyle and healthy diet. It should be possible to achieve this objective without misrepresenting a creative industry of 30,000 people.”

Since the Advertising Standards Authority has pulled several videogame commercials over the years, I hope they’ll be just as quick to respond in this case as well. Fair’s fair, after all.