OPINION Mortal Kombat mortifyingly violent — Not for kids Mark s Mkland ho other dav I walked into a 7-Klevon store to buv n macaroon cake. I've noticed there's a lot of noise from the video games in this store, and I asked the cashier if she didn’t get disturbed by all the electronic hongs, booms, thuds, clnrif’s and zaps that drown every other sound in the store. ''Well, I can get used to those sounds." she said, handing me the macaroon cake with her bare hands. "It's the screams I can't stand." I took the macaroon cake, hoping that her hands were clean. "The screams?" I asked. "Who's screaming?" "The games, of course. Espe cially the new ones. They scream so awfully that some times 1 think I'm working in a torture chamber," she said. And then I heard it: A dread ful scream pierced the air, as if someone was suffering horrify ing pains. It brought hack the memories of an ugly traffic acci dent I had witnessed a few years ago I walked over to the video games set tion, where a couple of \oting boys were playing n game They were about eight years old and wore extra-large sweatshirts, baggy pants and baseball < aps turned backwards One of the hoys was banging his list in the control board in a violent fit "I hate Sub-Zero!" he shouted. "He's impossible!" I looked over his shoulder and caught sight of one of the most repulsive images I've ever seen. There, on the video screen, was a man dressed in an Asian mar tial arts uniform, holding a head with the spinal cord dangling from the neck. It was mv first encounter with Mortal Kombat. I watched the boys play the gume and witnessed the fighters on the screen give each other blood-spattering punches, rip out each other’s still-beating hearts, tear off each other's heads and gore each other on long spears. If the video game had looked like a cartoon, some of the vio lence might have been condon able, but this was no Tom fr ]vr rv: The designers had scanned video images of real people into the game in order to give it an authentic look, and the violent mutilations looked realistic, down to the anatomical outline of the spinal cord and the color of the blood. And I thought video games consisted of Pa( -Mans y; billion per year in the United States But most importantly, they've become extremely violent I happen to believe that vio lent movies can he harmful to children Hut in a wav. 1 think these video games an* even more dangerous. Here's why . • While the viewers of a vio lent movie assume a passive role, video games require chil dren to become active partici pants in the violence. They are encouraged to use violent means to solve problems • Violent video games are more accessible than violent movies Although f-aiga has start ed a labeling system for their games, it's up to each individual retail outlet whether it will enforce this system. Moreover, everyone can play these games at the local convenience stem1 • Parents have less control over the games their children play. They an* often unaware of the violent content of the games they buy for their children. While most adults know that movies The fighters on the screen give each other blood-spattering punches, rip out each other’s still-beating hearts, tear off each others heads and gore each other on long spears. may be violent. many parents don't knoyv that the newest \ ideo games are just as violent Mow do we prevent children from being exposed to these games ' Of course, them's no wav to twin these games entirely (im sorship never works, and adults should lie allowed to play these games if they want to Hut these games are not appro priate for children Sega's label ing system is a nice idea, hut it's primarily a play to the gallery If Sega really wanted to protect children, how come it never introduced a system of enfort e ment? Furthermore, if children aren't supposed to play the game, why is there no age limit for the coin machines' And what’s the [mint of an "access code" to hies k violence, when everyone can look up the code in a video game magazine? Or |>erhaps Sega and Nintendo don't want to protect children after all. Perhaps they want to cash in on a tendency they've heen observing the movie indus try and a correlation between vio lence and profit And perhaps that's why these i nmpanins have spent $10 million to promote thn release of Mortal kornhat The campaign swims to have worked very well so far Ai i ord ing to l ime magu/.ine. thn game is ii\ jiei toil to tiring in more than $150 million by Christmas The bovs in thn 7-Eleven store certainly snnnind to tin nnjoving thn gamn. They wore shouting and jumping up and down as thn blood and goro splattnrnd on thn screen. Onn of thn charai tnrs on thn si .men jumped up and ku ked the other character's head The blood began to gush from the injured character's throat, and the vii tor torn off thn opponent's head and threw it into a svnll, in which it was pierced on a long spear "Yeah! 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