is that we have this wide range of of games that um we’re seeing mobile games we’re seeing indie games we’re seeing this influx of different kinds of games and that’s what Gamergate is responding to welcome to Mojo Plays and today we are looking at instances where video games were covered by mainstream news outlets both positively and negatively now listen up last night one of our agents got into the house and found some kind of weird security system hidden cameras in almost every room and a series of traps our agents splice an overwrite into the security system but before we dive in we publish new content all week long so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos beating the unbeatable [Music] tetris tetris isn’t a game most of us can really beat eventually the blocks will pile up and you’ll lose however in 2023 a 13-year-old named Willis Gibson known online as Blue Scutty did effectively beat the NES version by progressing so far he caused the game to freeze this happened on the 157th level before this causing this version of Tetris to freeze was only achieved by AI so it’s undeniably an impressive accomplishment with a game as old and famous as Tetris this story was picked up by multiple outlets not all of them covered it favorably though jane Secker of Sky News concluded her dismissive coverage by stating Gibson should go outside and get some fresh air as a mother I would just say step away from the screen go outside get some fresh air beating Tetris is not a life goal adoption jokes portal 2 you know being Carolyn taught me a valuable lesson i thought you were my greatest enemy when all along you were my best friend most people who experience Portal 2 recognize it as one of the funniest games ever written but one joke caused a bit of a stir soon after the game was released neil Staple was playing the game with his adopted daughter and was made uncomfortable by Wheatly poking fun at player character Chelle for being adopted it isn’t even much of a joke instead it’s one of the many instances of Wheatley being a bumbling idiot which is actually what you’re supposed to laugh at still Neil took the story to his local news channel in Charlotte North Carolina who ran with it and seemed to insinuate the joke was meant to make adopted people feel bad for being so clearly utter nonsense and tonight a father is shocked at the insensit insensitivity he says he witnessed here’s the clip what’s wrong with being adopted but well um lack of parents for the record you are adopted and that’s terrible no politics animal Crossing: New Horizons new Horizons was a safe haven for many players at the beginning of COVID with people around the world using it to virtually spend time with friends and loved ones however some used it in a way that Nintendo deemed incorrect most impactfully certain Chinese activists used it as a way to advocate for Hong Kong’s freedom in response New Horizons was removed from Gray Markets unofficial online storefronts in China less than a month after the game was released additionally Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released official yard signs that players could decorate their island with this was seemingly not the type of coverage Nintendo wanted the game to attract in November of 2020 the company updated its community guidelines requesting that the game not be used for political activities raising voter awareness among Us another game that grew popular during the CO 19 pandemic was Among Us two years after it was originally released in 2020 Congresswoman Alexandria Okasio Cortez along with colleague Ilhan Omar joined players for a live stream on Twitch the purpose to raise awareness among young potential voters while also just having fun by playing the game the stream was actually a massive success bringing in around 439,000 viewers making it one of the most viewed streams on the platform at that point while some were quick to criticize Okasio Cortez for playing a video game there’s no denying she achieved what she set out to do i do not envy that ending oh that was that was terrible wow i think she got four kills that game safety concerns pokémon Go pokémon Go was a monstrously huge launch in 2016 to the point where developers Niantic struggled to keep up with the player count something as big as this couldn’t be ignored by news outlets big or small and that was especially true when stories came in about accidents and even deaths a driver playing the game in Japan in August 2016 hit a woman killing her which was reportedly the 79th accident related to the game to occur in the country even playing the game in sensitive areas whether ethically like memorial sites or in a sense of security like the US’s Pentagon has been restricted clearly and this isn’t necessarily the fault of the developers no one anticipated the links to which players would go to catch Pokémon in the real world note to Pokémon Go fans don’t try to catch Pikachu or any other Pokémon in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum while you may think it’s common sense not to play the popular game in or around a memorial it’s apparently not gambling laws star Wars Battlefront 2 encompassing the release of Battlefront 2 were its egregious microtransactions which drew the eye of many players more than that they were so predatory that multiple government bodies around the world had to meet to decide if its loot boxes could be considered as gambling first there was the Belgian Gaming Commission which did find that to be the case elsewhere a representative of the Hawaii House of Representatives equated it to a marketing stunt using Joe Camel to sell cigarettes australia Singapore and the UK held their own investigations as well ea would eventually remove these loot boxes and fix the game’s monetization but if your game causes this kind of worldwide re-evaluation that’s not a good look sexbox Mass Effect sometimes I need a nap to get through my shift i I sneak off behind the crates to grab 40 winks where the supervisor can’t find me first released on the Xbox 360 in late 2007 Mass Effect drew a lot of attention and not all of it good in January of 2008 Fox News ran a segment called Sexbox although they had Jeff Keelley on as a guest who did his best to defend the game their angle was that Boware and Microsoft were selling players notably children full digital nudity and graphic sex of course only Keely had fully played the game so they were only reacting to cutscenes these featured minor nudity and could only be reached after progressing through a long romantic plotline with an NPC and clearly having sex is just one of the many elements Boware included in crafting a living experience this remains one of the most ridiculously outofouch pieces of coverage from a mainstream outlet about a video game well I think what’s what’s interesting about this we talk about you know sexuality in the media one of the great things about Mass Effect for people that have played it know this this is a sort of a choose your own adventure story and it doesn’t force you down a situation you can actually play through this game without the sexual situation ever happening and the young boys are going to be choosing not to have sex that’ll be what they’ll choose into the mud mario Kart series let’s get back to the positive in Colorado in 2013 10-year-old Griffin Sanders and his younger brother were in the car with their 74year-old grandmother when she suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness Griffin quickly took hold of the wheels steered the car through traffic and into a muddy ditch saving all three of their lives while Griffin did ride go-karts he also listed his time playing Mario Kart as a reason for why he knew what to do well in many of those games driving off the road and into the mud does slow you down the car was traveling pretty fast so it’s a good thing Griffin was a gamer [Music] driving to safety grand Theft Auto 5 you look like a good kid but if you want my advice give this [ __ ] up another instance of a kid utilizing driving skills they learned in a video game this time in Ireland in 2014 11-year-old Charlie Cullen was in the car with his 79-year-old grandfather who also lost consciousness behind the wheel after the car veered into a ditch Charlie grabbed the wheel and steered it out with his grandfather’s foot still on the pedal and the car picking up speed Charlie had to steer the car out of busy traffic and towards his house they ended up crashing with Charlie fracturing his skull but still able to carry his grandfather the remaining 50 yards steering through multiple streets of busy traffic is impressive for his age and under such stress and the only driving experience he had which he told the press was with Grand Theft Auto mr samuel it’s not exactly how it looks i always trump big for a job well done promoting bullying and bisexuality bully of course Rockstar’s games are not usually in the news for positive reasons prior to the release of Bully in 2006 several organizations ran campaigns against Rockstar for making light of or outright promoting the act of bullying but in the game you actually spend a lot of time fighting against the bullies more controversy emerged when it was discovered that the protagonist Jimmy could kiss both girls and boys the game was the subject of a motion filed by Florida lawyer Jack Thompson which won’t be the last time you hear that name who argued the game promoted violence and obscinity to players anyone familiar with Rockstar’s releases knows Bully is actually pretty tame for the studio promoting cannibalism stubs the zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse i’ve got a wife and kids and they didn’t mention any of this brochure in this action game you obviously play as a zombie well that should be obvious given the name and yet there was a sizable controversy soon after release about the game promoting cannibalism to players yes part of Stubs’ gameplay involves eating brains and US Senator Joe Lieberman criticized it for potentially harming quote the entirety of America’s youth end quote the developers at Wideload Games had to put out the unnecessary statement that Stubs was not a cannibal but a zombie which had been depicted eating people in pop culture for decades at this point still multiple news outlets both countrywide and local added fuel to the fire by running with the story grenades Counter Strike: Global Offensive in 2013 three boys were searching a vacant lot in Mandawei City of the Philippines for scrap when they came across a box of grenades one of them 12-year-old Joseé Garciano immediately recognized the danger they were in told the other boys not to touch them and notified the authorities the reason Jose knew the grenades were explosive was not because he had seen them in real life before or even in movies but because he had seen them blow up in Counterstrike this caused the local paper to run the humorous headline “Violent video game saved kids.” Considering the Counter-Strike series was linked by news outlets to violent crimes before this such as the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 this was a nice piece of positive press we didn’t even know who Cho was at that time it then developed about 30 hours later that his high school acquaintances said that Cho was massively immersed in the game of all things Counter Strike uh and a fan of violent video games generally saving lives America’s Army series welcome to the M320 training range soldier pick up an M320 and some training rounds from the table for those unfamiliar America’s Army is an FPS series actually made by the US Army as a recruitment tool that means it’s pretty accurate as one Paxton Galvanick can attest to in 2008 Paxton was driving through North Carolina with his family when he witnessed a car flip several times crashing while his wife called 911 he rushed over to help the two inside he was immediately able to assess the situation pulling the passenger from the car and providing first aid to the driver who was missing fingers and bleeding from the head afterwards Paxton claimed he used what he had learned playing the America’s Army series everyone naturally branded him a hero and he wrote to the team behind the games to thank them for including medic training so you’re ready to qualify let’s see if you’re an effective automatic rifleman your qualification begins in 10 seconds one lucky sister world of Warcraft in 2007 a 12-year-old Norwegian boy named Hans Jorgen Olsen made the news for saving himself and his sister using tactics he learned from World of Warcraft the two were walking through the woods when they came across a moose who didn’t take kindly to the children walking into its territory hans with undeniable quick thinking remembered being able to taunt in World of Warcraft in order to draw attention away from weaker party members he did so allowing his sister to escape he then used another tactic he had learned from the game fain death so that the moose would lose interest in him which actually worked once the moose was gone Hans ran home to tell his tale which amazed pretty much everyone teaching how to kill manhunt from here on in we’re going to need some fighting skills to get through the action we’re talking toe to toe with its highly disturbing content Manhunt was always going to draw controversy but in 2004 the media tried to link it to a murder in the UK 14-year-old Stfan Pakira was killed in England and news reports claimed a copy of the game was found in the home of the murderer 17-year-old Warren Leblanc stfan’s parents and the media vilified the game and Jack Thompson popping up again pursued a suit against Sony and Rockstar as horrific a tragedy as this was there has never been any evidence that violent video games cause violence in those who play them moreover the police stated a copy of the game was actually found among Stfan’s possessions not his killers as the media had reported leblanc got life in prison and the case against Sony and Rockstar was dropped the long crusade against GTA Grand Theft Auto series hey I’m Joey luigi said you were reliable so come back later there might be some work for you all right when talking about video games in the news we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the numerous times Grand Theft Auto was used as a scapegoat ever since the first game was released mainstream news outlets have tried to paint it as glorifying violence and influencing players to commit real world crimes gta literally holds a Guinness World Record as the most controversial video game series due to how it has been covered in the news famously multiple lawsuits were filed against Rockstar throughout the 2000s by you guessed it Jack Thompson trying to place blame on GTA for criminal activities and even get the games banned from release it never worked of course like riding a bike a boy yeah it all comes back a strange gift undertale in 2016 the late Pope Francis invited a group of YouTubers to the Vatican claiming their influence could quote promote tolerance empathy and understanding on the web end quote each YouTuber brought a gift as for MattPat of the Game Theorists he brought Undertale this earned him a fair amount of ridicule from the media as well as gamers but his logic for choosing the game is sound according to him he chose Undertale specifically because it preaches acceptance and pacifism towards the monsters you come across unless you’re playing the genocide route that is he saw in the game the qualities the Pope represents like mercy and compassion and he considered it the peak of what video games as a medium can reach in terms of understanding [Music] others dealing with COVID plague Inc plague Inc is a strategy game that tasks you with creating a devastating pathogen spreading and maintaining it to annihilate humanity with surprising realism it saw a sizable resurgence at the onset of the CO 19 pandemic seemingly by players who sought to understand the nature of a global virus in response developer Endemic Creations released a new mode Plague Inc the cure in which you actually tried to stop the spread endemic worked with experts at the World Health Organization the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network in order to accurately represent the measures put in place to deal with such an event it was also part of a campaign to spread information about health and safety during a worldwide pandemic it was definitely one of the more positive things to come out at the beginning of the pandemic gamergate look we don’t have time to cover everything that happened with Gamergate in a nutshell it was an online harassment campaign in the mid2010s aimed at women within the gaming industry it began with Zoe Quinn the independent developer of Depression Quest who was accused by their ex of receiving positive reviews in favor of a sexual relationship with journalist Nathan Grayson never mind that those accusations had no proof the fire had been lit quinn received a multitude of threats ranging in violence and the campaign later spread to critic Anita Sarkeesian developer Briana Woo and actress Felicia Day as part of a wider culture war Gamergate had widespread reach so it naturally received responses from government officials and coverage from more mainstream media sources mostly negative understandably look this this does not just affect women in gaming it can potentially affect any woman who makes the mistake of having a thought in her mind and then vocalizing it online the origin of the ESRB Mortal Kombat Night Trap and Doom the gamer bubble had wider consequences than any other in response to games growing more violent a series of congressional hearings were held in 1993 and 1994 specifically they concerned Mortal Kombat Night Trap and the original Doom and how those games could impact the children who played them if the makers didn’t find a way to regulate video games the government would and so the Interactive Digital Software Association was founded to represent the American games industry and the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was founded to review and provide ratings for games prior to release this was a necessary step not that it would stop government bodies from targeting games in the future know of any other interesting examples of video games ending up in the news let us know about them in the comments