Five Mature Concepts Games Must Explore
Corey Milne has an interesting concept of taboo. When controversy arose around Tomb Raider's choice to have a criminal sexually assault Lara Croft, the people of the Internet, who use points they've missed as a form of currency, saw this as an opportunity to deliberate what should and shouldn't be in games.
Milne explores this in his article, "5 Weird Places No Video Game Should Go." With all due respect to Milne, he struggles with consistency throughout, however, even managing to twist out contradiction in his opening. He was quick to note early on that rape isn't on this list, explaining that, because games are an evolving medium, a mature and intelligent approach can make rape an acceptable topic. His confidence in games is laudable, because one can argue that an artistic medium should freely be able to tackle any subject. Unfortunately, this, at best, discredits his article as a whole and, at worse, implies that rape requires less intelligent and mature analysis than any of the subjects on it.
An artistic medium doesn't evolve after a lazy afternoon of self-discovery, it evolves after it sets new standards, and saying that these concepts are places where "no video games should go" is incredibly irresponsible. It intellectually neuters the medium, and insults the audience by implying that they lack the ability to engage with the idea. Fear not though, dear reader, for after after much soul-searching (i.e. applying a modicum of critical analysis) I am able to discuss why these are five things games absolutely should discuss.
