Alex Ayala

Professor Erin McLaughlin

WR-13300-SS-14
16 November 2015
Annotated Bibliography
Overview:
I have decided to research censorship in video games because being a video gamer, I have
always wondered why it is that certain countries get altered versions of games. What sparked this
interest recently was the recent censorship of Lin, a 13- year old video game character from the
upcoming game Xenoblade Chronicles X, for being too racy. The big question I wish to answer is
What does video game censorship say about the differences in modern American and Japanese
culture? My paper will mainly be focused on the differences between American and Japanese
attitudes on sexuality and violence, which are among the most common reasons for censorship of
video games in the United States.
Sources:
1)
Ferguson, Christopher J. Video Games. Adolescents, Crime, and the Media. Ed. Roger J.R.
Levesque. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. 105-122. Print.

In this chapter, Ferguson, an associate professor of clinical and forensic psychology at

Texas A&M International University, analyzes whether or not video game violence influences
youth aggression. His chapter is in response to claims made by many people about how violent
games can cause those who play it to become violent. Those claims are also in response to
crimes committed by those who play violent games such as the 1999 murders of 12 students and

1 teacher by 2 Doom players (106). Ferguson comments on why a lot of the research done in an
attempt to prove that video game violence exposure has a positive correlation with aggression is
unreliable data. He also provides some examples of court cases that involve video games,
including the Virginia Tech Massacre (121). This chapter would be useful for explaining some of
the reservations that people have about video games as well as their attitudes towards media that
portrays violence in general.
2)
Dill, Karen E. and Brian P. Brown and Michael A. Collins. Effects of exposure to sexstereotyped video game characters on tolerance of sexual harassment, Journal of Experimental
Social Psychology 44.5 (Sept. 2008): 1402-1408. ScienceDirect. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

In this article, Dill, Brown, and Collins study the effects of sex-typed video game
characters on peoples attitudes on sexual harassment and rape myths. This article is in response
to the obvious sexist portrayals of women in video games and sex role stereotypes in the games.
The authors of the article also describe a study that they conducted involving the relationship of
sexist video game content with sexual harassment judgements and rape-supportive attitudes
(1404). Their results supported the idea that short-term exposure to stereotypical portrayals in
media is related to sexual harassment tolerance (1402). Those exposed to stereotypical media
seemed to be more tolerant of real-life sexual harassment compared to those who were controls
(1402). There was also a positive correlation found between long-term exposure to video game
violence and sexual harassment tolerance and rape myth acceptance. I believe that this article
would be useful to me because it would help identify some of the attitudes that people have
about sexualization in the media.
3)

Dill, Karen E. and Jody C. Dill. Video Game Violence: A Review of the Empirical Literature.
Aggression and Violent Behavior 3.4 (1998): 407-428. ScienceDirect. Web. 10 Nov. 2015

The authors of this article discuss the current knowledge about the relationship between
violent video game exposure and aggressive behaviors. They also discuss the reasons why
violent video games could be more impactful than violence in other media as it relates to
aggressive behaviors. The article outlines the theories about television violence and the effects it
may have on people such as decreased empathy for violent crime victims (410). It also explains
that video games could cause aggression more than other media portrayals of violence by talking
about topics like how video games involve a system of rewards and punishments and how the
player identifies with the aggressor in a game. After discussing experiments that have been done
to discuss video game violences relationship with aggression, the authors, like Ferguson in his
chapter, conclude that there are methodological problems and inconsistencies in the data
concerning these experiments (407). This article would be helpful in my paper because it gives
some insight into the reasoning behind censorship of video games and the reasons why some
people view violent video games in such a negative light.

4)
Calvert, Clay and Robert D. Richards. Precedent be Damned- Its All about Good Politics &
Sensational Soundbites: The Video Game Censorship Saga of 2005. Texas Review of
Entertainment & Sports Law 6.1 (1 May 2005): 79-155. EBSCOhost. Web. 10 Nov. 2015

The authors of this article discusses some of the background history behind the laws
concerning video game censorship made in Illinois, Michigan, and California. It discusses what

some of the reasons were for the laws, including moral obligations to limit minor access to
graphic content, violent or sexual. The author remarks on how every generation fears new
technology, and that in the future, something besides video games will be criticized. The article
also discusses the impact that some major news outlets had on the cases because the media can
heavily influence political decisions. He also mentions that when those of us who grew up with
video games come to power, efforts to ban them (because of violence) will probably wane
(2005). This article will be useful to me because it once again gives me some more insight into
the American view on violence in media, specifically video games. Even more though, it gives
examples of the actions taken in America attempting to regulate violent video games.
5)
Outraged innocence; Child pornography in Japan. The Economist 20 March 2010: 55EU.
Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

The author of this article is not known as the article was written anonymously. The
articles discusses how in Japan, some manga and comic books portray young girls, including
those depicting underage girls, as overly sexy or even as having sex, and these manga are pretty
readily available at convenience stores. It talks about how in Japan, virtual porn, which includes
anime, manga, and video games, is not really illegal because it does not fall under the rules about
child pornography because those depicted are non-existent minors (55EU). They also do not
fall under those laws because the recent bans were made to protect real child victims. The article
goes on to compare other countries to Japan in that those countries do ban virtual porn of minors.
I think this article will be useful to me because it will give me supporting evidence that in some
forms of media, including video games, the Japanese are more lenient on rules of sexualization,

especially sexualization of children. This article gives some insight as to why the character from
Xenoblade Chronicles X was censored from its Japanese version in the United States.
6)
Anderson, Craig A. and Nobuko Ihori and Brad J. Bushman and Hannah R. Rothstein and Akiko
Shibuya and Edward L. Swing and Akira Sakamoto and Muniba Saleem. Violent Video Game
Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A
Meta-Analytic Review Psychological Bulletin 136.2 (2010): 151-173. EBSCOhost. Web. 16
Nov. 2015.

The authors of this article conducted a meta-analytical study to test the effects of violence
in video games on aggressive behaviors, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and
prosocial behavior (151). The experiment also involved social-cognitive models and cultural
differences between Japan and Western countries. In discussing the differences in cultural
attitudes towards portrayal of violence in the media, the article talks about how violent actions
and their consequences, especially concerning victim suffering, are portrayed much more vividly
in Japanese TV compared to the United States. The article also talks about how Japan has a
relatively low homicide and violent crime rate and is generally considered a peaceful society
despite having high levels of media violence. This could be an indicator of how the Japanese are
less worried about media exposure to graphic violence. I think that this article is not as useful to
me for the violence study itself because a few of my other sources cover similar experiments, but
it is useful because it provides some context about Japanese attitudes towards violence in the
media.