Violence In Video Games - Highlights of the American Senate Committee Hearings in 1993
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- Опубликовано: 20 апр 2019
- Abridged version of the 1993 congressional hearings on violence in video games.
01:11 Mortal Kombat
03:10 Night Trap
06:00 Lethal Enforcers
07:22 Howard Lincoln, vice president of Nintendo of America in 1993
11:10 Bill White, vice president of Sega of America in 1993
13:37 Rating System
18:34 Mortal Kombat Commercial
20:23 Splatterhouse ad
31:27 Super Scope
36:49 Virtual Reality
42:21 Virtual Reality (2)
42:58 Cybersex
Wikipedia: On December 7, 1993, members of the combined United States Senate Committees on Governmental Affairs and the Judiciary held congressional hearings with several spokespersons for companies in the video game industry including Nintendo and Sega, involving violence in video games and the perceived impacts on children.
The hearing was a result of concerns raised by members of the public on the 1993 releases of Night Trap and Mortal Kombat for home consoles. Besides general concerns related to violence in video games, the situation had been inflamed by a moral panic over gun violence, as well as the state of the industry and an intense rivalry between Sega and Nintendo. 
Игры
Sometimes I wonder if these people look back on this and ask themselves how much of a joke they were.
I know right. They were so lame. The representative made a fair point you can label something with a rating all you want but the stores are still going to sell it to you no matter what
1 drop of blood back then
People: AHHH, IT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED
today with games with gore included
People: Its good
I mean there were right tho that why today we have ESRB rating at the back of the box
@GodZpeed X7 Stfu
People back then,specially kids,Are easily influenced..
And The fact that mortal Kombat is just new at that day,People haven't seen a brutal yet revolutionary game before.
42:26 Mans just invented the iPhone
My mom let me play Mortal Kombat when I was 3. I turned out okay. I haven't even had a parking ticket.
That's because you're a serial killer like Dexter. Squeaky clean record, not even a parking ticket. Very suspicious I must say.
Ikr I watched final destination alien and played mk doom and all sorts when I was a kid I'm fine
@@409raul please tell me your joking
@@khfan4492 of course he is wtf?
@@huyau2003 my bad
nintendo in the 90s: We will never have night trap in any of our consoles EVER!!!
Nintendo 2018: Hey guys remember night trap here it is on the switch e shop
Hey y'all Scott here
And it’s on Physical
5:35 "Mortal Kombat and Night Trap are not the kind of gifts that responsible parents give"
I guess my parents weren't responsible.
Or people didn’t really know much about video games then due to how new they were.
I guess its nothing wrong to try to avoid violent games in hands of kids until they are older. But censorship hardly is gonna make people less violent. Its just part of human imagination that is reflection of what they put into fiction basically
@@pexavex7295 Video games were definitely not new at the time of this court case. Mortal Kombat released in 1992. The first sight of video games becoming a popular thing was in the 70's.
@@chaosrealmer3455 fair, but they didn’t really gain popularity until mid 80s
God bless them for that.
42:22 That dude saw the future
yeah man thats amazing...
He said iphones... well eye phones but duuuude that was creepy
@@elrockerchido He's a Time Traveler!
Wow
GORN WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
"Night Trap will never appear on a Nintendo system"...... Never = Aug 24th 2018
@GodZpeed X7 NO YOU SHUT UP
With that logic, violent books, movies, or tv shows should never be made. Anything that explores deeper subjects that are hard to talk about shouldn't be made... that's ridiculous. I mean there's a reason they came up with the ratings system.
Yup! That's the thing, people, especially old people, have a bias against video games. They tell you that you're wasting your time when you play video games but if someone spends 10 hours watching TV they dont even say a word to them and they think it's fine. Double standards.
@@AdrenaLukeYT yeah it's hypocrisy at its finest. It's just another medium to tell a story. It's exactly the same thing as movies and books. Whoever doesn't realize is just blatantly ignorant.
@@harrynguyen2503 off topic (kinda but at the same time not really) but I just bought mortal Kombat 2 and ultimate mortal Kombat 3 for Sega Genesis, I'm going to play them soon and witness history as my parents didn't let me play those when I was a kid, but I'll have to wait since I'm recovering from a first rib resection surgery. But when I'm excited to be recovered enough to sit for long enough to play both of those legendary games! I'm avoiding watching the fatalities here on RUclips because I don't want to spoil it lol
THe point wasn't that it shouldn't be made, it should be regulated in a way that it isn't marketed to children, which was what most video games were back in the 90s
"I mean there's a reason they came up with the ratings system"
Yes, and that reason is Mortal Kombat 💀💀💀
At this point, nintendo and such were seen as family entertainment. Family-friendly/adult entertainment are still terms that can be applied to books or film. Except you wouldn't put porn books on the family bookshelf, in reach for the kids, would you?
It was very much a wild west situation and I cannot blame these men for being concerned.
Hearing "Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine" in the most serious tone possible in the Senate is hilarious
time stamp please I need this 🙏🙏🙏🙏
@@LumbagoV1ct1im247 at around 13:03
I'm glad mortal Kombat franchise keep getting more brutal as years go by, unlike other 90s franchises: RoboCop, terminator, etc
They did have guest characters based on those franchises
Mortal kombat is getting unviolent
Mortal Kombat been dead since Armageddon
Roughly 30 years later, Mortal Kombat is still around and Joe Lieberman isn’t lol
donsley brought me here
Yea videogamedoggy brought me here (dunkey)
Same
Yes
Me too
Same
I'm so glad they lost. I have a huge problem with people deny my access to art because they're offended. In 2021 and I own both of those games today. This only shows the rating system but the original argument was to completely outlaeing these games.
Exactly, why let some old rich fools decide what people can enjoy? I’m glad the first amendment protects stuff and they didn’t win.
@@futsurepolaris6304 Don't make this about the battle of the ages! Those games we talking about made by people who are old today.
I do agree with the issue of violence against women in games
@@memethingz6004 there’s barely any violence against women though in games bad guys get hit the end of the story just because a bad guy is a woman does not mean she’s not going to get hit
@@memethingz6004 Violence in general is as you make it out to be in entertainment or video games. Removing it wont make people less violent. If anything done in bad or poor taste is an argument. But to promote censorship would be so boring
These old farts would all collectively have a heart attack if they saw what modern day Mortal Kombat is like.
Oh bro they would have a stroke, Wipe out an stock of tampons if they saw this lmao
Mortal Kombat wins fatality flawless victory ha ha ha
And no one would miss them.
Amen!
@@theonewhodrums_ well Leiberman doesn't care about this- he wanted to use this to bring censorship into the USA- because he is scared World Jewry will be exposed- like the Germans figured out.
"Video games causes violence"
*Me and the bois making a melon farm in Minecraft*
Violent video games: 2
Joe Lieberman: Game over with no continue
Bill White is an unsung hero.... shit on the ESRB as you like... but it shuts down those professional parent types who wish to censor gaming, the counter is now if its rated M why did the parent buy it for the kid?
Dang, Doom hadn’t even come out yet. 💀
Doom came out the very next day! Lmao
12-10-1993
@@themexicanstaringfrogofsou5268 In 3DO version, your character's head will blow up if you lose. Making it even more violent "though in modern day the best version is probably to just get it on PC from GOG or Steam"
I feel really bad for Bill White. Seems like he's the smartest guy there.
According to the book Console Wars he did so well that after this hearing he got a standing ovation and a double bonus from Sega
I like how Sega's rep casually name dropped Eternal Champions... a game arguably more violent than Mortal Kombat in its fatalities and no one in congress batted an eye.
Eternal Champion's Challenge from the Dark side was the best one.
They didn't even know what a video game is
This whole hearing was fucking hilarious
also thank you for uploading this, i was deadass gonna sit though the two hour video
@GodZpeed X7 negative nancy. If you got nothing good to say, then don't say it.
I love how he mentions the "spirit of goodwill" for christmas. Wasn't this about ten years after National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?
Picking on Night Trap is so baffling. It’s like if they wanted to go after disturbing horror movies and they picked Army of Darkness as their primary target. Like the whole thing was a joke and the entire Senate and everyone who testified didn’t get it. At least Mortal Kombat was actually trying to be violent… Night Trap is just a farce.
It actually made the creator a fuck ton of money he sold like 56,000 copies after these aired
"Night trap will never be on a Nintendo system" 20 years later" Night trap now on the Nintendo eshop.
This is infuriating to watch. The representative from Sega is the only rational person in that room full of reactionary lunatics.
Where's he in the video
@@Jerraro He first shows up at 11:10.
The guys letting kids bring guns to school were really going crazy over a plastic toy gun being pointed at a screen 💀
Man is dead, but the damage is done.
Hearing 7.12.1993
Doom 10.12.1993
is that a british or american styled date?
@@SyedAlinintendo The sane styled date, DD/MM/YYYY.
@@supra107 reverse the order and that’s more sane
@@keyboard2758 If you're a neanderthal.
@@supra107 🧢
42:25 this dude literally just predicted the iPhone
and virtual reality
the main part about regulations and ratings is super fine but holy shit these dudes really were out of touch
also Nintendo has hentai games now im crying
problem is even with a ratings board, AO rated games aren't allowed on consoles and handhelds.
@@GiordanDiodato I don't get it I mean wasn't the point of the rating system is so kids don't get stuff they aren't supposed to, why bother having an adults rating if adults can't even buy it from stores?
@@AxisChurchDevotee You must realize kids never care about rating system and all the online game store don't have a legit age verification system using ID card scan or something, so kids are free to buy any game they want with no restriction.
Plus, most AO game are porn, that would be much bigger controversies than violent games if those become more accessible just like there are no Pornhub app on consoles.
I think they console companies simply don't want to deal with potential lawsuits and stuff and choose the easy way.
How much do you wanna bet that they had to get a kid to perform all the fatalities for them?😂😂😂
and then ask him how he feels each time he does it
Night trap looks like Netflix movies where you pick what happens but in a scary movie ,I dig it
Ok enough with that shitty streaming service
@@dksquad2045 Can't afford the $8.99 a huh?
Imagine going back in time and showing them GTA 5, or the new Doom, or postal 2.
Just watch them lose their minds
They'll have a stroke
I like how they say it's sega's version of Mortal Kombat but they show footage of the arcade version
I thought I was the only one who noticed that
Joe liberman was the original Karen before karens.
"video games cause violence."
Me visiting my friends island in animal crossing to wish him happy birthday during these hard times:
42:22 Imagine Steve Jobs saw this in 1993 working at NeXT, he’s like “I’m gonna get back to Apple in 1996, and in 2007, I’m going to unveil the iPhone”
Imagine he meant iPhones instead of eye phones, that would just be insane.
9:44 "Nightrap will never appear on a Nintendo system". Well that aged really well.
This along with the "Mass Effect is an alien harem simulator"/"who do you think is playing these games it's teenage boys not their dads" just goes to show you no one knew what they were talking about when it came to video games becoming a mature medium.
Books used to be thought of as evil. DND was thought of as a satanic game. TV broadcasted violence and sex. Elvis corrupted the youth with his hips. Death Metal was blamed for the rise of disruptive or maladaptive teenagers. Video games promote violence.
I bet you VR is going to be next.
I have a suspicion that the only thing this accomplished was to drive Sega out of business.
Only one group was responsible for the death of Sega when it came to the console market ...and that was Sega. Most notably Sega's CEO at the height of their success.
@@darthkahn45 Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Please shut up. You don’t know the whole story. Ignorance with you is bliss.
SEGA’s own Parent Company tried to drive them out of business.
@@plawson8577 Which "story"?
@@plawson8577 Sega killed itself with lots of bad decisions in the 5th and 6th gen consoles this hearing actually helped sega quite a bit sales wise
This aged like fine fucking wine
Yep
9:49 and in 2018 Night Trap appeared on Nintendo Switch.
Can we take a moment to respect Byron Dorgan? Despite his limited screentime he easily made himself as hateable as Professor Umbridge.
LOVE how they show the ARCADE version of mortal kombat to display the gore but then dont show the version that ACTUALLY WENT TO PEOPLES HOMES! the genesis version was FAR less gory and without half the sound effects of the arcade version. its funny how "Lie"berman can start the entire hearing off with a lie.
Idk how he thought he was gonna be slick with that shit. It's an obvious ass difference between the two versions, even at first glance.
Only without the blood code. If you enter the blood code, the genesis version has all the blood and gore from the arcade version.
doom made taught me how to be a good Christian
I don't know why this makes me laugh so much, I think it's funny (and sad) that those grown ups in all seriousness decided to stage this show instead of using the court for real issues on the country...
Let us be thankful that Pro-War, and Anti-game Joe Lieberman
is out of office.
And in the grave
41:10
"Iron bodyparts" I wonder if she's referring to Samus.
1st thing i thought about
The world my never know
7:20 haha what a badass
and yet he'll gleefully send young men like me off to go fight his wars for him. bravo
@@Jm-ki4su my friend…. Your the badass not him
the best advertisement ive ever seen, need to give em a spin ,to all of these games
They mentions splatterhouse 2 but I can't find which part
Edit: it was actually splatterhouse 3
20:43
Happy 30th Anniversary of Video Game Violence Meeting News.
To keep this in perspective violence was at an all time high in the early 90's.
Who must go?
Pit fighter was a 'martial arts' game that had digitized player characters long before Mortal Kombat came out is that not violent? The Nintendo version a Mortal Kombat did have a' finish him' more round Sub-Zero freezer someone that shatters them, scorpion turns them into a burnt skeleton, Raiden turns them into dust.
The full 2 hours and 49 minutes version is complete comedy gold.
where can i watch it
@@toastrave7820search up “senate judiciary hearing on violent video games” it should be the first result
This is incredible
Does anyone knows where to find the pdf with the transcription of the hearings? Thanks
Howard Lincoln comes off as such a snake during this video. At least Lieberman was attempting to give White the benefit of the doubt and explain Sega's rating system. It's obvious that Lincoln was upset that Sega was outperforming Nintendo at this time and the fact that he used this hearing to try to mudsling a former colleague is utterly crass.
I maybe wrong because I didn't researched the subject but I would bet some money Nintendo lead the computer game market this time but only for the kids game market and they tried to shut down the adult gaming market so they could remain on the top.
Please correct me if I'm wrong! I only made this assumption because I know Nintendo as a very shady company today.
I didn't buy even for a second that I'm the good guy/please save the children act from the nintendo guy.
@@Zodroo_Tint During 1993 in most of the world (especially in the United States) the Sega Genesis was the # 1 console and the SNES was the # 2 console. The only country where Sega was getting destroyed was in Japan. But in the U.S and most other countries, Sega Genesis was the # 1 console during 1993. Most people wanted to buy uncensored games (Mortal Kombat on Sega greatly outsold the SNES version) and cheaper prices (NBA Jam and most other 3rd party games were $10 cheaper on Sega Genesis. There is even a commercial of Sega bragging about this, the "mosquito" Genesis commercial). With that said, the SNES was still in a very competitive 2nd place during 1993.
With that said,
I feel you are 100% correct that Nintendo's Howard Lincoln tried to shut down the adult gaming market through these senate hearings. If he had succeeded, games rated T and especially games rated M would have been screwed and it would have been TONS of censorship galore (and some games like Night Trap probably getting perma banned). Nintendo wanted to hurt Sega as much as possible and this was an opportunity. I'm glad Nintendo's Howard Lincoln failed at this since it would have screwed over so many gamers.
Nope, you're nitpicking and biased. I win bye bye
Nope, you're nitpicking and biased. I win bye bye
@@specialistbrief2787Nope, you’re nitpicking and biased. I win bye bye
If only they saw MK11.....
Just imagine if:mortal kombat x, mortal kombat 11,gta 5,cyberpunk 2077,doom eternal,the last of us 2,god of war 4,resident evil village.were released their minds will be blown
20:44 - Splatterhouse 3!
Joe Lieberman sounds like Mitch McConnell if he didn't have the southern draw
"Night Trap will never appear on a nintendo system." And yet I hear, that Night Trap is now available on the nintendo switch.
i knew about this back then. but i never herd this video!
I want to see them react to MK11
1992 wolfenstein 3d mortal kombat time killers night trap and lethal enforcers got controversy
1993 us senate hearings and doom
Imagine this came on the news today.
How come Howard Lincoln particularly said that night trap will not be on Nintendo consoles but how come it's on the Nintendo switch
I hate how they say Night Trap "promotes" violence against women. No it doesn't. There's a huge difference between promoting and depicting. Just because a game depicts women being hurt by men doesn't mean that the game is "promoting" violence against women. It's not promoting anything. The developers of Night Trap didn't say "Let's sell this game because killing women is cool."
2:30 Admit it, you were here for this.
It's strange, I dismembered bodies in fallout games and used the head as a basketball. But I also save insects that have fallen in the sink. I'm as close to a pacifist you can get.
I think there was plenty of violence and bloodlust before video games.
And I know there's no need to convince 99 percent of the people watching this.
Honestly video games gives ppl an outlet to live out fantasies there and take out aggression there. Imagine before violent video games, if you had pent up aggression and had violent fantasies, well... Only one way back then to let it out
He's dead now.
fast forward to Mortal Komball 11 in 2020.its even more gruesome than the mk games of the 90s and no one is saying anything about it...glad we moved on from these times
This was 28 years ago and so far nothing has happened in the development of the games no more
They're trying to blame game violence all over again. Im suprised they haven't pulled heavy metal & rappers into this😁
Politians: Games in 1993 are way to violent.
2021: Hold my beer.
Guys I just played minecraft don’t come to school tomorrow
somewhere ReveiwTechUSA is making a video on this dude
gravity wins, fatality
Haha, Night Trap is so tame!
Exactly! It's so corny and campy and they actually got mad at this.
When they say a game is too violent it makes me want to play it.
Very entertaining piece of history
Was it wrong that I was playing these games when I was 3 years old. LMFAO 🤣🤣🤣🤣
....This dude seriously couldn't say Sweat. He could say Blood every other word within a sentence but the moment he saw Sweat he hesitated before referring to it as "some substance" like...bro...
i like how this video has 50 dislikes even though its just an archival video. thats how pissed people are when they see this lol
I'd love to see their reaction to the FPS games on the Wii, or the newer games like GTA V and RDR2 and Doom Eternal and the such like. That'd be fun.
I will say though, modern day Nintendo has kinda lead the charge regarding making video games that women enjoy, so there is that. I mean, nobody else is making Animal Crossing.
except women enjoy the same games guys enjoy and there is no such things as "now we're making games they enjoy too", it's just game makers are more aware and realizing it's just a crappy stereotype. Only thing is representation of women in games has been crappy, but just as many women has been playing the games, ppl just assumed they didn't.
@@SedraArts
Core gamers are male dominated, 7 to 1. More men play COD and GTA than women.
imagine if they saw hotline miami they would pass out
The argument isn’t that games are too violent. The argument is that kids had too easy access to these types of video games.
How is it that Sega was the GOAT?
I don’t think they would enjoy MK10 or MK11…
Imagine if they saw Mortal Kombat 9 and X?
or The Quarry! Night Trap is nothing compare to that game.
Or doom 16 and eternal
"videogames cause violence." -Genghis Khan
Dude, We've GOT A LONG WAY til we get passed between 1993 and all the way to 2006 and get to 2007.
ITS FINALLY SAFE TO PLAY VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES BOYS
damn i have ever been so pissed of in my life
Something to note:
This hearing was directed at violent video games, and targeted Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, and Lethal Enforcers.
But they somehow forgot about a much more violent game that was released in 1988; Splatterhouse.
Look it up and just imagine if that game was shown at the hearings.
Yeah, that would really get Congress to get the Governments attention just to either make a new department for video game censorship or having the FCC take full responsibility like they do with T.V and Radio.
Yea they pick Mortal kombat cause of its quick popularity.
They picked the games since they were all done with digitized actors. And killing them seemed more realistic at that time
@@CL-pp5kk Graphical enhancement = bad in this court lol
Funny to see how these people fought so hard against video games that they spent considerable amounts of time on it. Then we get DOOM Eternal and Mk 11.
well mr lincoln i hate to burst your bubble night trap is on the nintendo switch lol
Looking at this nowadays with how video games have become more realistic and mature in a way when it comes to violent content, you have to ask yourself what the hell were these people on when they believed in this?
Sega does
What Nintendon't.
Sega does not suck they take risks and go with it which makes them a go getter
@GodZpeed X7 But instead Nintendo has now 2 major rivals Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's XBOX, Sega got just outcompeted by both Nintendo and Sony (as Microsoft's XBOX came out after Sega became a 3rd part developer
@@markdebruyn1212 Actually the Dreamcast competed with the xbox, even though it came out 3 years earlier.
@@tFighterPilot So in other words xbox was the final nail in the coffin for the Dreamcast
People should judge the games for themselves and take the responsibility for not modelling the violence in the game.
Nintendo and Howard Lincoln were always such hypocrites.
And they are the same guys who *Okay* things like Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Eternal Darkness, Geist, MadWorld and No More Heroes