A veteran video game marketing exec claims that the Bible contains more mature-themed content than most games.

Bruce Everiss, whose resume includes stints at Imagine and Codemasters, writes in his Bruce on Games blog:

Despite what some ignorant politicians and journalists might tell you, video games are fairly bland when it comes to how “adult” their content is. In fact they are usually too bland to emotionally engage and would be far better if they moved a bit in the “adult” direction…

Another reason for the blandness is the dull censoring hand of the platform holders who are amazingly prudish.

The fact is that established old media have vastly more shocking content than video games… a prime example of a book that children are encouraged to read is the Bible.

Everiss used a website known as Bible Gateway to conduct searches and found a number of themes which would be considered racy if they appeared in a video game:

The King James version has “harlot” in it 48 times, “sodomite” 5 times, “fornicator” 5 times, “smite” 133 times, “kill” 208 times and “maim” 7 times. This is shocking, you have to wonder what any right minded parent is doing exposing their children to this stuff.

Interestingly enough, University of Michigan professor Brad Bushman, a leading critic of video game violence, also found links between Biblical violence and real-life aggression in a 2007 study.

Bushman is one Jack Thompson’s expert witnesses in a pending wrongful death lawsuit against Rockstar and other video game industry defendants in Alabama.

Source: here.