I only caught wind of this over the weekend while I was away for a friend’s wedding, so I haven’t been able to post about it until now, but it seems that the global conciousness (GN) (what there is of it) seems to have awoken to this game. Noticing that OMG! this game litteraly encourages “bimboism” (my term). But I don’t think this is what really triggered the pique in interest, I think it was one part of the game – diet pills… and now according to the website:

As a result of this rather surprising media attention we have decided to remove the option of purchasing diet pills from the game. We apologise to any players whom this may inconvenience but we feel in light of this weeks proceedings it is the correct action to take.

The guys who made the game suggest that the game is a comment on society – then it truely is interesting how the media reaction is/can be interpreted – hating the image of one’s self in the mirror – The Daily Mirror:

The website’s creators – two young men named Chris Evans and Nicholas Jacquart – have spent the past week touring the television studios defending the game as a bit of harmless fun.

“We are not encouraging girls to have breast operations,” Mr Evans explained, rather disingenuously. “It is just part of the game.”

According to Mr Jacquart, the game is itself a joke: “It simply mirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way.”

Neither denied that Miss Bimbo was designed for children as young as nine; instead they insisted that it is not a bad influence on young minds.

My first reaction to this… and I don’t know if it is because several friends have had recently or are expecting baby girls… but I read this and thought – shockingly to myself – yeah right… like games don’t influence kids… I don’t know what or how this would be any different with violent games, but I think it is that the “harmlessness” here is something that is very real… just look at all the diet “supplements” you can pick up at the grocery store, these props are very real. Violent games on the other hand often require some impossible technology and fighting games have opponents who can lay the smack back.

Those who play the games (in the comments here and here) and say that they are indeed harmless and that the media is once again over – reacting. Pointing out that it may be just as much the media somehow apologizing for bad parenting.

So what is my final thought… same as with anything else… any media based experience (games, movies, what have you) needs to be experienced within the context it was intended for. Without any scaffolding, it can and is easy to take out of context. With scaffolding, these experiences can be actually educational. I would not want my neices or daughters playing these games on their own to be sure, but with some discussion around the game, they might actually be an interesting way to expereince a commentary about our society.

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