Beer Pong By Any Other Name...

Changing a name doesn't change the truth of the game. Kinda like Cookie Monster being forced to eat carrots to give a good example to obese American children-he's still Cookie Monster, even if he's called Carrot Monster.

Beer pong is till beer pong, no matter what you name it. Does playing it on Wii reinforce drinking behaviors? When games are as realistic as, well, reality, it makes perfect sense to think "Pong Toss" will be a nice segue into beer pong. From a personal perspective, I first wanted to shoot skeet and trap after playing Duck Hunt on the original Nintendo. If you like the game, it makes you wonder, "Hmm, I wonder if I'll like the activity in real life?"

The game company has a bit of social responsibility to not invent a game which can damage society. But the thing that bothers me most is that "Pong Toss" is rated T for Teens.

Beg pardon? Teens? The only teens who can legally drink in this country are those in the armed forces while they're on a military base. And those guys probably don't have an excessive amount of time for Wii or beer pong.

Just another sad commentary on how we view alcohol consumption in our society.

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Wii Beer Pong Game Draws Jeers
Does New Nintendo Game Glorify Teen Drinking Culture?
By CLOE SHASHA
July 9, 2008
ABC News


JV Games has cleaned up its new Nintendo Wii version of the college drinking game "Beer Pong" by removing references to booze and renaming the title, but authorities and mental health experts fear that it will only reinforce an alcohol culture on teens.

In the Wii Nintendo game "Pong Toss," developed by JV Games, the player scores a point after tossing a ping pong ball into the opponent's cup.

"Pong Toss," as it's now called, still gives gamers the ability to practice the tossing skills required for Beer Pong, a popular drinking game involving ping pong balls aimed into cups of beer. Beer-guzzling is the goal of the real Beer Pong game in many college settings.

The game earned a rating of "T" for teen — ages 13 and up — from the independent Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and that has caused parents, educators and even one state's attorney general to react with dismay.

"When a behavior is modeled or practiced in any form, it becomes more likely to be practiced in the future," said New York psychologist Eva Levine. "Kids are very susceptible to this type of media. I see it all the time with young kids and adolescents. It's definitely true that children that are exposed to alcohol use are much more likely to engage in alcohol behavior."

On Monday, Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal expressed concern about the game, and about the future games that will be released under JV's Frat Party Games line.

Blumenthal believes that a game like "Pong Toss" has more worrisome consequences than other types of violent or dangerous video games.

"My strong concern is the ratings, which fail to reflect the potential dangers," said Blumenthal. "It promotes alcohol use and even abuse and binge drinking, which certainly seems a more realistic prospect than someone driving a car dangerously after playing 'Grand Theft Auto,' although obviously, that's a problem as well. But what the beer pong game does is much more immediate for teenagers than what happens in 'Grand Theft Auto'."

The worry about teen drinking is real and rising. On Monday, an Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year nearly doubled over that span, from 18 in 1999 to a peak of 35 in 2005, though the total went up and down from year to year and dropped to 14 in 2001.