More pointless BS from the goverment. Seeking to ban "Adult" rated games.

[Noja87]

US Senator introduces new gaming bill
Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker seeking to ban sale of adult-rated games to minors, distribution of games without age-based ratings.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Jul 24, 2008 4:46 pm PT

Earlier this week, the governor of New York signed into law a measure that prohibits retailers in the state from selling games that don't carry a rating label, among other things. The Entertainment Software Association, ordinarily ready and waiting with legal challenges to game-restricting legislation, called the law unfair and unconstitutional, but stopped short of filing a lawsuit.

Perhaps encouraged by the industry trade group's lack of litigious response, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker yesterday introduced his own game-restriction bill at the federal level, as reported by GamePolitics. The full text of the measure is not yet available from the Library of Congress Web site, but the title of the measure gives a good indication of what the Republican lawmaker wants to achieve. The full title is "A bill to prohibit the distribution or sale of video games that do not have age-based content rating labels, to prohibit the sale or rental of video games with adult content ratings to minors, and for other purposes."

The requirement of age-based content labels has not been a significant issue in previous court battles over gaming legislation, but prohibiting the sale of games to minors based on their content is a recurring point of contention. Laws in California, Illinois, and Louisiana were all overturned, partly because they were based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of violent and sexually explicit material. So far these scrums haven't dealt with legislation that uses existing ratings as a guideline for restricting minors' access to games.

There were no cosponsors for the bill. Upon introduction, it was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

---

"Adult" rated games? they dont even sell those on game stores. Whats the point? -_-'

[PCXL-Fan]

This is bs... the government telling people how to run their lives.

When i was young like 12/13/14 or so me and all my friends played DukeNukem 3d, Quake, Doom, Mortal Kombat, Eternal champions, etc and it did nothing to us. There is little proof that violent games have horrible influence on a 14-15 year old. Utter nonsense. Perhaps those with extreme psychological problems, but primetime tvshows and movies could have the same impact.

I have video game articles from the mid 90s and peoples opinions were much different back then. But people are like sheep and allow things like this to become the social norm and start agreeing that 14-15 year olds cannot play or handle mortal kombat and doom-esque violent games, when in fact millions of kids were doing it in the 90s.

Even things like roleplaying cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians has become too violent to some. America and the world is loosing its balls and people are becoming like lemmings and accept these laws as canon. Not to diss anyone but I even see it in the opinions of some members in this forum.

[bobrocks95]

I own Doom II and it's complete strategy guide. Heck, I even know about the guys head in the last level if you use the noclip cheat code. It doesn't affect me in the slightest, and I think that the graphics look so fake anyway since the gibs are all 8-bit and crappily drawn.

[snickothemule]

Too many pussies in power
Too many overtly PC people in government and in society
Too many chicken **** parents who demand that the government raise their kids and not them

I could go on but I would be here all day.

[bobrocks95]

Forgot to add that my mom allowed me to play Halo at the age of 10 since she saw and realized that it was fake, that I knew it was fake, and that it involved killing aliens with purple and green blood.

[snickothemule]

Your mom must actually care about raising her children instead of blaming everything and everyone else.

I still firmly believe that the reason why these bills come about is because parents are far too lazy to look into and take charge over what their children are allowed to see (I believe the term is parenting).

[Thanakil]

Isn't that bill simply trying to do what people are already doing? Basically, refusing to sell games to minor because they have mature content?

It seems that since New York already passed a pointless bill (enforcing stuff already happening) this guy is trying to follow. Making another bill that seems to simply... Enforce stuff that we are already doing, refusing to sell games to people under the age limit for that game.

[Noja87]

lol This is almost as retarded as the "Scientific Research" discovering that MMO's are addictive.

[PCXL-Fan]

Originally Posted by Thanakil

Isn't that bill simply trying to do what people are already doing? Basically, refusing to sell games to minor because they have mature content?

It seems that since New York already passed a pointless bill (enforcing stuff already happening) this guy is trying to follow. Making another bill that seems to simply... Enforce stuff that we are already doing, refusing to sell games to people under the age limit for that game.

Here is the think though.....*prepare for the shocker*.......... most teenagers CAN handle violent games like Bioshock and Crysis.

Ask any forum member hear under 17 or any over 18 if violent videogames had a bad impact on their lives when they were teenagers.

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

Here is the think though.....*prepare for the shocker*.......... most teenagers CAN handle violent games like Bioshock and Crysis.

Ask any forum member hear under 17 or any over 18 if violent videogames had a bad impact on their lives when they were teenagers.

Refusing to let kids play violent/sexual/mature games is fine. Not every kid will be affected by what they see, but some will, better to simply tell them to wait until they grow up and do something else in the mean time.
That's all fine and dandy, as long as we don't start censoring for people who have the age to play those games.

I know not everyone is ill-affected by games, obviously. But we'd be hypocrite to say that they have no effect at all. They don't turn us into criminals, into murderers, and ect. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't keep age limit on violent games. "Most" is not "all". Gaming is a luxury, they can wait until they have the proper age to enjoy every games in that luxury. In the meantime they can play something else.

They COULD lower the rating on some games tho, some games are rated too high, that's for sure. But age-rating should still exist, they should simply slack it off and stop censoring everything.

When adults can't play a game because people are too ***** and want to censor or even ban AO game, now there's something wrong. There's a reason the age rating exist, and a game shouldn't be FORCED to be censored if they don't want to, they should simply give it the adult rating and let it be released. Keep it away from kids, make it illegal to be sold to kids (all things that already are in place) but don't keep it even from adults.


Anyway, as for that bill, it's only enforcing something already in place, isn't it? "Banning the sale of adult games to kids" = something that already exist. They're just wasting time and money on stupid **** to make people feel good. Or they may be trying to put this in place, and use it as a stepping stone to enforce something worse later on, which would be pretty damn lame.

[PCXL-Fan]

Originally Posted by Thanakil

Refusing to let kids play violent/sexual/mature games is fine. Not every kid will be affected by what they see, but some will, better to simply tell them to wait until they grow up and do something else in the mean time.
That's all fine and dandy, as long as we don't start censoring for people who have the age to play those games.

I know not everyone is ill-affected by games, obviously. But we'd be hypocrite to say that they have no effect at all. They don't turn us into criminals, into murderers, and ect. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't keep age limit on violent games. "Most" is not "all. Gaming is a luxury, they can wait until they have the proper age to enjoy every games in that luxury. In the meantime they can play something else.

They COULD lower the rating on some games tho, some games are rated too high, that's for sure. But age-rating should still exist, they should simply slack it off and stop censoring everything.

When adults can't play a game because people are too ***** and want to censor or even ban AO game, now there's something wrong. There's a reason the age rating exist, and a game shouldn't be FORCED to be censored if they don't want to, they should simply give it the adult rating and let it be released. Keep it away from kids, make it illegal to be sold to kids (all things that already are in place) but don't keep it even from adults.


Anyway, as for that bill, it's only enforcing something already in place, isn't it? "Banning the sale of adult games to kids" = something that already exist. They're just wasting time and money on stupid **** to make people feel good. Or they may be trying to put this in place, and use it as a stepping stone to enforce something worse later on, which would be pretty damn lame.

You need to differntial kids from teenagers. I don't know a single person from the highschools I've gone to that would be ruined by these games had they played them during their highschool years. THEY ALL ARE PLAYING THEM regardless of the laws in place or what is seen as politically correct in the newspapers or on oprah.

Harvard researchers: Violent video games OK for kids

[makotech222]

why dont we solve the failing economy first, ey? good ol U.S. government. wasting **** loads of time on stupid stuff.

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

You need to differntial kids from teenagers. I don't know a single person from the highschools I've gone to that would be ruined by these games. THEY ALL ARE PLAYING THEN regardless of the laws in place or what is seen as politically correct in the newspapers or on oprah.

Sometime I think we aren't really objective when it comes to games and ratings x_X. We just want to believe that we're not affected at all by them and that we can handle everything. And as soon as someone says something against it, even if they agree that the ratings should be "lowered" or reworked to be loosened, we're just too used to flat-out censoring to really take the time to think about it.

If we talk teenagers, then it relates to "simply relaxing on the ratings" which I'm fine with.

And it's not a matter of games RUINING someone, simply affecting in a bad way. Not everything is white or black, just because they don't ruin us doesn't mean they don't have a ill effect on people. I'm not talking about huge stuff tho, I'm really talking about small stuff, small effects. Not instantaneous, but just a subtle difference that comes with time.

The current ratings are too tight, too censoring and excessive, but we shouldn't remove them, simply loosening them (because some games just aren't worth the M rating at all) and making possible for AO games to be released without any "ZOMG BAN IT FROM THIS COUNTRY" would be fine.

And that research doesn't approach what I'm talking about, I'm not talking about "ZOMG THIS GAME MADE ME VIOLENT" but how games can have more subtle effects on people. This book/research doesn't seem to approach that at all, since they focused on the more mythic "zomg my kid is gonna kill me in my sleep" thing.

Just like any other media, games affect people. Games shouldn't be more censored than anything else, but they should still have age ratings (like everything else), quite simply. Our whole lives we are affected (some slightly, sometime it's subtle) by what is around us. But once we become teenagers/adults we deal better with it. Adults better than teenagers, that's pretty obvious.

They're going (WAY) too hard on games, but it doesn't mean that the age-ratings are entirely bad. I'm not saying that they're doing the right thing, simply that we shouldn't remove everything. We should just loosen up the ratings to make them accommodate more things and remove the fear people have of AO games.

[jonc2006]

this is almost identical to how comic books were treated ages ago by people who didnt know anything about them. sooner or later something else will come along and give them another thing to demonize and complain about, its a never-ending cycle.

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by jonc2006

this is almost identical to how comic books were treated ages ago by people who didnt know anything about them. sooner or later something else will come along and give them another thing to demonize and complain about, its a never-ending cycle.

Life-like robots and AI! It's already creating trouble whenever they reach a new milestone. Teenagers won't go outside anymore, they'll be too busy "overclocking their girlbots".

[bobrocks95]

Originally Posted by snickothemule

Your mom must actually care about raising her children instead of blaming everything and everyone else.

I still firmly believe that the reason why these bills come about is because parents are far too lazy to look into and take charge over what their children are allowed to see (I believe the term is parenting).

Yes, fortunately she doesn't "BLAME THE MEDIA!!!!11!!1!" like most retarded parents do. That's also why I can play Halo and not GTA .

[PCXL-Fan]

If it was subtle over a large enough populance you think you could see a subtle increase in violent crimes. That statistic on violent crimes has been steadily dropping over the years.

Originally Posted by Thanakil

Life-like robots and AI! It's already creating trouble whenever they reach a new milestone. Teenagers won't go outside anymore, they'll be too busy "overclocking their girlbots".

Overclocking your girlbot only makes her hotter. Expect lots of burnt girlbot cpus since guys will take off the heatsink in an effort to get them as hot as possible.

[Paratech]

"When i was young like 12/13/14 or so me and all my friends played DukeNukem 3d, Quake, Doom, Mortal Kombat, Eternal champions, etc and it did nothing to us."

Playing Sega CD games can have horrific consequences on young gamers, the Sega Genesis version was watered down, but no sane child wanted a Sega CD, Nightie Trap naughtiness included.

What about parents who choose to buy "M" or "AO" rated games for kids, shall we jail them?

"Winners don't play Sega CD games"

LOL J/K