Video game law in congress

[Jumbie]

Violent video games are under scrutiny again.

 

http://msn.com.com/2100-1106-899612.html

[The NZA]

Guess my views here are pretty predictable...

Years back, Senator Liberman tried his damndest to all but outlaw violent games, in the age of the original Mortal Kombat.

Must talk took place: carding youth for arcades & violent games, bannin them altoghther, etc.

The result? Video games adapted a movie-like rating system, with the "MA-17" reachin only games of extreme violence (especially lifelike) or sexual scenarios, as we Americans see sex as far more unnatural than moderate violence.

The good thing was, like most political campaigns, people's attention spans died out.  The rating system all but quelled the incessant moral majority, only heard from again after Columbine ("They had Doom on their computers!" "My grandmother has Doom" - Dennis Miller).  I was very happy to see this censorship campaign die down: people dont know how much it affects our games, espeically console RPG's.  Cuss words, innuendo, any and all religious material, etc (much of a storyline at times) were erased from older SNES games, and the lackluster remnants were noticably missin somethin; thankfully, over the years, its gotten better

This policy, while not entirely offensive to me, will go the same way - hell, youre supposed to card kids under 18 for rated R videos, but its rarely done.

Now, makin it a federal crime does indeed sound big, but give it time, and the end effect will be nothin more than a small, hardly noticable sign on the counter while a given teen reants "Grand Theft Auto III". The only places that are strict on carding for booze & cigarettes are usually those in areas where theyve been cracked down on.  Again, the end result is little to nothin - kids just burn games or have someone else buy em.  

Truly concerned parents - which i find to be kinda rare - can do a few things:

1) Teach their kids about violence & its effects.  Show em the news, take em to a gun range, or like i was raised, take em hunting & show them what happens: teach responsibility.

2) The rating system's there for a reason: pay attention to what you buy/rent and what your kids play.  The warning label is rather detailed: violence in degrees, animated, lifelike, scenarios, etc, all clearly on the box.

 

...right then, off to play Resident Evil for GameCube, MA-17 i hope.

[King of Snake]

...nah, Nintendo turned the franchise into 'Resident Evil In Bowser's Castle', but at least kids of all ages can enjoy it! :p

 

In all fairness some games need ratings but banning GTA3? I'd seen that it was banned by the Aussies before but I can't understand why, GTA3 isn't exactly a criminal activity training manual, its a bit of escapism.

I played this a hell of a lot, and to date, in the real world I have:

Stolen 0 cars

Run over 0 pedestrians thereof

Shot 0 gang members

Shot 0 other people

Baseball batted 1 person...ok, well not really

 

GTA3 is tame, just an irreverant laugh, what's the big fuss? ???