Slashdot Mirror

Does does League of Gamers differ from the Video Game Voters Network?

How does League of Gamers differ from Video Game Voters Network?

The Washington DC based "Video Game Voters" organization, is fighting this. If everyone takes 2 seconds and 1 click , we can send MASSIVE amounts of a pre-formated letters to the NY Assemblymember. http://www.videogamevoters.org/statelevel/nyassemb lyem/

I was wrong, I misunderstood the bill based on the horrible write up in both the summary, linked article, and the summary of the other linked slashdot story, which all referred to it as a gaming ban. After I posting, I googled the bill to find a better explanation. I was not aware that this was a "ban" of selling violent games to minors, not a gan on selling violent games. As you can see, parts of my post no longer apply.

It was much easier to argue for freedom of expression against a ban on a type of game then it is to argue against a ban for minors, which is why I said I wasn't necessarily against making it illegal for stores to sell them to minors. I didn't think I would have to get into that issue, so I left it out.

However, I'm still against this law, and the root of the problem still isn't about selling games to kids. This comes down to a variety of issues. Should parents be responsible for their kids (at least as far as this is concerned)? If you don't want your kid playing violent games, don't buy them the game system or provide them with the money to buy the games. How can you stop kids from playing games anyway? Even if you don't give your kids access to violent games, they will still play them at their friends houses whose parents bought them violent games. I watched R-rated movies at my friends house all the time and found his dad's playboys when I was 9 years old. As a more extreme example, alcohol is illegal until your 21, but that didn't stop me from drinking when I was 16. Should the state be wasting its time making laws against games when it could be doing better things? Should the state continue to find new ways to control our lives? Where does state responsibility stop and personal responsibility (also your responsibility for your kids) begin? Should the state be censoring us? Should the state be censoring our children? Should the state decide what are children can and can't see, and if they can, what's to stop them from banning evolution in schools?

All of those topics are arguable to great lengths, and I really don't want to argue about them since there isn't an easy answer (which is why I didn't say much in my original post when I thought it was just about banning violent games). IMO, this bill is a form of censorship, and off the top of my head, I can't think of a single form of state censorship that I would support.

Don't just talk about it here. Join the organization and write your congressman when they ask you to. Participate. It has a higher ROI than bitching.

What about the Video Game Voters Network?

http://www.videogamevoters.org/ Voice your opinion, maybe we can stop those over legislating politicians!

Maybe the Video Game Voters Network is finally having an effect on our congressmen.

If you haven't done so already I would strongly encourage all of you to sign up here: http://www.videogamevoters.org/