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CT Considers Making Shoot 'Em Ups Adults Only
Adam writes: "Connecticut bans shooting arcade games. I dunno about you but I played these things all my life and have no will to go out and kill anyone. I think passing of a bill ike this inspires a hell of alot more anger then playing a game where I get to shoot animated villans.
Story Here" Actually, note that the governor of Connecticut has not yet signed (or declared an intention) to sign this bill, so right now it's not a law. If it's passed, offering arcade games in which fake guns shoot simulated people would not be banned per se, be they would be out of bounds for anyone under 18. (Considering arcade demographics, that might not be such a big difference, though.)
If all these games were open source parents could hack them so they fit the exact needs of their children! When you buy a closed source video game you have no idea what you are buying! Because you cant examine the source you really have no way of deciding if the game has the gruesome end sequence. It's very common for closed source video games to have "Secret Sections" that only particularly addicted players can find! If all games were open source parents could make better decisions about whether these games are safe for kids. And the games would be more stable too! After all, it's the game crashing when you just got past a hard part and forgot to save that often triggers naturally violent kids to go on a rampage!
:)_
Heh, I'm foaming at the mouth.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The big difference here is that Larry Flynt doesn't sell his titty rags to kids. The CT government is trying to put the same kind of restrictions on games that already exist on Flynt's publications. I suspect that there really isn't much ground for a constitutional challenge to a law like this since children aren't protected under the first amendment in the same way that adults are.
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I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
No, football is based on the old British tradition of street-fighting with a ball in there somewhere, allegedly dating back to pre-Roman times when the game was played with a human head preserved in slaked lime and still played in that form (minus the head) in several English and Scots villages to this day. This doesn't challenge your basic point, but pedantry forbids I should let that one go by.
-- AndrewD
A Maze of Twisty Little Laws, All Different.
Sorry people, but violence is not fun, and one precondition to understand this fact is to be adult (I know, there are 40 year old people out there that one can't consider adult, but a line has to be drawn somewhere).
I hear comming the crowd screaming "the Illiad, Shakespeare, read them, violence has always been with us", to what I say, no fscking way. Many of shoot-them-all games trivialize raw violence. Of course they don't make anybody a murderer, but what this enterteinment do is to associate violence and fun, which in my opinion can be only properly understood in all its implications by an adult, not a child.
If the COlumbine stuff showed something (yes, I know, here we go again) is that those youngsters found violence trivial. Games didn't make them what they were, but certainly violent games helped to reinforce their perception of a world in which violence is fun. For all the accounts we have of this an other massacres, the respective individuals were enjoying every moment of it. Tell me how it can be denied that a violent game does not reinforce this kind of perception.
Young people are denied many freedoms because they are not prepared to use that freedom in a responsible way. To put out of their reach entertainment that nobody can deny has such conflicting values is just common sense in my opinion.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Perhaps someone should point out to him that a fair number of arcade shoot-em-ups are based on movies (either explicitely or rip offs), so the movie industry should be told to cool its jets. For extra giggles, ask him how much of his campaign funding comes (directly or indirectly) from the movie industry. :)
Just as an FYI, in the UK, arcades already have a statuatory mininum age limit of 18. Rumour is, there's an arcade (in Ipswich or Bolton, I forget) that actually enforces it. ;)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
"We shouldn't be singling out one kind of video game, " said Rep. William Hamzy (R- Plymouth). He introduced an amendment to include all violent video games, which was defeated.
Oh man. Let's cut everything!! Let's put the arcades out of business! Fools. Anyone who is sick enough to go out and start shooting people is going to snap whether there are violent games or not. What games did Adolf Hitler play? What did he listen to?
Rep. Ronald San Angelo (R-Naugatuck) said the issue of youth violence needed more study and proposed a task force to examine the effects of violent movies and home video games on youth. That amendment was also defeated. "I don't think the underlying bill is going to do anything," San Angelo said.
These people have waaaaaay too much time
Besides those are the games I'm best at in arcades.
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Just a guy with an opinion
If little Billy still goes out and shoots someone, nobody will blame the congress critter for the failure of his bill.
Yeah instead everyone says this bill doesn't go far enough. Then they just ban all violent video games.
After this bill passes could some youth in Connecticut please go on a horrible shooting spree.
Thank You
ALBUM: The Music Man
Sad really when you think about it...ARTIST: Meredith Willson
Most players don't understand that, but some actually know enough to repair destroyed pulse sensors and destroy enemy units.
Sometimes, I'll do a suicide run into an enemy-controlled zone just to figure out how their defences are set up -- then attack appropriately on respawn (one of the values of infinite lives).
Team Fortress has a spy character that can be used for intelligence gathering.Some people just use it to backstab. Others use it to full potential. Some Tribes mods (Renegades comes to mine) also have spy characters. Just because you don't use a capability doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
It's far easier to stop an enemy if you know where they are/what they're doing. Ignore that point at your own peril.
--
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Yes they do, and suprisingly, parents are finally learning them. While they may not be as recognized as the motion picture rating system, I've seen a far greater number of parents referring to video game rating designations then I have since they first came out.
Thief is a really cool game, I like the way the AI works, I hear its written entirly in LISP.
The Lottery:
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
I nearly died laughing when I read that one.
This Harp fellow has deluded himself pretty badly if he even remotely seriously thinks that passing this bill will prevent "youth shootings". mmmmm panacea.
Once again we see legislatures looking to offload personal responsibility from parents and law enforcement and instead scapegoat easy targets (namely, video games).
Also the first link is busticated.
Ryan T. Sammartino
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
"We hope these type of games disappear from the landscape," Lawlor said. "People that makes these kinds of things have gone too far."
Now, are any of you game designers deterred from creating yet another shoot-em-up game because of this (possible) CT law? Do you feel that you have gone "too far"? I thought not...
Now, here is an idea I'll toss out for you designers to consider. Robert Heinlein made a big deal about the role of intelligence-gathering scouts, yet I have yet to see any arcade or computer game that has the player perform in this role. Wouldn't it be a hoot if one or more of you were to design a game in which the goal is to not get shot while gathering and transmitting back information? Your only weapon would be your wits and the cover provided by the environment, as well as the med-kit on your belt as you get winged by "the bad guys."
Being a scout, you would be considerably lighter on your feet than the typical weapon-toting warrier. Oh, RAH allowed a knife in his stories, but the point was that the scout is the rabbit, not the lion. So design accordingly.
The game prizes would be microdots, but you get the points only when you successfully transmit them back to base. The survival of the scout is not the object, only the transmission of information. Dying well would be a winning move if the information you send back is valuable enough -- in other words, a sacrifice may well be the play that keeps you going, as the reward could be a new life or complete repair or something.
If you use this idea, all I ask is that you give me a little credit. No money required.
Congresscritters do this because it is a win/win situation for them. If they pass a bill that is supposed to fix a morality problem, then they get to declare it from the podium during the next election. If little Billy still goes out and shoots someone, nobody will blame the congress critter for the failure of his bill.
This is an excellent substitute for doing real work. If the congresscritter tackles a real issue, he could certainly claim credit if he is successful, but there would be the risk of blame if he screws it up.
We (citizens collectively) fall for this old gag every single time.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.