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Washington State Restricts Anti-Cop Videogames
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to this CNN report mentioning that Washington state is the first in the US to regulate the sale of videogames to minors. The bill, passed Monday, "..forbids selling minors any video or computer game depicting violence against law enforcement officials.". Interestingly, the law (as mentioned at Slashdot a while back) seems to ignore the fairly well-respected voluntary ESRB ratings for games, with the article suggesting that Enter The Matrix might be banned for purchase by those under 17, due to the player battling cops, despite EtM only being rated 'Teen' by the ESRB.
... is the first game I can remember playing in ages that gives you no penalty for blowing away (or chokeholding, as I prefer) civilians (as in, in the mailrooms).
Having said that, I just want to make clear I ONLY started chokeholding the civilians because I was afraid they'd turn into Agents if I left them behind me (now I realise your first introduction to an Agent is made blatantly obvious... I'll be toning down the more anti-social behaviour in my ETM playing now...).
I listened to an interview of the legislator sponsoring this legislation. One of the factors in a need for a law is that the game industry is not enforcing the ratings system. The government did a sting and they found that only KB Toys checked the kids' ages.
You seem to have contently forgotten the ESRB that is already in place to deal with this.
...but the video game industry, on the whole, has been pretty unresponsive to this issue.
So I'm not sure what you mean by such phrases as:
I'd rather the video game industry had taken this up themselves and done something reasonable and responsible and respectable, but as they have consistently failed to acknowledge the issue...
I'm sure the industry tries to do as much as they can to try and make their products marketable to as large a segment of the population as possible but when a game gets stamped with the Mature rating, I would say that pretty much sends a clear signal to the publisher that the content in that game is for an adult audience.
And just to show you that I think they are doing a pretty fair job without the need for the government to come in and start some sort of slippery slope here:
Grand Theft Auto 3 -- Mature (17+)
Grand Theft Auto Vice City -- Mature (17+)
Age of Empires -- Teen
Neverwinter Nights -- Teen
Quake III Arena -- Mature (17+)
SimCity 4 -- Everyone
Freelancer -- Teen
Postal 2 -- Mature (17+)
Lilo and Stitch Pinball -- Everyone
I've played all of those games at one point or another and think that the rateings are pretty fair. Oh, and by the way. I'm a 30 something year old college grad who has been playing video games since the original Pong. Not all of us are "indignant high school age geeks."
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
AS a parent with kids in public schools in Washington State, I can confirm that they are pushing the limits on what they can censor for children. Almost weekly I get handouts sent home with the children on what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, dress, food, talk, music, holidays, etc. Its not just DARE, it's early as kindergarten and Pokemon...
Hey! Where am I going?!? And what am I doing in this hand basket?
Are you kidding? Cops face more scrutiny in these situations. If a cop lets his emotions get the better of him (during the course of an extremely emotional job) for even an instant, he faces the loss of his job, or even faces jail time. See the case of Julie Cayer in Ottawa. A cop arrests a belligerent, abusive, resisting suspect, and in one brief moment while subduing her, bangs her head onto his car, and bang, he's guilty of assault.
Cops have to be extremely careful in everything they do. The benefit of the doubt is with the drug-smoking, wife-beating perp, who has every reason to lie. It's an extremely tough job.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
I think an orthodox jew would tell you that God gave out considerably more than 10 laws in the old testament. For example don't shave, or wear poly-cotton clothing. But few people observe the commandment to keep Saturday holy, so I'm not convinced people would follow even 10 rules.
Those studies are all flawed. They never factor in the fact that violent screwed up people will naturally gravitate to violent games. If I'm crazy and violent, I'm going to enjoy playing GTA. But just because I play GTA doesn't make me any more likely to be violent.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Ok, Read some of that, and it showed Correlation, NOT Causation... They are different. And that is what some of us are saying. Some people have violent urges. Some of those people shoot up schools, Others(the Majority IMO) Shoot up the computer screen.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed