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Washington State Restricts Anti-Cop Videogames

Posted by simoniker on from the tony-hawk-restricted-too? dept.

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.

2 of 502 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obligatory Reservoir Dogs quote by Joey7F · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting, that reminds me of a certain book I once read...

    "It warn't the grounding--that didn't keep us back but a little. We
    blowed out a cylinder-head." (huck finn)

    "Good gracious! anybody hurt?" (aunt sally)

    "No'm. Killed a nigger."

    "Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.

    I have a feeling this won't be modded funny :D

  2. Re:Call it flamebait if you must... by letxa2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Apparently, if you were just mowing down innocent bystanders the game would be fine for minors that would otherwise be damaged by simulated combat with the police.

    I'm not a fan of "we know what's best for you" and this kind of thing borders on silly. On the other hand, I doubt a video game where the goal was to hijack a plane and crash it into a building would be well-received even if the targets weren't police, so I don't think it's really a question of police being more valuable. The fact is, they're easier to identify targets on the street and promoting that targetting of police is no different than a game targetting blacks, whites, or garbage collectors. It's all sick.

    Almost as alarming as the law is the fact that the designers of video games are so completely out of creativity that they have to resort to something as disgusting as shooting law enforcement officers. Is there truly nothing more interesting or fun that they can come up with for new video games?

    I might be showing my age, but Space Invaders, Asteriods, Pole Position... They were all fun and didn't involve killing humans. I know things change and evolve and I'm not suggesting we bring back Space Invaders, but I have to believe that fun games can still be sold that don't require the killing of other humans, police or not...