Slashdot Mirror
Games Are Porn in Utah
GameDailyBiz reports that there is new anti-videogame legislation brewing in both Iowa and Utah. Utah's law is more poorly thought out than most, essentially classifying violent games as porn. From the article: "Meanwhile in Utah, State Rep. David Hogue (R-Riverton) is taking a different approach. Hogue's HB 0257 would seek to amend an existing Utah statute by adding an 'inappropriate violence' clause--such as violence exhibited in some of today's popular video games. Under the existing Utah statute the distribution or showing of pornography and explicit nudity to minors is a felony. Hogue is certainly not the first politician to compare violent video games to pornography. CA Assemblyman Leland Yee and countless others have put playing violent games in the same category as porn or smoking cigarettes."
This post is filithy and should be counted as porn too I think.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I have yet to hear (from friends, in the press, whatever) from any parent who claimed that he was unable to stop his child from playing these kinds of games and therefore needed a law like this one. These politicians talk about how children are playing inappropriate games, so you would think that they could fine one parent who needs this law. Has there ever been a case of a politicians proposing a law for parents without having a parent vouch for it? Where are these parents supporting these laws???? I want to hear from them!
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
There's also a candidate for political office (iirc) in Texas who wants to add a 50% tax on all "violent" games (without really any definition of what is violent and what is not). The bill in question essentially would make almost all video games 1.5x more expensive.
(...He also wants to add a 10% tax to all soft drinks and a $10,000 tax to all abortions. Take that as you will.)
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Polygamy 3.0, sold a lot in Utah.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Add "inappropriate violence" to that, and most R-rated movies have become illegal to sell to minors. Not to mention movies shown on cable (or even network) TV. I'd like to see this pass just to see what a mess they make of it. (Though I'm sure if I lived in Utah I'd feel differently.)
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
So kids bathe blindfolded there? Oh wait, they elected Orrin Hatch... that explains everything.
There should be some kind of way of corralling the "think of the children" laws. Maybe it could just be a list of contraband that forces the seller to check with the parent of someone below the age of X. Of course, it could be a long list. Everything from soft drinks to hard liquor could make the list in some areas.
The final crazy form of the law would be individual lists per kid of every family, where parents would tag their kids with some kind of embedded RFID that contains a list of everything their parents don't want them exposed to. Don't have the tag? You can only get water and whole wheat organic crackers.
"Scientists don't change their minds, they just die." -- Max Planck
On the other hand, I'd rather parity be restored by increasing open-mindedness about sex... but I'll take what I can get.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Yeah. What video games need is more appropriate violence.
They can finally claim to have had sex after interacting with another player in a round of violent online gaming after this law is passed.
First off I'd consider myself a pacifist. I may have a decent amount of inner rage, but I'm anti-war, anti-death penalty and generally think that there's little reason to ever hurt people.
Earlier today I was playing Resident Evil 4 on my second run through and became quite disappointed that after shooting enemies in the head they would just fall over dead. Sure I'd accomplished my goal by removing them as a threat, but it was just so lackluster if a perfect headshot from a powerful handgun (maxed out Red9) or shotgun (maxed out Striker) didn't cause their heads to explode in a mass of gore. A bit of violent fireworks to signify a job well done.
A little later I was talking to my girlfriend about this when I realized that when compared to real-world violence video game violence is simply more visceral and exciting. If I were to shoot someone in the head in the real world they'd simply fall over and bleed quite a bit.
Perhaps this is related to years upon years (i.e. since the release of the NES) of playing video games (not necessarily violent or not, I choose games based on their quality, Civilization being my all-time favorite) or maybe it's a result of all sorts of other effects culminating in a constant desire to get more and more out of it, but honestly real world violence isn't in any way exciting. It's simply painful, messy, unpleasant, and good for hurting people. Any claim that kids who enjoy the thrill of seeing a head pop open when hit by an excellent 500 yd shot from a sniper rifle would suddenly love to go out and do it in reality simply don't realize that watching some guy a long ways away fall over really isn't exciting. A good thing for all of us and a bad thing for the military... the only people who actually want kids to go off and shoot people in the head in real life.
Do you have any idea how much violence there is in the Bible? I don't think even GTA showed genocide of entire races, a la the Midianites. Sure, it's a quite a stretch to ban the Bible (well, that and a violation of the first ammendment), but is it any more of a stretch than to ban a video game? What, just because one has thousands of years of entrenchment it should be given a pass?
I don't think it's right for the government to draw that line, in either case. Besides, aren't there a lot more important issues to deal with?
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
I can't believe how many people (the politicians/ law figures in particular) are still storming over this issue. And what's worse is the solutions they come up with to fix this alleged problem. Out of all the violence that occurs on our planet, the make-believe and at times imaginative forms is the biggest concern? Please, why not spend the energy alleviating the ACTUAL violence that consumes many people's lives, and which hardly even stems from fictional violence...
Thus, while I wouldn't want violent VGs marked as porn, we do want/need some sort of effective rating system.
We do have such a rating system. Hell, I'm 33, huge with a bushy beard and a register monkey at Target tried to card me when buying an M-rated game - probably because he thought it was funny, but the important thing is that the register stopped him and reminded him that the game had a "not for little kids" rating.
These videogame laws are attempting to criminalize something which I don't think should be criminal. In fact, in the case of Utah the result of their law (if it held up, which it won't) would be to make it a felony for a parent to let their minor child play GTA3 or Medal of Honor. The article doesn't contain the actual text of the amendment, but if it's as vague as they say an adult could go to jail for showing Serenity to a 17-year-old, let alone giving them a copy of Call of Duty. The Iowa law is hardly better since someone would have to determine on a case-by-case basis which games would cause a violation and the "offender" would still end up with a friggin' criminal record.
These legislators are just trying to get publicity. I doubt they truly give a rat's ass about videogame content or they would recognize that the ESRB sets some good guidelines and at least reference those standards when constructing their patently unconstitutional laws...