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A Brief History of Videogame Legislation
Joystiq is running a new column by Dennis McCauley (who you may recognize from the Game Politics blog). This week, he's got a post up looking at the history of gaming legislation. Starting in the 90s with the creation of the ESRB, McCauley walks us through some of the more notable skirmishes gaming and the body politic have had with each other. From the article: "In 2002 the city of St. Louis took the Indianapolis law one step further, prohibiting not only coin-op play, but retail sale or rental of violent games to minors. Different approach, similar fate. The 8th Circuit Court tossed the law for much the same reasons that doomed Indy's. A city attorney expressed bitter disappointment, called the Federal Court ruling 'a blow to the parents of St. Louis County and the kids.' That was three years ago, and, last time we checked, St. Louis hadn't been overwhelmed by a GTA-like wave of youth violence. As a matter of fact, youth crime levels have been trending downward for years."
I wonder where the wave of car violence was in the mid 1990s when everyone was playing Carmageddon and Carmageddon II Carpocalypse Now where the aim of the game was to crash into other cars, including police, and run over pedestrians in creative ways? I see my CD label shows the game was set as M for Mature by the ESRB. So maybe no children ever played it because parent didn't buy M games for kids back then? ;-)
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Before that, they whined about Exidy's Death Race (1975), and Chiller.
And at home, in 1982, there was Custer's Revenge for the Atari 2600 console.
And from its very invention up until the 70s, people had to go to court to prove that pinball was a game of skill, not a game of chance, and that pinball machines were therefore not illegal gambling machines.
For everything fun, there's gonna be some idiot with a (D) or an (R) beside his or her name telling you not to do it. Fuck 'em all.
Of interst may be Jon Festinger's book Video Game Law which covers the various videogame laws that have been passed, but also lawsuits involving videogames from the cases involving Ralph Baer's patents up until Blizzards suit against makers of the bnetd project. It seems to have been published only in Canada, but if nothing else it can be ordered from the publisher.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Anyone remember Death Race and its media frenzy? The media had the same reaction as it did with Mortal Kombat and other games, only instead of being actual bloody violence, it was a car running over vaguely stick-like shapes. The media and legislation now is the same as it was back in the 1970's, but it's still interesting to look at recent events I suppose.
Before that it was D & D, pool, cards, bowling, etc.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Most of the legislation today isnt introduced by parent aged politicians its grandparents. This is no different than politicians speaking out against rock & roll in the 50's or Long Hair on men in the 60's its basically just something that they arent familiar with and do not associate with other forms of media such as books, movies, etc. I have no problem with the ESRB in fact I think its a good idea, but until parents are responsible to buy into it, its not going to work. In the meantime the old folks who dont understand will raise a stink about the erosion of values and need for regulation. Its the same old story different generation.
Actually, that bit about pinball isn't entirely 100% true. We have an old antique pinball machine that is from somewhere around the turn of the century and it has no flippers. 5 balls for a nickel, all you did was shoot the balls. No interaction from there on out.
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
A year ago, when I confronted Sondy Pope-Roberts, the Democratic State Assembly sponsor of Wisconsin's vidgame bill, she said "the pollsters" (I presume Hillary Clinton's,) had told her "This polls higher than anything else we asked."
Sondy's subsequent press release asserted that "86% of 16 year old boys play these [violent] games." Asked why she'd want to alienate 86% of (then) 16 year old boys, some of whom will be eligible to vote this November, and the rest by her next re-election cycle, she responded, "They won't vote anyway."
This, like the DOPA Myspace censorship legislation that just passed the US House with only 15 dissenting votes (roll call) seems to me pretty shortsighted for a Party that will be competing in elections not just in '06 and '08, but on into the future.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
'a blow to the parents of St. Louis County and the kids.'
And that sums up why it is bad law. It is law that does not 'help' the community but polices parents. Stopping crime, building better roads, better infrastructure etc... Yet they want to legislate morality.
I'm surprised (unless I missed it) that some legislator has not tried to ban flight simulator games because they could be used to practice using an airplane as a weapon. Maybe I can get one of my state politicians to do this on my behalf and I can get my 15 minutes of fame doing a few sound bites on CNN standing next to my Senator with a shit eating grin on my face. I could get them to add a ban on Google Maps as well because they would provide an excellent method of locating targets. This could work because it seems much more serious than just some kid running over a few people with a car or shooting a couple of police officers.
By the 1970's, all pinball machines had flippers and drop targets and the like. Flippers were introduced as far back as 1947 http://www.pinballhistory.com/lpins.html and were standard fare by the 50's, even though the flippers didn't always flip the same way. At the time when the lobbying to have pinball de-classified as a game of chance was going on, it had evolved into a game of skill. Granted, there is still an amount of luck involved, but very few things are truly independent of chance.
"osake no hou ga, biiru yori ii" to omotteiru.
Politicians like Mrs Clinton who can forge links bewtween the inner city and the suburbs get the win when it matters. Rockstar has been tamed. "Bully" won't be the game it might have been before Hot Coffee.
Personally, I find the entire issue of legislating video games to be an attention-grab by the folks in Washington who need a wide-reaching platform on which to get re-elected. This, along with Net Neutrality have become my two big voting issues. Anyone who has enough free time to start railing against video games, could be doing something much better with their time than running a state or (gasp!) the country.
What I would really like to see is an article that gives a side by side comparison of the legal battles video games have had to endure with the similar ones thrown at comic books and rock and roll in the past. I think that a well written article on the subject could sway a lot of uninformed voters as to how ridiculous this all really is.
I won't give any names away, nor e-mail addresses (because I don't really care so much anymore), but there is a guy I used to know who is a young 32 year old parent with a 3 year old son (as of right now). He strongly feels that video games need to be legislated. However, his conclusions are illogical, and when I tried to explain to him all the fallacies in his argument, he basically replied over and over again, "...something needs to be done." He's a contractor manager at Lockheed Martin, and his personality type is a "government needs to run society" type.
I think there was a phrase I recently read that stated something to the effect of, "Those who arrive to conclusions not based on logic, cannot have their reasoning changed by logic." He's got a 4 year college degree, so he's not a complete idiot, but he could never accept the facts relating to this topic-I found it amazing. He's just biased against video games-not that every single male in the world loves video games of course. I know other parents, and he's the only one that thinks like this, considering his age.
Just because you get modded "insightful" on Slashdot doesn't mean you actually are in real life.
I had a co-worker who had a My Space so that she could keep an eye on what her daughters were doing on line. She got the most atrocious posts from this devil worshiping freak who had been posting on his my space about his fantasies of raping women, sodomizing boys, etc. He harassed her for several weeks, on line before the MySpace staff was able to get him to stop.
.edu email address in order to even get account. The thought being that if you keep it limited to actual students, faculty and staff it will be safer than the internet at large.
I've been harassed because I blog on Xanga. I had one person in particular that left me very threatening comments. Every time I'd have him blocked, he'd just get a new account and come back. I'm very glad that this in-duh-vidual didn't know where to find me. I'm very careful with my on-line identity. I don't use my real photo. I never say where I live or work. I never include pictures that show any identifiable information. However, most children don't have that kind of savvy. They blog about school, often mentioning the exact school. They tend to include their city and grade, which makes them pretty easy to locate.
In addition, I had another co worker who's daughter was threatened with physical violence on another blogging site by some of her class mates. The exact threat was that she would be shot the next week at school. We turned the matter over to police and it was handled. Still, it was quite unsettling to pull up and see the threat spelled out clearly, in print, on a web page by some jr. high aged girls in the 'burbs. There was a recent article in the local paper about on-line bullying.
I can understand that the facilities don't feel that they can provide adequate security for a minor child, especially when they are acting as the loco parentis. I'd block that sort of thing too, since you just don't want to be responsible if it "goes south." This is just my small circle of acquaintences and I can't help but think that we're not that out of the ordinary. I feel certain that we're not since Facebook was founded as an alternative to MySpace. You must have an active
2 cents,
QueenB
HDGary secures my bank
1) All stores that sell video games must post, in letters no less than 2 inches high, a complete description of the rating system. This signage must be located no further than 30 feet away from the entrance, exit and check out.
The verbage of the sign should be this stuff - http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp
2) It is illegal to sell video games rated M under 18. It is illegal to sell video games rated A or not rated to anyone under 21.
3) ID showing proof of age is required for any game rated "M" or rated "A" or any game that is not yet rated.
That way there's no censorship. It's the same thing we do with Playboy, Hustler, etc. These things are considered to be too adult for minors so you have to show proof of ID in order to buy them. I think that many of the games also fall into this category. Yes, I like to play them myself. As I'm sitting here writing this, I'm looking at a stack of games that includes Medal of Honor, GTA, Hitman, and Manhunt. That doesn't mean that I think they're appropriate for a 5th grader, though.
I also think that a lot of parents aren't aware that there is a rating system and don't know how to interpret it. Furthermore, I think that if parents have to show ID in order to by 12 year old Timmy a copy of BMX XXX, they might actually get the idea that it isn't really meant for kids.
The whole world is NOT meant for children and I seriously doubt that there are hordes of 12 year olds out there with $50 of disposable income. It's the parents that buy these things for their kids. It just that the parents think, "Oh, it's a video game. How bad could it be?" Can anyone say "Hot Coffee"? Frankly, the whole world should not have to be made childproof just because parents are either too stupid or too lazy to look at what their kids are asking for.
That said, I think we as gamers, and the gaming industry in general can do a lot to raise awareness amongst parents about what's in the games that kids are asking their parents to buy.
2 cents,
QueenB
HDGary secures my bank
Hell, it goes back further than that. This is no different than the (successful) crusade against comic books in the 50's:
o cent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Inn
In the early 1980s, my high school lunch monitor cracked down on our playing of a board game similar to Carmageddon. Actually it was based more on the old Mad Max series of movies -- I think it might have been called "Car Wars."
The pretext used against us was that rolling dice would be a horrible precedent to set in the high school cafeteria. 'Cause we all know how very, very innocent 17-year-olds are. Wouldn't want anyone starting a game of craps.
We weren't even killing pedestrians -- just having some gladiatorial fun behind the wheel.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I have no problem with the ESRB in fact I think its a good idea, but until parents are responsible to buy into it, its not going to work.
I'm not clear about what you think parents aren't doing now? What do you propose to make them "responsible to buy into" the ESRB?
Being a parent who does pay attention, I'd just like to know.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.