Interview with 'Anti-Gamer' Senator Leland

strwrsxprt writes "Game Almighty recently had the chance to speak with Senator Leland Yee about his views on the validity of California Assembly Bill 1179, which was designed to criminalize the sale of Mature rated games to minors and require retailers to keep Mature games separated from other games. He also shares his thoughts on everything from the effectiveness of the ESRB and the place AO games have in the market, to the movie industry and their rating standards in relation to games. His answers might just surprise you."

Comments

Re:Surprise surprise

[AmaDaden]

The bill is still bupkus and he is still an anti-gamer.

This is this kind of attitude that the gaming community needs to avoid. If we are going to get anywhere with this dispute on how adult games should be dealt with we need to listen to both sides. It sounded like the Senator was being honest and logical. Even if he was lying about his plans we would be able to call him on it if he changes his tune latter. The bill does not look like it was out to stop games dead in their tracks but to prevent the sale of adult games to minors. That's not all that bad of a thing. We do it with drugs and alcohol. I don't think that it is a necessary restriction, but that is my opinion. Instead of foaming at the mouth every time a law maker tries to pass a misguided law we need to explain what is wrong with it. I don't think we want to be as loud and stupid as Jack Thompson.

Re:Smarter replies than I expected

[Sciros]

.. Because this legislation CRIMINALIZES the sale of games to minors. *Criminalizes* is the key word, and you have to think about what that means. Your addition problem analogy is indeed appropriate here, because I simply cannot see jail time being a fitting penalty for selling a minor an M-rated game. To attempt to make a point with an extreme (bad tactic but I'll try it) why don't we just propose a law that states "if you sell a minor a game, you get lethal injection" because yes without that law it would be a lot easier for a child to bypass parent concerns. However, who is to say that parent concerns include making sales of violent games to their children a felony? Imagine if you are a parent whose child (18+, under 18, whatever) works at a game store in Cali? Now you have to worry about him accidentally screwing up, selling something like Gears to a high school junior, and facing prison time for it!

This is "quite valid"?!?