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Politician Takes Enlightened Stance on Gaming

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the this-shouldn't-be-unique-but-it-is dept.

GamePolitics is reporting that one Australian would-be politician is taking an enlightened stance on gaming in general, and especially with respect to censorship. "Censorship is odious because it removes community choice. Censorship says that the thought is the action; that the common person can't distinguish between depiction and actuality... Censorship says, 'Let me decide who talks.' And games are talking. They're talking very loudly, to a great many people, in strong and clear voices. They're speaking in places that have never read a newspaper and in houses which have never listened to politicians. It's okay to be worried by what games are saying. It's okay to disagree. But it's not okay to stifle those voices. It's not okay to kill the game."

8 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Love That Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ah, so it's an "enlightened" stance when it happens to agree with your viewpoint?

    Gimme a fucking break.

    1. Re:Love That Bias by PC+and+Sony+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Of course I'll call someone enlightened that agrees with me. If I don't agree with myself, I'm just calling myself stupid... and I try very hard to avoid being stupid.

      So yes. Biased. But not unexpected.

    2. Re:Love That Bias by Cheesebisquit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's enlightened because it promotes freedoms rather than restricting them.

  2. Re:Impossible by CrashPoint · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Respect for the individual? He'll never get elected in today's political climate.

    Or yesterday's, or tomorrow's.

  3. Re:Self filter? by LoofWaffle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure that is the point of the ESRB (regardless of personal opinion about its effectiveness). The biggest problem with the ESRB "tool" is that many (not all) parents either don't understand how to use the tool, don't think that the game content is an issue for their kid, or just don't care.
    Before too long you have a kid kill a bunch of people and if the media determines the kid played violent video games then they sensationalize it. Yet, you never hear the media tell the story of say, LeBron James who grew up playing EA Sports NBA XX and became a great basketball player.

    --
    You know, Custer had a plan.
  4. Re:I look forward by Malekin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't - when that day comes he/she will be just as out of touch with the young people of the time as the caggy old bastards we have now are with our current issues.

  5. Re:Self filter? by Danse · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't see why most games can't give users the tools to self filter. At that point, it's the parent's responsibility.

    They do. The consoles have parental controls built in. Parents just don't seem to want to bother to use them.

    --
    It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
  6. Re:Heard an interesting story... by IntergalacticWalrus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Safe handling of a gun usually excludes the act of shooting towards other people for fun.