Hi, It reminds me a lot of the Soldier of Fortune banning - all part of the same trend. Incidentally, I believe ratings for Video Games have been in place for several years now in Germany, restricting children from buying Violent games (in fact, I believe, prohibiting the games' display unless in a seperate 'adults only' section). I am not sure what the law is on Arcades, but I do not see why it should be any different. Basically, if we are protecting our children from material (videos, books, magazines) containing strong language, violence or sexual images, I do not see why the same should not be done for video-games. Many of current video-games are more realistic than many movies! If we say gore is out for kids in one medium, why is it unconstitutional, or a bad idea to apply the same rules to the same content in another medium? Or are you saying there should be no ratings, and children should have access to all the same materials adults do? (What about buying guns and explosives? Children can't do that either...) I don't accept the arguments that 'it is up to parents to watch their children' or 'healthy children aren't interested anyway'. I'd like to be able to let my children out into the neighbourhood with the confidence that society is organized to prevent them from harm, rather than assuming society is going to be bad for them, and not letting them out unless I'm with them. I think segregating overly violent arcade games is a move in keeping with this goal. Not only that, but it may reduce demand quite significantly, (since I am sure the people playing them most are the people who aren't supposed to: kids), which would hopefully lead to fewer violent games. Cool! Richie
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Hi, It reminds me a lot of the Soldier of Fortune banning - all part of the same trend. Incidentally, I believe ratings for Video Games have been in place for several years now in Germany, restricting children from buying Violent games (in fact, I believe, prohibiting the games' display unless in a seperate 'adults only' section). I am not sure what the law is on Arcades, but I do not see why it should be any different. Basically, if we are protecting our children from material (videos, books, magazines) containing strong language, violence or sexual images, I do not see why the same should not be done for video-games. Many of current video-games are more realistic than many movies! If we say gore is out for kids in one medium, why is it unconstitutional, or a bad idea to apply the same rules to the same content in another medium? Or are you saying there should be no ratings, and children should have access to all the same materials adults do? (What about buying guns and explosives? Children can't do that either...) I don't accept the arguments that 'it is up to parents to watch their children' or 'healthy children aren't interested anyway'. I'd like to be able to let my children out into the neighbourhood with the confidence that society is organized to prevent them from harm, rather than assuming society is going to be bad for them, and not letting them out unless I'm with them. I think segregating overly violent arcade games is a move in keeping with this goal. Not only that, but it may reduce demand quite significantly, (since I am sure the people playing them most are the people who aren't supposed to: kids), which would hopefully lead to fewer violent games. Cool! Richie
Hi, How about the original Trojan Horse? After all, the trick is famous enough to have coined an english phrase... Richie