Supreme Court to decide hte future of Video Games

[TJ_Rosea]

It seem to me that people are avoiding the real reason for this. BLAME THE *bleep* PARENTS. It there job to teach the kids about fantasy and reality. There the ones who 99% of the time have to buy these games for there kids. the ratting system works the same was as a movie and best of all i explain on the back to what is excepted. Ask a question or two, just don't buy the game and give it to there kids. My mom laugh about this all the time, growing of i was allowed to see R rated movies and these T or M games, depending of what they were would have been allowed. Though back in my day t hard to get much off of a 8 or 16 but game, lol.

[arctic eagle]

well, it's obvious what you american types do...


come to canada to buy your games

[Clickme]

The ESRB rating is listed in FOUR places on a game: the front and back of hte box, the instuction booklet, and in case you lose (or don't buy with) all of that, it's on the disc too. THe Rating system not only but a Letter on hte, but ALSO explains the Suggested Age above it. On hte back of hte box is a detailed break down of WHY it gets this rating, sighting various things such as Alcohol Reference, Violence, Blood, Language and about 30 other things. This systyem is im place so that people can know EXACTLY what they hold in their hands, and cna prevent games that were MADE ENTIRELY FOR A MORE MATURE GAMER out of hte hands of Minors.

Ignorant/lazy parents assume all video games are for kids. I personally liek hte way it was phrased in Moral Kombat: IF I assume that all TV shows are Sesame Street, and then turn on the the Sopranos, I'm going to be disgusted! - People tend to think of video games as a child's activity, not realising that the majority of gamers are over 18, with the average age being around 33. Also, I believe that something like 90% of the purchases involving minors had a parent present when buying games. If Violent games are getting into the hands of children, it because parents are not informed, or don't WANT to be informed, content to believe that all games are Mario and Pacman.

In most of hte arguments I've seen, people are saying that the games should not HAVE violent content in them because children shouldn't be exposed to it. That's because hte most violent content are in M-fucking-Rated games that are NOT TARGETED TO CHILDREN!!! But the anti-game activists ignore that crucial fact. The standard set in this law would relegate most games with violence in them (even T games) into a special category that only accounts for violence against images of humans, or characters with sufficiently human characteristics, marking them with a big extra label on the front, more or less marking them as Adult Only, which is completely unnecessary with the ESRB already marking Mature games, and sighting violence in Teen games too as per their system of rating. All this new system would do is drop VG sales. Retailers like Wal-mart and Target will simply stop carrying those marked games for PR sake, and with less places to sell them, developers make less money and eventually say fuck it, and stop putting that content in ANY game, which will truly bring all games down to a more childlike level while cutting off the free form of expression inherent in other media such as movies and TV.

All this system would do is further complicate things and piss people off, not to mention cut deep into the gaming industry as a whole. The ESRB already does the job of informing people (and SPELLING IT THE FUCK OUT FOR THEM) of the content in games, and retailers like Gamestop uphold the ID policy. In 2008, over 80% of underage buyers were turned away from purchasing M-rated games, which is far greater a ratio than the movie industry, and you don't see movies coming under fire. Hell in order to actually FIND OUT what's in a movie you have ot go to websites jsut to find out WHY they are rated R, whereas games tell you RIGHT ON HTE BOX!

[TJ_Rosea]

anthor issue i heard is a store wont sell u a cd or movie that rated M unless u have proof of age, but a M rated game they can sell to a 5 year old cause there no rule or law about it.

[Silver Spoon]

Originally Posted by Clickme

(no more HAlo, no more Call of Duty, no more Left 4 Dead, no more Team Fortress)

I've never played any of these series, and the only Mature-rated games I've ever owned are Dead or Alive Ultimate and Persona 3 FES.

My biggest worry is that video game companies will become like Nintendo of America was in the late 80's to the mid-90's with their video games and super-censor them beforehand. I REALLY don't want that era of video gaming to return.

[TJ_Rosea]

Sorry M rated game is the same as a R rated movie, i type a little fast, and i am glad that rule was put in place then, back when i worked in retail that was not the case. I remember having to be called there all the time to anwser parents question about games cause the managers and the people in the dept had no clue, lol.

[nothingclever]

From my study of constitutional law/ history. This will not pass. It cannot pass. So no big deal

[sodacat]

Yeah, think for a second who is going to be ruling on this. Republicans are gung ho on downsizing and weakening the federal government this season, while Democrats, who need bucketloads of goodwill for this election, are not going to let themselves be remembered for creating a new Hayes Code. It is in no one's best interest to make any kind of change to the status quo.

[tjlemke]

Originally Posted by insomniac

Shut the hell up?

You have your silly court cases too, save your America bashing for somewhere else. Every country is like that, and if you can't see that then please seriously go kill yourself because ignorant fucks like you are annoying and need to die. And it's not just because I'm from the US, I know for a damn good fact we fuck shit up all the time- but don't turn your nose up when something comes up that is 'silly' when this shit happens every day in every country. It's a known fact humanity can't get it's priorities straight, but the last thing we need is more fucks like you saying "I'm better than you because we only care about legalizing pot!" or did you forget that too? Oh yeah, there's similar battles for legalizing pot everywhere. We're trying to do it too. We aren't special, and neither are you.

Dick much?

[mercury01]

Originally Posted by nothingclever

From my study of constitutional law/ history. This will not pass. It cannot pass.

Dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Ud?n! Go back to the Shadow!

[DanTails]

Wait, can you tell me why a big label on the front would suddenly kill the sales of a game again?

I mean, it's not like an M rating means a game won't sell. Heck, it's usually more of a boost IIRC.

And how would this limit free speech or creation of games? (more then the ESRB already does, at least.) These levels of violence have been in games for years, and it is usually pretty clear said games have that kind of violence. I don't think telling people that this game has violence in it is going to be a sudden deal breaker.

I don't see this doing anything big the ESRB isn't already doing, really. =/ But I feel like I'm missing a significant part of the issue.

[Clickme]

Bascially the new label would be the same as givign it an AO rating for violence. Places that don't sell ONLY games, like Wal-mart and Target will likely stop carrying those games altogether rather than deal with the extra hassle. Now some T games would fall under this too wit hthe way the law is phrased, keep in mind. Once major retailers like that stop carryign the games with said content, developers will stop making those games, and that will reduce hte gaming industry to literally child's play.