Mar 14
The Video Game Voters Network exists to empower Americans who play video games to take action against threats to this entertainment medium and to stay informed about the latest issues that could affect our choice in video game entertainment. Video games are a modern form of entertainment entitled to the same creative and free speech protections afforded by the US Constitution to older media such as movies, music, and books. So join the Video Game Voters Network and speak up for games and gamer rights.
Thanks to Sebastian for that.
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I will be damned if ANYONE is gonna tell me what to play!!!
I don’t understand why people are attacking the Family Entertainment Protection Act. It seems resonable from reading it, granted I havent thought about what an independant review of the ESRB would do to the rating system, but overall it seems like a good proposal, no 10 year old kid should be playing God of War or similarly M rated games.
No game should be banned, that would be a breach of freedom of expression, the most basic human right.
However, I feel that game ratings SHOULD be more strictly enforced. Most retailers seem to blatently ignore the ESRB and sell it to anyone..
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think playing a violent/rude/disturbing video game is gonna turn them into psychos or anything, but all this does is makes matters with anti violent media nutjobs worse. How? Because that child is going to take that video game home, and theyre gonna be playing it in their room… their middle class tight ass parents will proceed to walk in and be stunned at what their child is seeing, hearing and and effectively acting out, then go whine at some bureaucrat or lawyer and so on and so forth.
Parents need to take a bigger role in controlling what their children play, the same way as they would with what their children watch. You wouldn’t catch a 12 year old kid buying Four Brothers on DVD, though theres no problem with them picking up a copy of GTA:SA (in the US at least)
But if the parents believe their child is strong enough to watch that movie, then they can provide access to it by buying/renting that movie and showing it to them. The same control should be granted with video games.
Over here in the UK, certain games, for example GTA, Doom 3, The Getaway..most games that could be considered to be controversial in fact: must be rated by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), this means that the certificate provided MUST be adhered to by all retailers, under threat of prosecution, the same way that they have to with movies. Though only a minority of games are actually rated by the BBFC, and I feel that needs to change to avoid them missing anything.
I figure in a country where everyone blames someone else for their problems, mistakes.. and pretty much everything in fact – gamers could only prosper from a review of a half assed rating system, and government enforcement of their certification.
Just my two cents… sorry for rambling.
If we have laws protecting kids from cigarettes, drinking, porn, and more related to this topic — R and X rated movies — then it makes sense to add “R” and “X” rated games to the list. It’s not to say these things are necessarily bad, because this is America — freedom to do anything and all that — and our economy makes a lot of money on all of these items…. but that we should protect the kids while they’re young, so that they can grow up and be able to do whatever the hell they want… like pass more legislation regulating what we expose our kids to….
I love how the site says that the Government doesn’t regulate access to movies, books, or cable. This sounds like a tirade by some angry 13 year olds who are afraid they’ll miss the next big game. Unfortunately, we do need some type of industry regulation, because too many parents don’t pay attention to what their children play. I work retail, a lot of kids con the granparent into buying M rated games for them. Being the A-hole that I am I do inform the grandparents about the esrb ratings. A quick call to the parents and Johnny is busted for trying to get something his parents already said no to. Then again, some parents are like “oh it’s ok he can handle it” at which point all of us at the counter stood slackjawed as an 11 year old got GTA:SA for his birthday. Maybe a law against dumb parents is in order.