can they really do anything about games

[christinme7890]

It is funny to hear all the fanatics say "games cause violence" and then see all the opposing fanatics say "no they don't idiot". Does it really matter....if a person "anti-games" got to any seat worth worrying about could they really stop people from playing games? NO, they can't stop anything. They can put age restrictions on games and that is about it. And even age restrictions don't stop anything..."Mom will you buy me this game" "sure honey, i will buy the game for you"....anti-game politicians can't do anything. That is why America is home of the free. Not home of the slightly free or home of the free without video games. I laugh every time someone tries to pull psychological mombo jumbo and argue that games plant some evil seed in someone's head and make them do bad. There has been violence since cain and able and you can bet that if they were around today, some dumb idiotic politician or big-head would blame their actions on video games. These anti-gaming people didn't get enough attention as a little kid, just ignore them and maybe they will fade away.

Gaming -- america's past time ftw.

[TrentHowell]

sorry but i must do this..................




CAPT. OBVIOUS TO THE RESCUE!!!!!!

[KN]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v363/King_nintendoid/Captobvious.gif

[Beacon]

I disagree. If the anti-gaming politicians ever manage to subvert the First Amendment and get their way, it will do a lot more than you're suggesting.
The bill in Utah could send retail employees for jail for failing to card someone. If this starts to happen, Retailers might stop carrying M rated games in order to avoid losing staff. This will cause a chilling effect on the video game industry.
Furthermore, some of these bills make it so it would not only be illegal for a child to buy an M-rated game, but for anyone to give it to them. So if a parent gave her very mature and sensible 16-year old son a copy of Grand Theft Auto, she could be fined/jailed/whatever.
Now, the First Amendment is a very strong defense, but considering some of the stuff that's been happening with the Geneva Conventions, don't take too much for granted.

[Garbage Pail Kid]

I disagree. If the anti-gaming politicians ever manage to subvert the First Amendment and get their way, it will do a lot more than you're suggesting.
The bill in Utah could send retail employees for jail for failing to card someone. If this starts to happen, Retailers might stop carrying M rated games in order to avoid losing staff. This will cause a chilling effect on the video game industry.
Furthermore, some of these bills make it so it would not only be illegal for a child to buy an M-rated game, but for anyone to give it to them. So if a parent gave her very mature and sensible 16-year old son a copy of Grand Theft Auto, she could be fined/jailed/whatever.
Now, the First Amendment is a very strong defense, but considering some of the stuff that's been happening with the Geneva Conventions, don't take too much for granted.

I agree with most of the stuff you're saying, but there's a problem with your analogy: The Geneva conventions thing has more to do with the executive and legislative branches. First Amendment issues almost always end up in the judicial branch. Justices in the Supreme Court are appointed for life so that they wouldn't cast votes for the purpose of furthering their careers (at least that's the idea.) Considering the the amount of precedent the video game industry has, I don't see them losing very many court cases, and I don't see them losing any in the higher courts.

[Beacon]

I agree with most of the stuff you're saying, but there's a problem with your analogy: The Geneva conventions thing has more to do with the executive and legislative branches. First Amendment issues almost always end up in the judicial branch. Justices in the Supreme Court are appointed for life so that they wouldn't cast votes for the purpose of furthering their careers (at least that's the idea.) Considering the the amount of precedent the video game industry has, I don't see them losing very many court cases, and I don't see them losing any in the higher courts.
I don't think it's likely to happen, either, I'm just saying we shouldn't get too comfortable.
Probably more importantly is the fact that even if all of these anti-game bills never get passed, they can still have a chilling effect on the industry. That's why I think the ESA needs to make more of an effort to point out the lies and mis-truths.

[pixelante_ninja]

They can only do so much though, if they did what they would have to they'd have to sue for libel every other day and they would effectively drown themselves in legal fees, even a few high profile cases would do the same thing. Sure the lies and bull**** are hurting them but to fight them would hurt them more in the long run and make it so they couldn't fight the more neccesary battles against video game legislation. What they need to do is force every state to pay their legal fees after every succesful suit, that way they will learn their lesson and stop.

[Picho]

However, if they are sly about their attacks, such as with the attempt to make the ESRB play through games in their entirety before rating them, games will begin to diminish. Talking to people, on the surface, sure there doesn’t seem to be a problem with this. It doesn’t seem to restrict anything in the slightest. Until you start attempting to define entirety for games that never end, or are quite long.

[Garbage Pail Kid]

However, if they are sly about their attacks, such as with the attempt to make the ESRB play through games in their entirety before rating them, games will begin to diminish. Talking to people, on the surface, sure there doesn’t seem to be a problem with this. It doesn’t seem to restrict anything in the slightest. Until you start attempting to define entirety for games that never end, or are quite long.

The ESRB is a private organization, so what right does the government have to force it to do things? And they have unrated movies, so why couldn't game companies just skip the rating process?

[christinme7890]

Your idea about suing for selling games underage and the first amendment being changed are theoretical ideas that most likely won't happen. Walmart can't be sued for an employee selling games to underage kids...walmart covers their a$$ better than that. The first amendment would most likely never change because it is the epitome of the USA's stand on freedom.

I also don't agree that games could ever EVER fade out of society. Games are America's new past time and there is no way they can get american off games. NO WAY. sure that can change the rating and make it more strict but i don't care....kids should focus on school anyways and it would prob do society better if they were not playing games ALL the time. They should still be able to play games just not as much as they do now.

[PyroHazard]

I don't think it's likely to happen, either, I'm just saying we shouldn't get too comfortable.
Probably more importantly is the fact that even if all of these anti-game bills never get passed, they can still have a chilling effect on the industry. That's why I think the ESA needs to make more of an effort to point out the lies and mis-truths.

The thing is, these bills can't get past because the architecture of them is a direct violation of the 1st Ammendment. It's like dog ****: You can mold it, shape it, and/or paint in anyway you want but at the end of the day it's still a brown matter of feces.

You also have to consider the fact that studies that show aggression amongst youths while playing violent games are extremely meager at best with no strong conclusive evidence. These studies lay the groundwork of legislation bills and if the foundation is crumbling, no doubt will the legislation fall through the literal cracks.

Politicans' witch hunt on violent media never had any major impact (save for the Ethic Codes for comics but that was in the 50's) and the voting base for these politicians are slowly dying off. Plus, everyone is more pre-occupied with more pressing issues like healthcare, civil liberties, and the situation in Iraq.

Videogames are a glorified non-issue but it is still fun to talk about how stupid people are (Jack Thompson and 3 other people...) into thinking they are the tools of satan :)

[Thefremen]

[QUOTE=Picho;8640]However, if they are sly about their attacks, such as with the attempt to make the ESRB play through games in their entirety before rating them, games will begin to diminish. Talking to people, on the surface, sure there doesn

[Kharne]

Look, even if one of the anti-gamers pass one of their big bad bills (a long shot to begin with), where's the enforcement? Who's going to moniter every single purchase in every store at all times? Nobody, that's who. Anyone who'd be able to do that probably has better things to do then making sure little Billy isn't buying an 'M' game. If you can't enforce it, then what good is the bill?

There's almost no hope of enforcement, and before we can even worry about that there's almost no hope of passing a bill to enforce in the first place. It's a one in a million chance that relies on another one in a million chance happening. The whole scenario is way too unlikely to be worried about.