Gamers, stand up... fight for the right

Hey guys, heads up... this is pretty important. Lots of anti-gaming legislation going on right now, and even if you don't live in New York, it could hit you eventually if it doesn't get stopped now...


http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=23697


The site they're talking about is linked below... I highly recommend everybody who reads this go sign up. It's like adding your name to a petition... costs you nothing but 30 seconds of your time, but adds strength to the cause. And I can vouch for the fact that they won't send you any mailing list type emails or anything, unless you specifically ask to receive them.

http://www.videogamevoters.org/


So go do it, do something good for the next 30 seconds! :major

 

Agreed, a very informative site as well.

 

It's not hard to see that it's the parent's fault for allowing their kids to play such Violent games. I played StarCraft when I was 11, and Doom 1 and 2 even earlier. Sure I was a bit young, but I'm not a crazy violent kid.

There are a few factors that could lead to violent action in a Video Gamer.
-Said violent person is already a mentally unstable individual, and playing Violent video games affects him differently then other people.
-Violent Person's parents failed to see the mental state of their child.
-Violent Person's parents failed to prevent their child from gaining access to an M-Rated game.

I have NEVER heard of any circumstances where a Video Game TRIGGERED a violent course of action. I am not against research on Video Games, or the affects of violent video games on people, or children. This is good stuff to know. But saying, or even hinting that violent video games is the cause or had something to do with a violent event is just foolish. Especially when many of these unfortunate events could have been prevented by other means.

 

Exactly, but you see something bad happen and automatically some one leaps up to say video games are at fault. The Virginia shootings, it was less than twelve hours before he was accused of playing Counter-Strike. Later on it was shown that he was remarkably NOT a video gamer. One of the things his friends mentioned that was odd about him.

 

As per other forum I join, it's the man, not the gun (or knife) that kills

 

I totally agree. Foolish is a really good word for it. It's like people don't want to admit/understand that there is this potential for monstrosity in all of us, and that it's lack of guidance/patience/love/whatever that brings it out. Not video games, not movies, none of that. It's just because video games are an easy target -- less mainstream than Hollywood -- that people are going after them. And I really do believe it's just the first step in a long chain of limits on expression/freedom that we can't stand for.

 

tis why i play all my video games on my computer. there is NO way anyone is getting "parental controls" on computer video games anytime soon.

 

Don't be so sure. How hard would it be to install an age check -- via credit card, SSN, etc.-- in a computer game's start-up launch? The technology is there -- the question is whether it's constitutional to apply it. That's why it's important to stop the video game thing now... it's like saying "People pee in the shallow end of the pool. That's why I stay in the deep end." It's all the same water, people. :major

 

it definitely wouldn't be hard for people to quickly find a way around it, unless the whole game was highly encrypted, or something like that.

putting age restrictions on games would most likely lead to a large surge in game pirating and cracking...

 

I agree. And that can only lead to badness. The whole piracy thing, if it gets worse, could cripple the game industry. Or lead to things like this:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/07/earthworm-jim-d.html

 

Let's not forget though, Nintendo already has parental controls on the Wii.

And Piracy leads to EA's SecureROM protection.

 

The whole "violent games cause violent kids" debate was actually what caused me to try games from the Grand Theft Auto series - I wanted to see what it was that supposedly caused all the incidents of kids shooting at people driving down highways. I'm still looking...