California Video Games Law Struck Down (for now)
SWEET!

First the Illinois law, and now California's. At least there are SOME judges in the United States who have some sanity and a willingness to stop Bad Laws.

The news is on Gamasutra - I'm sure it can be found elsewhere:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7602

The rationale behind the injunction is that the research behind the law did not demonstrate any sort of causality between video-game violence and real-world violence, and it doesn't compare videogames to other forms of media which have NOT been so restricted, even though they've been around for much longer.

Me? Hey, I'm slow to give praise to Wal*Mart, but the last time I bought a rated "M" game from them, they carded me. I'm clearly not seventeen anymore (sadly...), but they still carded me. No big deal. I'm glad they are voluntarily complying with the ESRB rating system and doing their best. That's what the ESRB system is for - it's a voluntary rating system for consumers, and obviously retailers make use of it as well and CAN incorporate it into their policy. So if stores are already doing what the California law is trying to enforce, what's the problem?

The problem is that places like Wal*Mart tend not to screw around much with possibilities of fines. To avoid taking those kinds of hits, there's a good chance they will just pull all rated "M" titles from their shelves completely. That's why almost nobody is producing rated "AO" (Adults Only ... 18 or over) titles - nobody wants to deal with having to sell them, so it's the kiss of death. They've done that kind of thing before.

If that happens, what we'd end up with is videogames getting relegated back to being the "kids toys" that they were back in 1980 (grown-ups were playing them too, but it was mainly kids that were adapting to the new technology). But get real, guys! The "Nintendo Generation" is those people who were 6-16 back in 1990. It's been 15 years. They are 21 - 31 years old now. The 14-year-old kids who played one of my first games, "Twisted Metal" (which was still rated T... barely) are now 24 years old! And they are STILL playing games.

Just because when YOU, the Lawmakers, were young parents you didn't get that newfangled videogame crap doesn't mean that it was something that only 12-year-olds get today! This hasn't EVER been strictly "kid's stuff", and it' hasn't been "mostly" kids stuff since the Gen-X'ers started going to college.

And what about small, indie games that MIGHT be able to make it onto the store shelves of Wal*Mart but we can't afford to have the ESRB rate our game?

Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:56 PM (Permalink)