Comments on: Video Game Regulation Could Force Global Censorship

By: John

John — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:18:07 +0000

All this exaggerated unnecessary effort to regulate games yet the Supreme Court wants to make sure that practically everyone and their brother can own a gun. Bloodshed on TV: bad though the Goverment’s actions are trying to guarantee there is no shortage of bloodhsed in the real world. I support regulations for minors but the way it looks like everyone wants it is that you can’t see the content whether your 8 or 80 and that’s BS.

By: Davn Kincade

Davn Kincade — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:23:51 +0000

@Rollet

With all due respect, i don’t need to ‘work in the industry’ to feel the pinch of anti video game regulation, i’m a consumer and what they propose directly affects what i am allowed to buy freely.

The politicans are the biggest threat and so far there batting a zero for zero, you have to remember that this argument and threats to the video game industry isn’t new….this is the -exact- same argument that has been around since Splatterhouse and Mortal Kombat my friend….almost twenty years ago.

The only thing that has really happened is now we have an ESRB which is a good thing, some countries have had games banned but nowhere near enough to consider it to be a disaster to publishers or developers….if anything it increases the need to own it in the paticular country.

By: runemaster

runemaster — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:02:41 +0000

Interesting theory, but i think this will only give more non us developers a field that is less us dominated. It´s certainly bad for the us market, but it´s good for the european market.
I´m definitely not pro censorship, but if the will of the people chooses this way in the us, i doubt that it will have much of an impact in the long run to my gaming habits.

By: Rollett

Rollett — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:52:50 +0000

Its not those people you feel… its the massive hordes of sococcer moms who actualy buy all the crap they say! Trying working in the industry and see what im talking about first hand.

By: Davn Kincade

Davn Kincade — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:38:35 +0000

For the most part, as hard as it is to believe we do have some politicans on our side…not many but still, here’s a few examples:

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2007/07/24/senator-is-a-level-70-dwarf-priest-in-world-of-warcraft

http://kotaku.com/5014193/a-politician-who-actually-games

The people that are really trying to push the, for lack of a better term, “anti-videogame stance” are people like Mitt Romney…but seriously, he hasn’t a leg to stand on and he’s not a threat…video games are a multi-billion dollar industry (and mostly foreign industry) that these politicans cannot buy, sell or trade and (in my humble opinion) -that- is what get’s under their skin the most.

I don’t buy the ‘protect the children’ speech they use and frankly if the best they can muster is Hillary Clinton, Jack Thompsom, Mitt Romney,Kevin McCullough and Fox News we have little to fear.

By: HQ

HQ — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:20:47 +0000

Why dont the developers who make the games just leave it up to the parents by putting an option to control what content they want their children to see or hear in these games? They did in the old days. (example) Remember whith Mortol Kombat you could choose if you wanted blood in the game and i think there was even an option to turn the fatalities off so why dont we see this today? Take I dont know, Uncharted for PS3. I’d been perfectly fine with my little one playing it but when I heard the language i didn’t let him play anymore. If there was an option to turn the language down to wear it was suitable for a small child sure! I got nothing against shooting pirates!!

By: Shawn Sines

Shawn Sines — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:09:10 +0000

Rollett & Davn: Call me ageist but I also think it has to do with the average age of power holders and lawmakers in the US. The Septuagenarians (nee: old folks) are running this asylum and even we mid to late 30 year old citizens are not as clued in in general with gaming as those under the age of 30..

By: Rollett

Rollett — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:45:38 +0000

Davn its even worse then little to no concept of player base.. they have little to no concept of what the games even are….

By: Davn Kincade

Davn Kincade — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:03:19 +0000

The real problem is that these ‘regulators of video games’ have little to no concept of the player-base, gamers that grew up back when Donkey Kong was a new game are in their mid to upper 30’s now….these are the gamers that need to stand up against this.

They want stricter regulations on games they consider too mature for younger gamers? Ok, fine…there are many different ways to make it harder for younger gamers to actually get their hands on mature gaming, but not at the expense of older gamers.