Oh boy, here we go again...
You better be over 18 if you live in California.
Isn't it incredibly ironic that Arnold Schwarzenegger might ban a violent form of entertainment? I love this world. |
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Manhunt; Halo 2. This should shed some light on what drives people like our parents and other non-gamers on this issue, a point I've made several times before during this kind of discussion... Contesting the Not-So-Virtual World of Politics | The New York Times, 9/10/05 (free registration required for full article) Quote:
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You have it spot on, Trep.
I've spent cashier stints in both Babbage's (a software/video game store) and in the electronics section of Toys R Us, and the vast majority of parents know absolutely nothing about computer/software games *or* the ESRB. They just buy whatever's popular, and then come storming back in wailing and screaming to the service desk clerk when they find out what they let little Jimmy play, with the most popular complaint being something along the lines of "How could you let me buy this for my son?" Of course, that's not accounting for the times when a parent would just send little Jimmy himself out to buy the game with no parental supervision whatsoever. Granted, I was lucky in that most of the folks I worked with in both places were good sorts, and whenever we saw a parent trying to buy a questionable game we'd try to ask what the age was of the kid they were buying for and everything to steer them straight. And of course if we saw a young kid buying a game he shouldn't we'd steer him off. (Side note: I have had a fair number of mothers express praise and astonishment that "You're a girl who knows so much about computers. Good for you, that's so rare to see!" Did I miss something?) But many times there's one of you, and literally a couple dozen of the customer, and sometimes you don't have time to talk to every person. Furthermore, I've had many a customer come over huffing and pissing because "Mommy, the mean counter lady won't let me buy my game!". And there are a lot of retail clerks who just don't care whatsoever (because, let's face it, retail is not the sort of job most people voluntarily seek out). Erm. I suppose the point of my long-winded rant is that I'm sick of the folks who insist on getting the government to strongarm and muck things because they can't be assed to do anything themselves. But then, that's true of a lot more than gaming... Peace & Luv, Liz |
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mag |
I see nothing wrong with restricting the sale of such material to minors. If parents want to buy it for their kids thats fine.
I could care less what's in a game, its a game and its a choice to play it or not. If the law says you must be X years old to make that choice so be it. ESRB ratings are only suggestions. They only let parents decide whether or not to buy the game (should they bother to read them), they do not restrict the salesman from selling any old shit to whoever fronts up the dough. I would hope the wording of the bill is a little more concise on what they're going to age restrict by law though. The article only says "extremely violent video games" and as headline grabbing as that is, it lacks definition or any basis for comparison. Thats pretty useless if you're going to write it into law, leaving it up to lawyers to argue in court on a case by case basis if game X is considered 'extremely violent' (compared to what?) in the defense of Joe Salesman when he's being sued by Tommy's mom. For not protecting her child from the big bad world of polygon violence for her. Point of sale laws haven't been all that effective at stopping underage people getting ahold of beer, smokes etc... This isn't something to get stressed over no matter on what side of the fence you're sitting. |
Mag: Heh.
Truth be told, I hate age-related restrictions. I was mature enough to watch/play and understand R/M rated stuff when I was 14 without being "horribly influenced", and there are some 18-year-olds I wouldn't trust to open a DVD case without developing mental issues. It's unfair to restrict those who can handle it, and not wise to give free passage to those who can't. But a salesperson can't determine that at the point of sale, only the parents can. And yet, in my experience parents don't want to be bothered. So we're stuck with all this stupid regulation to try to cover for the fact that parents would rather have complete strangers choose what their kid is and isn't ready for instead of themselves. (Of course, many parents who do choose what they think their kid can and can't handle do it without consulting the kid, anyway. Ah, what a fun social circle we weave.) Peace & Luv, Liz |
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ScottMate ;) |
I can understand banning those games for kids maybe under the age of 14, but 18?! What can an 18-year-old handle that a 17-year-old cannot? So lame.
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"Chainsaw Hookers I - Why Hookers Wear Red" :devil: Lynsie |
Back in Belgrade, I once saw a clueless grandma ask the arcade manager to activate a porno game for her little grandson. :crazy: I don't remember why they had switched to keys as opposed to coins at that point--maybe so just anyone couldn't play porno games? :shifty:
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Thank goodness I live in the good old liberal UK where I can not only get "Chainsaw Hookers III-Madame Strikes Back" but "chainsaw Hookers IV : This time it's Personal Services" which the ESRB won't pass at all. :devil: :P |
When legislators decide to draft this kind of bill they will turn to articles like this to defend it.
This article revisited another done in 2001 which did a metanalysis on numerous other studies that were done to test the hypothesis that violent video games made kids more violent. In this 2004 article, it pretty much agreed with the 2001 results but certainly brought up the shortcomings of such studies and scientific studies in general (i.e. you can never have a completely variable free study when looking at correlations). Quote:
Honestly, I couldn't follow all of this article (my stats knowledge is not the best) but it's there for you to read. The thought that violent video games increase violence in kids - OK so they may have more violent thoughts. But how does this translate to society as a whole? Will this harm society? In the case of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris - it absolutely did. But Eric Harris was a sociopath and Dylan Klebold a severely depressed teenager who would probably would not have conceived of the Columbine shooting on his own. So certainly mental health plays a large part in how our outside world (be it TV, movies, video games, our social interactions, etc) impacts us. I haven't done a literature search on all of the studies conducted in this area but certainly looking at kids with diagnosed mental illness vs. those without and the impact of video games would be more thorough (in my opinion). God forbid though you should have to fill out a mental health assessment before you can pick up a video game. I would personally worry as a parent (if I were one) if my child were exposed to much violence - in any medium (TV, movies, games, the Iraq war..) but that would be my job to check my kids exposure. We could legislate for every possible problem that may come up but I for one do not want to live in a 1984 world. |
Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked
Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Studies at Massachusets Institute of Technolgy; author, From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games; hardcore gamer. Quote:
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BTW, here's at least one (albeit old) reason to be f#&king infuriated by how the media are
Coming up next: Ambushed on "Donahue"! by Henry Jenkins | Salon.com, Aug. 20, 2002 Quote:
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It is always an inherent weakness in research in making sure your sample population is truly an randomly selected, unbiased selection of the population as a whole. It's difficult to do. So when these studies get published, many take them at face value and don't critically evaluate them. EDIT: Also, the correlation vs. cause. Many studies (in many fields) show a correlation between X and Y but that is only the start. The next step (at least in my field) is to show mechanistically what is happen. If you start with X, what are the actual steps that lead to Y. Then, will you truly have a thorough understanding and can make informed decisions. (I need to take off my science hat now... :shifty: ) |
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A few years back I remember reading a rant from some parent (I think it was on the JA forums) who whas complaining about age restriction policies in video game stores. The details are pretty sketchy, but from what I can remember, his 2 teenage sons (I think they were around 13 ) had tried to buy a video game with an 18 rating - the shop assistant refused to sell the game to them as they were clearly not 18 - a few minutes later when they gave the game to their parents to buy for them, the assistant even refused to sell it them! The adults complained to the manager of the store and he still would not sell them the game, claiming that he knew that they would give it to their kids to play!! The parents left the store feeling very angry, but decided to return a cuople of days later and actually bought the game from the very assistant who had earlier refused to sell it to them! |
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