72 Percent of Adults Support California Game Law - UPDATED

[Cynical skeptic]

I thought that was what the ESRB ratings were for? I once got refused a sale for something ridiculous so I had to get someone else to buy it another time(It was C&C:TD, rated 15+, and I was 14).

Having a system like the ESRB doesn't really prevent games such as GTA or CoD falling into the hands of squeaky, foulmouthed children, it just covers the retailer legally and usually if an employee is found to have ignored the guidelines they are disciplined.

In short, nothing will change.

... the ESRB is pretty much just an agreement between the corporations responsible for making and distributing video games to regulate themselves.

This is saying anything that can be deemed obscene is illegal to sell to minors. If the till monkey even suspects you are buying a game for a minor, s/he cannot sell the game at all. Most retailers already refuse to carry anything with an AO rating. This law would make them refuse to carry anything that can trip the miller test (read: all video games can potentially trip the miller test) rather than deal with potential bullshit. Thus, would redefine what types of video games all developers/publishers could make.

This is about applying obscenity law to video games. Not reinforcing what is already there.

 

[Ih8pkmn]

After viewing that video, I refuse to take this so called "Common Sense Media" seriously.

AND STOP BLAMING THE INDUSTRY. Blame the parents who are stupid enough to buy their 7-year-olds Grand Theft Auto.

 

[obliviondoll]

-snip-

Well, the fact you called it a R18, rather than M kinda proves you're a bit outside of this equation, so I'll help a bit. Someone else mentioned the average age of people who play video games is 25-40. When was the last time you saw anyone even make an AO rated game? Never. Because all retailers refuse to carry them rather than deal with the hassle of ensuring they weren't going to minors.

This law, basically, makes it so any game that trips the miller test isn't worth the hassle it'd take to carry it.

Thus, defacto ban.

I'm living in NZ, but from what *I* read of the article, they're basically just saying that you can't sell those games to minors.

NOT saying anything about not being allowed to sell them at all.

Which, from what I can see, isn't that big a change. Seriously.

And if you're looking at the statistics saying average age of gamers is around the 30s (last I read was 34, and somewhere in this thread someone was saying 25 - 40), you're going to have a LOT of gamers still buying a lot of games.

So no, I don't personally see any problems. Unless I'm missing something important in the equation that WASN'T mentioned anywhere in the article I read.

 

[0p3rati0n]

If this case fucks up our gaming industry. Then I'm out of this country because I will never have faith in my government again.

 

[themilo504]

oke this is weird if i rember corect isent it imposible to buy gta 4 if your 9 i dont know how it is at your side of the sea(i live in dutch)but here its imposible i tried( im 13)in fact one time a game was rated 12+ i was gonna buy it but the people knew it was a misstake made by sombody and showed me that it was realy 16+.sooo can kids in the usa yust buy anything they want if so then danm i feel ashamed to live in a time where the usa is a world power.(no offense to americans your bread cheese mothers and government all suck but for the rest your fine)

 

[magnuslion]

to put this in perspective: common sense media asked 2100 adults THEY selected the questions on the survey. out of over 150,000,000 adults in the US. but saying that 72% of adults support controls on video games, they are saying that if they had polled every adult in the country, the results would be the same. which is to say the least: UNLIKELY.

also, many of the supporters of this site are fundamentalist christians, extreme right wingers, and other "save the children" whiny cry baby types. its should be no surprise then that most of their adult subjects came from those groups of people.

In closing, this poll is BS, it makes wild claims it cannot backup, was done in an unscientific and unfair manner, and more to the point, as several have already said:

IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENTS JOB TO RAISE OR POLICE YOUR CHILDREN.

 

[SovietSecrets]

72% of adults can blow me. I remember when I could buy mature games in middle school no problem and my parents had no issues, hell they wanted me to get them. Parents need to actually grow up from being lazy and tell their kids why they are allowed to play, but how it differs from real life. My parents did that just fine and I am not any more angry or violent when I was in middle school playing Halo or Conker.

 

[Firetaffer]

It's wierd how many of those choices in those games are optional. They don't even show the sitting models of the people in the car in the beginning of the video. I mean they are TRYING to make it look like actual stuff is going on in there, when it's nothing more than a man and a woman standing still looking gormlessly at nothing.

 

[Duffy13]

If the industry is doing enough to keep kids from getting their hands on mature-rated games, then why the fuck is every online shooter session filled with 12-year-olds? I'm fairly certain that in America, kids of that age cannot buy alcohol or get into a porn theatre, which tells me that those industries' standards are working. Apparently, the game industry's are not, else Modern Warfare 2 would be free of obnoxious middle schoolers.

And since you won't turn America's parents, many of whom believe that their president is a Muslim and that Jesus lived in the 1940s and loved handguns, into geniuses any time soon, why shouldn't the government do something about kids getting their hands on things they have no business playing?

I know I'm playing devil's advocate here, but isn't there a point to this? Take a step back and let's analyse our own knee-jerk reactions...

I'm 31 years old. Having been a gamer for 20+ years, I'll probably have an easier time checking out what my future kids will be playing than somebody who has never had a personal connection to the medium.

But if this legislation, a slippery slope though it may start, keeps my Uncharted 2 sessions teenager-free, I have to admit that part of me is all for it.

To counter-point,under the law parents can still buy their kids these games, and parents are the primary source of games for minors. There have been several studies indicating this, so you will still have your 12 year olds.

Second, you can't play Uncharted 2 (assuming you're in the US) when your state bans all M rated games. As allowing a limitation upon the sale of a product, regardless of the reason, indicates a controlled substance and a lack of 1st Amendment Protection (which means the product is not considered an artistic medium). Therefore, due to legal precedent, if this California law passes SCOTUS it inherently allows any law that censors or bans games.

See why we care so much about this? The law in question sounds plausible to most, those that reject it are either the target group or simply share a philosophical difference. However, most people are ignoring or are ignorant of the actual legal ramifications of this law within the US.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I need to get Postal 2.......

 

[Andy Chalk]

And why would Wal-Mart not carry a M for Mature game?

Right now, if a sale to a minor slips between the cracks, oops, sorry, won't happen again. Possibly a fine from the ESRB if the situation calls for it. But that's a far cry from legal sanctions, which is what could happen if this law is allowed to stand. Not to mention the optics of the whole thing: Does Walmart want its stores ending up in the local paper for breaking the law - BREAKING THE LAW! - by selling these games, which the government has decided are as bad as booze and porn, to kids?

 

[Cynical skeptic]

I'm living in NZ, but from what *I* read of the article, they're basically just saying that you can't sell those games to minors.

NOT saying anything about not being allowed to sell them at all.

Which, from what I can see, isn't that big a change. Seriously.

And if you're looking at the statistics saying average age of gamers is around the 30s (last I read was 34, and somewhere in this thread someone was saying 25 - 40), you're going to have a LOT of gamers still buying a lot of games.

So no, I don't personally see any problems. Unless I'm missing something important in the equation that WASN'T mentioned anywhere in the article I read.

Hence the reason I brought up AO. If the primary video game playing demographics are well into adulthood, it should be okay for AO games to be made and sold, right? Except they aren't. Because retailers refuse to carry them, they aren't made at all. When hot coffee and that really shitty oblivion nude mod got GTA:SA and oblviion reclassified as AO, they were taken off most shelves.

Here we go again with the "ultra-violence," "ultra-sexual." Translation: someone's back to getting their knickers in a bunch over Postal, a game that almost nobody played, and hentai, which isn't easily available in the United States. /sigh.

On the hentai part, you obviously haven't looked hard enough on the net, and please, keep your voice down about it, I'd rather Obama not go looking in that particular direction.

I guess it would be a bad idea to name drop artists like nishi iori, dozamura, hoshino fuuta, chokudokan, Ogawa Kanran, Sakurafubuki Nel, keny, and shiwasu no okina, huh.

Theres nothing they can really do about whats printed overseas and distributed illegally on the internet.

Oh wait, ACTA.

 

[kwydjebo]

First off, isn't that a complete misreading of the facts?
"parents want to be the ones who decide which games their kids play, not the Video Game industry"...why would such people think that "The video game industry isn't doing enough to protect the children"
Secondly, let's assume genius made the right analysis, how many of these people who want the video games to be unavailable to kids also think universal health care is a communist plot to circumvent their freedom of choice?

I agree that video games are destructive. As a child I played the state of the art game (at the time) pac man...and I'm overweight, so clearly video games are to blame, and not my own laziness. I also developed a hatred of gorillas and barrels, and try to put out fires with a sledge hammer, all thanks to Donkey Kong....why oh why didn't they restrict the evil video game industry back in the 80s.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Isn't there already laws against the sale of these games to minors?

No. The system is entirely voluntary. So are MPAA and PMRC ratings.

 

[The Night Shade]

All the parents should see if their children are really having problems because of games they shouldn't trust the goverment so much

 

[LightOfDarkness]

I still don't understand what this California law does exactly.

It sounds like just what we have in the UK to me.

The UK law (IIRC) just restricts violent video games to be sold to minors. This "law" will make video games into an equivalent of porn. Difference being that porn can be relatively cheap to make while developing video games can eat up millions of dollars and without being able to freely advertise, no developer will take the risk and try to develop games for that contain those taboo elements anymore.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

First off, isn't that a complete misreading of the facts?
"parents want to be the ones who decide which games their kids play, not the Video Game industry"...why would such people think that "The video game industry isn't doing enough to protect the children"
Secondly, let's assume genius made the right analysis, how many of these people who want the video games to be unavailable to kids also think universal health care is a communist plot to circumvent their freedom of choice?

I agree that video games are destructive. As a child I played the state of the art game (at the time) pac man...and I'm overweight, so clearly video games are to blame, and not my own laziness. I also developed a hatred of gorillas and barrels, and try to put out fires with a sledge hammer, all thanks to Donkey Kong....why oh why didn't they restrict the evil video game industry back in the 80s.

... This is common sense media we're talking about. They'll misrepresent anything so long as doing so supports their arguments.

 

[Woodsey]

I still don't understand what this California law does exactly.

It sounds like just what we have in the UK to me.

The UK law (IIRC) just restricts violent video games to be sold to minors. This "law" will make video games into an equivalent of porn. Difference being that porn can be relatively cheap to make while developing video games can eat up millions of dollars and without being able to freely advertise, no developer will take the risk and try to develop games for that contain those taboo elements anymore.

Oh good, so this'll affect the rest of the world too.

*incoherent mumbling about America ruining it for the rest of us*

EDIT: Wait, not if it's only in one state surely? Although is this what the supreme court case is about too?