Senate Committee Hearing on Video Games begins

[Llama]

Well I guess that would mean Valve could continue selling games on steam, so you could still gain access to games thorugh Digital Distribution at least

 

[Direwolf]

where's that old videogame industry lawyer guy? is he at that conference?

if he's there everything will be allright.

Paul Smith is there, which is great. The thing that sucks is that him and the ESRB are the ONLY representatives there from the games industry. Which is just ridiculous. Its like asking blind people about movie censorship, or illiterate people about books.

 

[CptStern]

you'd think that at the very least representatives from take two or rockstar would be there ...sheesh are game developers too busy driving their exotic ferraris into lamp posts to be bothered to do anything about an attack on their industry?

 

[Razor]

one of the proposed rating systems would be to detail every single questionable act on the back of the box (I guess boxes will quadruple in size) as a guideline for parents to decide whether to buy a game or not ...I guess glancing at a big letter "M" is too much trouble

The problem though all stems from one thing...bad parenting. Too many parents aren't taking an interest in their childrens lives and far too many are using media such as tv, movies and video games to look after their children. Far too many problems are being blamed and every other than where the problem comes from i.e. bad parents.

 

[CptStern]

ys but it's easier to legislate something then teach parents good parenting skills ...it's the same for everything

parents who dress up their 8 year olds in fashionable expensive clothes

parents who pierce their baby's ears

parents who encourage their son to slam that other kid up against the boards during a hockey game

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Well if GTA as we know it ends then I won't miss it.

 

[CptStern]

it's not just gta ..ANY game with gratuitous violence could be affected




and so it begins:

March 30th 2006: "Next Generation is reporting that an Office Massacre game has been announced by UK mobile game developer Alten8."

March 31st 2006: "Well, score one for knee-jerk reactionism. Alten8 have decided not to publish their Office Massacre game after all."

press release:

"We are genuinely shocked by some of the press reactions to the game. Whilst most see the game as we did initially, which was some harmless cartoon fun , which was very , very mild graphically compared to many commercially released mainstream games.

This game was never seen as anything other than a harmless casual game. We cannot allow Alten8 to become the centre of a witch hunt , or allow individuals to further their causes at the expense of our fledgling company."

 

[Sulkdodds]

Like I said, if I ever become a lawyer I will sue Society
I'll have books written about me. 'The Man Who Sued The World.'
I will say:

"Citizens, you are the cheerleaders for this wasting of time and the wasting of lives. Do you feel any remorse for having contributed to this "culture of death?" Of course not. Hey, let's all kill MORE people, support and spout MORE bullshit, consume, hate, bicker, shit on each other, race to climb on top of each other to get to the top of the anthill, and ignore all the really productive things to do with our society.

Let's pretend to be shocked that a man might descend into deeper depression, as his "buds," knowing he was killing himself, couldn't figure out why he'd do it. That would have involved leaving their televisions, I guess.

This is your fault. The murder of Alister Finnigan betrays endemic insanity ingrained deep within your very cultures and within human nature. This - this heinous crime, this horror, this brutality - this is your fault. You are to blame. All of you."

I will win the case and everybody in the world will pay one pence in damages.
The money will be awarded to the victim's family.
The family will then donate most of the money to charity.
I have succeeded in making the best point ever. Justice is done!

""As I gather more information on the games and the people who call themselves 'gamers,' I could see how someone like Devin, who at one minute did not put up any resistance ... [could take] my brother’s gun from him in the police station, shooting him and then killing two other men in a matter of less then two minutes," said Strickland. "A game such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City could and did teach him how to do this."

THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. GTA DOES NOT TEACH YOU HOW TO CONTROL FIREARMS OR HOW TO BE ACCURATE/EFFICIENT/DEADLY IN A FIREFIGHT.

This is absolutely ridiculous. It'd be stupid enough if it wasn't for:
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- kids shouldn't be playing these games
- AO should not mean retail death
- AO should not mean retail death
- AO should not mean retail death
- AO should not mean retail death
- AO should not mean retail death

 

[kirovman]

Yeah, what's with the AO only selling in porn stores?

You can buy 18s (the maximum rating) in every UK store here. There's no big issue about censorship here (that I'm aware of) apart from the garbage that is hosepiped by the tabloids: "ban this filth! lol"

 

[gick]

Yeah, what's with the AO only selling in porn stores?

You can buy 18s (the maximum rating) in every UK store here. There's no big issue about censorship here (that I'm aware of) apart from the garbage that is hosepiped by the tabloids: "ban this filth! lol"

Its all to do with brand image. A store like Walmart is seen as a 'family' retailer - they wont sell things that can be construed as non-family, because it'll hurt the reputation they've spent so much time building. This can include anything from refusing to sell adult rated-movies to removing albums with those 'parental guidance' stickers on them to not selling adult rated video games. This is where things get bad for the games industry - why would they make a game that wont get sold in a large proportion of shops?

 

[Sulkdodds]

Hah. We have speciality game stores.

Still, family image...families include adults/wife beaters too!

 

[Flyingdebris]

Its ridiculous is what it is.

These anti violent video game people would love nothing better than to have the government step in and moniter and control what should be free expression. Because aparantly parents and children are too weakminded to do it themselves.

The last thing we need is for the video game industry to undergo what happened to comics. For the historically challeneged, comics way back in the day were considered to be harmful for children due to the content. So there was a law passed requiring comics to conform to the "comic code" if they ever wanted to see general distribution. It pretty much forced comics to be all watered down and family safe otherwise they had to go underground which severely limited them to a tiny niche. If you ever wanted to know why the old superhero comics were so incredibly campy and devoid of any serious story, just look at the comic code. http://www.onceuponadime.com/hist/comicscode.htm

The LAST thing we need is a bunch of frumpy old people legislating how our games should be

 

[CptStern]

it's not just gta ..ANY game with gratuitous violence could be affected




and so it begins:

March 30th 2006: "Next Generation is reporting that an Office Massacre game has been announced by UK mobile game developer Alten8."

March 31st 2006: "Well, score one for knee-jerk reactionism. Alten8 have decided not to publish their Office Massacre game after all."

press release:

"We are genuinely shocked by some of the press reactions to the game. Whilst most see the game as we did initially, which was some harmless cartoon fun , which was very , very mild graphically compared to many commercially released mainstream games.

This game was never seen as anything other than a harmless casual game. We cannot allow Alten8 to become the centre of a witch hunt , or allow individuals to further their causes at the expense of our fledgling company."

*UPDATE*

Office Massacre Becomes Zombie Massacre

It seems like Alten8 can’t go a single day without announcing, canceling or resurrecting their sure-to-be-crappy mobile phone game, Office Massacre. First the game was announced as an exciting murder spree featuring your office co-workers! Then it was canceled for being an insensitive murder spree featuring your office co-workers! Now Alten8 have decided to release the game anyway, replacing co-workers with zombie co-workers."

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/alten8/office-massacre-becomes-zombie-massacre-164640.php

so in other words they caved in to public pressure a full day after they announced they planned to make a game called Office massacre ..only to revive the game and take out the whole point of the game in the first place: to stir up controversary

 

[Sulkdodds]

Admittedly zombies are cooler than office workers.

 

[CptStern]

only certain zombies