California Congressman Demands Videogame Warning Labels [Again]

[Saviordd1]

Yup, games lead to violence. I've played every violent game from halo to gears of war to whatever the hell happy wheels was supposed to be. These games are the reason I always try to find a middle ground in arguments and try hard not to lose my cool in stressful and angering situations...

Wait

 

[conflictofinterests]

California Congressman Joe Baka

Fix'd.

But seriously, I'll be glad when the people who are so deathly afraid of videogames and such are dead and we don't have to deal with their bullshit anymore. Good thing they are pretty much all old. Just a couple more decades now.

Our industry rating system is one of the most stringent in regards to the sale of inappropriate games to minors, and aside from congratulating us on keeping this material out of the hands of minors without adult consent, they're pushing to have videogames treated like a social version of tobacco.

And that's aside from the fact that almost all of the studies which have shown a positive correlation between videogames and increased violence are themselves products of suspect methods.

 

[Vigormortis]

Ultra-conservative is ultra conservative. We get it man. You're old. You fear change.

Deal wit it. >=(

Um...he's a democrat.

Political assumptions are humorous assumptions.

God I love hearing people ***** and argue across party lines. None of it ever makes sense, they all look like fools, and it makes for one hell of a good laugh.

 

[qazcake]

This whole thing is full of derp.
As far as i am aware for something like this to work there needs to be more than one study.

that and its been both proven and unproven that it does said things.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Don't videogames already have warning labels? You know, the little ESRB thing on the back with an overview of the content?

Oh wait, it's a politician from California. Carry on.

 

[Lawlet]

Damn, you think they would have more pressing matters, wouldn't you?

 

[bojac6]

Ultra-conservative is ultra conservative. We get it man. You're old. You fear change.

Deal wit it. >=(

Um...he's a democrat.

Political assumptions are humorous assumptions.

God I love hearing people ***** and argue across party lines. None of it ever makes sense, they all look like fools, and it makes for one hell of a good laugh.

Umm...he's a politician elected to office in the USA. He's a conservative.

Now, I will grant you that Democrats are more liberal than Republicans, but on the political spectrum, almost everyone at the Federal Level of the USA is more conservative than, say Reagan or Eisenhower.

 

[RN7]

This would probably be good, in a way. It keeps the stupid and ignorant parents away and keeps children out of the games they don't need to be involved with, I.E. Call of Duty.

 

[Aur0ra145]

Why can't we just blame the parents for being bad parents!

Captcha: the dude abides

 

[Inkidu]

Wait? You mean that big E, E10+, T, and M on the front and back warning you of the content of the game... like a movie rating? Cool, we could really use something like that. Way to go!

 

[XDravond]

This little entertainment goes in to my category of:
Warning: being alive means you could die!


Now on to ignoring some other equally ridiculous thing to death. This will die anyway...

 

[Anthony Abney]

Every time I read his name, my mind changes it to "Baka" which is a Japanese word for "idiot"

rather fitting if you ask me

 

[Farther than stars]

I wouldn't necessarily say that certain video games don't have an impact on mental behaviour, but all the studies that have been done on it so far have used games such as Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Combat. You know, actual murder simulators. And those aren't suppose to be sold to teenagers anyway, so the whole deal about "thinking of the children" doesn't apply here anyway.
And if they do want to have these warning labels on everything there has to be conclusive evidence that even games like Mario and Rayman have an effect as well. And therein lies the problem. When discussing physiological health risks, it's easier to get that evidence, but psychological health risks are hard to determine, considering our profound ignorance of the human mind.
Then again, they might just be going for the do-this-for-every-game approach as a starting point for compromise. Come to think of it, this entire bill veers a little more to the political side than to the issue itself. Something this controversial brought forward as a bi-partisan effort AND in an election year? Yeah, this is vote bait.

 

[Vigormortis]

Ultra-conservative is ultra conservative. We get it man. You're old. You fear change.

Deal wit it. >=(

Um...he's a democrat.

Political assumptions are humorous assumptions.

God I love hearing people ***** and argue across party lines. None of it ever makes sense, they all look like fools, and it makes for one hell of a good laugh.

Umm...he's a politician elected to office in the USA. He's a conservative.

Now, I will grant you that Democrats are more liberal than Republicans, but on the political spectrum, almost everyone at the Federal Level of the USA is more conservative than, say Reagan or Eisenhower.

Comparatively speaking to some other governments, sure. I'm not denying that. But the person I quoted seemed to imply (or seemingly assumed) that the politician in question was a conservative; or rather a Republican.

That may have been an assumption on my part, but more often than not when someone makes a statement like "ultra-conservatism" they are referring to someone as; or who is; a republican.

Regardless, this congressman is an idiot. We already have the ESRB. It's up the parents to make the right choices.

 

[Farther than stars]

Every time I read his name, my mind changes it to "Baka" which is a Japanese word for "idiot"

rather fitting if you ask me

Woah, woah! I'd say that's a fairly unjust assault on his personality. We are talking about a guy who was born in a poor hispanic household, managed to get a degree in sociology and then went on to be elected as a U.S. congressman. And that's a pretty steep climb to make.
Even his opinion differs from the consensus of the gaming community, that doesn't make him an "idiot". So no, I wouldn't say that it's a very fitting at all.

Umm...he's a politician elected to office in the USA. He's a conservative.

Now, I will grant you that Democrats are more liberal than Republicans, but on the political spectrum, almost everyone at the Federal Level of the USA is more conservative than, say Reagan or Eisenhower.

I disagree. I would say that Reagan is far more right-winged that most of the Democrats out there. Sure, the Republicans and the Democrats have more in common with one another than most of the other third parties, but that comes with defending a territory as large as North America (minus Canada). Moreover they do, in my opinion, differ on some very key issues, such as health care, financial aid and taxes, which are very endemic of the differences between right and left.

Damn, you think they would have more pressing matters, wouldn't you?

Amen. But... it is an election year and this is an easy way to cheap votes.

"FOR THE CHILDRENS!"
Yeah. This is just more lobby-whoring with tunnel-vision scientific "proof".
Keep the proud tradition alive; Generic Rich Old White Guy.

Latino and from a poor background. How is his sweeping statement any worse than yours?

Oh great. Now I have to go back to HBO.com and recast my vote for stupidest state.

Really? The fact that they voted Schwarzenegger governor didn't tip you off a little bit?

 

[Iszfury]

This is pretty much akin to marking off people's hands because they have the ability to strangle. Oh-oh. Science seems to support a mild correlation between violent media and violent behavior! This certainly means that only the new mediums deserve to be exempted. Oh my god. Art means dichotomy, polarity, differences, CONFLICT! Oh. God. God. There's conflict. PEOPLE ARE DYING! THE NARRATIVE ADDRESSES CONFLICT! A PROBLEM! YOU KNOW WHAT CONFLICT DOES TO CHILDREN! IT ENABLES THEM TO DEVELOP A WORLDVIEW! IT GIVES THEM SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVES! IT DEVELOPS THEIR CHARACTER! Same derpshittedness that made him assume that video games were mere "products" and there somehow existed a drastic differentiation between them and more-established mediums of self-expression, that, assuming they contain violent content, cause people's heads to spontaneously combust in some blazing vortex of perdition.
Y'know what? We should do away with the entertainment and art industries altogether.
Can I compare this situation to Fahrenheit 451?

Warning: Your humanity might create negative emotions whilst watching negative media. This has been linked to stale crackers and the holocaust.

 

[minuialear]

Can I just ask when the hell politicians will get their heads out of their asses and realize that it's up to the PARENTS, not the game industry, to monitor what children play? If a parent can't be bothered to do the damn research, that's THEIR fault. Not the industry's.

You missed the part where most of these politicians do it because parents (i.e., the people voting) like being told that their kids' problems aren't their fault, and where politicians don't give a crap about what the kids think about it, because the kids can't vote.

The number of politicians that truly believe parents can't properly monitor what their kids play is very, very low.

I've always been a strong proponent of putting birth control in the drinking water for just that reason.

That is idiotic for so many reasons, I wouldn't even know where to start...

Now, I will grant you that Democrats are more liberal than Republicans, but on the political spectrum, almost everyone at the Federal Level of the USA is more conservative than, say Reagan or Eisenhower.

Saying that most people in the U.S. federal government are more conservative than Reagan is pretty wrong, unless you have an odd way of measuring conservatism. Or unless you have an extreme lack of knowledge about the U.S. government and rely on news stories to fill you in on it.

 

[cookyy2k]

(c) Video Game Defined- As used in this Act, the term `video game' means any product, whether distributed electronically or through a tangible device, consisting of data, programs, routines, instructions, applications, symbolic languages, or similar electronic information (collectively referred to as `software') that controls the operation of a computer or telecommunication device and that enables a user to interact with a computer controlled virtual environment for entertainment purposes.

Now I'm no expert but that seems a terrible legal description of a video game...

 

[MercurySteam]

"WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."

I'd like to see this get through when we have no solid evidence that games cause this. It'll get shot down faster than a turkey on Thanksgiving.

 

[cookyy2k]

"WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."

I'd like to see this get through when we have no solid evidence that games cause this. It'll get shot down faster than a turkey on Thanksgiving.

Even if it passed I'd hate to see what the industry's lawyers would do to it. Just look at the wording of the bill, they'd tear the thing to shreds followed by EA repossessing the entire state due to them not being able to pay the costs/damages awarded.