Educator Group Calls For B.C. Game Ban

[Ranorak]

I just don't get motions like this.
Why limit the sale on video games, or any offensive material, if you're so worried about your kid buying it.
I mean, you could always, you know, tell them they can't have it?
Take it away when they do buy it?

You do pay attention to what your child is doing right?
Why tell the stores what they can and cannot sell, when you as a parent should tell your kids what they can and cannot buy!

You don't want your kid playing something, don't forbid the store from selling it, forbid your kid from buying, sheesh!

 

[Atmos Duality]

The elitist "Save teh childrens" organization makes a typical proposal for typical restrictions on a faulty basis. This isn't about saving anyone or their children; it's about propping up their public image by banging an old, worn drum.

In a roundabout way, this has inspired an interesting question in me. Should* Gamestop (or whomever) have demos of M rated games set up in stores?


*as a matter of conscience, nothing to do with law

That won't work: Gamestop has no conscience.

Rockstar said it best; "If you buy one of our games for your child, you're a terrible parent."

But what if some magical fairy drops one of those games into that child's hands?
Think of the children! They will get those games without having money (and thus) access to them somehow! Think of the children!
We shouldn't blame the parent for buying a game with an obtuse sticker that says "EXPLICIT VIOLENT/SEXUAL CONTENT"! If we did, we wouldn't have an excuse to run our Save Teh Childrens organization!

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

 

[Moriarty70]

Canada's got a more complex take on these topics than the absolute nature of the US 1st ammendment.

In the States the ESRB and MPAA ratings can only serve as suggestions and standards that stores/theaters choose to adhear to since Supreme Court rulings say no third party board can be assigned as a legal standard by the government.

In Canada, each province has their own "Theater" act or "Motion Picture Act" in BC. I don't know how they are able to ammend it as I live in Ontario and can only speak for how we dealt with it.

Due to the law in Ontario, you legally cannot let a minor buy/into a movie rated "R" or higher, possibly "18A" as well, I'm not sure on that. When Manhunt was released, the Ontario Film Board stepted in and gave the game a "R" rating to prevent it from being sold to children. After that, the Ontario government steped up and added video games under the theatre act. The exact styling of the act says that the "Lt. Governer can assign a third party ratings board as the legal rating for entertainment covered under the act". That means once games were incorporated, the ESRB rating became legally binding in Ontario.

I know a few other provinces have done this, but why BC isn't considering it as an alternative to make everyone happy (Kids can't buy it themselves, adults can), is beyond me.

 

[DracoSuave]

No good can come of a greek letter society that doesn't know how to spell their own name. Protip: Use greek letters.

NICE EDUCATORS YOU GOT THERE, DKG

 

[Weaver]

BC also has a booming game industry, hopefully they'll speak up.

 

[Jandau]

Am I the only one who finds the concept of a "Women Educator" group sexist? Think about it, if someone were to start a "Male Educator" group he'd have every equality group down his throat and up on his arse. I know, not really relevant to the topic at hand, but stuff like this just rubs me the wrong way...

 

[Kargathia]

Look, if you want to go elitist, and call yourself "Delta, Kappa, Gamma", then at least spell it right in your logo.

No good can come of a greek letter society that doesn't know how to spell their own name. Protip: Use greek letters.

NICE EDUCATORS YOU GOT THERE, DKG

Seems like you got that in before me. Damn you =P

 

[Marudas]

I'm confused, what unsubstantiated proof does she have that indisputably shows that violent video games cause long term damage? I shall counter it with those fun other recent articles here on the escapist that have unsubstantiated proof of video games kinda correlating to reducing crime and violence.

But really, its already a given that there's no solid proof that video games cause any harm. If there was, this medium would have been out the door a long time ago. So drop your phoney pretense of having a real reason for this crusade. The big, repeating problem I have with all of these different senators, religious groups, interest groups and state governments screaming for the ban of video games simply comes down to my belief that its not the governments job. This is a parents job. I had a Sega Genesis as a kid, and my parents played games with me and my brothers, or played them before us to determine the content. I played 'M' games before I was of age, but it was always only after one of my parents had decided that i was mature enough to handle the content therein.

So stop trying to make this the governments problem, and have the parents get off their ass and, well, parent.

 

[ameemo]

i really do not get all these movements for banning games, it says 16, 18 or Mature on the box for reason! they shouldn't be playing it in the first place and the games were not meant for them, that's why ESRB exists. If anything call out the useless parents that pay for their kid's Xbox live Gold membership and buys for their kid a game that they see 18+ written on the box! i really don't get how this is not the fault of bad parenting

 

[aba1]

"Protect our children from second-hand smoke"? Who does that? I remember as a kid riding around with my mother who would smoke and keep the windows up.

OT: Just a new group trying to restrict freedom, just like Jack Thompson, let them scream and ignore them till they shrivel up and die from lack of attention.

In Canada you cant smoke in a car with children.

Which makes sence and all but honestly when i read that I imagined a guy on the street corner relaxing having a smoke enjoying the weather and a lady grabbing her son and running all terror stricken that her son might have enhailed a tiny bit of smoke lmao people are so dramtic somtimes. I am just waiting for the day that someone tries to ban knives because they can cut people and I mean like food knives not hunting knives lmao.

 

[rutger5000]

I don't know the game, but I've got to go with these folks. I do think that when you make games too violent and too realistic they will inspire violence. I enjoy a good shooter just as much as the next guy, but when guts are flying across the screem count me out. A lot of gamers often claim that games can't inspire violence because it's not real, and we can tell games from reality. I call bullshit on that one, especially if the games are getting more and more realistic.

Find some hard evidence and objectively refute opposing evidence/arguments, then we can talk.
Kids can't even buy these games themselves. They still need an adult, law or not.

Regarding your first comment, I can't I simply don't have the time needed to conduct proper research and write a decent essay on the matter. This shouldn't be a reason for to reject my statement though. When you live in a democracy you have an obligation to think about political matters and form your own opinion. But it would be unreasonable to demand from everyone to delve into every subject and read in depth debates between experts regarding said subject. The best thing you can expect is for someone to use his/her common sense, and follow that. Common sense doesn't bring everyone to the same conclusion though, so that doesn't mean that when two parties are opposing each other, that either of them isn't using their common sense. I'll give you my reasoning behind the matter though.
Imagine you're 10~15 years into the future and doing financially well for yourself. Chance are you'll be owning some kind of VR suit, that can make you feel, hear and see whatever happens in the game from a first person perspective. Now imagine brutally killing an NPC, with all the blood screams and gods knows what else, now imagine doing this 100 times. Do you think it's unreasonable to assume that affects your mental health? Now I also think that it's quiet possible to be affected by less then the situation I just described.

 

[Mechanix]

"As summer vacation has started, children are particularly at risk for increased exposure to the violence celebrated in many of the video games which are commonly available for sale in local stores, and at video arcades," the letter says. "Significant research has been conducted to determine the effects of violence in video games and many of the results indicate short-term and even long-term behavioral and attitudinal changes in those who play these games."

It's this sentence that makes these women seem so uneducated on the subject. First off, video arcades? Arcades are nothing but novelties at this point, they only exist near boardwalks anyway. And they're too violent? The graphics look like they were made in the early 90's, there's hardly any blood.

I'd also like to see this person back up their "research", because last time I checked, the research was in our favor.

 

[duchaked]

guess it's Canada's turn to deal with this crap

note to future self: be sure to define "parenting" correctly

 

[Leuchtender Soldat]

British Columbia: Trailing 50 ft behind the bandwagon America set ablaze and abandoned since it's inception.

Seriously this is a total non-issue that only get's headlines because a lot of gamers can't just sit quietly while an old woman runs her mouth about how games are the devil and that playing with sticks and rocks is so much better for society. I've served in the US Military and I've seen and dealt with people overseas that fit the bill for psychotic, serial-killing rapists. Want to know the fun part? They don't play games, period.

Any psychologist that's worth their degree will tell you that while games do stimulate the more aggressive parts of our brains, it dies off fast when the console shuts down. There's no direct correlation between gaming and overly violent behavior and the sooner that everyone realizes that(like the US Supreme Court stated in their ruling) the better off we'll be.

Sorry if it seems I was ranting, but there are bigger problems we should be focusing on instead of what some group with an obvious agenda is saying.

 

[Falseprophet]

Honestly, I wish I could see the reasoning these people follow, I just cant. Let me just latch my own little thought onto what you just said; we have a strict rating system on games. A 7 year old kid cant walk into a game shop and buy GTA 4. Thats where that shit should end, right there, thats the line. If that kids parents think its a good idea to buy there child GTA 4, thats bad parenting and has nothing, nothing to do with the games industry.

While I agree with the intent of your sentiment, I take issue with the argument that a parent who lets their child play GTA 4 is necessarily a bad parent. I still find any purported links between sex and violence depicted in the media and actual anti-social behaviour to be dubious and poorly supported by the evidence, and my own personal experience. I think the values kids are raised with and the family support mechanism they have in place are far, far more important than whatever fictional content they might be exposed to.

Due to the law in Ontario, you legally cannot let a minor buy/into a movie rated "R" or higher, possibly "18A" as well, I'm not sure on that. When Manhunt was released, the Ontario Film Board stepted in and gave the game a "R" rating to prevent it from being sold to children. After that, the Ontario government steped up and added video games under the theatre act. The exact styling of the act says that the "Lt. Governer can assign a third party ratings board as the legal rating for entertainment covered under the act". That means once games were incorporated, the ESRB rating became legally binding in Ontario.

Yeah, and I found that decision frightening. You can argue the relative merits of government regulation vs. industry self-regulation. But I think you have to pick either one or the other. If it's government, you can express your concerns with lobbying and voting. If it's industry, you can lobby or boycott. But I'm extremely hostile to letting private sector interests draft laws of the land, no matter how good their intentions.

I've actually seen one or two arcades in Vancouver that are usually packed. They're typically aimed at the Asian demographic, though, so they're more like something you'd see on the streets of Tokyo than a typical '80s arcade.

Yeah, when I was there about 5 years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see them. In Ontario the only arcade machines left are a handful in some bigger movie theatres, and Dave & Busters type places.

 

[Giest4life]

Fuckin' idiots.

Dunno about you, but "fuckin' idiots" seems a pretty solid argument to me in this case.

 

[lSHaDoW-FoXl]

This world is an endless cycle of bull shit. The one thing that probably stops me from beating someone to a bloody pulp in real life is being able to do that in a game. Well, no, not really. But still, they help ease stress.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking these 'educators' need to be educated a thing or to about games. You know, like maybe actually playing the damn things first.