Ex-Tory Leader Attacks Games

[13thforswarn]

Something tells me that if he grew up with video games, he wouldn't be attacking them. He's just like my parents.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

I think stores shouldn't be selling 18A games to little teenies. It won't stop everyone but at least it might stop some of this singling out video games as being the most violent form of media. They ID people at movie theaters so why not at video game stores?

Heck if I ever have a kid I would NOT want them playing POSTAL.

I used to work in PC World, whose policy was to never sell rated games to minors. Even PEGI related ones, which are technically not a legal responsibility. The main reason for this is to avoid huge PR blunders, they had enough with that and Gary Glitter (amongst it's pish customer service reputation). In fact I remember having to remove all the Manhunt copies we had in stock when Keith Vag-err Vaz started shouting his mouth off during that tragic incident with the murder of that poor kid over the game.

Most big chain stores I've seen the staff properly ID younger looking customers. The issue is the smaller stores who play fast and loose with the law, if it is a big problem at all.

Frankly, it's the same with alcohol. My local corner shop when it was run under it's former owner frequently sold buckfast to underagers, then again these are the kinds of kids whose main hobbies are pretty much GTA but in real life. The guy had to do it otherwise the fuckers would turn feral, but also cause he also had to compete with the supermarket chain up the road.

As far as I'm led to believe also, it's the individual responsible for selling the age restricted products (referring here to both booze and games) gets into trouble. Not the company they work for. If I sold a 17 year old a copy of Manhunt (shitey game), or a pint of Tennents (shitey beer) it's my arse that face prosecution.

Really? I am pretty sure the company is held responsible for the employees actions as well at some level.

 

[Raven's Nest]

"We are driving children to lose their childhood, and some video games are incredibly violent, like Grand Theft Auto. They are meant to be 18 but nobody cares what it says on the label."

Right there.

The problem isn't games. It's the distribution of games.

I completely agree. I dont think anything he said was particularly out of line. I also don't see him citing "Grand Theft Auto" as being evidence of him being misinformed, its pretty much the most popular game that is inappropriate so it stands to reason that it makes for the most widely understood example. I'm pretty sure the grand theft auto series has outsold say, Madworld, so while it may not be as violent per se, its still a more recognizable example.

But hey, spin your stories how ever you want man. I mean the more of a knee jerk reaction you can get out of the readers the more comments this thread will get, and the more comments the more noticeable it becomes. I totally get it.

My thoughts exactly dude...

 

[DarkRyter]

The Tories?!

[http://img198.imageshack.us/i/williamallenloyalist.jpg/]

Those bastards...

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

"We are driving children to lose their childhood, and some video games are incredibly violent, like Grand Theft Auto. They are meant to be 18 but nobody cares what it says on the label."

Right there.

The problem isn't games. It's the distribution of games. And stupid parents who buy them these games.

Yea, some parents dont even care anymore.

 

[Indecizion]

Epic fail? really? wtf Jack thompson syndrome(rampant retardism) is spreading world wide, its now almost and epedemic, the fault of the 18 rated games and kids doesnt lie with the games, but the parents dont blame a media when its the parents who should be monitoring what their kids are doing.

 

[Taerdin]

I think stores shouldn't be selling 18A games to little teenies. It won't stop everyone but at least it might stop some of this singling out video games as being the most violent form of media. They ID people at movie theaters so why not at video game stores?

Heck if I ever have a kid I would NOT want them playing POSTAL.

I used to work in PC World, whose policy was to never sell rated games to minors. Even PEGI related ones, which are technically not a legal responsibility. The main reason for this is to avoid huge PR blunders, they had enough with that and Gary Glitter (amongst it's pish customer service reputation). In fact I remember having to remove all the Manhunt copies we had in stock when Keith Vag-err Vaz started shouting his mouth off during that tragic incident with the murder of that poor kid over the game.

Most big chain stores I've seen the staff properly ID younger looking customers. The issue is the smaller stores who play fast and loose with the law, if it is a big problem at all.

Frankly, it's the same with alcohol. My local corner shop when it was run under it's former owner frequently sold buckfast to underagers, then again these are the kinds of kids whose main hobbies are pretty much GTA but in real life. The guy had to do it otherwise the fuckers would turn feral, but also cause he also had to compete with the supermarket chain up the road.

As far as I'm led to believe also, it's the individual responsible for selling the age restricted products (referring here to both booze and games) gets into trouble. Not the company they work for. If I sold a 17 year old a copy of Manhunt (shitey game), or a pint of Tennents (shitey beer) it's my arse that face prosecution.

I can't believe what I'm reading here. Seriously I'm completely shocked.

Manhunt is a shitty game? Really? I quite enjoyed it.

 

[xyrafhoan]

Dammit Britain, I need a place to go after America gets screwed over. Don't let me down now!

go to japan you dont hear about this shit goin down in japan

That's because there are no children in Japan to corrupt with violent games Actually, in Japan, they don't get up in arms about violent games as much because they just aren't all that popular. Japanese people just don't latch onto war games like other countries do. The date/hentai sim market, on the other hand, is thriving.

On topic, at least he didn't say that he wanted to ban 18+ games. His complaint is more thant adults are buying games for their kids that their kids really shouldn't be playing. Parents typically won't buy porn movies and booze for their kids until they're of a reasonable age, but the 18+ game label just doesn't seem to resonate with parents and they don't ask questions about the content. There are countless parents who don't play games with their children and that is a travesty.

 

[Gincairn]

Oh good, another misinformed twat telling us what we can and can't do, with no real proof and guided by ignorance.

Fun!

Is it that time of year already? I could have sworn we had at least another 6 months, I thought we'd reached our misinformed twat quota for the first half of this year.

dammit.

 

[Galad]

Why're they always picking on GTA? There are far more violent games out there and always have been. There are also far more disturbing contexts for that violence in different games, so that argument is out. Don't get me wrong, I hate these ignorant politicians trying to censor an evolving and increasingly influential artform, but I can't get my head around the unashamed ignorance towards the thing they so persistantly criticise.

For one thing, I don't think politicians have the time to research thoroughly games' content just so they can be "gamingly-correct" when they refer to one game asthis or that. For another, unlike many other games, GTA doesn't masquerade the main hero's violent actions as either a) against aliens/terrorists/whatever, therefore justified or b) a means of revenge..It's just one criminal lowlife against a bunch of other criminal lowlives in a world depicted exactly the way politicians would rather not see, or think of. Of course, I might be wrong on that one, the last GTA game I actually played was GTA II.

And I sincerely hope no one in the Escapist gets the "bright" idea of sending this politician hate mail. It wouldn't improve his view on video games, it would only affirm his existing negative stance against games. If anything, the "blogger mom against games" case should've been a lesson in that there's no convincing such people the error of their views this way.

edit:

Parents typically won't buy porn movies and booze for their kids until they're of a reasonable age, but the 18+ game label just doesn't seem to resonate with parents and they don't ask questions about the content

What, some parents buy their children porn movies of all things?? LOL

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

Good thing America is all distracted from the evils of violent videogames with that Obama as our President.

 

[DasAShinyGolash]

shove it up your ass you old fart

you know what? i'm just wanna say that there is SOME truth in what anti-video game activists are saying. While yes, video games are just harmless fun, they are time consuming, using up time that kids should be using to study or go outside. and while they are not corrupting our children in to murdering machines, they are desensitizing them to violence. Obviously, we shouldn't place blame on video games, the blame should be re-directed towards the parents, for not "looking at the label" and for not placing strict rules for how long there child should play games. While you all have every right to be angry at video games constantly being a scapegoat, I don't find it right that see these people as total fools.

its conservatives, they are horribe ppl who dream of going back to the fantasy 50s of leave it to beaver

wow man, you sure do hate the right dontcha O.O

You just said it yourself what is the problem with kids and violent video games: its the parents own damn fault. A government has no place to censor these materials be it a game, book, or film. Games keep getting scapegoated because all these old farts think that video games are children's toys. As we all know this is no longer the case as it was 20 years ago when most games were kid-related or friendly. We need to keep ignoring assholes like this conservative dipshit (nothing against the right, there are plenty of tree-hugging hippies on the left who wish to censor games as well).

Games are an artistic medium, regardless of what Roger Ebert claims (though I respect his opinion on other matters). And as a medium it must be defended to preserve the freedom of speech, a basic human right be you in the US, UK, Australia, Iraq, Russia, China, Japan, etc. Those who censor art are evil, worse they claim they do it for a common good. But what good has ever come of telling people what they can or cannot create?

the thing about art and censorship regarding video games, is that whether or not you consider video games art, sometimes they not be using violence in not a tasteful but gratuitous way, it would be hard to define what would tasteful or gratuitous however, if one where to look at a game say, MadWorld, violence was necessary for the picture they wanted to paint, but say you see a game like ManHunt, they were being violent for the sake of being violent. I don't know about games being an art form and entitling themselves above censorship, but instead of censoring they make strict laws against selling mature games to minors

 

[RatRace123]

I really should write down one definitive rant, and then just copypasta it every time this happens, but lacking that:

It's the parents' fault for not reading/understanding the rating
It's the kids' fault for being such screwed up little shits.
It's the parents' fault again, for not admitting that their failures as parents
It's the parents' fault, once more for not taking progressive steps into becoming better parents

The games, game makers, and gamers have no fault in any of the gaming controversies.

 

[Chumba]

Really? I am pretty sure the company is held responsible for the employees actions as well at some level.

I think the company get into trouble as well if they don't aid in the enforcement of the law. By the time I was explicitly told that the company policy was to stick with the age ratings and ID anyone who looked under age, they cover their backs.

Interesting thing is though, technically it's not illegal at the moment for a game store employee to sell an 18 rated game to a kid because the UK Government in 1984 forgot to notify the European Commission about the law when they updated it. Details: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8219438.stm

Oh yeah, guess which political party were in power at the time?

The Tories

 

[Vigilantis]

Right, he attacks SINGLE PARENTS AS WELL AS GAMERS?

Fuck him, nothing wrong with single parents. -Personal raegggg-

I really hate this country, if I can I'll try to move out, but really, it seems everyone over the game playing age (if there is one) attacks video games as the next media Satan, I guess in 10 or 20 yaers things might start to really calm, but it'd hate to wait that long before we stop getting attacked.

Wanna trade homes, I got a nice...damp...always gloomy home in Washington, U.S.A. it could be like house swap...=)

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I seriously hope this anti video game crap doesnt reach new zealand

 

[Jared]

Eh, its only Duncan Smith...Een if he does come into power I can bet hes gonna be minor anyway. Im not worried~

 

[That's Funny]

Ok I do wander where he gets his facts from, the Daily Mail or perhaps Michael Atkinson's guide to video games and why they are evil.

 

[Chumba]

Eh, its only Duncan Smith...Een if he does come into power I can bet hes gonna be minor anyway. Im not worried~

He's a backbencher just now but Cameron has plans to stick him in the cabinet as Social Justice Minister or some such shit.

 

[Sir Kemper]

"We are driving children to lose their childhood, and some video games are incredibly violent, like Grand Theft Auto. They are meant to be 18 but nobody cares what it says on the label."

Right there.

The problem isn't games. It's the distribution of games. And stupid parents who buy them these games.

This.

Also, why always Greand Theft Auto as the example?