Lawyer: California Law Could Destroy Videogame Industry

[BenzSmoke]

God! I'm soooo nervous! I hope we come out on top! Oh I really do!

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Do the anti-game law makers know that the video game industry is a HUGE part of the economy, because there is alsmost always a market for them, AND that that would erase the need for nvidia and other thingy thingy makers, killing jobs, and letting xbox live users get out on the streets to cause more chaos.

Simply because they want to control whats not always within their grasp.

 

[Paularius]

If it passes would it put an end to loud mouth yobs on xbox live?
Just looking at a silver lining.
Also Halo would probably lose half its player base.

Wow. A lot of you must have shins of steel from all the knee jerk reactions. The lawyer, if you noticed, works for the gaming companies so he?s going to make it sound like ?doom and gloom? if the Supreme Court agrees and upholds the Californian law. It?s called ?spin?. It?s a bit sad that the gaming industry subscribes to the ESRB but does nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, to enforce it. Since 1994 the gaming industry has been classifying its games, putting that rating at the beginning of their adverts, and happily peddling their violence to anyone with money. They should be behind the movement, since forcing their distributors to enforce the ESRB ratings is better than banning a game outright.
Gamers are just up in arms because they want their violence fix. Stores being forced to enforce those ratings will be doing the same thing that movie theaters have done since 1968, and they?re still a thriving business. It won?t hurt internet sales in any way. The development companies will still churn out the games you?ve grown to know and love.
It is a bit sad to realize how low the industry has sunk. There used to be a time when overtly violent games were few and far between, but now days it?s the opposite.
Before you break out your flame throwers: I work in the gaming industry and I really don?t see the point of games that substitute violence for story.

Hmm good point. I miss a good story in games. Its all so overly action based now days.

 

[Worgen]

You know I kind of want this law to actually get passed. Then once it does all those paranoid idiots might actually shut about once they realise that absolutely nothing has changed. Ah hell who am I kidding they will still try to blame the law even though it doesnt actually change anything.

In fact it may actually help the industry. People can no longer simply blame video games for violence among children they will have to blame the parents because it will be illegal for the kids to actually buy the games.

oh yeah right, since when has that ever happened? look at the stupid ***** that is blaming farmville for making her kill her kid, if it was neglect it might be something, still stupid as hell but something. But no shes blaming it for making her shake the shit out of the kid when it was crying

Ill tell you how videogames will stop being blaimed for everything, time, it takes time. With all the gamers we have now, we just need them to start getting older and get into more and more positions of power and things like this will fade into the past.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

If it passes would it put an end to loud mouth yobs on xbox live?
Hoping it wont pass. Just looking for a silver lining.
Also Halo would probably lose half its player base.

Though i would hate to lose my Xbox live it would be great knowing that an end would be put to those spawn camping, tea bagging foul mouthed idiots.. and also the Halo fanboys.

Not that i don't like them its mainly because they boast that game like the second coming of jesus.

 

[Murais]

Good. I hope it goes through. Maybe once the majority of the population realizes that the market isn't for kids any more, we can get some games with some actual content and thought behind them again. Not to say that an 'M' label makes a game more mature, but I'd really like to see some games focused on setting a real world or story instead of omitting everything with any semblance of creativity at the last second for the sake of leeching the money out of the wallets of eager kids (or more accurately, their parents). I'm tired of gimmick-clutching.

Give me adult worlds and adult games, fleshed out with full emotion and some mental stimulation. I want video games to become more akin to the realm of cinema (good cinema). It's about time that video games pulled out of a dark age and became the art form that they were meant to be.

 

[RatRace123]

Many of us already knew that. Sure, an entire media may be destroyed and millions of people may be put out of a job.
But it's for the children, and any number of horrible, amendment destroying atrocities is worth it for the goddamn little shits that unfit parents can't seem to bother doing their jobs for, so they'd be fine to have the government supress freedoms and a media and demonizing the people who enjoy that media.
But it's all for the fucking children, so it's fine!

 

[Cpu46]

Uhm, as far as I know. The law they are talking about just means violent videogames wont be able to legally be sold to minors. They do that in Canada already. Nothing has changed.

People need to calm down.

If that's true then well, that's also how it goes in Briton and as been like this for as long as I can remember so... I don't see the big deal.

Well this IS the US government. They tend to go overboard when it comes to stuff like this. Just look at the comic industry a decade or so ago.

 

[Sakurazaki1023]

As an American gamer, I'm sickened that this law is even being contemplated by the Supreme Court. Anyone with the smallest inkling of common sense can see that this law is unconstitutional and based solely on politically motivated agenda. If this does get passed, it will be the end of gaming as both an art form and a means of entertainment. The only games released will be E and T rated games aimed at a much younger audience, and innovation will become unimportant. I'd hate to see what this would do to the massive population of adult gamers (myself included). I grew up with gaming and I know many people who wouldn't be the person they are today without gaming. If the medium is destined to die, then the entire culture surrounding games will die and it will be a crippling blow to many multi-billion dollar industries.

Let's all hope for the best

 

[teknoarcanist]

If this law passes, I say we all make the most horrible and profane games we can think of and reverse-shoplift them onto Gamestop shelves.

 

[Tdc2182]

Uhm, as far as I know. The law they are talking about just means violent videogames wont be able to legally be sold to minors. They do that in Canada already. Nothing has changed.

People need to calm down.

Its a chain reaction. First it becomes no way to sell to minors. Then its no ads on TV. Next its no ads in Magazines. Then, Prices of games shoot up before they slowly dwindle away.

Needless to say, it is completely unconstitutional. Makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Negatempest]

We are very protective of our First Amendment rights, although I agree with both of you. My store already doesn't allow minors to buy M-rated games, so it wouldn't really be any different. There's also the fact that, so far, this would only be in California, not the other 49 states. Naturally, the fear is that it will expand beyond California. There's also the fact that no other form of media is regulated this way (movies, music, books--and porn doesn't count), so it is a bit unfair.
If this does pass, I think it will be like what happened to comic books several decades ago. Eventually, it will just blow over. If it doesn't pass, then the bright spot is that we will have heard the end of this nonsense.

TOTALLY different from the Comic Code Authority. Remember this law is for the State of California only, for the moment. This law will not affect the country of USA as a whole, but a single part of it. Now we have around 11 states backing up the law. So if the law passes we have the chance of having 11+ states with 11+ views of what is appropriate as a video game. So do you believe that developers want to make 11+ versions of a single game?

Lets use Street Fighter as an example. California doesn't want games to have violence towards humans or humanoid life forms, so the Street Fighter characters in California are now Robots so they can hit a higher market. But Texas allows harms to humans but doesn't like violence towards women. Now they may make Chun-li a Hermaphrodite to compensate for Texas. (They did it with poison of Final Fight, don't think they won't do it again.) This is a small example of what can and would happen and it is WAY too much work for developers to make multiple versions of the same game at the same time. Just ask Microsoft, Sony and Sega on how making multiple items of the same product turned out for them.

The law wouldn't change a thing. Just peoples parents will get them the game, and since 80% of stores doesn't sell to minors, this is already happening, therefore, nothing will change.

Oh, it WILL change. As said the law has the potential of allowing each state to have their own laws that regulate what is acceptable in video games. Its not about preventing the kids from playing games, its about the game developers even thinking they can try to compensate for each states individual laws.

 

[Tdc2182]

Supreme court is full of sensible people, I am pretty sure that they will shoot this down.

*collapses laughing*

What? Supreme Court is generally pretty good about these things. It seems like you are immediately assuming its a bad thing because it has to do with government.

 

[BenzSmoke]

-Snip-

I'll start by saying I do agree with your point about story over violence.

Ok, first, the industry isn't forcing it's products on kids. It's advertising, just like every other industry out there. It's the parents who ignore the ESRB ratings printed on the box! It's not the industry's job to baby-sit, that's the parents job. It's an industry's job to make a profit and provide employment. If the parent ignores the warnings and doesn't make an educated decision then perhaps it's not the industry's fault.
Secondly, the industry does police itself. All retailers in The United States have very strict policies in place that prevent the sale of games rated mature or higher to those under the age of eighteen, without the consent of a parent. If an employee violates this policy they are fired, simple as that. Console creators even have rules that prevent the manufacture and sale of any adult rated game on their console. Making the industry pay a fine for the mistake of an individual employee is unnecessary and just adds insult to injury.
Thirdly, this isn't just violence and drugs we're are talking about here. This will regulate games that contain any content that isn't approved for children. This includes both romance, politics, or any other story element that a more mature audience would appreciate. That means no Mass Effect, no Bioshock, no Half-Life, any game that doesn't meet standards set for little kids will not get made! If this bill is passed into law it could essentially turn videogames into nothing but a child's toy [http://www.areakids.com/page/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/FP-Pull-toy.jpg].

I'm sorry if this sounds flame-y, I don't want to sound hostile to a new user here on The Escapist. But it's what will happen.

 

[Yureina]

Supreme court is full of sensible people, I am pretty sure that they will shoot this down.

A fact that most people seem to forget. I have faith that they will see the light. SCOTUS is not your typical US government body. If any part of the government has some degree of sense, it would be these guys. If they do uphold this law, then people can truly say that the US is screwed because it will have lost the last part of sanity that it still has in its positions of power.

 

[Godhead]

-snip-

Bioware is Canadian.

OT: I will be supremely distressed if this is actually passed by the supreme court. Not only will it fuck up the American (and possibly to a certain extent the rest of the world) it will also help me believing more so than usual that we only elect officials to fuck up our country the way we see fit.

 

[Ossim_Sauce]

Does anyone actually know what our chances are in this? I've been hearing so much doom-ish predictions but I have seen nothing about the chances of us winning the case, just what might happen if it does pass. Can someone help me out here? Not knowing is killing me.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Darn.

That's all I can say. The U.S keeps letting me down. At least Canada's still there...okay, bad joke.

Heeeyy, I'm Canadian.