Parents Television Council Calls Game Industry "Thugs" and "Bullies"

[PrototypeC]

They almost have a point in that the sending of controllers won't change the ruling, since that was a stupid idea that could only have been seen as an attack, but most of this is just plain misinformation. It's easy to see something like Gears of War from a distance and decide that all games are this stupid, cruel, disgusting and pointless, and I guess God of War was their second point of reference.

The other thing that caught my attention was talking about "billionaire game companies", like that's something that exists. Do you know what comes up when I search for that? A couple of games that involve billionaires, and this same article from the PTC. The games industry is in serious trouble, that's why this bill couldn't have come at a worse time. Excluding the obvious ones such as EA, Nintendo and Ubisoft, a lot of game companies are floundering and losing employees right now.

But DO NOT ANTAGONIZE THESE PEOPLE. It's like feeding a troll, only the troll has a little sway in government.

 

[GoddyofAus]

Oh the wonderful irony of the Parents TELEVISION Council, watchdogs of "responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry" are pointing at US for "selling sex and violence to children".

This entirely, why is it the industries responsibility to keep violent games out of the hands of children? This is just parents being too lazy to watch what their own kids are doing.

Because looking after their own lil' high school accidents is too much bother for them.

 

[Mr. Socky]

I just love how it's apparently impossible to be reasonable and hate video games at the same time.

 

[Nouw]

Because those M ratings couldn't be any fucking clearer.

Please, do your homework before yelling your head off you morons; books,t.v., movies hell even songs have sex in it! What's so wrong about them huh?

It's the fucking parents who let their kids play the Mature games damn it!

 

[nuba km]

"The videogame industry and those who support them are bullies, plain and simple,"

What!?! How for saying that an entire medium has artistic value and should be treated the same as other mediums damn those bullies for wanting to be treated equal.

"The PTC urges its members to stand up to the billionaire game companies that profit from selling sex and violence to children."
*slams head against table*
*slams head against table*
*slams head against table*
*slams head against table*
*slams head against table*
*slams head...............

 

[Macgyvercas]

*Pulls out list of things that piss me off*
*Adds Parents Television Council*

And check.

Seriously, these anti gaming groups are getting, pardon my language, fucking retarded. Any half-wit could see that restricting the First Amendment rights of games is unconstitutional, so why the hell is this even an issue?! Are some people really that stupid?

/rant

 

[Dexiro]

Urgh, articles like this just make me think there's no point trying.

Too many people already have the image in their head that the game industry is full of evil corporations trying to make everyone violent or something, and they're too stubborn to accept anyone elses opinions.

 

[Agayek]

My take on this can be summarized as follows:

Fuck off and die.

Anyone in favor of censorship, especially blanket censorship of an entire medium, needs to be forcefully introduced to the business end of a chainsaw. It's a ridiculous concept and does absolutely nothing worthwhile.

lol what

seriously who run the PTC a load of 17th century Quakers

Essentially. There is a depressing number of people in the USA with the same mindset. It's completely ludicrous, but that doesn't stop them from trying to forcefeed the rest of us their garbage.

It is one thing to limit games to those under 18 but don't define games as lacking first amendment support. That is just going way to far and could be something that we are stuck with for years until the above 50's die out.

I'm actually more annoyed with the law because it flat out states that anyone under the age of 18 is functionally retarded and completely incapable of making reasoned decisions.

 

[Froggy64]

It's funny, because I actually went to the VGVN website, and the entire point of it was it was supposed to be a peaceful protest, and these people are ignorantly slandering it. It amazes me, people's willful ignorance at times.

 

[HobbesMkii]

There's an undeniable irony in the PTC's claim that the videogame industry has "resorted to half-truths to try to make its point," which is rendered somewhat less amusing by the fact that these people may actually get their way, and that in an unprecedented assault on the sanctity of the First Amendment an entire medium may be muzzled, not for what it does, but simply for what it is.

You don't really pay attention to how the Supreme Court has historically dealt with free speech issues, do you, Andy? It'd be nice to think California has a chance in hell of getting this through the Supreme Court, but the fact is the Supreme Court has an established precedent of allowing most forms of speech. There are a handful of exceptions to free speech, only three of which obvious apply to restricted sale (libel & slander would count, but that's not happening here).

The first is obscenity. In order for this to apply in the California law, the state would have to argue that videogames appeal to the prurient interest (i.e. arouses the gamer), depicts sexual acts, and has no artistic merit. Even if the state could somehow conclude that every game achieved the first two, it would have to manage to depict videogames as lacking artistic merit. The majority of hardcore pornography regularly fails the "lacking artistic merit" test, which would allow us to ban it whole sale. As it stands right now, we restrict selling to minors. That's the precedent for restricting sale, but, unfortunately, the obscenity argument would stand up.

The second exception is fighting words. These are words that encourage people to fight, usually most forms of hate speech. Fighting words are extremely narrowly applied. The major case that established this was one in which a protester called a cop "a racketeer" and "a fascist" and was arrested (the case decided in favor of the arresting officer, not the protester). Considering that this is only ever applied to very specific action-reaction occurrences or overt discriminatory behavior, California is not arguing this.

No, what California is basing its law on is the third major exception: speech inciting imminent lawless action. This is what Jack Thompson argues; that GTA makes people commit crimes. Of course, California would have to successfully argue in front of the Supreme Court that that age old debate that we have about whether or not videogames cause gamers to commit violent crime is not only completely true, but that a minor sitting down to play a videogame is going do commit a violent crime immediately right after playing (the "imminent" part). It'd be a pretty impressive legal feat, actually, if they managed to pull that off, especially because the range of scientific studies on that very issue seem to be rather inconclusive in either direction.

 

[FinalHeart95]

Here is the system that they rate TV shows on:
"Red - Show may include gratuitous sex, explicit dialogue, violent content, or obscene language, and is unsuitable for children.

Yellow - The show contains adult-oriented themes and dialogue that may be inappropriate for youngsters.

Green - Family-friendly show promoting responsible themes and traditional values."

Note that the Big Bang Theory, Glee, and America's Next Top Model are considered "red" shows.

Okay, now, let's see who caught what I caught... here's a closer look:

"Green - Family-friendly show promoting responsible themes and traditional values."

Catch it yet? No? Let's look closer:

"traditional values"

Because your new-fangled "progressive" values are bullshit. Sponsored by the PTC.

Source for ratings: http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/familyguide/weekly.asp

 

[MrMisfit]

Yes, How dare we not roll over and die for these tightly wound, misinformed, right wing, hypocritical, lunatics. How dare we.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

Ah, the PTC. The group that thinks that Veronica Mars was terrible because *gasp* it dealt with sex maturely, had a strong female lead (who was in a pleasant relationship with her father), and didn't condescend to it's audience, while giving the thumbs up to Everybody Loves Raymond, a show about a guy who hates his family (and fantasized about cheating on his wife often). Gotta love those 'values voters,' they're so upright and moral.

 

[Stormz]

It's the parents who should watch their fucking kids so they DON'T buy games with sex and violence. Fucking hypocrites.

 

[zehydra]

they don't call out Disney on selling sex to children!

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

This whole VIDEOGAMES ARE THE CAUSE OF CHILD VIOLENCE reminds me of the Holocaust

The angry parents are like the Nazis after WW1. They need a scapegoat for all of the shit that has been going on, and the Videogame industry is like the Jews. I see a mass extermination of many gaming companies in the horizon very very VERY soon.