Utah's Attorney General Under Fire in Videogame Case

[Shepsauce]

For a real example, a friend of mine previously worked at Gamestop and he sold something rated M to a 16 year old kid who was sent in on purpose to try and buy an M rated game. Needless to say, this organization that sent the kid in then contacted Gamestop and my friend was subsequently fired before a pin could drop. They take that sh!t seriously. Because the ESRB providing those ratings and warnings to parents is the very thing preventing actual legislation from coming in and messing everything up, and retailers are going to have enough trouble as it is what with digital distribution taking off the way it is.

 

[saintchristopher]

i should just glue my palm to my face, because that's the first place it goes when i read "games in the news" stories.

 

[saintchristopher]

They take that sh!t seriously.

You're allowed to swear here. What, was your mother standing behind you while you typed that?

 

[Shepsauce]

You still live with your mom?

 

[Marsell]

"According to the Desert News, Ruzicka, 'said people she talks to assume Utah already prohibits children from buying video games in which participants have sex with prostitutes and then kill them; shoot innocent shoppers walking in a mall and decapitate people with shovels and have dogs fetch the severed heads.'"

Whoa, does a video game like that exist? Why haven't I found it yet?

Also, if they polled people in Utah, I imagine they'd get an overwhelming amount of people who had no opinion whatsoever. Also, 90% of students would probably be against it, and there are a lot of students in Utah.

Grand theft Auto for the first 2, Postal 2 for the last 2, yes the dog WILL fetch the severed head of your enemy (or victim)

 

[Danzaivar]

There is a thing that prohibites children from buying those games. It's called an age limit. Y'know, that big M or red 18?

Except that rating isn't the law, it's up to the retailer's discretion as to whether or not to use the rating system on the boxes to restrict sales.

You guys should look into getting that enshrined in law or something.

 

[Taddy]

"According to the Desert News, Ruzicka, 'said people she talks to assume Utah already prohibits children from buying video games in which participants have sex with prostitutes and then kill them; shoot innocent shoppers walking in a mall and decapitate people with shovels and have dogs fetch the severed heads.'"

Whoa, does a video game like that exist? Why haven't I found it yet?

Postal 2 might be for you, or the upcoming Postal 3.
You can actually get dogs to fetch body parts. And you can use kittens as silencers!
Also, you can't have sex with prostitutes. You do kinda get raped though. Like, literally. Yes, you play a man.
You can actually decapitate people with shovels too.

It's one of those really bad and tasteless games that you end up liking because it's so outrageous.
I wouldn't recommend it to kids though.

Couldn't you use cat silencers in Postal 2? But yeah, a game so disgusting i loved it. Except the gimp suit part, that was just...yeah.

 

[Tdc2182]

There is a thing that prohibites children from buying those games. It's called an age limit. Y'know, that big M or red 18?

Except that rating isn't the law, it's up to the retailer's discretion as to whether or not to use the rating system on the boxes to restrict sales.

Well, stores aren't allowed to sell M games without seeing ID, so it yet again alls on the parents to know what their kids are up to. At least here in the states.

In the end, this all eventually falls on the parents who are complaining. Kids aren't allowed to get alcohol, but they do anyways.

 

[Mr.Lucifer]

Why can't people just simply not let their kid play violent video games and leave the game industry alone?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Just a thought on the Governator.

Didn't he just cameo in "The Expendables", but he's telling kids to stay away from violent games?

...does he even understand irony, or hypocrisy?

Why focus just on The Expendables when his entire career is built on the portrayal of shooting things and causing explosions?

Mainly because he took this cameo WHILE condemning games. And I don't see his fat paycheck going towards any charities because of it.

 

[Iffat Nur]

Good point, I once bought an ecchi manga (I didnt know that plastic wrapping = adult), and it passed perfectly through. Then I go for Bioshock, and my mom needs to be ID'd.
Im twelve, and this is what we call treatment?

Wait, wait, what?

It was Air Gear, so on the outside, the chances of it being ecchi were slim.

Seriously, just take a look at the fucking volume 1 cover. You would have to be hard pressed to call it adult.I took it because I have a bad habit of picking what I want at random. Besides, I was supposed to take a book, and most of the series sucked at a glance, and Cowboy Bebop wasn't there (but I later got my hands on it)

And yes, im twelve. Its shocking, I know -.-

EDIT:It's not cool when people make fun of twelve year olds. Yes, most of them are assholes (and I live on Long Island, so I lived with the assholiest of the assholes., but its not like none of us can't join Escapist without trolling every other second. Also, I have a question; how does Cowboy Bebop, a teen book better then most of them, get confiscated, but not Air Gear, which is an ecchi?

 

[Ih8pkmn]

Well, nice to see someone in power supporting the game industry instead of decrying it like the Klan supported it.

also...

According to the Desert News, Ruzicka, "said people she talks to assume Utah already prohibits children from buying video games in which participants have sex with prostitutes and then kill them; shoot innocent shoppers walking in a mall and decapitate people with shovels and have dogs fetch the severed heads."

what planet do these people LIVE ON?!

as far as I can tell, this is describing a combination of Fallout, GTA, and Dead Rising. In other words, the game sounds AWESOME.

But seriously. I hope the attorney general gets up on that podium and tell them to actually PLAY the games before they judge them! I mean, granted, some games are a bit raunchy in parts*, but come ON! Blame the parents for BUYING the games for the kids, not the games themselves!


Final note: I have five dollars that says a Certain Mr. Thompson (who, rather regrettably, originates from my state) will make an appearance in this case.



*(see Abraham Reyes from RDR. At the beginning of one mission for him... let's just he's having a lot of fun.)

 

[Korey Von Doom]

When it comes to endangering children with Mature video games, the only ones responsible is parents.

 

[Stryc9]

Except that rating isn't the law, it's up to the retailer's discretion as to whether or not to use the rating system on the boxes to restrict sales.

Well, stores aren't allowed to sell M games without seeing ID, so it yet again alls on the parents to know what their kids are up to. At least here in the states.

In the end, this all eventually falls on the parents who are complaining. Kids aren't allowed to get alcohol, but they do anyways.

Again, there is no law preventing the stores from selling M rated games to people under the age of 17. The stores choose to do this so they don't have a bunch of "parents" breathing down their necks when they find out that little Timmy got a game from their store where they can run over hookers.

In a perfect world it all falls on the parents to be watchful of what their kids are playing and make informed decisions about what games their kids are and are not allowed to play. This however isn't a perfect world and there are too many parents out there that don't pay attention to what's going around them and their kids. They would rather use the Xbox 360 or PS3 as a babysitter so they don't have to spend time with their own kids because they're "too busy".

There are also too many ignorant people in general who have a hard time understanding that on the whole most kids are not going to go set hookers on fire in real life because they did it in Grand Theft Auto. The kid that goes out and sets a hooker or some random homeless guy on fire was messed up to start with, the video game didn't make him do it.

These are probably the people who's parents burned their comic book collections because comic books were the boogeyman that was going to turn your children into mindless zombies along with that damn devil rock & roll music in the 50's and 60's. Instead of learning from the mistakes their parents made with them they've simply chosen to target video games as the new comic books and demonize the whole hobby because there are a few games that kids just shouldn't play.

I don't agree with there being a law that states certain video games can only be sold to people over a certain age when the same restriction doesn't and wouldn't apply to movies and music with offensive content.

"According to the Desert News, Ruzicka, 'said people she talks to assume Utah already prohibits children from buying video games in which participants have sex with prostitutes and then kill them; shoot innocent shoppers walking in a mall and decapitate people with shovels and have dogs fetch the severed heads.'"

Whoa, does a video game like that exist? Why haven't I found it yet?

Also, the running over hookers things is the GTA games. The decapitation via shovel and having your dog fetch the severed heads is Postal 2.

 

[londelen]

Man can we please just split these states off from the rest of the U.S.? They give us a bad name.

 

[Shale_Dirk]

It's not cool when people make fun of twelve year olds. Yes, most of them are assholes (and I live on Long Island, so I lived with the assholiest of the assholes., but its not like none of us can't join Escapist without trolling every other second. Also, I have a question; how does Cowboy Bebop, a teen book better then most of them, get confiscated, but not Air Gear, which is an ecchi?

You are an amazingly aware 12-year-old. I like you.

Depends on the knowledge of the clerk. Also depends on if the store has a 'black list' of things they shouldn't be selling to people under certain ages. Air Gear may have slipped under the radar, or the clerk may not have known that sealed manga = adult.

I don't know all the reasoning behind Escapist member policy, but I'd believe that it has age restrictions because this is not a censored website (at least, not based on simple usage of curses). I think legally they have to restrict ages as a result, but I'm not really sure.

OT: So they're complaining about having parental responsibility? God forbid you spend enough time with your kid to pay attention to what they watch/listen to/play, or educate yourself about the things you're buying for them.

I understand the reasoning behind the desire for this, but ignorance is stopping them from looking at the actual effectiveness of the system in place. I can't quite articulate the reasoning behind their position though. The system works, but one person claims it doesn't, and thusly the government should control it? I have a feeling that if these people were to apply this position to any other...anything...they would hate the concept, being that Utah is primarily conservative.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Its ironic that these pro family groups are up in arms about harmless videogames when (on average) 4,400 girls between the ages of 13 and 17 become pregnant every year in Utah. Maybe they should be better parents first.