Video Game Industry to Sue Michigans Governor

Justin Meisse · Sep 2005

I wish there was a raised, green fist emoticon for this story.

story from WarCry network

press release from ESA website

jzero · Sep 2005

Funny how the statistics in the ESA article effectively contradict 'nationwide rumors' of rampaging 14-year-olds with shotguns, jacking cars and beating up hookers. Damn that Liberal Media and their so-called facts.

Like, the FTC reports that parents are involved in video game sales and rentals 83% of the time? Hmm, I guess it's that other, monumental 17% of the teenagers that are rampaging. According to Jack Thompson, at least.

/jzero

KDR_11k · Sep 2005

Damn that Liberal Media and their so-called facts.

Fox is liberal compared to who? Adolf Hitler?

Either way, all this law does is prevent minors from buying games not suitable for them without parental consent. If you want to allow your kids to play those games go to the store with them.

notman · Sep 2005

I'm here in Michigan, and as some of you may remember, I'm hoping to start some sort of game development here in the future, so this disturbs me. Trust me when I say that many of us in this state hate this bitch. Her concentration has been directed everywhere except where it needs to be. Our unemployment levels are at record highs and the only real industry we have here is the auto industry. So when the auto industry does bad, our state does bad. So rather than concentrating on introducing new industry, she concentrates on unfounded crap like this and Canada sending us their garbage. While I don't want Canada using us as a landfill, it won't matter if we don't have jobs.

Ok, I'll get off the soap box now and just say I hope she fails to get this through. I hate politicians.

jzero · Sep 2005

KDR: Uh, did you detect a whiff of sarcasm in that 'liberal media' thing? I don't pay attention to Fox News, but I would expect them to play along with the 'rampaging teenagers' story. Just let this joke die its intended, natural, fruit-fly death.

Yes, the Michigan law's intent is to prohibit the sale of unsuitable games to minors, but the ESRB rating already does this without the need for legislation. The MPAA in the US has a powerful influence over theaters showing R-rated films, why shouldn't the ESRB be able to have the same influence over retailers? Without legislation.

It's the vagueness of the Michigan law that will likely be its downfall if it ever gets tested in court. Which it should, and soon.

/jzero

notman · Sep 2005

Well, the ESRB rating should take care of this lawsuit anyways. It's just exactly like the music lawsuits in the past. Unfortunately we don't have people like Dee Snyder, Bob Denver, and Frank Zappa in the gaming industry to fight it

They'll just site the music cases and it'll be left alone.

Paul Jaquays · Sep 2005

This is all about politicians who are trying to be re-elected next year. They've probably done demographics studies and figured that by using witch-hunt and fear-mongering tactics they can appeal to the same group of people who are likely to send money to a tele-evangelist who is witch-hunting and fear-mongering.

I've also noted that the overwhelming number of these anti-game politicians are members of the political party one would normally associate with groups who allegedly support or promote freedom of speech and expression, and are typically aligned with and supported by high profile content providers of Hollywood.

Perhaps the real motive here is to make sure that movie stars have job security, not game developers.

KDR_11k · Sep 2005

Uh, did you detect a whiff of sarcasm in that 'liberal media' thing?

A whiff, yes but I've been in too many Slashdot politics discussions to flag that as sarcasm just because no sane person would say that with a straight face. It's both fascinating and scary what kinds of positions people can defend while fully believing the crap they are spouting (Intelligent Design anyone?).

And no, the ESRB rating doesn't do what this law does, it's not legally binding.

notman · Sep 2005

Sure, it's not legally binding, but should it be? Should we completely eliminate games that some commitee will deem violent or offensive? The problem I have with legislation like this is they feel it's necessary to create a law to perform a task that parents should be doing, which is to oversee what their kids are doing.
Not to mention, there has been very little connection to the actions of kids and the violence in video games. They look for some way to connect a kids violoence to something and they like to target video games. Before video games, it was rock music. God forbid we just look at the way their raised.

KDR_11k · Sep 2005

There's a difference between eliminating/banning and preventing sales to minors. I'm sure noone at Rockstar except maybe the managers would want GTA to fall into kid's hands.

The problem with videogames is that if your kid brings one home he's not supposed to play he can 1. hide it pretty long and 2. if you find out about it you can't return it. This way your kid wont buy games you don't approve of behind your back and if you approve of a game the ESRB doesn't you can just go with him and buy it for him. Considering the allowance of most kids that won't happen too often, anyway.

notman · Sep 2005

Store are not supposed to sell video games to kids that don't pass the rating system. It's usually the parent that goes in and buys the game for them just because little Johnny wanted it.
My bro works at Best Buy and he witnesses this all the time. Occasionally the parent sees the game in action and brings it back to Best Buy, pissed that Best Buy allowed the parent to buy it. Again, blaming the store rather than themselves.

This article sounded to me like a step to completely stop production of violent games.

KDR_11k · Sep 2005

There are some stores that still ignore the ratings and to effectively enforce them you'd need everyone participating (else all the kids will just run to the stores not enforcing it).

notman · Sep 2005

Around here, even if you have a law, you can still find stores to sell it to underaged kids. It's against the law to sell cigarettes to minors here, but stores will still do it without checking ID. Given that the underaged buyers may be CLOSE to 18 years old most of the time, they still are illegally getting them.

jzero · Sep 2005

I think it's important to point out that, regardless of whether you agree with KDR or not, he is operating in a different environment than we here in the States.

In Germany, game ratings legislation like this is already on the books and in effect. Game companies actually change the content of their games specifically to sell in Germany, and this has been true for several years, now.

All I'm saying is, we Yanks should understand where KDR is coming from before we argue with him too heatedly. I know that it would probably be easier to agree with the legislation if it were already in effect.

But on that note, I'll say that the MPAA in the US has been an effective regulator of movie viewers for several decades now, and they place the ratings enforcement squarely in the hands of the movie theaters and retailers. The same could be done with the ESRB with some extra effort on the part of those involved.

/jzero

Joshua Stubbles · Sep 2005

I completely agree with legislation that prevents bad games from getting into a minor's hands. Some people might push it too far though, and try to ban violent games altogether. That, imo, is too far.

jzero · Sep 2005

The thing is, though, that regulatory agencies have always been set up to control media content, WITHOUT the need for legislation. The US Gov has left that issue in the hands of the states. But with the MPAA, ESRB and even the Comics Code in place, laws never had to be passed, because it was agreed between the vendors and the consumers that ratings and self-regulation should exist.

When I looked back and tried to figure out how the MPAA got their authority to regulate, it seems that it boiled down to popular opinion. The public at large agreed that regulation was needed, and the movie producers and theater owners feared lost revenue from bad publicity.

Of course, the game ratings problem now is, studios like Rockstar can't get enough of that bad publicity, and they are doing well because of it. So the whole social principle behind the ratings has been upended. I think the only people equipped to deal with the problem are the retailers. Remember that you can't buy CDs with dirty words on them at Wal-Mart (they always have the censored versions), but you could still buy GTA:SA, at least up until this summer.

/jzero

Video Game Industry to Sue Michigans Governor

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Video Game Industry to Sue Michigans Governor