Posted on 11/01/2010 9:22:23 AM PDT by Palter
Videogame designers at ZeniMax Media Inc.'s Bethesda Softworks destroyed a virtual U.S. Capitol, Jefferson Memorial and other landmarks in the Mature-rated "Fallout 3," which depicts the ruins of post-apocalyptic Washington.
They didn't bother to obliterate the U.S. Supreme Court. But in the real world, that's where the $10.5 billion videogame industry faces its greatest threat. On Tuesday, the court's nine justices will consider whether to strip First Amendment protection from violent videogames that critics say appeal to the deviant interests of children.
A 2005 California law prohibits selling or renting such games to minors based on legislative findings that they stimulate "feelings of aggression," reduce "activity in the frontal lobes of the brain" and promote "violent antisocial or aggressive behavior." The law never took effect because lower courts found it violated free-expression rights.
In a 2009 ruling, a federal appeals court in San Francisco said the state provided no credible research showing that playing violent videogames harmed minors, and found the law was an unconstitutional effort "to control a minor's thoughts."
The videogame industry says allowing the law to stand could stifle the art form, while the movie business and other media industries worry that a broad ruling against videogames could open the door to restricting their content as well.
The industry says its own ratings system already keeps violent games out of children's hands. A 2009 Federal Trade Commission report found that videogames had a stronger regulatory code than the movie or music industries, and that retailers regularly enforced age restrictions which limit games rated M (for mature) to consumers age 17 and older.
California argues that the voluntary system isn't good enough, because some minors manage to purchase M-rated games anyway, and some publishers don't submit games to the ratings board.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
So, I wonder why these nuts didn’t bother suing Roland Emmerich for his portrayal of aliens torching D.C. in the film, “Independence Day”? Did somebody say hypocrisy and insanity?
It’s not a free speech issue. The issue is who in the heck gave them the power to regulate this?
And the Jefferson Memorial & Capitol were not destroyed in Fallout 3.
They merely became home to cannibalistic mutants which, at least as far as the Capitol is concerned, is an improvement.
Cinema is protected free speech and has been since a 1952 Supreme Court decision.
We have a winner.
Whether children play these games or not is their parents’ decision - no-one else’s.
To some extent.
Obscenity laws still apply to films. They are rarely enforced - but they can be.
Why, our all knowing, all seeing, all omnipotent government, of course!
I actually really liked this game when I played it at my buddy’s Christmas party last year. The graphics were impressive, and the typical bang-bang mutant death stuff was fun. The detail on the DC monuments was impressive (for someone who’s never been to the US Capital).
That being said, there are no arguments from the plaintiffs that leave me even remotely concerned about this. It’s all about “feelings,” and being that kids have been playing “violent” video games for the better part of 20 years, I don’t see a problem here.
I played every Grand Theft Auto up to the most recent #4, and I’m still a gun-toting, God fearing, conservative American man without an iota of anger toward anyone.
I would agree to some extent. My situation was very much like that. In fact, in my house, we didn’t actually have a video game console until we got an old-school PSX and Dance Dance Revolution. Even then, the family also had it on policy that we should be able to hear whatever noises were made on the PC, and had the computer in a room where people could walk by and see whatever was going on with little to no notice as well. This was a decent deterrent to getting rediculous video games such as most of the rated M titles. Not perfect, but decent. I wish more homes were like mine, but I cannot say all of them are.
A perfect example of Big Media (yes WSJ news division is Big Media) obfuscating what is essentially a simple issue. You don’t need lawyers and courts and deep thinkers to analyze this. It’s essentially simple - IT’S NONE OF THEIR FREAKING BUSINESS.
The MPAA is there to guard against that. If something is rated NC-17 or if the filmmakers bypass the MPAA and release their film as ‘Not Rated’, various theaters will refuse to play it, various media will refuse to advertise it.
A good measuring stick for cutting the government’s size down to size.
If it’s “none of their business”, cut the program.
If we did that, the government would be halved, at least.
It was pretty much the same in our house. But you’ll be surprised how many parents are clueless or irresponsible. I remember a couple of months ago, I took my (adult) nephew to see the movie “The Expendables”, which is a graphically violent R-rated action movie with a lot of profanity, and I was stunned to find myself sitting next to a couple of boys who can’t have been older than about 5 or 6.
It’s tempting to say the law should intervene in such cases, but on balance, I’d still say it should be the parents’ decision.
Videogames seem to be the one entertainment medium where quasi-conservative ideas still triumph.
And the Jefferson Memorial & Capitol were not destroyed in Fallout 3.
They merely became home to cannibalistic mutants which, at least as far as the Capitol is concerned, is an improvement.
As far as I can tell, our government sounds more and more like a communist regime. Take, for instance, the fact that in a game called Command & Conquer: Generals. Beijing is attacked by suicide bombers and the Three Gorges Dam is collapsed to drown a valley filled with terrorist training camps, the Chinese government banned the game from their markets simply because it showed some monuments as less than invincible. In the U.S., there was no such sentiment at the film, Independence Day, in which aliens torch all of D.C. with a cataclysmic ray gun shot. Plus, there’s history to tell you that our nation’s capital is not, or at least was not invincible. The British army set D.C. ablaze, burning all of our primary government buildings to the ground. We had to rebuild D.C. after the War of 1812, that’s completely factual. It is common to think of monuments and government figures as somehow invincible or deserving to be spotless, but that’s in totalitarian governments where the government official should be the object of worship, at least by compulsory means. Since we live in a Federal Republic, and not some communist or fascist regime, I would argue in favor of Fallout 3 being allowed on the market, just as was Independence Day, or some other movie in which D.C. gets torched. Worship of politicians and monuments should be a completely optional matter for us as citizens of this nation.
(Side Note: I also find it funny that the point of Fallout 3 they seem to care about is the fact that somehow D.C. gets nuked or destroyed in the game, when the primary rating reasons for the “M” rating were about rampant sex, gore, and profanity)
That’s the perception. But most theaters say they would play NC-17 films if they were available. And almost all video stores stock “unrated” product.
You’re right. It’s all up to the parents.
I’ve seen parents buy “Mature” games for their grade school-aged children.
The ratings might be useful as an informational tool, but they’re worthless as an enforcement mechanism.
They consider it a wedge issue. They think they can scare social conservatives into demanding government intervention.
I think most see through this bait and switch tactic by now. Promise help with social issues, then use the mandate to attack social conservatives.
They’ve pulled the football away from us one too many times.
They'd really have a fit if they saw us having real BB gun wars when I was a kid.
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