LET'S ARGUE ABOUT VIDEO GAMES

[Dr. Boogie]

Originally Posted by DougClayton4231

I played Doom, but I refused to play Quake when I was young, purely because Quake was much more realistic (and scary at the time).

You mean you thought Quake was more realistic when you were a kid and didn't know any better, right? Because that's a game where you travel to other dimensions and shoot monsters with an automatic nailgun.

There is no issue of rights or free speech in the actual bill though. All it's trying to do is keep ultra-violent games from kids. They do the same thing with porn. Who's really opposed to that?

Well, people who don't consider video games and porno to be analogous, for one.


I'm against it because I recognize the bill for what it is: a cynical ploy by politicians who want to distract from the fact that the state has gone bankrupt under their watch. They just need a quick moral panic fix to scare people into reelecting them. Once the elections are over, this issue will disappear. Just you wait.

The other reason I'm against it is because it's completely unnecessary. It has never been easier for a parent to stop their kids from playing inappropriate games than it is right now: Every game has a label and a brief content description on the front and back cover. Each one of those labels contains a URL where you can go to learn more about what's in a certain title. Video and screenshots of any game can be Googled from your mobile phone. And even if all that fails, even if you steadfastly refuse to expend an ounce of effort trying to learn about the media your kids consume, you can use the parental controls on any modern console to block out M-rated games automatically. In short, if your kids can play games you don't want them playing at home, it's on you.

Finally, I don't want law enforcement spending even a moment of their time on this. The idea that you could be working at Best Buy one day, then find yourself fired because you accidentally sold a copy of GoW3 to little Johnny and his holy roller mother threw a fit... that's just pathetic.


But I know all of this is mostly moot because the bill will just be shot down as being unconstitutional, just as it was when they tried it in Illinois, and just as it was when they tried it here years ago.