From what i read that these politicans only want to hear what they want to believe. And that's that the video game industry is an evil coperation that creates only ultra-violent video games and aims them directly at kids. Any attempt by the video game industry to try and explain that they create more then games like GTA and that trashing the game industry for games like GTA is like trashing the movie industry for making movies like Kill Bill and Hostel fall on deaf ears. I feel that it is immpossible to try and get through to these politicans on this issue. They've made up their mind and they're not going to change it. They are as stubborn as Jack Thompson in this regard. I feel this anti-gaming blacklash will in the end have to be decided by the courts. Hopefully and most likely the First Amendment will prevail and the politicans will move on to the next evil that supposedly damages the children.
Re: It seems to merformerJune 15 2006, 04:27:35 UTC
I was about to type out a longwinded rant but you've stolen all my thunder. I agree 100% with everything you said. When I watched the press conference, I wanted to just get up and shake the interogators. "Listen to the dang answers! Think this one out!" Grrr.
Not this crap again...terminator44June 15 2006, 02:17:33 UTC
He also called for a universal rating system for all media. "The present alphabet soup is just confusing," he said
Again with the "universal ratings system" bullshit. Look, you can't lump completly differnt forms of entertainment into just one system. It just won't fit. Movies, for example, show convincing acts of violence played out by real people, yet all you do is watch the acts. Video games, on the other hand, show violent acts on a visual quality inferior to movies (as far as realism is concerned); but unlike movies, games allow you to actually participate in these violent acts. And lastly, there is music. Sure, some music lyrics allude to acts of violence, but they never actually show the acts taking place. Bottom line: these mediums of entertainment are not, I repeat, NOT compatible, and they never will be. You can't judge all of them by the same stamp.
Apologies for the long rant. I'm just tired of the idiots who keep pushing this stupid idea (Hilary Clinton, anyone?).
Re: Not this crap again...rformerJune 15 2006, 04:33:38 UTC
You could easily make an argument against the other industries being even more detrimental to the child's psyche. From my own childhood, I recall that all the "cool kids" would be able to recite gangster rap lyrics backwards and forwards. On the bus, I see the same thing in today's youth. I don't really see all the kids wearing plumbing outfits b/c of the new Mario game. I do see them wearing Snowmen t-shirts b/c of Young Jeezy. This witchhunt really irks me. We already went through this in the mid 80s and early 90s. They didn't tackle gangster rap and 15-20 yrs later, we're generally still ok. Arguably, the biggest promoter's of violence are in office, and I doubt they grew up listening to snoop.
Yeah they assume Rockstar is trying to market the most infamous and controversal game series of all time to kids who (usually) won't be able to buy the game from the stores in the 1st place. Don't question them.
No surprise that the committee was obviously biased against the industrybeardoggxJune 15 2006, 02:38:19 UTC
No surprise at all.
It was surprising that the committee criticized the FTC's slap on the wrist. Barton and Upton should grow up and accept the FTC's ruling and move on. Maybe Upton should be fined million of dollars for always attacking the First Amendment.
Lowenstein also repeated a line he has used previously, saying, "Defining this industry based on its most controversial titles would be like defining the film industry based on Kill Bill, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Natural Born Killers..."
Lowenstein made an ironic point, as Oliver Stone beat a "wrongful death" lawsuit over Natural Born Killers.
For her part, researcher Kim Thompson suggested that the ESRB might do well to actually play the games which it rates (the ESRB relies primarily on game publishers to tell the ratings body what type of content games contain)And again I ask, how does she expect the ESRB to play the games when some games take several weeks and months to complete it?(And they would have to play the games through to find everything to rate) As I said
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Re: No surprise that the committee was obviously biased against the industryrformerJune 15 2006, 04:37:30 UTC
Dr. Walsh's stats were great. She claims Pac-Man is incredibly violent. She claims that on average, there are 60 deaths per minute in the average game. The idiocy of all of this is that even if they "play every game," what's the chance of them finding something like hot coffee? Zero.
Re: No surprise that the committee was obviously biased against the industrycrimson_mageJune 15 2006, 06:03:46 UTC
For her part, researcher Kim Thompson suggested that the ESRB might do well to actually play the games which it rates (the ESRB relies primarily on game publishers to tell the ratings body what type of content games contain)
And again I ask, how does she expect the ESRB to play the games when some games take several weeks and months to complete it?(And they would have to play the games through to find everything to rate) As I said, her study wasn't worth the paper it was printed on as it was nothing more than glorified nitpicking at its worst, straight and simple. I strongly disagree on both counts. I'm sure you could find people willing to play through every nook and cranny of a video game on the hunt for hidden content. Heck, I'm pretty sure that if you rounded up a tenth of the people who contribute to GameFAQs.com, offer them some money to do the job, and divvy up the work, you could get spot-on ratings for even epic-scale games like Elder Scrolls IV in a matter of weeks. Throw in some people from the mod community and you can
( ... )
Re: No surprise that the committee was obviously biased against the industryeusisnaphtaliJune 15 2006, 10:13:22 UTC
I suspect the problem is hiring enough people to blast through these games as necessary, espicially since many are reviewed before they're actually complete, and that requiring a thorough play through before release would require a delay in the game for it to be rated. As well, there's only /3/ anonymous people reviewing these games according to the ESRB's site, and they want to keep them anonymous.
I think a compromise would be to hire a bunch of people to play through the beta version to a significant degree, and write down their experinces for the raters to look over in case there's any significant differences publishers may not have considered important or whatever. I seriously doubt hiring these testers will be all that hard for the ESRB.
Here they are calling a meeting when it's more like a private bashing on video games. In all seriousness, they constantly play the exact same card with every damn situation. Grand Theft Auto isn't a bad game. I'm sorry, but in San Andreas, the point of the game was to break free from the grasp of dirty cops
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Comments 62
Any attempt by the video game industry to try and explain that they create more then games like GTA and that trashing the game industry for games like GTA is like trashing the movie industry for making movies like Kill Bill and Hostel fall on deaf ears. I feel that it is immpossible to try and get through to these politicans on this issue. They've made up their mind and they're not going to change it. They are as stubborn as Jack Thompson in this regard. I feel this anti-gaming blacklash will in the end have to be decided by the courts. Hopefully and most likely the First Amendment will prevail and the politicans will move on to the next evil that supposedly damages the children.
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Again with the "universal ratings system" bullshit. Look, you can't lump completly differnt forms of entertainment into just one system. It just won't fit. Movies, for example, show convincing acts of violence played out by real people, yet all you do is watch the acts. Video games, on the other hand, show violent acts on a visual quality inferior to movies (as far as realism is concerned); but unlike movies, games allow you to actually participate in these violent acts. And lastly, there is music. Sure, some music lyrics allude to acts of violence, but they never actually show the acts taking place. Bottom line: these mediums of entertainment are not, I repeat, NOT compatible, and they never will be. You can't judge all of them by the same stamp.
Apologies for the long rant. I'm just tired of the idiots who keep pushing this stupid idea (Hilary Clinton, anyone?).
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What false pretenses are there about a game called Grand Theft Auto that's rated Mature?!?!
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It was surprising that the committee criticized the FTC's slap on the wrist. Barton and Upton should grow up and accept the FTC's ruling and move on. Maybe Upton should be fined million of dollars for always attacking the First Amendment.
Lowenstein also repeated a line he has used previously, saying, "Defining this industry based on its most controversial titles would be like defining the film industry based on Kill Bill, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Natural Born Killers..."
Lowenstein made an ironic point, as Oliver Stone beat a "wrongful death" lawsuit over Natural Born Killers.
For her part, researcher Kim Thompson suggested that the ESRB might do well to actually play the games which it rates (the ESRB relies primarily on game publishers to tell the ratings body what type of content games contain)And again I ask, how does she expect the ESRB to play the games when some games take several weeks and months to complete it?(And they would have to play the games through to find everything to rate) As I said ( ... )
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And again I ask, how does she expect the ESRB to play the games when some games take several weeks and months to complete it?(And they would have to play the games through to find everything to rate) As I said, her study wasn't worth the paper it was printed on as it was nothing more than glorified nitpicking at its worst, straight and simple.
I strongly disagree on both counts. I'm sure you could find people willing to play through every nook and cranny of a video game on the hunt for hidden content. Heck, I'm pretty sure that if you rounded up a tenth of the people who contribute to GameFAQs.com, offer them some money to do the job, and divvy up the work, you could get spot-on ratings for even epic-scale games like Elder Scrolls IV in a matter of weeks. Throw in some people from the mod community and you can ( ... )
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I think a compromise would be to hire a bunch of people to play through the beta version to a significant degree, and write down their experinces for the raters to look over in case there's any significant differences publishers may not have considered important or whatever. I seriously doubt hiring these testers will be all that hard for the ESRB.
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