"Video games are not art or media..."

[Covak]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050520/ap_on_hi_te/video_games

 

"Video games are not art or media," she said. "They are simulations, not all that different from the simulations used by the U.S. military in preparation for war."

 

Makes me laugh

[Josh]

...and you, Sen. Deanna Demuzio, are not a woman.

[Robot Monkey]

"I'm going to vote for this bill, but I'm voting for it for one reason ? because this is a political bill," said Sen. Mike Jacobs. "If I vote against it, it will show up in a campaign mail piece."

 

Good job, Senator Jacobs! :tu I can't wait til they make Mr. Jacobs Goes to Washington, wherein Senator Jacobs (played by an invertebrate) makes the following moving speech:

 

Just get up off the ground, that's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something ... There's no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. Unless there's an election coming up.

[Whooter]

Good job, Senator Jacobs! :tu I can't wait til they make Mr. Jacobs Goes to Washington[/i'], wherein Senator Jacobs (played by an invertebrate) makes the following moving speech:

 

No doubt! How moronic was it to say that? Now THAT will show up in a campaign mail piece, instead. Dope.

[iainl]

Sorry? Did I miss the point where simulations weren't media, or something?

 

Books aren't Art or Media either. They aren't that different from the training manuals used by the U.S. military in preparation for war.

[Graeme]

: is all I gotta say for now

[PoisonJam]

The gamer in me agrees with you guys, but the father in me doesn't see anything wrong with trying to restrict younger gamers from buying violent/explicit games. And no part of me has any clue what the devil "video games are not art or media" even means... :confused:

[Whooter]

This is the problem, though:

 

The measure approved Thursday would require store owners to determine which games are too violent or sexually explicit for anyone under 18. Anyone selling them to a minor could be fined.

 

And maybe I'm taking to extremes, but say a retailer does "get caught" selling an M-rated game to a minor and they get fined. Maybe if that happens enough times, the retailer just elects to stop carrying the games altogether to avoid the hassle. Plus, what's with the retailer having to determine which games are inappropriate? Isn't that was the ESRB does?

[Josh]

Video stores had this figured out a long time ago. Why don't the retailers just create an M / 18+ section of games behind a curtain?

[foogledricks]

I'm sorry guys. But the majority of popular videogames are murder simulations. That's why the army uses them to train troops. Those same murder simulations are what most children are growing up on. And we wonder why there's a Colombine every couple of months.

[foogledricks]

I'm sorry guys. But the majority of popular videogames are murder simulations. That's why the army uses them to train troops. Those same murder simulations are what most children are growing up on. And we wonder why there's a Colombine every couple of months.

This is total BS. Just because games can used specifically for the purpose of training, doesn't mean that other people (gamers) can't use them for a different purpose, entertainment. That is such an intellectually dishonest argument. And I'm sorry, not only are there not "Columbine's" every couple months, but violent crime has actually gone down in the last couple of years.

[foogledricks]

There was a partisan article in EGM that covered this subject. It was frustrating to read. Like someone arguing with themself in a thread.

[GreenMonkey]

And we wonder why there's a Colombine every couple of months.

 

There was a Colombine because those kids were mercilessly picked on and snapped IMO. The problem is the bullying and the ridicule that goes on in schools. Having had plenty of this as a poor nerdy kid in school, I can almost see why they snapped and started killing people.

 

PS - Japan's got plenty of videogames and their schoolkids aren't murdering each other. Reasons aren't necessarily videogames. Ditto with TV, movies, etc. If the reason was that simple, all 1st world countries would have the same level of problems, wouldn't they?

 

There is no scientifically proven causal link between videogames and violence. A few correlational studies have come up with some results, but correlation != causation.

 

And the biggest problem with the law is this:

 

The measure approved Thursday would require store owners to determine which games are too violent or sexually explicit for anyone under 18. Anyone selling them to a minor could be fined

 

Talk about a vague law.

 

And that senator that won't vote against it for political reasons....? That is EXACTLY what is wrong with American politics these days. No one standing up for their beliefs, just pandering to the voters. One of those problems with having a Republic, I guess.

[ChrisH]

I think the best way to consider this objectively is to remove games from the issue altogether. Just ask yourself...

 

Should a 12 year old should be able to buy a Playboy or a ticket to a rated 'R' film?

[iainl]

On the one hand, I don't know why this winds me up so much. Here in the UK, it's illegal for GAME to sell a 17-year-old a copy of GTA (which isn't even a new thing - they would have been in just as much trouble selling the original GTA back in '97 as they would be today selling San Andreas). On the other, that's because the law treats the selling of GTA to kids just as it does Halloween.

 

The act of forcing children to go through their parents to get an M-rated game is exactly the same as forcing them to be accompanied for an R-rated film. If that's all the law actually says, then I'd support it. It's the inflammatory rhetoric being used to promote the bill that gets my goat.

[Graeme]

I don't have any problem with enforcing a rating, or making sure that M rated games are only sold to those of the proper age. God knows that most parents aren't doing their job. My time at EB saw more than a few parents look disgusted when I told them about the content that was in games like GTA, yet still buy it for their kids because it's what they want.

 

The problem I have is the comments and reasoning surrounding these every time they come up.

 

R rated movies are entertainment with content intended for adults. M rated games are violent murder simulators that teach our kids to go on murderous rampages and have no redeeming qualities.

 

That may be a bit of Hyperbole, but that's how it comes off a lot of the time, and the main reason seems to be that people still look at games as entertainment for kids, and movies and tv are for everyone.

[General Zot]

I remember reading that there is a part of the brain that essentially differentiates between fantasy and reality. I'm not kidding, there is a physical part of the brain that does this. And essentially it treats what it perceives as "real" in a totally different way than what is fantasy. It's how you can watch something like the introduction to Kill Bill and snigger, but if you ever saw someone take a bullet in the head you would be in paralyzing shock. It's not that you are numb to the violence in the movie, it's that your brain knows it is not real and treats it as such. All fantasy is treated this way, be it dreams, books, games, TV, movies, radio, or whatever. You've probably experienced it firsthand yourself when you have a nightmare (let's say a shark attack) and wake up screaming/sweating. As soon as you realize it wasn't real, your heart slows, you calm down, and essentially the dream is a scant memory. But had you experienced it for real (a shark attack), it would stick with you for a long, long time and be burned into your memory. This isn't a mistake, it's the very real and physical difference your brain imparts to real vs. imaginary stimulous. Blaming violent video games for violent behavior is like blaming dreams, it simply isn't processed or retained that way in the brain.

 

Someone that would lose track of what is game violence and what is real violence is not normal. I mean physically, chemically not normal. That videogames would set them off is the luck of the draw, it could have just as easily been a TV show, movie, or a reading of Old Yeller.

 

And Kleibold from the Columbine murders wasn't chemically right. I forget what drug he was currently on for his medical depression (Zoloft?), but for weeks before the shooting he had been complaining of homocidal and suicidal impulses. No one saw it coming (I guess these symptoms for him weren't abnormal?), but the kid wasn't screwed on straight chemically by some accounts.

[AnthonyVolpe]

"Video games are not art or media," she said. "They are simulations, not all that different from the simulations used by the U.S. military in preparation for war."

 

That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard an elected official puke forth from his/her mouth. Not all videogames are war sims and they're just as much works of art as a movie or album. Interactivity doesn't make something not a work of art.

 

Ms. Demuzio, do us a favor. Shut up. Seriously. SHUT UP. Go work on something important and quit wasting your constituents' tax dollars on publicity stunts like this. Idiot.