Has anyone involved with games ever thought to become a legislator? There seems to be a clear and present opportunity... ;)

[...] Some crazy stupid stuff right here. [...]

The problem is we have a good majority of our legisaltors, and congressman that are aging out of touch old men with 50's core values.

[...] Leemos en GamePolitics un extracto del debate en el parlamento de Utah, USA, sobre una nueva ley contra la venta de videojuegos violentos a menores de edad, propuesta por Jack Thompson. Sí, ese Jack. Legislador: Tengo una duda. [...]

Calling it a "columbine game" is the end result of one thing. Jack Thompson refusing to call it anything else.

Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game is a free game and therefore cannot be rated, but then again, I really can't expect politicians to be smart enough to do their homework.

Can you believe it.
Take a total misunderstanding of computer gaming and add politics and / or alchohol to the mix.
Imagine if they were to restrict these adult lawmakers guns for recreational hunting ( including AK47s for gaming).
Clueless lack of understanding of any computer, gaming , gaming platform technology and communications in any manner.
Back to the dark ages.
Lets play checkers.

As I am unable to figure out who to send disparaging emails to, I shall instead post the needed text here and hope the idiots in charge will read them.

----------------

Dear "idiots in charge",

Allow me to clear up a few things which you seem to have no understanding of, as evidenced by the recent conversation quoted on Game Politics. There are many different types of games, but for simplicity's sake, we'll narrow it down to two: Those games that are commercially released, and those that are free for download (usually made by one or two people, no corporate involvement). The "columbine game" which you have probably never even seen, is actually named "Super Columbine Massacare", and is one of the latter types of games - no commercial release, and therefore no ESRB rating. The game "Bully", as it is known in the USA, is a commercially released game from Take Two interactive, and is rated T for Teen by the ESRB.

"The Columbine Game" can never be regulated effectivly, as it is free, and while tasteless is not overtly objectionable enough to fall under a profanity or pornography law. Discussing this game during business hours is a waste of tax-payer dollars.

"Bully" is already industry-regulated, and is rated 'T' because of its cartoon-like violence. The theme is about standing up to bullies by being violent back to them (which in my experience WORKS, as opposed to the new-age crap recommended by most so called experts). The only other content that anyone would find objectionable is the possibility of homosexuality, which is only available if the player choses to persue the game in that manner - the issue is not forced upon the player. In that regard, a gay teen playing the game is actually more able to persue the game in a manner agreeing with his sexual preference, which broadens the game's appeal to that demographic. Beyond this, however, the farthest any relationship in the game goes is kissing, and awkward kissing at that - there's nothing in that that isn't shown in television market towards the same age group.

Please, PLEASE get your facts straight before making decisions - doing otherwise makes you look like a self-important wind bag, ego so over-inflated you can't be bothered to do five minutes of research - literally, five minutes is all it took to read this far, and that's if you read slowly. Legal decisions are your ballywhack, so I wouldn't dream of telling you which way to decide on the issue, but at least get the damn facts straight before making that decision, lest you make the wrong one.

Sincerely,

Mnementh2230

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Nah mods is like that thing tyler durtin dis from fight club. U know where take a movie real and add in a frame of his own. And the frames could be very long.

and we already know politicians are screwed up well if u watch the daily show often enough. They have there own agendas and being pooly informed never stopped them before. the public disagreeing with their opinion never stopped them. I m waiting for the "I dont need to _____ to know its ____"

and my corollary is "I dont need to read the bible to know it bad for you"

where steven colberts' fake logic when u need it.

More proof that politicians don't even know what they're talking about. If someone wrote a letter to a Supreme Court justice or to a court currently deciding on a bill for video games, they WILL be able to show all judges that no bills suggested by politicians to regulate video games should be passed.

This article would be the perfect source to prove how ignorant our representatives are.

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"It’s nice to know that SOMEONE tried to set the record straight that Bully was NOT a Columbine game."

I second that. Someone needs to educate these politicans about what they are legislating against as the sources that they are getting from the likes of JT, and conservative anti-gaming groups that lend support to these bills is all wrong. If these groups are going to attack violent video games they should at least get their facts straight before doing so.

[...] proof game critics dont know what theyre talking about what a bunch of retards. is it really this difficult to get people who dont play games to understand our community? they make this rating system out to be like it should be a quiz on an SAT test or something. __________________ [...]

I just really think that little exchange just proves that most of these people have no business criticizing or trying to regulate gaming at all.

The only way they could be more out of touch would be if they complained about kids and their devil's music. Dern kids! gyrating their hips in such a vulgar manner!

I chalk it up to the generational divide. They are easily confused and do not appreciate the differences between a published, commercial game and a homebrew thing like SCMRPG (although I don't know if the "poor" comments were really necessary). I think the best way to explain such things to the old timers is through metaphor - going to something they are familiar with. The ESRB serves the blockbuster movies - the Titanics, the Jurassic Parks, the Back to the Futures. SCMRPG is the small independent film you shot with your friends using your dad's camcorder last weekend.

This is an easier argument than mods for existing games. Oy.

Well, it does seem as though they ended up talking about two different games, Bully, and Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Looks like the Sabey unfortunately didn't quite clear that up, though. I mean, to us, yeah, it's pretty obvious he's talking about SCMRPG, but to the rest of those people, they probably now think Bully is only available online, and there's the possibility that someone there will try to make a big fuss over it. Of course, like this bill, it'll likely lead absolutely nowhere. But still.

The legislators and thier understanding of the gaming community is really quite embarrasing.

The woman from the Eagle forum remarked that the genre name for an FPS game (like Half Life) is *First Shooter* and then she went on to describe a third person shooter and didnt seem to know the name of it.

Now clearly, her research on gaming itself was sparse at best. The representative was far more interested in columbine-like scenarios pinned on gaming as a motive.

Utah once again brings much lulz.

It's that there columbine game I tells ya, the kids they get it on some kinda web thing and it's not even rated....

This is kind of a unique story, so if you'd like, please give it a Digg at:

http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Utah_Politicians_Actually_Discuss_Bully_...

[...] A legislator asked Olsen if he was familiar with Bully and what rating that game “would” have. Since we aren’t aware of the context, we don’t know why the legislator asked Olsen instead of Sabey about the rating; it was the ESA that established the ESRB (back in the days when the ESA was still the IDSA, the Interactive Digital Software Association). Anyway, here’s what happened (taken from GamePolitics.com): [...]

@Benji

"But a few people listen, and are concerned, and don’t have the information available that one would need to know that the claims are false."

The information is already there. It's not that hard to do some further research on the game or at least ASK SOMEBODY who has played the game and isn't pushing an agenda. It's just that the people who believe these lies are usually gullible to begin with, and will take a person as unethical as JT at their word because they think "Oh, well if he was lying I'm sure somebody would have said so by now." The irony is that it's exactly that thinking that allows falsehoods like this to spread. If nobody questions them, then they keep on spreading from person to person until it's an almost universally accepted truism. Mark Twain said it best: "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can even put on its shoes."

Either that, or these politicians HAVE heard the truth, but they don't listen and instead run with the fib. The reasons they would do this might be A)It's what they want to hear; and/or B)It supports their agenda. Now, I orignally thought that these attempts at legislation simply stemmed from a lack of knowledge about games and gamer culture on the part of the legislators. Recently, however, I'm beginning to think that these people are deliberately ignoring the facts and rubber-stamping anti-game legislation regardless. This belief would concur with my original view that these officials don't expect their bills to succed. They just want the attention and "family values" votes that go with them.

I like somerguy's example of mods.

two others that came to mind that may help , all the different versions of Monopoly, and the different styles of poker.

Hmmm those methaphors just aren't working I think. Let me give it a try. It would be like a kid getting a nerf gun then adding tacks to the nerf bullets. Its not toy makers fault your kid was stupid and you didn't supervise him....Hows that? lol.

I wouldn't say they really set the record straight, because the stupid "Columbine simulator" term is still being associated and confused with Bully, and the congress people now think Bully was the Columbine RPG. These are busy congress critters, so them not getting the whole picture and still ending up confused doesn't surprise me.

The industry rep really needs to clear things up about the two games, the difference between what is retail and what is online(doubt they can squeeze a demo of both games into these hearings), as well as shoot down that absurd "Bully is a Columbine simulator" FUD. They do need to do this because things are just going to get more messed up, and more then likely could end up hurting them.

That is what certain people love about situations like this, you can get away with a lot of stuff due to confusion and misunderstandings.

I almost wonder if, in some circles, the SCMRPG would be more accepted if it had rich 3D graphics and 5.1 channel surround sound (with all essential game content being the same). It would seem that the legislators were using the aesthetic choices I made with SCMRPG as pejorative detractions rather than motivated themes for the game. I guess I shouldn't expect a more thorough analysis from the guys who conflate a major release like 'Bully' with an underground game like mine.

Reading through this transcript makes me want to testify before Congress myself and set the record straight. Do you think I'd be invited...?

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