February 21, 2007
Yesterday, GamePolitics reported on a new piece of video game legislation working its way through the Indiana State Senate.The measure, SB0238, would restrict sales of M- and AO-rated games to underage buyers. Clerks who sell such games to kids would be subject to fines of up to $1,000.Today's Indianapolis Star carries an op-ed by Tim Winter (left), president of the Parents Television Council. Winter, who supports the measure, writes:
It is no exaggeration to say that video games can help create killers... Currently, a 10-year-old could purchase a Mature (M-rated) or Adult Only (AO-rated) video game. Voluntary guidelines tell retailers not to sell these products to children, but they have been a failure...
The evidence is conclusive: Countless independent studies confirm that repeated exposure to graphic sexual, violent and profanity-laced video games has a harmful and long-term affect on children...
If these games are marketed to and manufactured for adults, as the industry insists, then their sale to minors should be restricted. This solution protects our children without interfering with the rights of adults...
Video game stores have failed to police themselves.
Comments
no exaggeration? of course it's an exageration. and bulls--t in the fullest.
"""The evidence is conclusive: Countless independent studies confirm that repeated exposure to graphic sexual, violent and profanity-laced video games has a harmful and long-term affect on children…"""
Show me ONE.
"""If these games are marketed to and manufactured for adults, as the industry insists, then their sale to minors should be restricted. This solution protects our children without interfering with the rights of adults…"""
No, it doesn't, because it simply turns them into a black market-ish item, and turns game stores into adult stores, which is disgusting.
"""Video game stores have failed to police themselves."""
Would you like some truth with those lies sir?
There is already such a word: "bullsh*t". There was a segment on the daily show a few months ago about it.
news...
No, they vaguely hear is and try to ban Rice Krispies just in case another fragile kid heard it.
As for this, I can imagine the PTC hearign soemthing in court that they probably never heard before" No.
When HotCoffee hit, it was rerated as AO. They would supply stickers to stores, but most stores simply sent it back. GameStop had signs in the windows and standup ads but still refused to sell it to me.
My description of what happened then
I heard about this happening but to be honest I've never seen GTA: SA with
an AO rating anywhere...even when they rereleased it as a greatest hit.
That is an insult, equating George Carlin to the PTC, especially when they have diametrically opposing views. Carlin specifically says "@#$% the children. This is Mr. Conductor talking; I know what I'm talking about!". We as a society dote over children too much and turn the world into a nanny state. "What happened to, 'the kid who swallows too many marbles doesn't grow up to have kids of his own'?"
Winter sounds like he might be a good golfing buddy for Laddy Jack. They both have the same skewed perception of reality and the same regard for the facts (ie: none). Too bad no one is filing suit against agenda-pushing, ego-stroking braggarts like these.
The part they drop look like this
"under law. However it would be unconstitutional to restrict it under law. We also would like you to disregard the fact that 99% of retailers do not carry AO games, there are less than 30 AO rated games in the ESRB history, and most retailers have policies in place that say you have to be 17+ to buy an M rated game."
But hey! Thats a mouthful to say. Its also pretty inconvenient when you have an agenda you want to push. Sure your point is moot too but hey, the people don't need worry their pretty little heads, you got your best... I mean their best interests at heart.
Lets stop feeding our kids dinner (or any other meals), and i can guarantee they wont go on to become killers"
It's no exaggeration to say that sex creates killers. If people stopped copulating, killers would stop being born.
I wouldn't trust them at all, just as I doubt their sincerity. So, they're not as bad, but in the core of it, their interests are probably all the same between all similar organizations.
Actually, FCC statistics put it closer to 99.8% of all complaints filed are by PTC members.
M-rated games are marketed to and manufactured for 17-year olds as well, and last time I checked, they were considered minors. PTC fails.
Tim Winter likes to use what I call the "Fibonacci Kool-Aid Approach". First, make one claim that's dubious at best (e.g. "video games create killers") and use it as your major premise. Next, create a bunch of increasingly unfounded claims, either express or implied, that sprout from the original premise (e.g. "since the game industry has failed to regulate sales to minors, our children are in grave danger"). There's no need to verify anything because you are your own primary reference point. Bill O'Reilly, for one, has mastered this art.
*sigh*
I should start all my ill-informed opinions with the phrase "It is no exaggeration to say..."
- Its no exaggeration to say that dinner can help create killers.
Lets stop feeding our kids dinner (or any other meals), and i can guarantee they wont go on to become killers
@GoodRobotUs: The technical term for that is sophistry, which is what this is.
Remember, i nthe mind of a psycho conservative anything below 200% is considered a completl failure. If it's below 100, that means 100% are getting these games
And all this coming from known users of lies adn bully tactics. Shouldn't they be busy tryign to ban half the Discovery network's programming?
"If these guys are anything like NIMF, then bloody hell…not another psycho-conservative group."
Like NIMF? No, the PTC is much worse. NIMF from what I've gathered is more about informing parents, letting them make their own decisions.
The PTC on the other hand would like nothing better then to shape media to what they think is right. Remember all that crap with Janet Jackson and her infamous nipple? All the uproar, and the complaints to the FCC about indecency on TV? 90% of that is the PTC.
The article also makes it sound like the stores have a 0% success rating. That any kid can buy an M-rated game at any time without fear of being carded. That's a bit shy of the 65% in the reports I read.
@Terminator44
Hey, now! I've done independant studies before! There's the one where I concluded that fatness is actually caused by alien bacteria which originates from the Andromeda galaxy. Then the one where I found out that porn/hentai can cure the common cold. Oh! My most memorable one is that it IS possible to create a elephant/pig hybrid. And I happen to know for a FACT! that the human race started on the SR388, stole ships from the Space Pirates, and crashlanded on Earth.
(excuse the double post)
psycholinguistics aside, I find that bit even harder to swallow then the usual explitve. I could almost see the argument that video game violence desensitizes one to violence. And I guess the idea that sexual imagry in video games desensitizes minors to sex, which for reasons that baffle me is considered immoral,...
But language? Arbitrary symbols for strong messages is not going to damage anyone. The damager is done by people telling the children that these symbols are bad and evil and that they should not hear or use them.
Words are words, they have only the meaning and impact people assign to them. naughty language is only such because people have made it up as such. Thus the only harm is being done by the anti-profanity people taking their arbitrary take on language out on confused kids.
Ok, rant over ^_^
Where can they get an AO game? I had trouble finding GTA:SA after it was rerated.
Obviously, he must be referring to the army of ten year olds with credit cards ordering the uncensored version of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude off Amazon.com.
Where can they get an AO game? I had trouble finding GTA:SA after it was rerated.
"It is no exaggeration to say that video games can help create killers…"
It's a HUGE exaggeration. Saying that it's not an exaggeration is pretty much a flat-out lie at best, and libel at worst.
"The evidence is conclusive"
No, it's not. Not by a long, long shot - and I have a long list of court judgements (and bills for legal fees) that back my position up. What've you got?
"Video game stores have failed to police themselves."
Maybe, but I'd submit that parents have failed their children by not making an effort to involve themselves in their child's life.
I think I'm going to coin a new phrase of 'anti-fact', it is a comment that is designed to do as much damage to the truth as possible, worse than a lie, which is simply not the truth and doesn't care what the truth is, an anti-fact is deliberately targetted to damage the truth itself.
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/release/2007/0220.asp
As if Brownbacks bills has any prayer on earth.
Yes, yes it is. It is a MASSIVE exaggeration. This guy's opening line made me completely disregard the rest of the piece.
You mean the same evidence that's been thrown out by the courts on every challenge to these kind of bills? Is that the "conclusive" evidence you're referring to? Well, genius, if the evidence is so overwhelming, how come it's never gotten a bill past a constitutional challenge?
making money from hyip business is doable, but high risk. How to...
Re:
They're not just fail. They're the fail of the century. No. EPIC fail.