Violent Games Get Chilly Reception in Chilean Parliament
Violent Games Get Chilly Reception in Chilean Parliament
December 29, 2007
Political concerns over video game violence have apparently spread to South America.El Mercurio Online reports that nearly a dozen elected officials in Chile have initiated a motion to regulate "excessively violent" game sales.
The legislative proposal, placed before the Economic Commission of the Chilean Parliament last week, would also require game consoles to have built-in parental controls (however, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii already have such features).
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I agree.
Look, im from chile and yes we have next gen darling, we are not cave mans, we have technollogy you know. Its not like we have smoke signals instead of cellphones ¬¬
Anyway, this comes as a little shock to me, videogames have never been an active debate over here and honestly something good can come out of this. I already had to take away god of war and grand theft auto from the hands of a 7 years old nephew, with the apropiate warning to his parents about videogames ratings.
But im afraid that, because of how things work over here, something like jack thomson can come along. Truth is that most parents don't know how videogames ratings work and they just think that its a thing for kids. That is a problem. I just hope they don't make a war on videogames with it.
How the hell did a 7 year old kid get his hands on God Of War!?
Good one dennis.
Well, they TRIED blaming on the game, but I don't remember a ban on Duke3d being issued here. There has ben bans on Carmaggedon and maybe GTA, but this kind of stuff usually gets forgotten pretty quick because the government is always on scandal mode (lots of corruption). Also, the shooter used an UZI or something similar, the kind of weapon you only get on the army or from drug dealers. And he was no soldier.
Besides, our media likes to attack RPGs a lot more.
More on topic, I used to respect Chile as the best economy around here, and also a decent government, but seems everyone around the world is jumping on this damn bandwagon. I believe we'll see more of this crap around here sooner or later.
I was going to say something witty about the pun used in the title because it is the only thing that I cared about but...
Korax, are we talking about RPGs like Role Paying Games or the other more deadly grenade type weapon? If the former, what is wrong with an interactive epic story?
If the latter, what is wrong with a weapon like that? I am sure they are just pissed that it runs on baby fuel and unicorn tears... like Role-Playing games.
"they just think that its a thing for kids."
i feel that is one of the core reasons why people who are not gamers themselves appear to be so misinformed about gaming in general.
Well that is point, he got it because they didn't knew how to supervise the games the child had.
@ jonc2006:
I know, i just hope they take a positive point of view on this issue, instead of creating a media war like they sometimes do (its not that common here, but it happens)
The former, role playing games. There has been what, 3 or 4 murders the police around here linked, and blamed, on role playing games. Half of them weren't even perpetrated by players, but there is an ignorant notion about RPGs here. Not unlike what you said, about running on baby fuel, but instead they claim that the "loser" somehow has to die really. It's motivated also by a fear of other subcultures, like goths (at least once, if I remember correctly, the "game" was said to be happening in a cemetery, but I believe it's a damn lie from the media.
Still, it's pretty much it, baby fuel, unicorn tears AND, let's not forget, blood of virgins (a rare commodity these days). My addition to your witty comment :D
I'm honeslty tired of how parents, government figures are just uterly moronic to the fact that from the ps2, xbox, xbox360, ps3 and wii all have parental and dvd content controls. Most TVs, cable boxes, satelite systems made from 2000 have a Vchip or parental controls built in. But do parents really think about blocking content from their kids? Not until its too late for most.
Thanks for the information. The more you know I guess.
(jokes)
@ Korax
Just a hunch here... was it specifically MMORPGs being linked to murders? Because that is a little more plausible (not that the game is in any way at FAULT), since there have been actually killings, especially in Asia, over events that transpire in MMOs. But that's entirely the fault of the psychologically unstable people playing the games.
It's about time they show some concern, because the reality here is that there is ZERO regulation in regards to games. It's really easy for a kid to just go out and buy a pirate copy of whatever game they want. And nobody is obligated by law to refuse to sell a mature rated game to a minor.
But then again, this is just a reaction to the typical Xmas scandals (Your Xmas lights will burn your house! The fireworks are going to kill your family! The gifts will turn your sons into murderers!). And I don't think its going to get farther than this.
Lets hope, i mean, i know it might just fade away as a bad memory of the sensationalism that comes from the news, but still....
Don't take Morrigan's comment so hard. Where I'm from (Mexico) we know a lot of people over the world thinking that we ride on donkeys, wear big sombreros and take siestas underneath some cactuses or something... so we get somewhat deffensive when people think we are not as advanced as the rest of the world.
Thankfully, I live in one of Mexico's three biggest cities, full of pretty well educated people on that which games are not only for children, but for adults as well....
*sigh* Except for my mom, who called me REALLY freaked out one day to ask if I was playing Second Life because, and I quote "A girl died because of playing Second Life! I saw it on the news! She starved to dead!"
*sigh*
So what? My father is a luddite.
He'd wonder how I became the /b/tard escapist that I am today...
Sad... my parents and grandparents always understood my geekness and obsession for gadgets. I guess I am lucky.
Nope, it was the classic tabletop RPGs, specifically Vampire the Masquerade, but there are some people who also label Dungeons and Dragons as a "tool of the devil" (like in the USA some 30 years ago).
Plus, in the end there were one case I remember very well, where the real murderer was a man about 40 years old at that time, who never heard anything about RPGs.
Whonder if somebody will push for something like that in hear on the other side of Los Andes
We'd have to bar the sale or distribution of the Holy Bible to minors as Atheist, Jewish or Muslim parents find it unsuitable or their children. We'd have to bar the sale or distribution of Harry Potter novels and Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species to minors as religious fundamentalist parents find it unsuitable for their children. We'd have to bar the sale or distribution of right-wing conservative literature to minors as liberal parents find it unsuitable for their children, and vise-versa for liberal literature and conservative parents.
If a citizen finds something offensive, then they have every right not to watch, read, play or listen to it. And if a parent finds something unsuitable for their children, then they have the right to bar their child from reading, watching, playing or listening to it. The state should have no ability to bar Free Speech material on the basis that it's content is offensive. This is the essence of censorship.
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