So after yesterday's loss, what's the score now? 0 for 9?

I was in a gamestop Saturday, and the manager actually pointed out that the game was rated M and was intended only for adults. The parent bought the game anyway. See, the problem is the more responsibility that the government takes away from parents, the less the parents feel the need to be responsibility. It's as if their brain is saying "If it wasn't OK for the kid to play, they wouldn't have it in the store."

If any of these laws actually gets passed where they make it difficult to purchase the games, then I expect to see alcohol and cigarettes pulled from the supermarkets, and I expect to see R rated movies pulled from block buster.

Kids watch DVDs, why would they make DVD's that are R rated? Someone think of the CHILDREN!

@ Ian Cooper:

With respect I think you're misunderstanding the statements people are making regarding the ratings.

You certainly have the right to "ignore" the ratings box, although I do think it provides a good summary (no substitute for actually playing the game of course) of the content.

The problem is that many parents are not interested in doing what you do, actually playing the game. I commend you for taking that step but many, MANY parents are not interested.

The violent video game control crowd latches onto this fear many parents have about violent video games turning their children into little Charles Mansons. Then they couple that with the profound ignorance of a large amount of parents regarding video game content and the ratings system to push their agenda.

Advocates, such as myself and most people here, applaud parents like you. We wish their were more parents who take the responsibility on themselves to police the content their kids view.

However, a large segment of parents do not want to be bothered to make the small amount of effort it would take to either view the game or at the very least view the rating.

On a video game, as I'm sure you know, you get a lot of information in the ratings box about the content. If parents would just take the responsibility to read that box and make informed decisions about their child and the content we wouldn't have a problem.

The issue is that a lot of people simply don't want that responsibility, they want it to be a criminal or civil crime to sell M rated games to kids. No responsibility on the parents at all. Just make it illegal to sell the game.

In fact it is the video game critics that want to take away your freedom to buy what you want for your kids.

I think mogbert's issue was that their is an excellent chance that this parent who bought the game anyway would cry about the content and argue that the game should not be sold to kids. Cleverly "forgetting" that it was himself or herself who didn't want the responsibility.

I think the "dumb" comments are meant to refer to those parents who ignore the label, buy the game, then act horrified that little Billy or Suzy was playing such a bad video game.

Jack could be a tool for Anti-Christ. He uses jack to waste people's money and make as many as possible suffer. All the world problems are the result of Anti-Christ having "fun" and poor Satin has to clean up Anti-Christs messes. That could be a religious reason.

While we appreciate the mayor’s concern over the truly horrifying material in question…

What material are they specifically discussing as horrifying ?? or is this a throw away 'all games are evil' comment?

At least the point he's making is sensible even if his wording is fueling the misconceptions.
baby steps, we'll get there in the end.

It's good to see someone in the mainstream media pointing out several things that we have observed here before.

1. The difficulty in enforcement.
As the writer says, how is the state going to enforce this law? Station a police officer at every store that sells video games, checking the purchases and IDs of every single person who buys a game?

2. Pursuing laws because it is safer than not doing so.
"absolutely a battle that the mayor feels he should take on." Here is the problem. Even if the mayor was smart enough to see that complete and utter failure of every single other law, including several worded EXACTLY like this, he still can't put it aside. That lets any political rival step in and say "This man doesn't care about your kids!". No matter how rationally it can be explained, about saving the taxpayers money on a lost cause law, about finding and curbing the real causes of youth violence, about the fact that video games do not cause violence, there will always be some shrill alarmist with an agenda to push this issue.

I do not like however, his description of violent games: "games that allow kids to “virtually” beat up prostitutes or take a sledgehammer to the head of an enemy"

The games allow your character to do these actions. If the games contain these actions, kids should not have them in the first place. If parents were a little more responsible, willing to learn and observant, kids WOULDN'T have them! Don't blame the video games if you're too dumb to read the ratings label, or ignore it.

Lets get that radio interview up. :)

To be sure, there are some truly "horrifying" games, and they really shouldn't be played by kids. And usually those games are intended for adults. But that is up to the parents to decide and enforce, not the government and not the stores.

Though, I do applaud stores that require an adult to be present when a minor is purchasing an M rated game. But that should only be store policy, not an actual law.

Once again a poltician does not bother to check out exactly why the bill he intends to pass is going to fail and bring financial loss to the state and the taxpayers. The bill has the same text that rendered the other states' bills unconstitutional in federal court. The ESA will come to this fight well-armed with precedent. When they win, it will cost the state dearly.

A responsible and capable politician would research this and stop it before it happens. It seems no one will, though.

@Robert

But that's what my state is good at doing, haplessly spending money. The Big Dig has been ongoing since 1982, it's STILL not done.

I won't continue, I'll just get angry and start bashing.

@Ian Cooper -

I completely agree that you should be responsible for your children. But when some kids go out and murder a bunch of their class mates, suddenly the parents aren't so willing to take responsibility... and that's when they blame the ratings and the content, etc. Thats how this whole damn debate started!

...The Boston Herald did the smart thing? Wow, they're barely one step above tabloids.

3 cheers for the Boston Herald!

It is ironic to see the Herald being the paper that manages to find the right angle on this story, given how much of a rag it is generally regarded around here. Thankfully, I'm confident that the reps of the local development scene from Boston Post Mortem who will be attending the hearing (some of whom will be speaking) will well represent the economic strength and moral rectitude of the industry.

The real thing I'm trying to remind people of here is this:

There is no link - no link whatsoever - between video games and real life violence. No study has ever been able to show a connection. When we speak about violent videogames as if they're a force for harm we're undermining our own position.

Until it's shown that violent videogames cause real life violence, there should be no problem in allowing children to play violent games - if the parent thinks the kid can handle it. It's the parent's responsibility, and no ratings board is competent enough to take that responsibility away from the parent. We can have ratings and we can have bans, but neither is anywhere near as good as a parent making responsible choices based on his intimate knowledge of his child. After all, if a parent, who lives with a child 24/7, can't be trusted to make the right decision, what makes us think that a court or a ratings board (who have never even seen the child in question) can?

So let's dispense with the "Parents who buy 'M'-rated games for their kids are dumb" talk. I bought Assassin's Creed for me, not for my 5 year-old daughter, but on occasion I do let her play the non-violent parts - I'm not dumb - in fact I have an IQ somewhere near 140 - hardly 'dumb'. I let my daughter play non-violent parts of violent videogames because I judge that she can handle the parts I let her play (the jumping from building to building parts). Now this is a game that the powers that be would have BANNED me from letting my daughter play. Apparently they don't think that I have the ability to safeguard my daughter, so they would rather do it for me by restricting the entire game - both the violent parts and the non-violent parts. They don't have the control I have to discriminate, so they would block everything - the murder and the violence, but ALSO the game's harmless running, climbing, jumping and horse-riding that is really cool and that can't do a kid any harm at all.

I'm just glad that right now I'm the one with the responsibility, because if it ever gets taken away my daughter will be LESS SAFE than she is now because someone who doesn't know her will be judging what she should be exposed to. That is an inherently dangerous situation because it takes responsibility away from the people who need to be responsible - and that CAN lead to real problems. I mean just look at alcohol - the drug's defining characteristic is that it lowers a person's sense of responsibility. With reduced sense of responsibility, people behave irresponsibly - that's a simple truism. You take away all responsibility and you are left with a person's emotions - rage, anger, etc.. With that you get parental abuse, spousal abuse, gambling problems - yet Mayor Menino wants to get a law that moves towards lowered responsibility. I mean am I the only one who sees how wacky that is?

A big problem in the world today is that people don't want to feel responsible for their actions and for their kids. I really don't think it would be a good idea to support that attitude with legislation that says "Hey, it's okay - we'll do it for you. You don't need to be responsible anymore". That's a recipe for more problems if ever I saw one.

Ian Cooper said:
A big problem in the world today is that people don’t want to feel responsible for their actions and for their kids

totally agree, however a second big problem that I often forget is that most people dont bother to educate themselves on an issue. Any damn issue. They listen to Fox or see JT on TV and think, 'hey they are on tv, they must know what they are talking about.'
I read this and many other sites and therefore understand the issues at hand and the complexity not just of the issues, but the language mindset and politics that motivate it.

Most people dont. they think games are for kids so COD4, GTA or Manhunt is terrible, whilst they sit back and watch Hostel. Hey an 18 rated DVD is for adults, but ALL games are for kids.
Mindless Sheep mentality that permiates our society; reliant on sensationalised journalism for their information without thought of checking the facts.

As the Internet generation grows up ( im 33yo now ) and takes over the reigns from these fossils, hopefully whilst the majority may still be dumb, they can be dumb and informed :p

Here's the line it's entirety:

While we appreciate the mayor’s concern over the truly horrifying material in question - games that allow kids to 'virtually' beat up prostitutes or take a sledgehammer to the head of an enemy - the idea has more than a few holes."

As I've confessed before, I'm a Ms. Pac-Man kinda guy, so I'll have to let the young'uns speak on this.

Some games let you do incredibly terrible things (virtually), or depict violence and sex to a degree where many parents would not be comfortable with thier children playing them. The editorial's use of the phrase "horrifying material" does have some merit. But as has been already said several times, it is the parent's choice, not the government's, to allow or deny thier children that game.

I do like stores that have a policy for informing parents of the content of the game before selling it. But I see nothing wrong with a parent choosing to buy the game anyway. It doesn't make them bad parents, or ignorant. And I don't think anyone here has said otherwise, either.

And damn near putting me to sleep after having listened to it.

Although they do clown Jack more than once or twice.

He goes, " . . . GTA Vice City." They go "Great game! Great game! Love that game."

Anybody else catch Thompson dissing Spitzer at the very end?

Jack kinds reminds me of The Little Engine that Could. But in his version the engine doesn't successfully crest the mountain. Rather, it's completely derailed and laying on its side beside the tracks, but still going, "I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can." Which, I guess, makes it the The Little Engine that Couldn't.

Jack Thompson quote from the radio show:

"I am a Christian, So I believe everyone is bad".

What a fucking retard.

Wow what a fucking hypocrite. He goes on and on about his one child doing stings at best buy, and treats it like the best evidence out there.

Then a caller mentions how him and all him friends from high school who played games like Halo and GTA have families and good jobs, and don't go out and kill people.

To this Jack tells the caller that he and his friends are not a reliable statistic. And says that it is different if you consider the whole universe of people.

What a fucking retard.

In fact the entire interview is a joke. Especially the 'spaz' guy who works for the radio show. He says that he thinks they should limit games, but then goes on to say he is afraid it might affect movies and books. To this I say Fuck You Spaz!

What a dick.

When Jack's unemployed, he'll probably get a new job at EB games or some shit. Wouldn't that be so fucking ironic?!

Jack Thompson: Destroying the credibility of morning talk shows that let him blatently lie on their show, one show at a time.

the problem really is that with the exception of people like us who actually know what the reports say, and have done the checking up on jacks "facts" he actually does sound credible, this is why he often still gets calls to do these shows are speak to politicians, is because the average masses don't realise that he's lying to them

he only hurts the morning shows credibility if the average listener of said show know and care that he is lying to them

See people, this is why I say that the industry needs to threaten anyone who dares to put Thompson on the air without counter point. The man was able to lie at will WITHOUT any counter at all cause the Hosts were retarded and didn't do any research on the man they were hosting.

Thats the whole point I make, Over and OVER again. If these people are told, and warned, that any liable or slander he spews that will be held accountable for, maybe, just maybe, they'd knock it off.

Now, you all fight with me about it every time I bring it up, but here, in this 24 minutes of BULLSHIT, is proof posisitive of what I've said all along.

Unless media is held accountable, real debate does not occur. It's just jack getting to spout his bullshit un challanged by anyone with any facts or insight.

The industry has sat back and used the "Ignore him and he will go away method" for years. Guess what. IT DIDN'T WORK!!!

The John Bruce interview is stupid. Seriously. JT blames the failure of the Louisiana bill because the industry threatened to pull all their operations out of the state.

Stupid.

@beardogg-x

it doesn't really matter. as long as it sounds like he's in the right, he'll use it. he's been making that claim since they wouldn't give him control of the bill in LA

im gana ask again what is it that these ppl wana do exactly?? the games has ratings and the stores must inforce it just like theaters and porn spots and if one of those get caught by secret shopers there will be a fine.. what more can they do?? or wana do??

Does anybody else think he looks like Jabba-da-Hut (misspelling intended) in that pic? O_o

@ Aliasalpha

I've never heard anything like that from Rush Limbaugh, I have heard that from Shawn Hannady though.