Rep. Baca Introduces Legislation to Make Violent Video Games Sold With Health Warning

[Thermopylae_480]

I'm getting kind of tired of all this socialist nanny state crap. People need to learn how to take responsibility for their own lives and mistakes without governments holding their hand.

[DaedalusHelios]

Censorship is usually BS.

But I still think Psych evals should be as common as physicals just to make sure nobody is losing their grip on reality to stop it before it gets too late. I think video games and movies have nothing to do with these conditions. If your child is crazy enough to kill people over a videogame, that child was crazy before playing the videogame.

[farlex85]

I saw an article in the paper the other day about a 17 year old kid who killed his parents allegedly for not allowing him to play Halo 3.

[DaedalusHelios]

Originally Posted by farlex85

I saw an article in the paper the other day about a 17 year old kid who killed his parents allegedly for not allowing him to play Halo 3.

If he would have had a psych eval they probably would have stopped that ahead of time.

And of course let him play Halo 3.

[amd64skater]

it doesnt matter how many labels they put on video games. when i was waiting in line for gta4 kids were trying to get them and gamestop wouldnt let them get it. but on the other hand i saw parents standing in line with their 7 year old so they can get the game on release and the guys at the counter told them how violent the game was they didnt care. so labels dont matter what they should have done was arrest the parents that clearly bought the game for them for contributing to a minor and see how many parents kinda get the hint

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by lemonadesoda

What on earth is all this whining about? They just put a label on it, a warning label.

You can still go out and buy the game. You can also choose not to read the label. What a lot of hot air about nothing.

Because it isnt just a label. its a bigger idea.....what happens if you take one cookie from the cookie jar? hm? you try to get another. what happens when youre 6 and you get sent to bed at 7:30 every night? after a year or 2 you beg for 8 or 8:30 it will start with a sticker and after that BS passes it will become easier and easier to pass more and more restrictive bills. If video games are ever going to get violent it will because of these same people trying hard so their not..the more restrictions the more pissed gamers will get.

[The Witcher]

Originally Posted by farlex85

I saw an article in the paper the other day about a 17 year old kid who killed his parents allegedly for not allowing him to play Halo 3.

Yeah, I remember that story, he killed his mom because they hid the Xbox (or halo 3) for a whole year and when he knew that his parents did that he decided to kill them.

He approached his parents and told them to close their eyes because he was going to give them a present, when they did that he pulled a pistol from the back of his pants and shot them point blank in the head, his mom fell dead right away then he putted the pistol in his father hand to make it as if the father did it and commit suicide but somehow the father survived the ordeal and told the police everything.

The bottom line is that the kid was a crazy teen, games didn't kill his mom, he did it.

[crazy pyro]

Originally Posted by alexp999

It may be a bit of a nanny state here in the UK, with all our Health and Safety BS, but at least we dont (yet) have any problems of games being banned.

Mind you I think everyone is in agreement, that what with the internet, if you want to play a banned game, you will, lol.

GTA Liberty city stories on the PSP got temporarily banned by the BBFC a few years ago I think, read something about it in the guardian tech section.
I'm disgusted at the possibility that games may begin being censored though, seems significantly like a dystopia to me, there's enough cr*p wrong with the UK as it is.
Ref Solaris' post, if you restrict something more and more people will be driven underground more and more, this will then lead to the violence in the games being greater and unregulated.
Honestly I believe you do benefit from playing games (well, online ones anyway) since you will undoubtedly join communities and become friends of sorts with people, hell I met Ben Clarke playing TF2 and I'm now hosting a podcast with him and another guy we met who's one of the community admins, I also wouldn't have even thought about buying my desktop if I hadn't needed some decent hardware to run games on, it's now opened up a bunch of possibilities for me like investigating linux and widening my knowledge of computers in general.

[DaedalusHelios]

This is going to go in a political direction if we don't control this thread early on...... mods??? Are we now allowed to go in a political direction?

Well, here we go again......

Patriot Acts 1 and 2 has already taken away much of our freedoms to begin with in the US. This democrat is clearly trying to appease the religous groups with this piece of legislation to earn him votes. Lets not make the same mistakes again with what we are allowed to buy aswell.

Both the republicans and the democrats should quit taking rights away and start giving them back. Both parties are to blame really. Patriot acts were made out of fear and abuse of power and the same with legislation on who can buy certain videogames. Its sad when special interest groups have our country in their pockets.

[FordGT90Concept]

Originally Posted by alexp999

Has their ever been a film that never made it to classification? wtf is the differnce?

There's a massive network for distributing X rated films while there is next to no network for distributing Ao rated games. I know most stores refuse to carry either (Walmart, Gamestop, etc.). There's only like 25 Ao games ever released and they are all on PC because Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo do not allow Ao games on their consoles.

Originally Posted by newconroer

And we'd probably be a better world because of it. Video games do nothing to further humans in any positive way.

They relieve stress which is what all good entertainment does. Excessive stress has been proven to be extremely detrimental to health (causing everything from headaches and high blood pressure to heart attacks).

Originally Posted by The Witcher

Yeah, I remember that story, he killed his mom because they hid the Xbox (or halo 3) for a whole year and when he knew that his parents did that he decided to kill them.

He approached his parents and told them to close their eyes because he was going to give them a present, when they did that he pulled a pistol from the back of his pants and shot them point blank in the head, his mom fell dead right away then he putted the pistol in his father hand to make it as if the father did it and commit suicide but somehow the father survived the ordeal and told the police everything.

The bottom line is that the kid was a crazy teen, games didn't kill his mom, he did it.

Exactly. He got pushed over the limit and burst. I would bet on the fact that his parents are probably equally violent. Monkey see, monkey do.

Originally Posted by DaedalusHelios

Patriot Acts 1 and 2 has already taken away much of our freedoms to begin with in the US. This democrat is clearly trying to appease the religous groups with this piece of legislation to earn him votes. Lets not make the same mistakes again with what we are allowed to buy aswell.

Both the republicans and the democrats should quit taking rights away and start giving them back. Both parties are to blame really. Patriot acts were made out of fear and abuse of power and the same with legislation on who can buy certain videogames. Its sad when special interest groups have our country in their pockets.

Don't have anyone call you from outside the country then as those are still the only communications they can legally intercept. If they discover that it is an American that called out, they have to discontinue their activities. As far as I'm concerned, the PATRIOT Act worked--we haven't been attacked again. At least protecting citizens from foreign threats is actually a job the federal government has. Yes, it could be done better but it has helped in keeping us (citizens) safe.

[Random Murderer]

wow. these last two posts took a turn for the worst.
this has nothing to do with republicans, democrats, or the patriot acts, this rather has to do with people pointing the finger at everything but the real source of the problem. in the last two posts, you have become as bad as the politicians supporting this bill. rather than point the finger at the parents(the real source), they point it at the games.

EDIT:
in the US, we have freedom of press(which is what video games fall under), yet we still have rampant censorship. i do agree with not selling certain games to the young and impressionable, but censorship has gotten out of hand as of late. to not allow the game to be sold at all or to have certain content removed is against our bill of rights, and i feel like i'm the only one that realizes this.

[Nelson2011]

This made me lol

makes me think back to MGS... "Snake! if that kid bothers you again hit the X button to knock the crap out of him!" at least counter strike doesn't let you set the iron sights... lol

[DaedalusHelios]

Originally Posted by FordGT90Concept

Don't have anyone call you from outside the country then as those are still the only communications they can legally intercept. If they discover that it is an American that called out, they have to discontinue their activities. As far as I'm concerned, the PATRIOT Act worked--we haven't been attacked again. At least protecting citizens from foreign threats is actually a job the federal government has. Yes, it could be done better but it has helped in keeping us (citizens) safe.

They are allowed to listen in on any phone calls and read all electronic data(emails and IM included) that they want, simply by calling it a "national security issue". Before the patriot act 1 it required a court order signed by a judge.

I started eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches since 9/11 and we haven't been attacked again yet. But it doesn't mean me doing so prevented another attack if you get the concept.

[Triprift]

Originally Posted by Thermopylae_480

I'm getting kind of tired of all this socialist nanny state crap. People need to learn how to take responsibility for their own lives and mistakes without governments holding their hand.

I coudnt agree more its even worse here with the amount of games we get banned and the wonderful draconion net filter we got to look forward to some time this year.

[DaedalusHelios]

Originally Posted by Triprift

I coudnt agree more its even worse here with the amount of games we get banned and the wonderful draconion net filter we got to look forward to some time this year.

I was reading about that. Its scary filtering the net because people could take bribes to throttle connections to certain sites and make blackouts to others for political or financial gain.

[FordGT90Concept]

Originally Posted by DaedalusHelios

They are allowed to listen in on any phone calls and read all electronic data(emails and IM included) that they want, simply by calling it a "national security issue". Before the patriot act 1 it required a court order signed by a judge.

So you trust the judges? A lot of the judges I've seen are no better than those calling the shots in the first place. So, what's the difference? If you are subject to unlawful search and/or seizure, sue the government. That's how it works.

Originally Posted by Triprift

I coudnt agree more its even worse here with the amount of games we get banned and the wonderful draconion net filter we got to look forward to some time this year.

Almost sounds as bad as China.

[DaedalusHelios]

Originally Posted by FordGT90Concept

So you trust the judges? A lot of the judges I've seen are no better than those calling the shots in the first place. So, what's the difference? If you are subject to unlawful search and/or seizure, sue the government. That's how it works.

Judges are in their position for a reason. Being a judge is harder and comes under more scrutiny than the department of Homeland Security. There is an army of evidence to back that up.

When you fear an outside threat you shouldn't hand over any freedoms to the people in charge because that is weak minded.

But this thread is about video games legislation. Fearing your children will do bad things when introduced to the stress of a simulated world really makes you wonder....... what will these same kids do under greater stress that we find in the real world?

Its the parents duty to make sure the child is mentally prepared to take on the real world. Most parents barely talk to their children so when serious issues come up a small percentage of kids freak out... its more than video games, its the real world that threatens them much more.

[JC316]

Wow, that is a crock. Until they PROVE that games can cause health issues, there is no way they should be allowed to do this.

[DaedalusHelios]

Originally Posted by JC316

Wow, that is a crock. Until they PROVE that games can cause health issues, there is no way they should be allowed to do this.

I agree.

[FordGT90Concept]

Originally Posted by DaedalusHelios

When you fear an outside threat you shouldn't hand over any freedoms to the people in charge because that is weak minded.

Often, if there is a threat, you find out about it hours before it happens (if you're lucky). You don't have time to wait for a judge to approve it before you have to act. The PATRIOT Act grants the ability to act but that doesn't mean they get immunity for their actions. They may be called upon to answer to their decision should it be a poor one. As such, we aren't handing over freedoms to anyone, we're just going to wait until after it happened to decide if it was a just or unjust decision.

This is one of those Democratic/Republican things. Sorry I value my life more than being randomly checked for being a terrorist. Just because I am an American doesn't mean I'm not a terrorist. Considering the Supreme Court hasn't thrown it out as unconstitutional, look at it as a necessary evil. We'll never agree on this issue.

[Rebo&Zooty]

this guys name fits baca=baka=idiot

if violance in games=violance in real life then i been missing out on something, been playing violant games since computer/consol games first appeared and i have yet to shoot anybody.....ok ok, once but that was with a .22 pelet gun and he was being an ass.....

these people all need to be shiped someplace they can start a country to their standerds in other words, no violance, no sex, no obscene language/gestures/thoughts........


BAKA!!!!

[crazy pyro]

That country would last what, twenty years and then they'd all be dead.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by FordGT90Concept

They relieve stress which is what all good entertainment does. Excessive stress has been proven to be extremely detrimental to health (causing everything from headaches and high blood pressure to heart attacks).

Depends. Those people who wake up to Counter-Strike, spend 3:00 in the morning on WoW aren't exactly stress-busting.

[crazy pyro]

They're taking it too far sure but that doesn't mean that in smaller doses like an hour or two every night it's harmful.