Rated 'M' for $2,000 Fine - La. Senate to Debate on Video Game Sales Ban |
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Representative Roy Burrell of the Louisiana Senate claims that violent video games can be a "training ground" for violence in real life. Burrell inspired other representatives to unanimously agree with him. The La. Senate has proceeded to assemble several ways to prevent the distribution of mentally-damaging video games by creating a bill in question.The bill will fine any game store clerk who distributes violent games to minors that are younger than 18 years old. The fine can range anywhere from $100 to $2,000 USD. Harmful games are determined by taking three factors into consideration:
-An average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the video or computer game, taken as a whole, appeals to the minorÂ’s morbid interest in violence;
-a game depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors; or
-a game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
The bill has already been approved by the House of Representatives with an 102-0 vote. Currently, the La. Senate is still waiting to hear from the U.S. Senate. By looking at the results so far, it looks as if the bill will be made into a law.
During a conference to lobby the bill to the Senate Judiciary A Committee, Burrell showed graphic footage of Grand Theft Auto. The footage involved several police men being chain-sawed to death, sexual activity in a car, and dead hookers. “There are a lot of other scenes in the video we chose not to show in public,” Burrell told the committee.
Many people spoke out against the bill. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) claimed that the bill invaded First Amendment rights. New Orleans attorney William Rittenburg said that the guidelines of determining a violent video game were too vague.
Despite the criticism, things are looking up for House Bill 1381. Will Louisiana set an example for the rest of the world?
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Comments [refresh]
i agree with the law but why age 18? and not 17...
i'm pretty sure rated R movies and parental advisory cds are just as "mind damaging"
According to Gamespot, it is LOUISIANA that is the location of this bill. (LA the state, not LA the city) And apparently is it Jack Thompson pushing for it.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2006/05/31/news_6152090.html?part=rss&tag=gs_&subj=6152090
Doesn't matter who. Don't pass it. D:
who the ***** can buy an M rated game anyway?
i dont' know of any stores that will sell them to me.
I agree that M-rated games should not be sold to minors, but those 'factors' seem too ambiguous to me.
-a game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
what gameactually has that? RPG's I guess have literary elements, lots of reading... Um, yeah...
They don't even mention specifically M-Rated Games. If they wanted, they could fine a minor for buying Mario. I mean, damn, that Italian plumber jumps on people's heads! That definately appeals to my morbid interest in violence!
Not Los Angeles. Los Angeles doesn't have a Senate... the only Senate in California is in Sacramento.
what in the world is this all about. why would somebody pass a law like this. its pretty stupid. if i want to buy a game it is my choise on what ever i want. it is my disision to buy the mand distroying game. im under 18 but i play grand theft auto and i dont want to go and kill somebody.
these *****s are trying to ***** us up in our conquest tio *****ing women in the mouth why the ***** would those *****s do that dumb*****s are justing building themselves a *****ing hole is all that i *****ing see right here so they can just go eat ***** and die and i will come on their graves because this is bull***** and some*****s and then sum and im still smoking what?
im really sorry to all the next generation of young gamers cuz all kinds of laws are gonna be springing up like this pretty soon
Am i out of the norm here? Doesnt this seem absurb? Yes teenagers have a morbid attraction to violence, its in their developmental nature. Without this morbid attaction our moral decisions would be limited and even more unstable than they are now due to the lack in parenting in this busy world.
My response to each of these:
1.An average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the video or computer game, taken as a whole, appeals to the minor’s morbid interest in violence.
-Is this a religious community? Define your contemporary community. Many of the people in that such community would be lacking the understanding and knowlege to explain and differenciate video games. Yes their is more violence in video games now, but what bout crime rates? Have they risen? Have they taken note of since the release of Doom that there has been a drastic decrease in gun related violence over the years? As peoples stress mechinisms weaken, games will become more violent to cope. There are abnormalities that respond differently or will use this as a scape goat. But through a non biased psychological reading of those people will show the problem is deeper tahn just a video game.
2)a game depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors
-as stated in the first one, having crime prevail in a virtual world is a coping mechnism/release from actualy acting on these tendencies. but abnormalities will occur due to deeper psychological problems.
3)a game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
-Ah i love this one, if it wasnt for games as a whole, I wouldnt have such an intest in philosophy, psychological development, reading, research, and even any incling to further my schooling.
Though im probably not of the norm, but i disagree with their reasoning for such acts. This kindof reminds me of how science and certain breakthroughs were understood as witchcraft due to populace being ill informed causing fear and confusion. Yes you can connect games to any thing criminal but its because of versitility. There are more connections to violent games decreasing criminal activity than true connections outside of mostly biased psychological studies and minors using games as a scapegoat. Like the saying kids will be kids, and can and will use the best thought of excuse to try and put the blame away fromthemselves.
these kinds of laws are stupid, thankfully i live in Canada.
But violent games help me relive stress, they dont make me wanna kill sumone. maybe if someone stole my games, then i wud kill them, but other than that, i have never had any game related violence.
they have to blame everything on the games, how about blame the horrrible parents they have, those guys have nothing else to do except complain, tards
Parents need to stop letting their kids go places and stop giving them *****ing money. Beat the ***** out of them every now and then, too.
i guess ill set the example when the law gets passed by buying like 20 copies of whatevere new game and sell it to minors for the same price. a nonprofit organization : )
Matt makes the stupidest mistake imaginable: he confuses 'LA sanate' with 'Los Angeles senate'. What boggles the mind is that he actually thought cities have their own senates. It's amazing. Then when I point out how he's an imbecile and (most likely) the product of American public schools he deletes my post. What a world.
I still like the last sentence of the article, where the mistake still remains. The Louisiana state senate is one the considering the bill but the last sentence still says California, and Matt's tiny little brain thinks that if the bill passes it'll set precedence for the rest of the world....as if the laws of America actually apply anywhere else or are actually considered for adoption by foreign governments....because America's laws are all perfect and the world must follow our lead. Bullsh*t.
Matt, please stop writing, please don't breed, and actually read what you report, you philistine.
I also like the double standard: QJ guidelines say "comments containing excesive profanity...will be deleted" but post number 8 still remains, but my constructive post was deleted because it points out Matt's stupidity. Matt, forgive what I said. Please continue your writing, you're a born comedian. Every time I imagine you saying "I think" in your head it makes me laugh in hysterics.
I would not consider to buy a ps3 without " Vibration features" ,cause having vibration is IMPORTANT TO THE GAMERS.A lot of game need vibration features to be fun to play with , it brings gamers feel the responds from the game. I was wondering why in "WII" system , they can have their contraller with both technology in it but why just sony can't make it. I will move to others game machine if ps3 really did not put the "Vibration" features in thier controller. i been supporting ps product in this couple of years when the decision came out it really make me feel disappointed about the controller. By the way i am from (Malaysia). i think sony will lose a lot of business because of that .
If a million people play a game and one of them kills somone is it the fault of the game or the fact that 1 in a million people are psycopaths.
Ive played violent games and watched violent movies all M rated and it has had no affect on me. Its not so bad if they ban certain people from buying these games because they will probably get their hands on it eventually but when thes idiots start restricting game content that realy pisses me off.
These people should f*ck off and stick to what they know about as clearly they dont understand that the basic idea of games is fun and not killing simulators as theyve been labled before.
Here is the scray part;
The bill has already been approved by the House of Representatives with an 102-0 vote.
Noone objected??? You got to be kidding me, were the ones that were to vote aganst it playing video games??
Also, if the basic thing is not having games that are educational, didn't they just say that these violent video games were training grounds for murder? So they are educational. Aren't they, even in their terms.
I enjoy reading your comments. I also enjoy how you noticed your original post was deleted. It is nice to see users checking back on articles they have already read. Keep pointing out people's petty errors. Who knows, you may end up one day destroying a whole religious group, just as Hitler did.
Godwin's Law
Honestly though..Why bother taking notice? Every blogger here gets criticized.
What a bunch of crabby b****es with sand in their vaginas. Does anyone else think these rules are too vague? What if said minor doesn't have a morbid interest in violence? And as for the part that says "a game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors:" doesn't that apply to all M-rated titles that aren't titled "Extreme Louvre Adventure Feat. the Mona Lisa?" And how does one define an "average person?" These people need to set some more solid rules before trying to make this law, if at all. If they start fining the minors that attempt to purchase the M-rated games, that's when I'll really get ticked.
bye bye fun games for that state? or i guess just that state for a while... itll spread, i dont think that can carry on over to canada
anyone who has seen the "Bowling for Columbine" documentary will know why
i also find that i get wayy more violent after playing and e rated game