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joether -> RE: Violent Video Games -SCOTUS (11/2/2010 4:46:11 PM)
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I've played ALOT of video games since the 80's. When I hear the term 'violent video game' uttered by the clueless, I shake my head. Most could not define what 'violent video game' is and isn't. That is in the eye of the beholder. If I had to pick out the most violent video game I've ever played, it would have been Soldier of Fortune 2. Granted I've seen more gore in the movies, on cable, and even discribed in books.
Video games, are the latest 'boogyman', by which people used to scapegoat, why their kids aren't growing up like their parents (perfect in every way). Even though every video game published in the USA, or sold in the USA (if import), carries the ESRB logo and rating. For instances, my most recently aquired game: Fallout: New Vegas, is rated 'M'. Should anyone under 17 play the game? Not really. Should there be a law preventing? Not really.
Isn't it the job of parents to monitor what their children do? Not the state?
I've observed something truely ironic when it comes to video games. Democrats are most for regulation on this, but champion the 1st Amendment. Republicans are against it, but, their social 'programming' would dictate we should ban anything that might hurt or put children at risk. Video games, ARE, art, and as such, protected under the 1st Amendment. Dont like the game, dont play it. Its really that simple.
The violent video games, are not at all what you think. Is Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, violent? Depends on who you ask. But then, how different is it from HALO 3, in which you kill aliens? Or in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, in which the player kills just about everything found in a typical fantasy world (dragons, undead, trolls, even Darkspawn).
What do these games have in common? A challenge that pits the player's wits and reaction against puzzles and battles. Not one person, living, is ever killed. Players learn not how to fire a weapon, nor how to properly use a firearm. Nor do they learn squad tactics. Most players would try 'bunny hopping' in Airsoft or Paintball, quickly find the error in their ways. Most PUGs (Pick Up Groups), rarily know enough to work together as a team. Typically a PUG in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or its rivals Team Fortress 2, and Call of Duty (any of the series), is full of individuals and almost no teamwork. Even though, that's how the games are set up. Tom Clancy's games (Like Vegas 2 above), are team games in which players really SHOULD work at a team to win.
Most of the large companies (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc) already enforce the ESRB's rating. They try to keep the 'Rated: M' out of the hands of minors, but some do slip through the cracks. Parents not even aware of the ESRB (even though its on the front of every title, in the lower left hand corner), purchase the games to shut the little one up. Older siblings purchase the game, and their younger brother/sister play the game.
But if your going to put restrictions on one form of media, then you'll have to do it with all others. And that is the central issue before the US Supreme Court. If violence can be restricted in games, it can be restricted in books (like the Holy Bible), movies (Braveheart/Saving Private Ryan), or publications (Newsweek).
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