A New York state Chuck E. Cheese's is on the verge of losing it's game room license because town officials think the video games at the location are too violent.
Amherst town officials failed to approve a game license for the local Chuck E. Cheese's. The game room license is necessary for the business to legally run its arcade games.
The decision to not approve the license came after one of the town board members told the board that police officers had told him old him that the Chuck E. Cheese's was one of their top trouble spots.
Council Member Shelly Schratz said she was disturbed by several "action-packed shoot-and-kill games" that were accessible to children as young as 4.
"When I see 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds playing those games, when all the time we're opening the paper and seeing those stories on youth violence, do we need those games to make money?" she said.
Other board members didn't agree:
Supervisor Satish Mohan and Council Members Mark Manna and Barry Weinstein voted in favor of the game room license. Manna was particularly vocal about the resolution's defeat.
"By what moral authority does Shelly Schratz have to go into a business and say what you have is not age-appropriate?" he said. "It's clearly Shelly sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong. I've never seen games [there] that are gory or explicit. There is more violence in a Bugs Bunny cartoon."
While it may sound like a tempest in a pizza box, the story does raise some interesting points about video game arcade ratings and government intervention.
Most of the arcades I've visited recently have ratings on the games, which always surprises me, but seems like a good idea.
Chuck E. Cheese's stirs controversy in Amherst [Buffalo News, thanks Brandon]