Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law - Kotaku Comments

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

Kugyou No Hi — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 22:40:11 MDT

I just read the law (Clickie) and it actually doesn't give any legitimacy to the ESRB. The bill in no way mentions a game's ESRB rating as being the determining factor of whether or not it will be illegal to seel a game to a minor - in fact, it pretty much rips the whole thing out of the ESRB's hands. The entire bill focuses on the content, not the rating, of the game. And there's some seriously vague terminology in there - under loose interpretation, a game that includes an openly-homosexual character would be considered harmful to minors on that basis alone. What seems more disingenuous is that the wording of this bill (among others) is pretty much ripped straight from existing obscenity laws, just tacking "minors" in there at appropriate intervals. It really does seem just to mirror JT's complaints that video games are obscene or pornographic by nature (or by definition). Oh, and there's nothing in the bill that specifically states that this is only an attempt to keep businesses from selling games to minors - according to the definition of a "Person" in the bill ("any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or other legal entity of any kind"), Jimmy's mom could run afoul of this by providing her son with Oblivion if mob rule deems that the game is unacceptable to "prevailing standards in the adult community", and if it can be proven she already knew about the content that runs against said mob standard.

Kugyou No Hi

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

SuperPope — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 07:34:34 MDT

I'm an Oklahoman, as well.Can someone explain to me why gamer seem so ticked off that laws are being passed to keep kids from buying violent games without their parents' permission? How does this do anything but place any "video game related violence" responsibility squarely on the kid's parents, where it belongs, instead of on the video games themselves? Kids under 17 can't get into R rated movies. People under 18 can't buy cigarettes or porn. People under 21 can't buy alcohol. How is this any different?

SuperPope

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

AndroidKing — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:44:31 MDT

I thought that was a picture of towlie from south park at first.

AndroidKing

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

Patrick — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:45:01 MDT

I live in Oklahoma. I really like it here. I don't really understand the unrest casued by such bills. They aren't outlawing the games but instead giving the ESRB rating lagitamacy. Whats so bad about that?

Patrick

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

Korgmeister — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:43:05 MDT

It is always a mystery to me why some people are able to understand the warnings on bleach which inform them that it is not in fact a tasty beverage and yet be unable to comprehend the equally clear warnings that some films and video games contain objectionable content.

Korgmeister

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

Altima — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:07:19 MDT

Sucks to be Oklahomian. Those Oklahomos.

Altima

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

chef — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:00:23 MDT

Geez this is stupid. Wasting money to get people to do what's supposed to happen in the first place, and yet it still won't solve the real issue. The funny thing here is that whereas retailers have gotten better about restricted sales of Mature rated games, parents have not gotten better about selecting appropriate content for their kids, then act "surprised" when they find out that "This isn't for kids!". Parents will still buy the games, their kids will still play the games, and parents will continue to blame games for their parental inadequacies until they figure out that "Mature" means "don't let your kids play this unless you know what you're doing".

chef

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

Cell9song — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:10:44 MDT

I wonder how taxpayers feel footing a bill to defend this in court, a law which is essentially a campaign advertisement for the incumbent.

Cell9song

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

dan — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 12:11:09 MDT

BTW, "constitutionality" is already a word.

dan

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

frodo — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 10:03:38 MDT

I don't understand why people think that passing laws is going to keep violent video games out of kid's hands. Parents are INCREDIBLY ignorant of video games and violence in them, and will usually let their kids play whatever they want. Even if they don't, there is always Jimmy down the street whose parents let him do whatever he wants.

frodo

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

MasaMuneCyrus — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 09:52:02 MDT

Last I checked, you can't find photo-realistic scenes of people being chopped into pieces and gratuitous sex in games. That's something you CAN find in movies -- not even NC17, but R rated movies, at that.

MasaMuneCyrus

Oklahoma Makes Violent Games Bill A Law

Antipode — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 09:15:48 MDT

OT: Best. Cosplay. Ever.

Antipode