Malik
(5/4/05) Government
Gets Game With
how no one seems to know how to properly gauge games and their
effects on children...ok, no one who has a voice, which means we
geeks who have plenty of firsthand experience are out of the loop,
despite how this directly effects us...the state of Illinois has stepped
in with their own take on game ratings. As
I found on Gamespot,
a bill in Illinois (know oh so cutely as the "Safe Games
Illinois Act") is set to help that state make a real nightmare
for the game industry and the geeks who live within it's borders.
Basically, this new bill is worded is really confusing language
about what defines an "evil" game. It includes some things
such as the inclusion of "mutilation" and
"maiming" as something that would get the highest age
restriction. However, without including further definitions, we
could see some interesting bullshit in Illinois. Ever
think of a child-safe game like Super Mario Bros? I'm talking
old-school. This is a game that I promise I'll be putting into the
hands of my kids, if I ever have the fortune/misfortune to have any.
This is a very friendly game that includes Mario mutilating and
maiming goombas, troopas (koopas), etc. Mario is not a nice man, in
the sense of doing any of these naughty activities. Hell, he ends it
all off by taking some 'shrooms. In
all reality, this is not how I see things, but it is easily how some
voted official, who probably doesn't know a XBox from a GCN from a
NES. I'm not trying to stereotype, but on average, the vast majority
of politicians don't know much about video games (it's not exactly a
job or hobby that will get them far in their careers). I've seen too
many non-gamers with a voice (usually politicians or dumbass
lawyers) try to impose their wills upon a situation they don't
understand. Anyway,
in reality, the best solution is for parents to try watching their
kids, understanding their kids, and talking with (not "to"
and not "at") their kids. The last thing we need to see is
further fire about how evil games are, how those unrelated need to
solve the "problem", how games "cause" problems,
and all of the legal nightmares that will be falling down around how
this bill will, most likely, be deemed unconstitutional. All that
this "solution" will cause is further stresses and
headaches for the poor people who have to deal directly with this
confusion; the game clerks. Malik
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