The Seeker wrote:
What this is, is a law which prevents children from buying excessively violent games, and games with sexual content which has ALWAYS been deemed unsuitable for children. In fact, society is much more lax about it now than it was ever before. There is no way this law will end Grand Theft Auto or Resident Evil. Walmart will still carry them, there is nothing to indicate that they won't. Either way, if Walmart doesn't carry Product A which is in demand, but Futureshop does carry it, then people will buy product A from Futureshop instead. Similar to how they buy cars from car dealerships, and not from Walmart; or alcohol from liquor stores, and not from Walmart.
This response is long, but hopefully it should clear up any ambiguities over my previous statements.
Ah, but that's just it, it's not. It will APPEAR to be about preventing children from buying excessively violent games (for the record, I used to ensure that minors didn't buy inappropriate games at my store). But, as we all know, politics isn't always about doing what they appear to do. This is how I see politics and I doubt too may would disagree.
The MPAA sets the ratings for movies, not the federal gov't. The movie industry is self-regulated, just like the games industry. The punishment for allowing children in to see R-rated movies is handed out by the industry itself (ie. they don't get movies anymore) not the gov't. This is a HUGE distinction and one that should not be taken lightly.
Right now, AO is like NC-17. No one wants to carry it 'cause of the content and the fact it will stand up in court more in case they get sued. And the whole family-image thing, which ALL larger store, Futureshop and Walmart included, want to keep to a certain level. This is why they don't carry NC-17 rated films (ie. pornos). This also explains why Rockstar and Take Two went to such lengths (and spent such coin) to recall and change GTA for the SOLE reason the rating was forced to be changed from M to AO by the ESA due to the Hot Coffee scandal.
These last two paragraphs are fact, not opinion. If you don't believe me, do a search on the MPAA and how it operates as well as all those articles a few months ago about the Hot Coffee scandal and the fallout from it. To help, here's a link to the MPAA site and the ratings it has (
http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/index.htm ). Note the word "voluntary" on the top of the page.
So, what happens if you mix what I believe is some ignorant yet politically powerful people's personal beliefs with what is widely considered to be ulterior motives in decisions and actions by politicians with the facts of regulations and enforcement above to reach a federally-regulated enforcement agency with the power to set ratings and punish those who break them with a federal crime? A very serious blow on the creativity and scope of the industry, one that is not being placed on any other entertainment industry, including movies which NO ONE can argue has much more violent, graphic, and pornographic material on a regular basis in a more regularly available manner.
AO will come by A LOT easier when people who think that games are for children (remember, the whole reason they're doin' this is to protect the children since, apparently, they're the only people that play games) are the ones setting the ratings. The fallout of this, as previously explained, is that the distribution of these games will be severly limited. This is what the real issue is, as was proven by the Hot Coffee deal. The unconstitutional part comes in the limitations placed by the proposed federal regulation as the changes would severly limit the distribution due to the restrictions and consequences imposed. It's worked for movie industry for 40 years and for the games industry for the last decade and a half and continues to hold up in court.
Now, to respond to Barret. There are A LOT of stores that still don't bother limiting the sale of M to children. They will allow any 12 year-old to buy MGS3. This is the one fault of the self-regulation that needs to be corrected. The ESA has started to come down on those who do go against their ratings, but it's not severe enough. They need to do the MPAA thing and say if you sell the M games to someone under 18 without an adult present or with previous permission, you don't get games delivered anymore, period. Just like the movie industry.
Until they do that, it'll be up to the individual companies to place their own enforcement. At the EBs here, they're told they have to follow the ratings to cover their own asses, so they follow them. At the larger independant chain (Microplay), they're SUGGESTED and only follow them if they deem it necessary (so, basically, it's hardly used). This has to change to become more effective and get the lawmakers somewhat off their backs, but I think it'll only happen when they're forced to do it. They're not stupid, they know that kids from 12-17 are buying up a lot of GTA and other M-rated games and driving sales. So, no one WANTS to do it, they'll just be forced to at some point. I think they should be proactive to prevent a lot of what's happening with politicians trying to get involved, but I'm an idiot who thinks in a logical manner.
To see the real effect of this proposed legislation, Seek, you have to look at how the power can/will be used, not what it's proposed to do. For those of us who like variety in our software, this will be an extremely bad law that will force everyone to play Nintendo-like games. This may lead to Don or Sine going on a killing spree, so it might actually have the negative effect
