Violence in Video Games (AKA the "Ignore Jack Thompson" Post)

"We do this for film, alcohol, cigarettes, and other forms of "adult" entertainment, right?"

Sorry, but wrong.  

While you’re right on with the alcohol and cigarettes, I dare/bet/wager/challange you to find me a federal law limiting the access of anyone to a movie regardless of it’s rating.  And I say federal just because I’m not entirely sure about on the state level but I have a PRETTY good feeling I’m right their was well.

RE: "I worked for a movie theater owned by one of top 10 theater chains in America.  The regulation of rated R movies is left up the the theaters themselves.  I worked there for some time and saw many fluctuations regarding this inforcement."

Interesting… I wasn’t aware that this wasn’t required. Learn something every day! Is there an organization for the theater industry that promotes/regulates enforcement of these ratings standards? Sort of like an ESRB, but for film?

I think the ESRB needs to do a major PR campaign to get the word out. Something better than those easy to tune out commercials with Tiger "Snore" Woods. The ads they are doing with Penny Arcade are a good start but I have yet to see a single one in the wild. Probably because they are all in gaming mags which I and many parents don’t read. They need to do some TV commercials and air them during prime time shows. Sure this is expensive but it will get the word out better than only airing the ads on G4TV and during Saturday morning cartoons. The ads need to be aired during the times that the people who need to see them are going to be watching.

Ozymandius – I’ve read that 95% of stores do check for ID on the purchase of Mature rated games – just like they do movies and CDs that are for adults.

However, the First Ammendment means that these stores are not required to do so by law.  

The laws against controlled substances like cigarettes, alcohol, and pornography are not a correct form of comparison.  The difference being that there are scientific studies that show that these substances have a harmful impact on anyone who uses them regardless of age.  

The same cannot be said of video games, though right-wing groups (and Democrats attempting to appear more family-friendly) are using the issue as political currency and coming up with illegitimate studies, if you actually research the findings of psychiatrists (the ones that are peer-reviewed STUDIES and not false summations of those studies like those of Dr. Walsh – he should really be Mr. Walsh IMO) then what you will find in all of these studies (I read about ten of them for a paper last semester – remember these are actual PEER-REVIEWED STUDIES by doctors) is that violent video games cause two things:

1. Short-term arousal (excitement) – This is the expected result. It is no where near as severe as the excitement and adrenaline that people get when experiencing real violence like a car accident, and in adult subjects it is very much the same thing you get when watching a movie.  The arousal level is similar in adults who play the same games.

2. Children model behavior in their play, however, good children never do so in a way that could hurt another child. For instance (and this isn’t an actual study because it’s cruel – but these are what the results of that study would show in this example), you might let two 8 year olds play Devil May Cry for an hour. Afterwards, we put them in a room with a bunch of plastic guns, nerf bats, and heavy metal (but dull) swords. While the children might show an interest in the metal swords and even swing them at "stuff", only children with larger problems would swing the large metal swords at one another, all of the other children would model the behavior but in ways that do not hurt each other.

With pyschological studies, we go into a lot of corrolation of different factors and studying different groups with different stimuli,  etc. – but what it all comes down to – that summary – it’s kind of a no-brainer because it was true when we were kids and it remains true. ALL children are affected by violent media in that they get excited and scared by it (like adults do) and in that they then model that behavior in their play, however only kids who have other problems would ever exhibit violent behavior in their play no matter how violent the source material.

My friends and I used to watch Friday the 13th movies and then play Freddy Kruger. . . no one EVER got hurt. That’s anecdotal, I know. . . but I’m bringing home the point that wasn’t an anecdote.

There is a bunch of crap out there on videogames and it sucks becuase they are a scapegoat. What children need are really good role models. . . parents are ALWAYS a chief role model. Honestly, most people who have problems with relationships, drinking, and/or legal problems have them because their parents had them and provided a terrible model for behavior.

Dante – a wise-cracking, womanizing monster hunter – would actually be a MUCH better role model than many kids are exposed to.

While working with Rogers Video (Canada’s version and only competitor to Blockbuster in the north) I witnessed just this. One specific incident stands out with two chldren, both younger than ten years old. They came in with two women, I believe a mother and and an aunt. I cannot remember which one said what, but they allowed the two children to buy whatever used game they want. Of course they both picked out a [M]ature rated game (Hitmen or something). The one woman took it, looked at it, and put it on the counter. Realizing what was going on I pointed out that this was a game meant for adults 18 and older. The other woman attempted to tell the children to pick out a different game, but was cut off by the other. She shrugged it off as nonsense and told me to ring it through.

Wouldn’t it be great if all retailers that sold "Adult" material (explicit cds, R rated movies, etc.) had sort of a library/Id card system supplied by the ratings administration. Only children would be required to use it, and a parent would be required to set it up.

The card would basically be an age verification (Bool(Under18?)), and allowance certificate. When faced with the decision to allow/disallow their children to purchase "Adult" fare, the HOPE would be they would select no. Anytime a child tries to purchase an "Adult" product the retailer would be obligated to scan said card.

Obviously this requires all retailers in the RSA to agree to use a system like this, and as stated it does have some flaws, but it would be better than nothing, and COULD help get the JTs of the world off the collective backs of those trying to make a living creating and selling their artistic works.

In Britain a sale can be refused if it is to somebody under the age rating (provided the rating is a BBFC rating, and not the ESRB, which are also on the box), or to somebody we believe will supply the game/film/whatever to somebody below the age rating. However, this still requires sales staff to care enough, and often they don’t. I have been asked several times for ID when buying games (despite being 24…), but only when the manager is serving me, because they can be fined heavily for sales to minors.

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When I was a cashier at Best Buy, we were never told once what video games or movies to restrict to minors. I know for a fact Best Buy has policies on this issue, for both Games and Movies, but they do not enforce it. And for most retailers I believe this to be true.

The restriction to media so far has been left to the person in charge of selling it. Regardless of the lyrics, all CDs are sold to people of all ages, unless there is sex/nudity in the movie, it is usually sold to people at all ages, and games are usually treated like music except for the extreme situations of a 9 year old buying BMX XXX or GTA like game.

The issue I see with Jack Thompson is that in everything he says he never mentions TV, movies, music, art, books, or any other form of media or entertainment. If he attacked all forms of media at once, I would consider giving him more respect on his opinion. But blaming Columbine on music one year, then coming back to blame FPS games another year is just someone trying to use a terrible incident to proove a point, no matter what the point is.

If I was an ultra extremist like Jack Thompson, and I wanted to blame Jack Thompson for the Columbien incident, I could. He claims he predicted it happening before it happened. Well lucky for him it happened. Maybe he had something to do with it, maybe it is him training the killers by planting ideas in people’s heads?

Or maybe Jack Thompson is just a nut case…