« Gunster is gone? | Main | Registering Trademarks for Guild Names? »
Censorship of Videogames
By Ravenhawk | April 27, 2007
Earlier today I attended a Xfire debate on censorship of videogames. As usual, they had an interesting cast of guests at the debate.
They were:
California State Senator Leland Yee
Hal Malpin from the ECA
Dennis McCauley from Gamepolitics.com
Russ Pitts from Escapist Magazine
Dan Isett from the Parents Television Council
And Henry Lowood from Stanford University.
A prettty “reputable” group of people who first had a debate amongst themselves with Lowood acting as moderator and providing questions. Then the floor was opened up for the gamers to ask questions. Typically, None of my questions got answered. But it was still an interesting debate. At least the part I partook in. I had a math test smack in the middle of the debate.
A large number of people were focusing on the ESRB, as though it was their duty to more thoroughly censor games. In my opinion the responsibility of censoring children’s access to adult games falls on two people: The parents of the children and the stores which sell the games. The ESRB gives the most thorough rating system of any form of media. However once they’ve marked the games, its up to the parents to pay attention to what type of games their children are trying to play.
And its up to the store owners to make sure the people buying the game can actually buy it. If a twelve year old asks to buy a M rated game, the answer should be “No.” It should be like the movies. You want to get in to the grownup show, you get carded. It should be the same with Mature games.
Sure, some teenagers will complain about this. But you know what? If they’re going to try to censor the games, they could at least do it right.
Until next time, comrades.
Tags: Video Games, Censorship, ESRB, Xfire
Topics: Video Games |