Videogame Decency Act in Congress

GamePolitics reports on yet another attempt by lawmakers to make the world safe from the dangers of electronic entertainment. Entered by Representative Fred Upton, the bill spells out penalties for game companies that try to 'sneak' something past ESRB raters. Says Upton, "I guess I thought the FTC would have had some more teeth than they apparently have... I'm not at all happy... In essence there are no consequences. None... I would like to have thought that (Take-Two and Rockstar) would have been able to be fined for millions of dollars for the trash they put out across this country. I am going to be looking to write legislation giving the FTC the authority to impose civil penalties."

censorship fixes everything

[User 956]

Entered by Representative Fred Upton, the bill spells out penalties for game companies that try to 'sneak' something past ESRB raters.

What does that even mean? Hot Coffee wasn't a 'sneak', it was excised content that required a third-party modification to even view. Yeah it was on the disc, but it wasn't accessible. It's not like you hit a secret code and OMG PORN.

We've seen this before.

[Lightwarrior]

We've seen this before. [wikipedia.org] It sucked - it set the comic book industry back nearly twenty years. *AND* it was self imposed. Let's learn from that mistake, shall we?

That's right...

[Anonymous Coward]

Let someone else be the parents. We're too busy scarfing down Starbucks and watching reality TV and can't be bothered to know what our kids are doing.

Didn't someone buy GTA:SA for their 11 year old kid? Yeah, great way to be a parent.

Missed his target, apparently.

[XenoRyet]

Everyone loves to tie the "Hot Coffee" scandal into these types of discussions, including the author of the bill apparently, but it looks like Rockstar would not be punished under this law.

It shall be unlawful... to... distribute... any video game that contains a rating label... for that video game where the person, with the intent of obtaining a less restrictive age-based content rating, failed to disclose content of the video game that was required to be disclosed to the independent ratings organization...

I think you'd have a pretty hard time proving that Rockstar intentionally hid the Hot Coffee content with the intent of obtaining a less restrictive rating. It makes you wonder how much legislators actually know about the things they try to legislate.

How did this happen?

[voice_of_all_reason]

Distributing a video game without rating from the ESRB is completely lawful, just that some stores won't stock it. They are a private organization. Defrauding them is a contractual matter between 2 private enterprises. Mr Upton, STFU and GBTW.

Re:censorship fixes everything

[voice_of_all_reason]

What's more, who's spelling out what "sneak" means? If players can manipulate the game in a way the developers did not really intend (upskirt views come to mind), does this count? What about fanedits? Does this clown even know the difference?

keep it up.

[pezpunk]

go ahead, continue to alienate a large and growing segment of the voting public. more and more every day, gaming is a passtime engaged in by adults of voting age. when a politician calls a perfectly good game "trash", he just looks like an out of touch relic. i mean, we all played GTA. it was good clean ludicrous fun (if a bit monotonous by the fifth iteration or so). by the way, i'm an avid gamer ... no, not an obnoxious pimply-faced 15 year old, as this politician probably assumes all gamers are, but a 30 year old married guy -- and i'm far from unusual. politicians going off like this remind me of strom thurmond types from the 50's railing against the black man's devil music, swearing that the evil jungle beats will corrupt the morality of our children.

WE are the children whose parents swore to us mario would rot our brain and corrupt our souls. we will reject that notion as wholeheartedly as our parents rejected the same assertion back when it was aimed at the Beatles and the Stones.

what?

[mastershake_phd]

The whole purpose of the VOLUNTARY rating system is because the first amendment prevents laws like this (rightfully so) Game companies voluntarily have their games rated because they fear a legal battle and stores like Walmart wont sell them otherwise. These politicians are just going after the "think of the Children vote" or they are fascists. Maybe both.

Re:We've seen this before.

[jhantin]

Ratings do NOT create censorship -- they just inform the consumer. It is sort of like complaining that food labels "censor" high-calorie fatty foods and create an underground market for twinkies.

Now, if certain retailers decide not to carry any "mature" ratings, that is up to the retailer. But there will always be places on the internet that you can order this stuff from. It is not like www.gogamer.com qualifies as an "underground."

Only problem here is that the video game business has gone all (RI|MP)AA in its distribution scheme - you need to go platinum and you need to sell through the "big box" stores or you're not even going to recover the cost of the (RI|MP)AA-grade media assets. If the "big box" stores won't sell your game you'll be lucky to sell 10k units. How many X rated movies have been blockbusters on the scale of, say, the recent Lord of the Rings movies?