| Stever89 said: I thought most places already card you for M games anyway? And I know you can't go into a theater or buy rated R movies without being 18, so what's the big deal? |
The difference is that the MPAA's ratings are not enforced under federal statutory law. Movie theaters, Blockbuster, and so on voluntarily consent to carding movie-goers, and can decline to do so if they so wish - if, for example, they have some sort of issue with the MPAA's rating process. The whole system is "opt-out," and it sort of works.
This bill would make it so that distributors and sellers of video games cannot opt out of the ESRB's rules for rating, in effect making them subject to the will of a private entity under the law. And that private entity is free to set whatever standards it will for censorship, irrespective of Constitutional or Congressional law. If you cannot see the danger here, then I'm just not sure what else to say.
So, the issue here is not one of keeping violent games out of the hands of children. Heck, doing so may very well be a good thing. But Congress does not have the power to delegate legislative authority to private, nonregulated entities, period.
@ z64dan: There's plenty of adults out there (like myself) who are opposed to governmental abuses of power, no matter what form they may take.
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
