Schwarzenegger v. EMA

[Serane]

I was flipping through my latest copy of Game Informer and ran across their article about the Supreme Court case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA about legislating the sale of video games to minors. having gone to PAX Prime earlier this month, I saw something about it there but hadn't really heard much about it, and the people at the booth just said "sign this to say you're against the case in California dealing with additional descriptions on video games". I read the article and was slightly amazed at what the law is wanting to do.

from the article in Game Informer: "It describes a violent game as one in which 'the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being'. The bill also details what it means by each of those words and extends the description to include characters with 'substantially human characteristics."

what I gathered from the article was that, though the ESRB has an AO (adult only) rating, they don't use it and use M as a catchall rating for everyone and anyone to use and the maker of this law in California and the eleven states that support it want more harsh ratings on games that depict violence toward a human or human-type-creature.

tl;dr- read info on Schwarzenegger v. EMA and the Video Game Voters Network and want to know others thoughts on this.

[seam]

If it gets to votes it will be voted on mainly by people who either hate video games, or have never played them. Woo

[Mijen]

So, basically, they want to make the rating system more detailed?

I say, Do it. Giving parents a more detailed view of what the game contains would be a huge plus in deciding if the theme was too mature or violent for a child.

The AO rating should honestly get thrown out on more than porn games.

[seam]

So, basically, they want to make the rating system more detailed?

The thing is this is mainly due to children getting the M rated games.

If they got the M games, which out where I live you have to have an ID and be over 18 to buy, they are going to get the AO games =\

And it still goes down to the parents allowing their children to play it in the first place.

[Mijen]

The thing is this is mainly due to children getting the M rated games.

If they got the M games, which out where I live you have to have an ID and be over 18 to buy, they are going to get the AO games =\

And it still goes down to the parents allowing their children to play it in the first place.

Very true. However, this would prevent a few more parents from being baddies.
Every little bit would be helpful.

Parents can't be... ...for the child.

What Seam said was fairly accurate. In most places require you to show a photo ID when you purchase a M rated gamed. So, in MANY cases it does fall to the parent to make the right choice.

But yes, there are ways for minors to get their hands on mature titles.

However, as I just stated, this would actually be helpful. Even though it doesn't solve the issue completely.