Ahmed
BrentonThe Three Men of Gaming Violence
November 4th 2006 17:33
You have the person who has next to no idea what videogames are and what purpouse they serve and thus think they're 'murder simulators' who spouts out nonesense, then you have the gamer who doesn't know whats going on but just wants to keep his games who also spouts out nonesense, then finally you have that one lone voice of reason who doesn't speak.
We have Jack Thompson, an attorney out to try and ban the sale of violent videogames to minors, then we have Adam Sessler, the gamer who’s convinced Jack Thompson is ignorant and too conservative, and despite having some grounding to his thoughts has nothing to base it on, and finally we have Mark Friedler who is quiet, doesn’t say much but would probably have had the most educated debate with Jack Thompson had he not remained so quiet.
Seeing the video it is obvious that Adam Sessler is not an authority on the matter, it is obvious that Jack Thompson has done his homework and it is apparent Mark Friedler knows what he’s talking about, but just doesn’t talk ENOUGH of it.
While many people claim Jack Thompson is out to ban videogames as a whole (and certainly that may be the case) he also appears to be willing to compromise and simply make it law, like in Britain, as he says it is law not to sell mature rated games to children. Fair enough? Definitely, however Adam Sessler insists that is going against freedom of speech, even arguing the fact Britain does have the equivalent of freedom of expression, ‘no they don’t’ he says.
Why this debate will never reach anywhere is perfectly demonstrated in the video, the gamer is too wrapped up with attacking the lawyer who has his facts straight, the one who can have a bit of a meaningful debate with the lawyer doesn’t talk enough.
I think it is perfectly reasonable to ban the sale of violent games to minors, it isn’t censorship so much so it is making up for where the parents refuse to, like making it law to wear your seatbelts, or to not drive above the speed limit. It makes sense, and can hardly be considered censorship.
But Jack Thompson unfortunately isn’t the calm collected person he is in the video, unfortunately he does have his habits of acting out of hand and suing the wrong people at the wrong time (he has sued a webcomic ‘Penny-Arcade for instance for defamation). Adam Sessler will always be like that, and will have his many and varied supporters, while Mark Friedler will probably never talk enough, or confront Jack Thompson head on as he should since he obviously is on the other end of the spectrum in terms of opinions yet, unlike Adam Sessler, has intelligent things to say.
Since this is the reality, and state of the debate, we can tell for sure it isn’t going to get anywhere. The videogame industry will lose if mature rated games aren’t allowed to be sold to minors.
However it may well be for the best, as Jack Thompson points out in the following video (against an Adam Sessler equivalent Tony Romando) that minors do in fact get influenced by violent media, not adults, but minors. That doesn’t give anyone an authority to ban violent games, but it does give law makers reason to ban its sale and/or exposure to minors.
Seems like the pro-choice side of the whole debate (Adam Sessler etc) wants to blame parents, and yes, probably parents should be better educated at what their children play. But if and when they don’t or refuse to take care of their children the law should take over and make it that much harder for kids to get these games. For instance you don’t see liquor shops selling to kids, doesn’t mean kids can’t drink alcohol. Sure it might be seen as obscene, a health hazard etc, and as such the law doesn’t allow children to drink alcohol (under 15 I believe) it won’t stop parents from buying the alcohol and letting their kids to drink it with full knowledge of the fact. No one can stop that, in the same way no one can stop parents getting violent games for kids. But this is another story altogether, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be banned to begin with. As the pro-choice also argues (somewhat ambiguous to the concept of ‘parents fault) is that these violent games aren’t meant for kids to begin with. If they aren’t, why not legislate against kids playing and/or buying them? Hence the loop starts and parents are blamed again.
Then we move to the conservative (Jack Thompson) side of the thing, sometimes he’s calm and collected, and suggests good ideas such as banning sales of Mature rated games to kids, but other times he goes nuts and says they are murder simulators and that they should be banned all together, or he goes around claiming to be an expert (in the second video he is introduced as such) and then goes and doesn’t claim to be an expert (as he humbly says in the first video here). Now this is where the problem comes in, this news is distributed on the internet, and the gaming community, who quite frankly is not as ‘mature’ as it’s cut out to be by reading user comments, leaps onto this moment of anger Thompson has unleashed and the debate takes another lap.
That is all you can pretty much say about the people who argue in this debate, there is an end to it, certainly not one of censorship, but also certainly not one of pure liberalism, however it won’t ever be reached under the current situation.
Who is it to say what a mature game is? I hazard to say Nintendo is the most mature game development company on the planet, it has games suitable for all ages, and games suitable for adults only. Not because these games are violent in nature, but
Seeing the video it is obvious that Adam Sessler is not an authority on the matter, it is obvious that Jack Thompson has done his homework and it is apparent Mark Friedler knows what he’s talking about, but just doesn’t talk ENOUGH of it.
While many people claim Jack Thompson is out to ban videogames as a whole (and certainly that may be the case) he also appears to be willing to compromise and simply make it law, like in Britain, as he says it is law not to sell mature rated games to children. Fair enough? Definitely, however Adam Sessler insists that is going against freedom of speech, even arguing the fact Britain does have the equivalent of freedom of expression, ‘no they don’t’ he says.
Why this debate will never reach anywhere is perfectly demonstrated in the video, the gamer is too wrapped up with attacking the lawyer who has his facts straight, the one who can have a bit of a meaningful debate with the lawyer doesn’t talk enough.
I think it is perfectly reasonable to ban the sale of violent games to minors, it isn’t censorship so much so it is making up for where the parents refuse to, like making it law to wear your seatbelts, or to not drive above the speed limit. It makes sense, and can hardly be considered censorship.
But Jack Thompson unfortunately isn’t the calm collected person he is in the video, unfortunately he does have his habits of acting out of hand and suing the wrong people at the wrong time (he has sued a webcomic ‘Penny-Arcade for instance for defamation). Adam Sessler will always be like that, and will have his many and varied supporters, while Mark Friedler will probably never talk enough, or confront Jack Thompson head on as he should since he obviously is on the other end of the spectrum in terms of opinions yet, unlike Adam Sessler, has intelligent things to say.
Since this is the reality, and state of the debate, we can tell for sure it isn’t going to get anywhere. The videogame industry will lose if mature rated games aren’t allowed to be sold to minors.
However it may well be for the best, as Jack Thompson points out in the following video (against an Adam Sessler equivalent Tony Romando) that minors do in fact get influenced by violent media, not adults, but minors. That doesn’t give anyone an authority to ban violent games, but it does give law makers reason to ban its sale and/or exposure to minors.
Seems like the pro-choice side of the whole debate (Adam Sessler etc) wants to blame parents, and yes, probably parents should be better educated at what their children play. But if and when they don’t or refuse to take care of their children the law should take over and make it that much harder for kids to get these games. For instance you don’t see liquor shops selling to kids, doesn’t mean kids can’t drink alcohol. Sure it might be seen as obscene, a health hazard etc, and as such the law doesn’t allow children to drink alcohol (under 15 I believe) it won’t stop parents from buying the alcohol and letting their kids to drink it with full knowledge of the fact. No one can stop that, in the same way no one can stop parents getting violent games for kids. But this is another story altogether, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be banned to begin with. As the pro-choice also argues (somewhat ambiguous to the concept of ‘parents fault) is that these violent games aren’t meant for kids to begin with. If they aren’t, why not legislate against kids playing and/or buying them? Hence the loop starts and parents are blamed again.
Then we move to the conservative (Jack Thompson) side of the thing, sometimes he’s calm and collected, and suggests good ideas such as banning sales of Mature rated games to kids, but other times he goes nuts and says they are murder simulators and that they should be banned all together, or he goes around claiming to be an expert (in the second video he is introduced as such) and then goes and doesn’t claim to be an expert (as he humbly says in the first video here). Now this is where the problem comes in, this news is distributed on the internet, and the gaming community, who quite frankly is not as ‘mature’ as it’s cut out to be by reading user comments, leaps onto this moment of anger Thompson has unleashed and the debate takes another lap.
That is all you can pretty much say about the people who argue in this debate, there is an end to it, certainly not one of censorship, but also certainly not one of pure liberalism, however it won’t ever be reached under the current situation.
Who is it to say what a mature game is? I hazard to say Nintendo is the most mature game development company on the planet, it has games suitable for all ages, and games suitable for adults only. Not because these games are violent in nature, but
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