Play A Violent Video Game... Go To Jail?
from the seems-a-bit-extreme... dept
We had already mentioned the fact that German politicians seemed to be overreacting to a recent school shooting. There was talk about outlawing violent video games and other activities like paintball. Wired's Chris Kohler has some more details on the legislation that has actually been proposed and apparently it isn't just about banning the games, but would potentially send all sorts of people to jail for just about any association with a violent video game -- including playing one. The report claims: "developers, retailers and players of videos featuring 'cruel violence' could face up to a year in jail." Players? Can you just imagine that opening conversation between cellmates when someone explains that he's been thrown in jail for playing Grand Theft Auto rather than committing grand theft auto?
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RE: Violent Video Games
/that is all.
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Re: RE: Violent Video Games
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Re: RE: Violent Video Games
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Re: Re: RE: Violent Video Games
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?!?!?!?!
First question: What definition of violent is used in the wording of this proposal.
After seeing all the patent/trademark/copyright nonsense in the last few years we all know that wording is very crucial these days.
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Re: ?!?!?!?!
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In all honesty though, I find it funny that these Germans are now against violence... considering the history of WWI and WWII http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm
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Re:
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Repugnant
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Re: Repugnant
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Re: Re: Repugnant
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Mein Kampf
Plus, right now, those who make these games have to keep in within the bounds of whatever rating they're aiming for (Your mom is rated E for everyone! Ha!) but if you make it flat out illegal, people will still make/sell/play these games, except they'll have no rules to go by, no limits or ratings to stay within-- I predict if this law passes, some of the most violent and gruesome video games ever will spring forth from Germany.
Just an idea.
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Re: Mein Kampf
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Like.. what kind of schools did these politicians of today go to? Oh that's right, ones where all they did was smoke pot - it clearly shows too.
Idiots.
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Re: ...Whoah...
They are truly idiots. *sigh*
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What are they thinking?
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Jealousy
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I can imagin the conversations...
dude2: "Grand theft auto"
dude1: "Oh yeah? What'd you steal"
dude2: "A corvette, then blew it up. Porsche, but trashed that into a building. But I think they got a bit pissed when I took a tank down main street running over all the cops and blasting the buildings."
dude 1: "..."
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Hrmmmm
Let's consider for a second that the "game" (and reinforced behavior) they were trying to ban was actually a pedophile RPG...
Would you still feel the same way?
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Re: Hrmmmm
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Re: Hrmmmm
Video games are a self regulating industry - people won't buy lots of a crappy game that they don't want to play.
Politicians are just mad because people want to play games they don't approve of.
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Re: Re: Hrmmmm
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Re: Hrmmmm
It is not for the government to decide, but instead the parents should regulate what their kids are doing. These kids aren't going out and buying these games, their parents are. I doubt some mom is going to buy her impressional, clay-like son "Please not again, Daddy 3" (not to mention I can't imagine that ever maing it past any corporate office thinktank) but if someone did buy it for their kid, who's to blame? The person who made it, to make money (presuably) or the person who BUYS it? (for the afforementioned claylike child, no less)
So, to answer your question, sir or ma'am: Yes, I feel the same way.
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Re: Re: Hrmmmm
These games already exist and they do quite well in the markets where they are allowed by their governments to exist.
However, they are contraband in the USA and possesion of such carries a penalty of jailtime...
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Re: Re: Hrmmmm
Anyone who profits from society has an obligation to not contribute to it's decline. I'm not sure the developers of say, GTA, can live up to that but either way, THEY are responsible for what they create and sell AHEAD of lazy parents and impressionable and apparently rather soft-headed kids/teens
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Re: Re: Re: Hrmmmm
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Re: Hrmmmm
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well...
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Re: I can imagin the conversations...
dude2: "Grand theft auto"
dude1: "Oh yeah? What'd you steal"
dude2: "A corvette, then I picked up a hooker, got laid, paid her, killed her with my chainsaw and got my money back, then blew up the car.."
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Good
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Re: Hrmmmm
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What is violent
Is hockey violent?
Is boxing violent?
Is whack-a-mole violent?
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Let he...
Come on, Dude. If they locked people up just for random thoughts about some sixteen year old with a nice ass who could pass for 25 anyway, then pretty much the entire male population would be in jail (not to mention an awful lot of the females).
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Re: Let he/she...
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east solution
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Communism
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Re: Communism
It really makes me wanna leave...
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Re: Re: Re: Hrmmmm
So here's my point. Games are what you make of them. Games do not make a person act of feel differently. I think people blame video games for acting a certain way because, I guess, they feel that if they blame the game they'll get off the hook for the 103 people they killed.
Playing GTA is harsh and not a way to end school violence and the like.
And GTA is not banned in America.
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make that last line there, sentencing people to jail just for playing GTA is harsh and not a way to end school violence and the like.
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Picture of a picture?
What about violent movies? Yeah, they're more 'realistic' because they usually use real, flesh and blood people. Movies are gone too.
Oh, a book can be pretty violent, and descriptive enough to make the reader actually IMAGINE the violent things. Yep, books are out.
Well, after scrubbing the violent reminders out of our lives, all that's left are the violent people who think these things up, then act on them. We should just shoot all the people who have commited a violent crime.
Wait! But now we have just had someone kill the violent people! Who's gonna get rid of them? And those people? And those?
In times of peace (assuming they exist), maybe all the people all the nations have *trained* to kill should be wiped out. Thanks for defending our rights, but you've done violent things, we have to eliminate you.
Ya get my beating-a-dead-horse point yet? Just removing reminders of violence won't prevent violence.
Yeah, we don't need more rules and regulations-- we need a refresher course on values.
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Re: Picture of a picture?
It'll become like the society shown in "Equilibrium" (movie), or Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".
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Re:
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Facts vs. Politics
On the other hand, politicians care nothing for facts or real research. If it hits the fear button hard enough, they are all over it. So it goes. Pootaweet.
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Re: Facts vs. Politics
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Failure to learn from history.
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Re: Failure to learn from history.
Politicians want to to be reelected. So they try to score with these popular issues. Here they esspecially try to win over the older generation which did not grow up with computer games.
Another point: The two politicians who are pushing that "killer-games-prohibition--law" forward, are both members of gun clubs. So I ask: Would you want your freetime-activity to be forbidden? I guess. no! So it seems that they are working for their very own lobby and, again, try to distract from the real problems.
just my thoughts on this
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none needed.
If the games in some way made people act them out there would probably be some epidemic of people jumping on turtle shells, bashing dragons, or even worse having a sword fight with there friends and someone with a deep voice saying "FINISH HIM"? as one of them tosses the other in the air and shiskabobs them with there sword..... Duh people get it together,,,,,,,,,, I know lets make a law banning stupid people from being able to make pollitical laws..
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We are talking about hundreds of thousands of new statutes, rules, regulations, codes, laws that are added every month and every year. It is really a pathetic attempt by the public sector to remain relevant in a world that is far too complex and too sophisticated to be governed and in reality, always has been, that is why you get the periodic fear mongering (Greenhouse gasses! trans fats! botulism!) and violent shows of force to reinforce the illusion of control.
In reality, society exist due to the millions of calculations done every moment of every day in what we call trade and the price mechanism. Unfortunately for the public sector, it is impossible to duplicate or substitute this with any alternatives that don't cause massive poverty, pain, suffering and the destruction of the bonds of society. The public sector only has the blunt force of coercion to achieve its ends, but no means to contribute (one example of where nearly everyone assumes the public sector contributes, but they have in fact made much worse http://www.mises.org/money.asp).
Don't let these idiots scare you. I game and mod with Germans on a daily basis who play a game (Quake) that was banned in Germany in 1996. My friends scoff at these lawmongers.
Nuisance law makers should be banned because there is really only a small set of laws that are useful to maintain a society, and they were well defined by Blackwell over two hundred years ago.
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Re:
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Re: Re: Bioman
That's exactly the point you are so ironically missing.
If anything the Germans should be playing "Concentration Camp Commader III" and suchlike to constantly remind them of the horrors of their past.
Similarly, how many American games revolve around the basic premise of killing swarthy Arabs who talk in comedy terroist voices? Isn't that just embarrasing? I think it is. When I've played gung-ho American "counterterroist" games my pants are wet rolling around laughing at the naivity and sillyness of it all.
You see, if a games company from the Middle East released a decent FPS where the goal was to kill as many Americans as possible it would be banned in the USA as "promoting terrorism" or some nonsense, even though it would be a best seller in Europe.
The point is that the people who want to "ban" these thigs are so hopelessly out of touch of with current reality they can't see the contradictions and moral absurdities that come with the whole thing.
People play violent or sexual games for the same reason they read crime novels and pornography, because usually they are hard working normal people who want a bit of fantastical relief from the drudgery of their lives. The real serial killers and rapists are too busy out there doing it to waste time playing games.
Pretending these human drives don't exist, living in denial and trying to erase history because it's not politically correct to a load of loony lefty (or raving rightwing) nutters is not a sensible course.
Can you imagine a future where the American flag is banned as an image because of "the horrors and warcrimes of the early 21st Century Bush regime"?
Gutteral emotions make smart people say stupid and contradictory things. How many Jewish people do you imagine would answer that they think "Concentration Camp Commader" is a sick game that should be banned, while at the same time asserting that Holocaust denial should be a crime? Both these positions can't be defended with integrity. In the same way, those who are most shrill calling for violent shooting games to be banned in America are probably the most vocal in calling for conscription of the youth to go and die behind a rock in Iraq.
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Re: to
I totally agree with your post.
My thoughts are:
I for myself appreciate the gift of free speech and free expression, which also includes my own concious decision whether I want to play a "problematic" game, or not. If the law says I'm adult, I want to take that decision for *myself*.
I've been playing killer-games since I'm 12 years old and I don't think that I'm a danger for my society. In fact, the problem of amok-runs is multi-causal and cannot be directly related to computer games.
Even though, in these days, politicians are trying to benfit from a hysteria which is being proliferated by themselves.
"Don't mix up past and present":
By this statement, I originally tried to avoid a discussion about German politicians "who simply want to distract from crimes on humanity comitted during WW2".
I might remind you of Post No. 3:
"The Germans look to be doing just about ANYTHING they can do, to distance themselves from their Nazi history."
Sorry, but this is complete bullshit. I'm German and the overwhelming majority of my peoples definitely does NOT want to distance themselves from what has happened in WW2. I guess, we have pretty much done everything to think and reflect on our past. Other countries, such as Turkey (and the genocide on the Armenians during WW1) still don't want to face their past. I guess, we have a more elaborate way of dealing with it than constantly playing "Concentration Camp Commander III".
I'm from a post-WW2 generation and I'm personally not feeling "guilty" for anything - why should I? Instead, I can reflect on it, learn from it and create a better world (I'm serious). Moreover, it is very difficult for a young individual in Germany to avoid a confrontation with our history. At school, on television etc., we are being constantly reminded of our past. And that is good and it should last "forever".
I just want to put clear, that it is simply ridiculous to bring up "Nazi-associations" everytime Germans/Germany are/is involved in a discussion. We are aware of our historic responsibility and do not need to be bantered about these stupid stereotypes.
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Re: Re: Re: Bioman
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What next
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Bullshit, no media should be banned
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mein kampf
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hi
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WTF
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America sucks
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ill self defend
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violent videogames
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violent videogames
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