People are unlikely to become well-functioning, independent-minded adults and responsible citizens if they are raised in an intellectual bubble." Did Peterson think the blood and guts from House of the Dead was going to somehow infect the Sonic machine next to it? Ultimately, Federal Judge Richard Posner saved the day for the coin-ops, ruling that the Indy law "curtails freedom of expression. The resulting law restricted those under 18 from playing or even viewing violent games and required the violent game machines to be at least 10 feet from the non-violent ones. Just-elected Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson decided that regulating kids' access to the coin-op arcade gore fest House of the Dead would make Indy a safer place.
Didn't always work out that way, through no fault of the ESRB.įast forward to 2000.
Stores wouldn't sell the naughty games to kids.
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Parents would pay attention to the ratings and not buy their ten-year-old an M-rated game full of carjacking, bloody murder and hooker sex. The theory was that the ESRB would rate the games. Joe Lieberman, the video game industry was able to hold the Connecticut Democrat at bay by creating the Entertainment Software Rating Board as the keystone of its new voluntary compliance system. This means you, Jack Thompson.Īlthough the specter of legislation was initially raised in the mid-90's by Sen.
That way, if I get canned, some geek can collect these columns for the Wikipedia and they'll have a logical starting point (today's column) and a logical ending (a future Joystiq e-mail with the subject line, "You're fired"). Since this a brand-new column about the politics of video games, it seems like a good idea to kick things off with a short history lesson on video game legislation in the USA. Each week Dennis McCauley will contribute The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:Ī well-known philosopher – I think maybe it was Doug Lowenstein – once said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
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