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by
Joe - jgand@pcfootball.net
8/9/03
Before I get to my topic this
time, I would like to get something off my chest:
Goodbye David, and don’t let
the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Ok, that said, on with today’s
column:
Have many of you in or out of the
state of Washington ever heard of Bill 1009?
Yeah, neither had I until I got
the September issue of PC Gamer magazine. Their latest Eyewitness
column deals with the passage of the law and what it might mean
to the gaming industry. The new law specifically targets
retailers who sell mature-themed games to minors. This is how it
is spelled out in the column:
"But just this June, the
state of Washington passed House Bill 1009 into law. This bill
makes it a crime (punishable by up to $500 in fines) to sell a
game depicting violence to a minor. Sponsored by state
Representative Mary Lou Dickerson, a Democrat, 1009 passed
easily through the state legislature and was signed into law by
Gov. Gary Locke."
Right now there is a fight
gearing up regarding this law between the Attorney Generals’
office of the state of Washington and the Interactive Digital
Software Association (IDSA). The IDSA is challenging the law in
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on constitutional grounds.
The IDSA has twice before, successfully challenged two other
similar laws that were passed in St. Louis and Indianapolis. The
IDSA argued that video games are a form of entertainment that
should enjoy all the same rights that music, movies and books
currently enjoy, and that the laws criminalizing sales of
M-rated games to minors were infringements of free speech.
This sounds very familiar to me.
If you substitute Rep-Mary Lou Dickerson for Brent Bozell III,
the IDSA for the WWF, then I have traveled down this road
before.
I can only guess as to what Rep.
Dickerson’s motivation was for sponsoring this particular
bill, but right now it has put her name out there and gotten her
some free publicity that she can use to her own advantage.
By the way Rep. Dickerson, if you
happen to be reading this right now and have taken offense to
the above statement – I don’t care. Madam, it is people like
you that give the Democratic Party a bad name to the voters in
this country, and you are hearing this from a registered
Democrat. It probably doesn’t matter to Rep. Dickerson the
kind of damage a law like this can cause to not only the economy
of her state, but to the very constituents she claims to
represent in this matter. Not to mention the damage that a law
like this can cause to an industry whose profits were more than
that of the film industry last year.
To understand what a law like
this could mean and how it can be used and abused by those in
power, lets take a look at the games that this law would effect.
According to the law in the state
of Washington, it is illegal to sell a game like Grand Theft
Auto: Vice City, Hitman 2, or Mafia to any minor.
Sounds reasonable on the surface right? Not so fast! If I were
the parent of a child in the state of Washington I would be very
angry right about now. The state has decided to take a basic
right of every parent out of their hands and has reserved that
right exclusively for the government – the right to tell your
child no! ‘No Timmy, you can’t have a copy of Vice City
for your birthday, you’re only 14. Here, here’s a copy of
NCAA Football 2004, go run up the score on Middle Tennessee
State.’ According to Mary Lou Dickerson, parents in the
state of Washington are incapable of telling their children no,
so she is going to arrange for the state to do it for them.
Make no mistake about it, this is
not just a content issue, it is a parental issue. The issue of
weather or not parents can exercise any control over their
children’s viewing or gaming habits. For the state to step in
and say that it will decide what is best for children is not
only outrageous, it is hubris.
But never mind for the moment
what this means to parents in Washington, what does this mean
for retailers? What does this mean for businesses in that state?
Say that little Timmy does happen
to buy a copy of Vice City at his local EB Games. What is
then supposed to happen under the law? Does the state go after
EB Games and make them pay the fine? I’m pretty sure that EB
Games would take the state to court and claim restraint of
trade. Do police officers go into the store and arrest the
clerk? I think the local constabulary has more important things
to do than to handcuff some college-age cashier who is barely
able to make his rent every month with his part-time, minimum
wage salary. I can just see the negative publicity right now as
this poor kid has to either move in with friends or back home to
his parents because the $500 fine and court costs have
bankrupted him.
And let’s say for the sake of
argument that retailers are targeted, how are you going to
enforce the law? What are you going to do, go around to every EB
Games, Best Buy, Circuit City or Comp USA in the state and ask
them if they have sold any copies of Postal 2 to a minor
lately? And what happens if you do go after those retailers?
They may decide that it is not worth doing business in the state
of Washington and they may just close those locations down –
and take all of those jobs with them! Maybe then California will
not be the only state in the union with a reputation for being
very hostile towards business.
Is that what you’re after Mary
Lou? If it is I hope there is a lot of spare change in the state
coffers to pay all of those unemployment claims that are bound
to come your way.
How about the game manufacturers
themselves? Will the Washington State Attorney General decide to
go after Rockstar Games for even creating the GTA: Vice City
in the first place? It could happen. But they would run into the
same problems that the PMRC ran into in the mid-80’s when they
tried to wipe out music that they didn’t like from the face of
the earth. That was until they realized that the same principles
they were trying to apply to Heavy Metal could be applied by
someone else to Country and even Christian music. Same thing
could happen in the gaming industry until someone objects to the
content of a game like Animal Crossing because they
believe it is exploitive to animals.
I hear PETA warming up in the
wings even as I type this.
And what about games that don’t
depict violence against the police? Sure I can see the law
applying to games like Vice City. But the way the law is
written the same standard could apply to games where the player is
a police officer. A game like S.W.A.T. for example,
couldn’t be sold to minors because of the potential violence
against your character or members of your team.
But let’s just say for the sake
of argument that someone in the legislature who feels that 1009
doesn’t go far enough tries to pass a bill that prohibits the
sale of a game that contains any violent content, or that is
deemed "objectionable". Who’s to say what’s
objectionable?
Is Battlefield 1942
objectionable? Some people might think it is since the object is
to fight a war. If that’s the case then say goodbye to the Medal
of Honor series as well.
Is The Sims objectionable?
They could become so in the state of Washington since you are
allowed to engage in behavior in that game that you might not
have the guts to do in real life.
Is Halo or Unreal
Tournament 2003 objectionable? They depict shooting weapons
and killing people don’t they? Besides, Halo is a
Microsoft product, and their headquarters is in the state of
Washington isn’t it? Bring me the head of Bill Gates on a
platter!
Is Madden 2004
objectionable? It depicts steroid addicted Neanderthals
committing acts of violence against smaller men doesn’t it?
Ban it in our great state of Washington, and make this state
safe once again!
See where I’m going with this?
But what really gets me about all
of this are the arguments that Rep. Dickerson uses to try to
prove her point. In the PC Gamer article she claims that these
games are marketed to children and that they are also harmful to
children. The editorial staff at PC Gamer did their research
more thoroughly than Rep. Dickerson or her staff. According to
PC Gamer, the FTC commended the games industry in Decamber 2001
because they "made substantial progress in ending the
marketing of violent content to children." So much so in
fact that it persuaded the political mouthpiece of the Parent’s
Television Council, Sen. Joe Lieberman, to discontinue his push
for federal regulation of the gaming industry.
Here is another argument used by
Rep. Dickerson in the PC Gamer article:
"She insists she has no
interest in abridging First Amendment rights, and points out her
affiliation with the ACLU. She also says she does not favor
equivalent restrictions on literature, movies, or music.
‘The reason I’m concentrating
on videogames is because I believe they’re much more powerful
influence on children,’ she explains. ‘Pediatricians and
psychologists have spoken and said the debate is over: these
ultraviolent games cause real harm to children. Over 35 studies
have shown that ultraviolent games do cause violence in kids.’
Here we go again, pointing to
"studies" as proof that her opinion is the only right
opinion and that the rest of us are just a bunch of uneducated
idiots who don’t know what we are talking about so we should
just keep our mouths shut because we don’t know what’s good
for us.
I would like Rep. Mary Lou
Dickerson of the great state of Washington to provide us with
this so-called "proof" of hers. I would like her to
provide us with the actual studies themselves so that we may
take a look at them and decide if she is right or wrong, all 35
of them! But knowing her she will probably not comply with my
request. In fact I fully expect her to give me the same answer
that the PTC gave to a representative from PTCSucks.org when
they asked for written proof that the WWF’s programming was
actually causing children to become violent:
"We don’t have written
proof because we don’t need written proof!"
To get proof of that you only
have to look at Rep. Dickerson’s opinion of the Director of
the IDSA, Doug Lowenstein:
"He’s a hypocrite…He can
argue ‘til he’s blue in the face. He’s grasping at straws.
They can’t tout the ratings system and then tell us we shouldn’t
enforce it."
That’s right Mary Lou, when you
can’t win the argument with facts, let alone innuendo and
hearsay, start calling the other guy names. That’ll score you
some debating points. But as long as we’re at it…
He’s not saying that the rating
system should not be enforced you half-wit, he is saying that it
is better left in the hands of parents to enforce it. He is
saying that it works better when it is utilized by responsible
parents and retailers than it is by publicity hungry politicians
who are just trying to make a name for themselves and are using
this issue to catapult themselves into the Governor’s Mansion.
Politicians like you honey!
Now if Rep. Dickerson is looking
for a fight, she does not want me in it. Trust me, I learned a
lot from my time battling the PTC along with my fellow wrestling
fans and I am more than capable of utilizing that knowledge.
Right now the battle is heading to the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals, where a lot of people think that the law will be
overturned because of the precedent set in the St. Louis and
Indianapolis cases. Well, I’m not going to hold my breath on
that. After all the Ninth Circuit is the same August body that
said that it was unconstitutional for kids to say the Pledge of
Allegiance just months after the attacks on 9/11. Trust me Mary
Lou, you do not want someone like me involved in this fight,
particularly opposite you. Don’t play mud-slinging games with
me – you won’t win.
So the bottom line is this: if
you live in the state of Washington right now, your rights as a
gamer to play whichever game you choose could soon be in
jeopardy. Someone in the state Legislature may decide that by
playing Madden as much as you do, you are being
influenced to try to do the same thing in real life. Somehow I
doubt that Mike Holmgren will even let you get near his office,
just like Marty Schottenhiemer wouldn’t let me get near his.
I have to admit however; Rep.
Dickerson is not lacking in confidence. In the closing of the PC
Gamer article she issues a direct challenge to Doug Lowenstein:
"I think that common sense
is going to prevail. My message to Doug Lowenstein is ‘Bring
it on.’ We’re ready."
So am I sweetheart. So am I.
Until next time…
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