Only fair, right?

I'm confident the Supreme Court will make the right decision when reviewing the case and rule in favor of the Entertaiment Merchants Association.

Inset that was what the rating of the on the box was for so people would no the content was.  

When I go to the store I show my ID to get my M-rated game. I do the same thing for my beer and smokes. I would hate to see me going to a special store just to buy a game (aka like a porn store) But I dont see the Supreme Court ruling against gaming industry. Just weeks ago the Supreme Court rule in favor of the right of free speech even for "Crush Videos" which is dog fighting videos and those videos are very illegal.  

www.nytimes.com/.../AP-US-Supreme-Court-Pit-Bull-Videos.html

I hope this turns out ok.

When will these people leave us alone?

kinda cool that videogames are getting hype on the national level

This whole thing makes me sick. A child can go on the internet and find ANYTHING he wants. Pornography? Check. Extreme Violence? Check. Any movie their heart desires? Check. They can walk into any Blockbuster and rent any film they want. They can use Netflix to order or watch instantly ANY media, no matter how violent, whenever they want it.

They can watch Showtime, HBO, Cinemax, etc. anytime they want. They can go to their local book store and purchase nearly anything they want, no matter how graphic. Today, with so many books being digitized, they do not even need to leave the house. Any piece of written work they want they can get it. Comic Books included.

They are allowed to join the Military at 18 and fire real guns at real people and risk their REAL lives for their country. They will be put into REAL battle with REAL violence and REAL murder.

They can turn on the News and watch REAL violence around the world.

However, Video Games are the problem, right?? Video Games are what is making the world a terrible place for children, right?? Yeah, sure.

Sigh. Same argument for the last 20 years.

This ISN'T the first time it has reached that level of the court. A similar bill was passed in Louisiana in 2006 I believe, and was shot down in the supreme court. The supreme court even reprimanded Louisiana for allowing such a blatantly unconstitutional bill to be passed and made them pay for court costs of the video game industry. A bill adapted from the one in Louisiana was passed without incident in Boston later.

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/08/7597.ars
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/07/the-political-game-welcome-to-the-slippery-slope/

Those are two articles about how this has happened before.

Wow.  Ed (a commenter located above me on this list)) and Micheal D (another commenter) make a really good point.  We already allow a lot of violent stuff in our culture (internet where children can find and do anything they want, armies that recruit at 18 to send teens off to war zones, videos depicting an illegal act being protected by the Supreme Court, etc.), yet instead of focus on any of that, every talk show HAS TO HAVE a one-sided debate on video games and how to stop their evil spread.  One of their most common complaints is lack of parental knowledge of what is in a game (hint to all idiots: look for the little black and white box on the back that says "RATING"), and even PORN STARS CLAIM THEIR MEDIA IS BETTER FOR KIDS THAN VIDEO GAMES, not caring about the seemingly infinite number of kid/party games, which only help the player's thinking/social skills.

I say, if the people who are for this law want to play dirty with biased research and popular myths, we show off how dirty this system REALLY IS ON ITS OWN, by parading these FACTS all over their CLAIMS, until the public becomes so disgusted with everything else, they actually start defending us.

I totally agree with what IGDA had to say.

Every time I read something like this I get upset I can't believe what I reading. You never see this about Movies now but 20 years ago did. I was getting into rated "R" Movies when I was 15 but now I can't get into one with out an ID 15 years later. But for some reason these people out here trying to pass these bills are so full of it and don't want to admit it's the parents not the kids. If you can't limit or control your children don't have any or give them to someone who is responseable enough to do it. Stop blaming some others and step up.

this is good reporting,right up there with the NEW YORKER and Times magazine.

I *** hate Arnold as a politician because of this. The man is a hypocrite. The Terminator movies prove that fact very well.

if anything the ESRB should show parents the esrb before playing the game. Or the people at the game store should just tell you

Video games are the scape goat's for all that is bad on this planet...

Earthquake in Haiti, blame MK 3's Smoke for destroying the digital world.  Car bomb, blame Call of Duty 4's nuke.  Suberban war, blame Grand Theft Auto IV because it somehow crept into the minds of those who are responsible. Schwarzenegger was Dr.Violence PHD when he wasen't the governator,  the irony is killing me!!!

This better turn out ok.

Seriously!? Parents can't get off their lazy asses and teach their kids what they can't play. You see that letter there, Arnold? You see it on the God of War III cover, yes, the M means that kids can't play it. It's like prohibition again.

Agree with Ike, the fact that Schwarzenegger is trying to ban young children from seeing the violent content that he helped popularize in the 80s is more than a bit ludicrous. However, I really, really hope that the Court makes the smart choice here. Even though videogames are no more influential on violence (and oftentimes more regulated than) movies, my greatest fear is that the Court, trying to save face for some reason, decides to follow the popular trend of demonizing video games as being, as Jack Thompson put it, "murder simulators".