Governator to defend California game law

Written by Joe Martin

August 8, 2007 | 14:05

Tags: #adult #arnie #ban #california #court #esrb #governator #jt #rating #schwarzenegger #terminator #violence #violent

Companies: #bbfc #jack-thompson

It’ll be back – that’s the promise Arnie ‘Governator’ Schwarzenegger made yesterday when he announced that he plans to appeal the court’s decision to throw out the California games law.

The law, which has long been championed by The Terminator himself, would put yet more barriers between game development and their retail destination. Any game deemed ‘violent’ would have an adults only label and retailers would be fined $1000 for every game they sold to minors – this rating would be separate from the industry regulated ESRB system however.

While the law itself is perfectly reasonable, the idea of ‘game violence’ is very ill-defined and it’s possible that even the turtle-stomping antics of everybody’s favourite plumber brothers could be labelled as adult. The law would also see a majority of games regulated and seen in a similar manner to pornographic material, limiting the sale and availability for such games.

One needs only look at Manhunt 2 to see what an AO rating can do for a game.

It’s also seen as more than a little hypocritical that Arnie, star of films like The Terminator and Conan the Barbarian, is the figurehead for this law. That’s without even mentioning the awful Kindergarten Cop which is, frankly, the worst film ever made.

But maybe I’m only saying that because I expected the film to be more of a toddler slaughter-fest than it really was.

“I signed this important measure to ensure that parents are involved in determining which video games are appropriate for their children. The bill I signed would require that violent video games be clearly labelled and not be sold to children under 18 years old. Many of these games are made for adults and choosing games that are appropriate for kids should be a decision made by their parents. I will vigorously defend this law and appeal it to the next level,” said The Governator in a press release.

Should games be regulated by the government, or is purely a matter for parents? Let the debate rage on in the forums.
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