Legislation in Video Games

Legislation is coming; it’s only a matter of time. While the Supreme Court has been reluctant to jump on the bandwagon, time and time again their reticence seem to have come down to one reason; bring us proof. While scientists aren’t necessarily on the take, their objectiveness has been called into question; primarily because somehow whoever foots the bill always seems to get the result they desired. And video games like rap music, rock music, comic books, etc. before them are ripe for the picking. It’s true that gamers are older but the fact of the matter is that games are already legislated in Germany and Australia to some extent; Great Britain is testing out the waters and other countries have varying degrees of censorship. What is good though is that the longer groups like the ESA can postpone the inevitable the better. Politicians rarely go against a vocal older constituency, but legislation is coming even if it only focuses on minors. So what do we do?

Well self-regulation helps wonders, support the ESA. It doesn’t mean that will stop the government but it will likely keep out the FCC. We might not like it, but the ESA is much more for us than the government ever will be. Pay attention to politics when it comes to gaming; don’t let those incompetent hacks in Washington mess with your games. Take it seriously. Yes I know, most of these laws are just to get local and national attention for a politician, but the Supreme Court is taking them seriously, so we’d better watch carefully. Lawsuits are great when they’re not frivolous and pointless. To have the legal community take us seriously we have to take ourselves seriously, so let’s stop with the nonsense lawsuits. Scientific studies come out all the time about the benefits of gaming in one form or another, write to your local newspapers, get the word out. People can be swayed. If we tell them games aren’t bad they’ll start questioning when someone tells them they are. Be proactive, play games and have fun.