A group of four senators have called for the Nintendo Wii to be dealt with more harshly by the ESRB, because the Wii remote allows for more interactivity and, apparently, teaches children how to kill people. Yes, they seriously suggest that the Wiimote is a valuable tool for an education in murder.
"That system permits children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and murders in Manhunt 2 rather than simply manipulating a game pad," claimed the senators as they called for a re-re-rate of Rockstar's latest mess. "This led one clinical psychologist to state that the realistic motions used with the Wii mean that 'You're basically teaching a child the behavioral sequencing of killing.' While this was not cited as the reason for the BBFC decision, we do believe that the ESRB should take the Wiimote controller, and future advances in game controllers, which create more realistic gaming environments, into consideration."
Of course, the biggest problem here is that they are once again hiding behind the children to justify their thirst for regulation. Manhunt 2 is rated M for Mature, not K for Kiddy Killin's A-GoGo. As Nintendo pointed out, the average gamer age is 33 and this game is not intended for young children. Some people need to evolve their prehistoric thinking. We've moved on from the age of Tetris.
The letter goes on to challenge the ESRB's authority, essentially, asking it to review the "robustness" of its rating system. Of all the things I could say about the ESRB, I would never accuse it of slacking. It only allowed Manhunt 2 to become an M-rated game after edits were made, so these senators clearly don't know what they're talking about. What scares me though, are the claims made against the ESRB's system, as if it isn't good enough. Disagree with the ESRB I sometimes may, but I do not want government poking its nose into the board's affairs. A government-controlled ratings board would mean the death of videogame evolution. GTFO our ratings board, senators.
[Cheers, Aerox]
Contest:
7:06 AM on 11.21.2007
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GOOGLE RON PAUL.
* Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)
* Evan Bayh (D-Ind.)
* Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)
and most importantly...
* Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) <====!!!!!
(Leiberman is actually a Democrat but ran -- and obviously won -- as an independent because of a failed coup against him by the DNC in Connecticut a few years back.)
GOOGLE CTHULHU!
The answer is so clear, I don't know why I never thought of it before. We gamers need to unite and break off to form our own nation. Imagine it, a land where the media embraces gaming across the board, where the developers are able to work unrestricted and where the folks who run things are too busy playing Call of Duty 4 online to worry about scarring young'uns with overly violent in-game content.
We probably wouldn't last more than a generation or two given the hideously unbalanced male-to-female ratio. Then again, with the proper breeding programs in place some folks who would otherwise have never had a chance at getting laid would in fact be required to by law.
Ah screw it... let's just keep bitching and referencing one another's sexual inclinations on Internet message boards. You know, keep on keepin' on with what REALLY makes a difference.
Me for President '08.
I really wasn't trying to open it, just trying to see if I could bait some trolls. lulz
the rest of this is pure and cheap populisim
Populism is popular.
HELOOOOOO AUSTRALIA!
This should be looked on the other side of things, if an M rated game gets a Wii port, because the Wii sell like hotcakes, and gets rated AO because of motion controls, it will become a huge commercial advantage to M$ and to Sony, on the other hand if the publisher tones down on the motion controls, fearing that it will get an AO rating and therefore not be sold at all, we will get the same game as the other platforms bu only uglier, not expanded on the platform strength, once again a commercial advantage to M$ and Sony, this buddies is pure lobbying.
unfortunally, you're damn right.
Power of the State is what the greatest country on the planet was founded on. It's gone, and we need it back. The rights of individual state government is hardly anarchy. Someone has been indoctrinated.
/tangent
LOL, good one. The ESRB system is fundamentally broken, and prevents games that address genuine adult themes (as opposed to mindless gore) from ever being made for the mainstream US market. It made sense to an industry desperately trying to sanitise it's output after Mortal Kombat and Night Trap, it's an anachronism now.
A decent ratings system would protect contentious content, instead of making it's A-O rating a commercial death warrant. Retailers banning a game is no better than the US Govt. banning it.
Like it has been said a billion times, it's rated M for a reason. It's not T. It's not K for Kiddy Killin's A-GoGo. It's Mature. Meaning ages 17 and up. Now if every Wii came with Manhunt 2 packed in it or if it was rated E, then I could understand a reason for controversy. The only controversy I see is bad parenting and a lack of monitoring what games kids are playing. So go take the letter and shove in your the trash can. Repeatedly.
Just paint the tip of your finger with fluorescent orange and you'll be fine because it will verify that your fingernail is not a gun barrel.
This isn't even about Manhunt 2, that's just what the senators have used. The story is that they want Wii games to be rated more harshly. Besides which, isn't my job to cover the news? News came in, I covered it. Lord Christ almighty, go take some Valium.
@ jim,
I think nubc4kes was yelling at the senators' stupidity in bringing up the game and not the fact that you brought it up in your news story.
I feel that's all that needs to be said.
->John B: If you think the fact that it's democrats trying to push this is worthy of note, you haven't been following videogame legislation attempts all too closely.
I guess I wrote my post a little quickly and what I wrote didn't come off the way I wanted it to. I wasn't directing it at you. I'm just angry at politicians who won't drop the subject. Yes, I understand the idea is to make the ratings harsher on the Wii, but it is just a direct spin off of this whole Manhunt 2 shenanigans. I'm sorry I wrote it such a way that it seemed that I was pissed you wrote the story. I'm actually glad you wrote the story. I find all your posts very informative and awesome, particularly the ones that cover games in politics. So please accept my apology, and will contain all impulsive rage rants. Or I'll least read them through several times after I've cooled down before I post it.
<3 Nubc4kes
It was a shot at RetroForce Go/Podtoid for trying to call out conservatives with respect to game legislation in one of their podcasts a few weeks back, making it sound as though conservatives support this kind of legislative BS. Actually, we don't.
/tangent"
Power of the state was one of the reasons why civil rights/anti-lynching legislation had a difficult time being passed in the early/mid twentieth century.
Personally, I'm just tired of the fact that since I support equal rights, health care reform, and the idea that rushing to war really isn't all that great; all of this somehow makes me a communist who wants to ban everything and thinks 9/11 was a government conspiracy.
Stop it! Just stop it!
Okay, so I didn't say the last part. But I thought it.