Today's Soapbox

Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2008

9:33 a.m.

Holy cow. I should not have read the news this morning, as I am now upset. It seems like everywhere I turn, people are trying to create a big brother police state.

The first article I got upset about was this one. Short story is that NY passed legislature requiring all video games to have ratings posted on them, and all consoles to have parental blocking devices. The thing is, all video games ALREADY have ratings posted on them. Duh! The industry self regulates so that the government doesn't step in to really screw things up. Why are video games considered the root of all the world's evil?

I had a conniption a few weeks ago, when Ed and I went to the local Best Buy to pick up Mass Effect. The game is rated M for Mature ( because ohmygod! there's a lesbian alien sex scene, the horror! I only watched the one video I linked to, but that was no worse than what the Sims 2 comes with) and when we checked out, the screen prompted the lady to verify that we were of age, which I can't remember if it was 16 or 18. I knew walmart had its own censoring polices in that they will not sell M rated games (which is why I refuse to buy any type of media there), but I wasn't aware that other stores had a policy on game sales as well.

All these policies do is make it more unlikely that game developers will create games aimed for a mature audience. Everyone seems to be into this family wholesomeness craze, but it completely gets my goat. I cannot stand the prudishness of people. I like sleaze, at times anyway. And when I want sleaze, I'd like to be able to find it. Amazingly, you CAN have a good game with a bit of sleaze and sexiness attached, the same with movies. But no, because it's a taboo thing, the only sleaze you can get is pure porn. So my choices are kiddified or porn, nothing in between.

AND, get this, according to the Entertainment Software Association "the average game player is 35 years old." What, really??? Imagine that, and most of the games made are targeted towards children, and need to be child safe, so god forbid, they don't see something that might shatter their little brains. Also from the site, "85% of games sold last year were rated "Everyone (E)"... while only 15% of the games sold...were rated "Mature (M)." But the average age of the gamer is 35! And more adult women play games than male children. Huh. This seems to be a more adult media, so why do we need to kiddify it even more? *grumble*

I wonder how many politicians and lawmakers actually play games. This is the main reason I will not even consider voting for McCain. I don't know any of his policies or plans, and I don't care. I am going to be completely ageist on this one and not vote for someone who could be my grandfather. He's at least two generations away from my own values and experiences. I'm tired of people who are so far away from every day reality trying to tell me what to do. I'll most likely end up with the Libertarian candidate again, assuming he's not too kooky, or maybe the Green party. Third parties need their representation too!

Anyway, that was the first article. The second article that riled me up was this one about Pennsylvania trying to make it required for many sex offenders to wear GPS devices. I have no idea whether this is common practice already or not, but do they do this for say... murderers? I am in no way condoning rape or violent sexual aggression or anything like that, but come on people! These criminals have already served their time, and I'm sure they have parole officers and checkups that they have to do. Do we really need to leash them as well? And I am sure that a lot of sex offenders were young men, with younger underage girlfriends within a few years of their own age, but gasp! because they had sexual relations, they were breaking the law. For crying out loud, I was 17 with a 24 year old boyfriend, I could have gotten him into a shitload of trouble. And that last paragraph? Where the newly released offenders have to PAY to wear their leashes? 5 to 20 dollars a day? Those who haven't registered their addresses probably dont have addresses to register. If they don't have addresses, how in hell are they going to afford to pay daily for tracking. That's what jail is for, to punish and rehabilitate. Why keep punishing them afterwards, and if they aren't rehabilitated, then don't let them out.

And finally, this article . I didn't even know there was a law that attempted to regulate online content. You can't do that. That's censorship. That's violating the first amendment. That's ridiculous! Again, all we seem to care about is kiddifying the nation. I don't have kids, I don't plan on having kids, and I sure as hell don't want to have to spend my life catering to everyone else's kids. If you have children, take responsibility for them. Monitor what they watch, or what games they buy, or whatever. But don't ask the government and the rest of the nation to do it for you. I am not the parent of your child, and I don't need to tailor my habits and my interests to suit the guidelines you consider suitable for your child.

I'm just tired of everyone trying to protect everybody else. I'll choose what I need to be protected from, thank you very much. Seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, good idea, but again, not worthy of a law. If you're an idiot, and you don't wear one, then hey, when you're road pizza, thats one less idiot taken out of the gene pool. We've saved so many people from themselves, that we just HAVE to be diluting the good genes and making the nation a little bit less intelligent.

I fear for the future sometimes.

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