US Representative Cliff Stearns Interview

[JCalCGM]

FiringSquad (http://www.firingsquad.com/) gets some answers from US Rep. Cliff Stearns about his recent bill H.R.5912, known as the Truth In Video Games Ratings Act. You can check out the interview right here (http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11651). Here is a snip:
Rep. Sterns: At the hearing, the witness from the FTC stated that the video game industry nearly always provides rating information in advertising. However, Dr. Kimberly Thompson, Associate Professor and Director, Kids Risk Project, Harvard School of Public Health, testified at the hearing that, “We consistently find that the games contain significant amount of violence and explicit content that may be of concern to parents, which is inconsistently labeled by the rating board.

[bean19]

Extremely professional and appropriate interview JCal. I really enjoyed it.

Now just fix Firing Squad's layout so that there isn't so much stark hard to look at white and I'll make the whole site a daily read. Extremely impressed with many of the interviews linked from you guys.

[Goronmon]

Well, reading that was a waste of 5 minutes of my life.

This was particularly interesting.

FiringSquad: The ESRB has said it cannot play the full game when it rates a product because it would take far too long to do so. What is your response to this?

Rep. Sterns: Every industry should know the full content of its products whether that product is a video game, a movie, or a food. Give me a fucking break.

[bean19]

Goronmon - I agree with you on this. There really isn't enough time for the ESRB to play through every game before rating it. What would be more helpful than insisting that every game be played through completely to establish a rating would be for there to be strict penalties for failing to correctly report all of the game's adult or possibly adult content.

Oh right! That's already here. Rockstar paid out the ass for Hot Coffee. I don't think Bethesda was hit as hard. . . does anyone know? Did they get a big fine or was this as much (or more) of an ESRB mistake?

[DarkEternal]

Give me a fucking break.

Yes, in order to provide a full assessment, they expect the ESRB to play through Dragon Quest VIII at least three times. Once again, congressmen prove that they know absolutely nothing about what they're trying to legislate.

[MoJoBehaumat]

Man I found the perfect job, just need to work for ESRB and help protect my country from all of the virtual bloodshed :rolleyes:

[bean19]

Man I found the perfect job, just need to work for ESRB and help protect my country from all of the virtual bloodshed :rolleyes:

I thought you were a viral marketer already? You post the weirdest Sony promotional posts in the weirdest threads for them. . . Forget what thread it was last week but it had very little to do with ANY particular console and yet you made a list of Sony exclusives you were excited about. Oh, it was Peter Moore's discussion about how the industry needs to grow in order to grow the market - where he promoted many of his competitor's more accessible and innovative products.

I know you probably can't say so if you really are a shill, but could you do something sort of in code or something.. . Ooh. You could make another completely insane Sony promo post in this thread.

[Goronmon]

Oh right! That's already here. Rockstar paid out the ass for Hot Coffee. I don't think Bethesda was hit as hard. . . does anyone know? Did they get a big fine or was this as much (or more) of an ESRB mistake?Thats another thing, the fact that he agrees with the penalties against Rockstar puts him in the "Fucktard" category in my book.

[jwbxx]

How could they actually play through every game in its entirety? I mean shit, I got mgs2 4 years ago, and I'm still watching cut scenes.

[Deathbane27]

Coming soon: Self-rated and unrated games.