Illinois Governor Signs "Safe Game Act"

[XxSATANxX]

In what will likely turn out to be a waste of time, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich signed the Illinois Safe Game Act today. This bill will make it a crime to sell or rent a video game rated M or higher to anyone under the age of 18.

Legal experts already expect the law to be ruled unconstitutional before going into effect January 1, 06. That pesky 1st amendment just keeps getting in the way of things like this.

Click right here (www.safegamesIllinois.org) to see Hot Rod's list of Gaming Bad Boyz :p

[Commissar Rob]

Whoooo! Doom 3 smacks GTA:SA! Ha! In your face, Rockstar!

Boy I wish there was something witty and insightful I could say about all this. I'm a parent, I don't want my son playing GTA anything just yet. I also don't want him reading Bukowski or watching David Lynch films.

I'm not trusting the snarky clerk at Borders to do that for me. It's my job, thanks. But I'm not so naive as to pertend that all parents are going to worry about what I do...gah. Problem with no good solution...

[agentgray]

I so want Rumble Rose.

...

I don't even know what it is.

I didn't vote for this guy, and for a while there I thought he was shaking things up really well within the state's government. However, he has aspirations higher than his office (like some other politicians we know) and this is the hot-button right now.

[solinari6]

Sings != Signs

[Liquidize105]

Sings = more Zing!

At least I hope that's what xxsatanxx was going for.

[Commissar Rob]

Sings != Signs

Actually all legislation in Illinois is introduced in musical form. This bill will be sung to the tune of "tomorrow."

Really livens up the C-Span channel, dontcha know... :D

[XxSATANxX]

Ah fuck.....SIGNS! Pleaze fix......

Okay I think I got it now...DOH!

[mondain98]

I dont get this. The ESRB "M" rating is for ages 17 and older, correct? So this law would make it illegal to sell games that the ESRB says are safe for 17 year olds, to 17 year olds?

[Crabby]

Ahem, still waiting for the news post concerning Jack Thompson's untimely demise here. I'm looking in your direction EA(rts). :rolleyes:

[King Drewsky]

Maybe I am jaded after 250 hours of in game playing time, but Halo2 just doesn't seem to be excessively violent. It almost borders on cartoon violence which only requires a teen rating. Now, all those 15 year old Timmies out there who curse and use racial slurs in Matchmaking are offensive, but the game makers aren't responsible for the idiocy of others.

[Crabby]

Maybe I am jaded after 250 hours of in game playing time, but Halo2 just doesn't seem to be excessively violent. It almost borders on cartoon violence which only requires a teen rating. Now, all those 15 year old Timmies out there who curse and use racial slurs in Matchmaking are offensive, but the game makers aren't responsible for the idiocy of others.


Are you kidding? You can't escape that nonsense. I used to play TopSpin online until I got fed up with those types of idiots. TOP SPIN What the heck are a bunch of high kids doing playing a tennis game online ?

[Intruder]

Thank god elections are coming up. I know where my vote is going :)

[51|RandoM]

Are you kidding? You can't escape that nonsense. I used to play TopSpin online until I got fed up with those types of idiots. TOP SPIN What the heck are a bunch of high kids doing playing a tennis game online ?

i'd have to be high to waste my time playing tennis online.


well, lets tie videogames to terrorism, then we can cover anything the government wants to do with the patriot act and we'll just have mass game burnings.

[AspectVoid]

You know, on the surface I don't have a problem with this law. What I have a problem with is that its only in relation to video games. If it was for all forms of media (Movies, Magazines, Books, Television, CD, etc) I would see it as a fair law that some people could think helps parents with their children.

Because it ONLY applies to video games, though, I see it as bull shit political crap that some hack wants to drive down the throats of responsible people because he thinks it'll help him get re-elected.

[Drinking_Buddy]

Half Life at number 3, what the hell? I guess its because of all the Counter Strike kiddies, we do need to get those little bastards off of that.

I am guessing that they mean Half Life 2, shows how much these watch dog groups care about your children's welfare. Appartenly not enough to get the games titles right.

Glad I dont live in Illinois.

[MosBen]

I continue to think that the video game industry should draft its own version of this type of law and lobby to get it passed. Make liability airtight from a developer standpoint, do whatever you want to cover your ass, just make some kind of enforcement procedures for the sale of adult games to kids. Then any time some kid goes on a rampage and he happened to play a violent game that legally he shouldn't have had the industry goes out in force blaming the parents, as they should. Obviously, I think the parents have a primary reponsibility, but there are layers of responsibility and the industry isn't doing a very good job on their part.

[TheEpicOfTyler]

It goes in effect 3 days before my 18th brithday. :p

I live in Illinois by the way.

[RMan]

Because it ONLY applies to video games, though, I see it as bull shit political crap that some hack wants to drive down the throats of responsible people because he thinks it'll help him get re-elected.
Although I completely agree with this sentiment, I think it’s just too impractical to expect such things. To push blanket policies like that would obviously take much longer, and hit much more resistance, and gain much less support (since these other mediums are not considered to need it as much). IOW, it’s kindof like trying to push pollution standards, and instead of just hitting industrial chemical dumps (which may be the most pressing problem), you’re trying to push a law that hits everything that can create pollution in one shot, all the way from cigarettes to nuclear waste dumps. I just don’t think it’s practical enough to actually happen in the real world (but again, I think it’d be nice).

[Kagger]

I may agree...if the law wasn't stupid by nature:

Make it illegal to sell a game rated 17+ to someone under 18.

[XxSATANxX]

Mostly this is just a waste of time. Most retailers already enforce the ESRB system
so this is a law in search of a problem.

Causes the ESRB to re write the ratings just for Illinois.

Rob's a hairdo looking for higher office.

Thankfully a number of associations are banning together to get this struck down before it ever sees the light of day. Sure makes me feel good to be here in Illinois where we waste time writing laws that can't see the light of day.

[RMan]

Make it illegal to sell a game rated 17+ to someone under 18.
Yes, but IMO the ESRB's recommendation that 17 be the age for mature titles is kinda silly, and being self-regulatory it wasn't a "legal" age limit. IMO the ratings should have been a little more modeled after the movie industry ratings, which would have saved a great deal of confusion. Unfortunately, they have a mature rating, and an adults only rating, which as far as enforcement is supposed to correspond to R and X movie ratings, IOW the AO rating is applied to the games that are “really bad”, like the X rating. But to make the M rating seem different from the AO rating (which starts at the legally recognized 18 years being adult age) they bumped the rating back a year, but that means that Mature titles are supposed to be appropriate for people that are not legally considered adults (IOW, children). IMO they did that specifically so that they had a rating that could get questionable games like GTA into Wal-Mart and other retailers that will not carry the games rated “worst of the worst” or in this case “Adults only”. Anyway, in the end they should have said Mature titles are for 18 only, and AO should have a different title and still be 18+ and considered “extremely mature” content. I think the ESRB’s decision in this respect was not very practical and bucked the existing system in a completely unnecessary way.

[Jukey]

Agree with Mondain98.. 17 year-olds in Illinois just got screwed.

[fndarkone]

man, i cant express in words how much i hate the first amendment. its always there not protecting me from the kid throwing newspapers at my house, athiests, gangs, and questioning of the government! Lets pull a 21st amendment on the first before children are exposed to violence and boobies and people start asking too many questions about what bush may or may not be doing.

[TheWookieeHasNoPants]

That list is kind of funny. It has The Guy Game which nobody played, but it doesn't have God of War. And where's BMX XXX? Won't somebody please think of the children?

[RMan]

Adults Only is 18+ same as NC-17 movies
Mature is 17+ same as R movies
Teen is 13+ same as PG-13 movies

What is so confusing about that?
Hehe, ok, first off Adults Only is technically the same as NC-17, but they use the reverse terminology for the age (IMO, I'd rather have the game version for this one if I could change both).
M 17+ is not the same as R rating, since R rating age "limit" is actually different in different territories, and there is some question about wether they mean 17 and under are restricted, or under 17 (the NC-17 rating makes this a bit muddied). Often the people I've spoken to equate the M 17+ rating to NC-17, mostly because of the 17.

I really don't care about ratings under that since they're not affecting distribution.

[Zulu107]

I'm proud to say I'm happy I don't live in Ill. because I can get violence on the streets of L.A. and and the dumb gov is a purveyor of fine violent films! :eek:

[Kagger]

Anyway, in the end they should have said Mature titles are for 18 only,

What would 18 only mean. thats the thing I don't get with that. One is 18 only, one is 18+

Its not like the movies where I can get into an R with my parents, but no way can I go to NC17.

I know where you are coming from with the rest of the story, but saying 18 only just doesn't make sense, because then it would be like "18 and under* for one and *18+* for the other. So that one year is what really makes the differnence...because with that way it could really seem like they are marketing it for younger kids

On that list...man, Half-Life 2 got out easy...they blamed it on the first game and innacuratly repored the list by "Released by National Institute on Media and the Family Minneapolis"


and how violent is psi-ops anyways?

[RMan]

What would 18 only mean. thats the thing I don't get with that. One is 18 only, one is 18+

Its not like the movies where I can get into an R with my parents, but no way can I go to NC17.
I meant 18 and older. To sum up my whole thing, I think it shoudld be 18 and older, because that's the legally recognized age at which we consider someone an adult and doing anything at 17 and older is just silly.
The main difference with movies from a restriction standpoint is that you can't take your 16 year old into an NC-17 movie, but you can take them into an R rated movie. This precise restriction cannot exist in a retail environment, because after the adult buys the NC-17 or R rated title they can show it to their child at home. So with games the M and AO titles would have the same restrictions legally, but the difference in rating would allow parents and retailers decide what products are appropriate for their children or consumer, very much like PG and PG-13 ratings.

[Achilles]

More Democrats coming out and hammering video games. Well if you don’t like it, vote him out and make it clear to the other candidate that getting rid of this law is why you voted for him.

I have no idea how he can say 'unlike the film industry, the game industry has shown that it can not self regulate'. If you go to any movie theater playing an R rated movie there will be some punk teens that managed to get into it, or a bad parent who takes their little kids to it because they couldn't find a baby sitter. His other statement that the game companies specifically target children with the sales of M rated games is also false, how many game ads do you see in the first place much less ones targeted at kids? To my reckoning the kid demographic is fairly small for the game industry (most of the big sellers are M and T rated games). E games target kids, but M rated games go after the much larger and richer 18+ demographic.

[Heretic Machine]

You know what should be illegal? Wasting time and money introducing bills that have already been ruled unconstitutional several times over.