subject: Schwarzenegger Takes Time Out To Target The Very Thing That Made Him Rich [print this page] Written by Podunker: nmutbone Written by Podunker: nmutbone
Seriously, there's a lot of reasons to be confused about this situation. You could expect less violence oriented actors to take a hard headed approach on violent video games, but Arnie? This is the same Austrian that smashed heads as a Barbarian, shot a crocodile in the mouth as a Witness Protection agent and said "no, sir" to a hunter class alien in bloody fashion. You could almost say that the Terminator would never have gotten to the position that he is currently in without a bit of violence. It was his namesake before he started taking the less than violent roles that made money because they featured him in a role he wouldn't normally take - a violent role.
Still, Conan the Barbarian has committed the worst type of hypocrisy by taking a strong stance against violent video games and it is making a lot of gamers sick to their stomachs. You might ask why this is such a hot issue right now. Well, Friday was the last day that you could oppose Shwarzenegger's case against the Entertainment Merchants Association. Should this law pass, it will restrict rentals or sales of violent video games. The law details what it considers to be violence (pretty tight standards, actually) and would have a huge effect on the sale of video games in California. A total of nine states stepped forward to oppose this law. Looks like its time for the Kindergarten Cop to break out his massive machine gun again.
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Who were the unlikely heroes in this supportive brief? Well, a surprisingly conservative assortment of states filed a joint brief against the law:
States weren't the only entities to step forward against this law. Among other organizations not supporting this law were the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the Motion Picture Association of America. Among the many arguments that opponents to the law made were that the law would be unconstitutional censorship and could end up squandering law enforcement on the increasingly popular "grand theft auto made me do it" defense that only arose after censorship began to get serious.
Another argument against the proposed law is from the ABFFE, which argued that the law would be ineffective. This organization argued that, in order to shield our youth from violence completely - something required to make this law worthwhile - you would have to either censor or hide them from most of the major works of religion, literature, culture, history and art. Of course, the same arguments were made this time around as were made in previous attempts to pass this law at the state level. Such laws provide the ability for the public to place blame on video games while it should be centered on the individual or the parents of an offending child.
One of the distinguishing features of the law that is bothering some opponents is that the law will ignore the long standing ESRB classifications of video games and, instead, set its own standards on which games will be considered violent. This law could also potentially set groundwork for alterations based on specific guidelines. Such a law could then potentially allow some games to be blocked for sale while others could sale by. Imagine guidelines that a game could be restricted because it features a "female protagonist shooting a laser gun at aliens" while a game featuring a "male protagonist shooting a machine gun into helpless deer" could sail right through. Does that sound like an opportunity for someone to make some money?
This attempt by California to regulate violent video games is yet another attempt in the tired cycle of censorship. The arguments can be recycled over and over again from previous attempts and, so far, judges at many levels have seen it that way as well. However, this latest attempt is really starting to show a problem in the justice system. Those with power will continue to push their selfish agenda again and again until they get the results they want. Are there bigger problems to worry about right now instead of wasting money suing the entertainment industry once again? Apparently, Arnie still has some cash left over from Collateral Damage and wants to spend it trying to destroy the cultural phenomenon that made him rich.
This law has twice been "terminated" by federal courts making this attempt by Arnold the third try at violent video game legislation. Unless Schwarzenegger finds a way to travel back in time and take out the makers of Doom and Mortal Kombat in a most unsavory way, it looks like the sensible crowd will once again squash silly censorship attempts by the state of California.
Schwarzenegger Takes Time Out To Target The Very Thing That Made Him Rich
