Go back sorta onto the topic now. Please?

Yeah. We're having trouble stopping the mass influx of illegals because they hate us so bad.

The "almost all the world hates America" myth is just that...a myth.

You lose all credibility when you call for the assassination of a President, "General".

I'm sure the game industry is her first priority. If anyone would vote against someone just because of the game industry, I think its the voters that would be screwing America.

Hillary is a disaster. McCain in '08.

I pitty the horned lizard - that is such a vile comparison.

So to stay on topic. Is someone actually advocating banning ALL video games, or just "R" rated games, in general? I can't possibly imagine banning something as general as a "video game".

After all, soccer moms across the country would be up in arms! Who would babysit their children for them if Mario couldn't do it?? You don't expect THEM to do it, do you?? Thats a very slippery slope. If they had to watch their own kids, then sales of new SUV's would slip due to less driving needs and salon appointments would tumble. They wouldn't be able to squeeze into a sports bra and go walk on a treadmill for 20 minutes at the gym. Next, thousands of car salesmen would be laid off and Hair and Nail Salons would close shop due to decreasing revenues from soccer moms. Riots would ensue and the chaos would be enormous. Prohibition 2.0 would arise. Black Market video game speak-easys would pop up all over suburbias around the nation. Crime would increase tenfold and the police would be strained to the point of losing control. I shiver to think of such a thing!

I don't think there's anything wrong with the ESRB... I like that they're letting us know what's in games before we buy them. If you can't buy a game because of the ESRB, then you're not old enough to vote anyway...

Anyway, I think it is true that kids imitate a lot of what they see. I have seen kids playing video games and imitating them. Luckily they weren't violent ones.

I don't think that has anything to do with the game as such. I think that on a regular basis. In fact there are a few people i'd like to inflict a great deal of violence on. Thankfully for me, the people I want to hurt, and perhaps society as a whole, i'm civilised and enlightened enough to not actually resort to it.

If anything, Games allow me to vent my anger and frustrations. So for people who think games make young people violent etc, I think it's rubbish. The thing that makes someone take a gun to school etc, must already be there, which is what allows them to latch onto certain games.

My view on banning is that you shouldn't do it. In the UK violence is more an issue, whereas the US seems to be Nudity ( the witcher is a good example ). Banning is a slap in the face for those who are responsible, and considering that the average age of gamers are this in their 20's, we shouldn't have to tolerate it. Punishment for children who play or have access to games above thier age rating falls to the retailers and parents.

Everything's wrong with the ESRB. There need to be subjective ratings, not just the objective crap. Also, don't rate mods, unless they're included without major protection. I really wanted Oblivion to be T, just because I don't  frequently play M games.

Again, some games that should be rated subjectively (Deus Ex, which encourages non-lethal takedowns [I always tried], and Operation Flashpoint [set in a war setting with a blatantly expressed "War Is Hell" standpoint] should've been T rated in my opinion.), whereas games like Manhunt with violence for violence's sake should be banned and not allowed back.

I don't mind ratings, but they should not be issued arbitrarily, behind closed doors, w/some secret process. They should be issued publicly, w/an objective process, and appealable. The game industry itself should play some role in it as well.

lastly, it shouldn't effect who can buy the game, or you run into the situation you do w/movies where they deliberately gut the movie of interesting content, or deliberately choose a bland script, in order to keep it out of the 'R' rating, which they fear will make them less money.

Also, hasn't anyone watched/read a clockwork orange? Some people are just pre-disposed towards violence. If you get rid of all entertainment and only give them a bible, they'll find inspiration towards violence even there. They happen to be playing video games, that's where they get the impulse. Get rid of video games, you don't get rid of the impulse, they'll find another source.

Does anyone believe we had less violence in the world before video games? Before there was television/movies? Before people were literate? Entertainment has never ever been the source of violence in the world, violence, in fact, seems as if it was far more abundant the less entertainment was around. Look at the insane amounts of violence in japenese entertainment, insane! Ichi the killer anyone? Is their crime rate correspondingly worse than ours?

I think we need *more* violence in entertainment. When I was a kid, I remember growing up on felix the cat, speed racer, and other crappy cartoons. Then one day, came Robotech and star blazers. Tons of death. But not just of bad guys, good guys that you grew to love and get to know throughout the series would die too. Had a big impact on me as a kid. Yes you are showing violence, and for the purpose of being cool and exciting, but more importantly, you are showing that there is a consequence to it too. Compare that to Gi Joe, another cartoon of the time. Entire armies would face off against each other, in other words, plenty of violence, yet no one would get killed, ever, in other words - no consequences of violence were ever shown. Perhaps *this* is why we are replete w/violence in our country, because we are sanitized in our youth not from violence, but from the consequences of it. The problem isn't that we don't show violence, its that we show it w/out showing its consequences. Kids grow up not appreciating how horrible violence can be. So join me in a More Violence campaign!

I think the appealable part is a bit bad. If a game's content is so bad it needs banning, the developers shouldn't make the game in the first place.

It should be public, though.

Yeah...back in the day of Mario on the ol' SNES I just couldn't stop jumping up and hitting my head on bricks, jumping on mushrooms, smacking turtles around, and watching coins pop out of their ass all the while sporting a very thick and luxurious mustache.

~Zoo

For the sake of argument, there was a lot of death in Speed Racer. (Heck, at least three cars explode during the theme song!)

That new Speed Racer movie looks pretty gay, just like the cartoon. The guy who plays the main character looks like he has mental issues when he's driving.

"That new Speed Racer movie looks pretty gay,"

I think it looks dumb, too. I'd see it in Imax, though...