Gamers say video games aren’t political, but here we are yet again dealing with video games and literal politics. Back in 2012, a bill was passed to restrict the sale and rental of violent video games to minors. This was very reasonable. Children shouldn’t be playing games like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Though the ESRB was established to rate video games and their respective content. Unfortunately, many retailers were very lax and sold those violent games to minors without an adult present all the time. A stricter law was needed to mitigate this occurrence.
Fast forward to 2021. Illinois Rep. Marcus C. Evans, Jr. wants to amend the law to include:
“Modifies the definition of “violent video game” to mean a video game that allows a user or player to control a character within the video game that is encouraged to perpetuate human-on-human violence in which the player kills or otherwise causes serious physical or psychological harm to another human or an animal. Modifies the definition of “serious physical harm” to include psychological harm and child abuse, sexual abuse, animal abuse, domestic violence, violence against women, or motor vehicle theft with a driver or passenger present inside the vehicle when the theft begins. Makes conforming changes, including repealing a Section concerning the labeling of violent video games by video game retailers.“
This change would include even Teen-rated games like Tekken and Street Fighter. I don’t think this is the right course of action to take at all. I do agree that games that allow you to harm people psychologically should be for adults. Domestic violence and violence against women is much more nuanced. While violently attacking defenseless sex workers in GTA V is rather disgusting, we can’t and shouldn’t compare that to Chun-Li getting spin kicked by Ryu. But that’s a conversation for another day. What’s important is that these laws are made by people who have zero understanding or experience with video games. This amendment definitely needs to be fleshed out better. I think actual education in schools about these topics like domestic violence, abuse, etc would service children and teens better than taking away Teen-rated games.
A lot of people in the gaming industry poked fun at the new amendment. But the one that stuck out the most was none other than Tekken Series Director Katsuhiro Harada. He took to twitter to make fun of how absurd this amendment would be:
If you want to read more about the law and its subsequent revisions, you can check it out here. Do you think this new amendment is undercooked? Let us know in the comments below.
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