New York: The New Authority on What’s Appropriate for You to Play

If nothing else has remained consistent in the video game universe, it’s that people on Capitol Hill will continue to (attempt to) define what is morally acceptable for its citizens. Like Lieberman had done nearly twenty years ago (against the diabolical Mortal Kombat), Capitol Hill is up to its hijinks again. On July 22nd, Governor David Paterson (governator of New York) signed a bill that will lead to restrictions on the content of violence in games and help families better monitor gruesome titles.

The law will create an advisory council to study the effects of violent games on children. They will also require mandatory parental controls on consoles by 2010 and more obvious age ratings on the packaging of games. Get ready for a gong show.

The question is: can the government successfully pass laws that are dually non-reversible as unconstitutional and a waste of taxpayers’ money? The organization, Americans for Tax Reform, suggests the bill is too ambiguous to accomplish its goal. This notwithstanding a history with similar bills that have been unsuccessful in over a dozen other states, struck down in courts as unconstitutional.

This “moral preening” as Grover Norquist, president of the ATR suggests, only serves to “…waste $70,000 of your tax dollars.” Should this New York law stand, the immediate effects will be $100 in civil fines for violation of the parental control provisions. So, New Yorkers are in for a treat, not only eating the tax dollars to get the law enacted, paying the immediate fines for violations, but they’ll inevitably pay for the lawsuit (on both sides) when it’s later found unconstitutional in court.

There is also an unprecedented attacking of video games without consideration of other forms of media. As a result, it turns out that they’ve got people in all facets of the entertainment industry frazzled. Richard Taylor of the Entertainment Software Association hints at the predictive outcome, “If New York lawmakers feel it is the role of government to convene a government commission on game content, they could next turn to other content such as books, theater and film.” Somehow, this nightmare was strongly supported in the Assembly and Senate this legislative election year.

Even cities and states that have witnessed invalidation by courts have attempted to equate video violence with pornography, and both were not made available to children. Moreover, courts ruled that restrictions violated the U.S. Constitution’s freedom of speech protections. So, now lawmakers will have to look to semantics to supersede our amendment rights.

We should be outraged these politicians are trying to create Senate debate topics out of failed endeavors. At the end of the day, they’re wasting our tax money claiming they can align our moral compass on topics like video games — so they don’t have to discuss topics of pressing interest. Luckily for me, they haven’t been able to pass any [more] durable laws concerning video games and pornography — I like both.