HR-287: Would make it illegal to buy. rent, or sell games not rated by the ESRB. and would also make - Polidicks

It really disgusts me how these politicians just go with all these knee-jerk reactions and don't even bother to sit down and think something through.

Most of these people that bring up these type bills are in their 60s and 70s and don't understand video games. We should all call our H.R representatives and tell them to vote no on this bill.

First the unrated games. Soon the M rated ones "why do you need to play violent games anyway? The safety of [b]OUR CHILDREN[/b] is more important than some hobby." Seriously none of this shit will help.

Does this mean that if you have indie games on your laptop and you're on a roadtrip, you're a criminal?

I'dd write to my Representative if it wasn't Micheal Bachman *sigh*

Now illegal: [img]http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/3074/illegalviolentvideogame.png[/img] How am I going to play my violent educational murder simulators now?

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;39262416]Now illegal: [img]http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/3074/illegalviolentvideogame.png[/img] How am I going to play my violent educational murder simulators now?[/QUOTE] Damn, I'm pretty much sure I had all but the bottom left. Great games for a kid, if I remember correctly.

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;39262416]Now illegal: [img]http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/3074/illegalviolentvideogame.png[/img] How am I going to play my violent educational murder simulators now?[/QUOTE] Sonic CD is educational?

What if the ESRB refuses this since they aren't a government run agency? :v:

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;39262416]Now illegal: [img]http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/3074/illegalviolentvideogame.png[/img] How am I going to play my violent educational murder simulators now?[/QUOTE] Treasure Mountain!? That game was my shit

how exactly would an indie dev get rated?

Couldn't someone just make a petition to have this bill vetoed or something?

[QUOTE=Johnny Guitar;39262556]how exactly would an indie dev get rated?[/QUOTE] They submit their information via hard mail to the ESRB company. Then they wait for the ESRB to approve the materials and send you a username and password. They don't specify the process behind what you do next but I'm sure it's extremely long and tedious.

Holy fucking shit that is a fucking ridiculous bill. Are video games considered meth now? Why do they keep avoiding mental healthcare? Are they determined to fuck with everything but something that can actually help? Fucking christ the government makes me want to kill things far more than any video game can. In fact, let's just ban Congress. That will protect the nation.

[QUOTE=Derpmonster;39262577]Couldn't someone just make a petition to have this bill vetoed or something?[/QUOTE] [URL="http://wh.gov/m0lq"][IMG]http://sadpanda.us/images/1354710-WGQV7IO.png[/IMG][/URL] I just made this petition and I hope it's good enough to get the required signatures. Add it to the OP as well, if it's an acceptable petition. And let's not start this "oh the government doesn't listen why sign" bullshit. It's better to voice an opinion that to not voice it at all.

[QUOTE=Unimaginative;39261584]People say this but then shit passes if you don't voice opposition, it can pass[/QUOTE] Even if it did pass it would get taken to the supreme court and shot down before it even went into effect. People (and courts) tend to take the first amendment more seriously than the second.

[QUOTE=Corey_Faure;39263070][URL="http://wh.gov/m0lq"][IMG]http://sadpanda.us/images/1354710-WGQV7IO.png[/IMG][/URL] I just made this petition and I hope it's good enough to get the required signatures. Add it to the OP as well, if it's an acceptable petition.[/QUOTE] 100,000 signatures? A little excessive.

This isn't going anywhere. Companies like Valve, Apple, Google and the like are going to come down on this like a ton of fucking bricks, mostly because [i]their[/i] game profits rely on indie games that lack ESRB ratings made by devs that can't afford to submit them. Also, I'm sure the EFF is going to get involved once Reddit finds out, which if I'm right, was about...ooohhh...34 minutes ago? Haha. Much like SOPA, this bill is doomed from the outset. [QUOTE=JXZ;39261811]How many envelopes and stamps do you have?[/QUOTE] Like any of that even gets remotely near the senators...and even if it did they'd ignore it. They don't care what the public wants. [editline]18th January 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Rellow;39262649]Holy fucking shit that is a fucking ridiculous bill. Are video games considered meth now? Why do they keep avoiding mental healthcare? Are they determined to fuck with everything but something that can actually help? [/QUOTE] It's a mixture of social conservatism, "ERMAGHERD VIDEO GAMES ARE BAD", and the knee-jerk "Problem? Let's treat one aspect that may only be tangentially related and hope feeling good is enough to actually fix it!" mindset our society has.

[QUOTE=Corey_Faure;39263070][URL="http://wh.gov/m0lq"][IMG]http://sadpanda.us/images/1354710-WGQV7IO.png[/IMG][/URL] I just made this petition and I hope it's good enough to get the required signatures. Add it to the OP as well, if it's an acceptable petition.[/QUOTE] 100,000 is a hell of a lot. Shoot for 20,000 and hope to get farther by word of mouth. Going far in excess of the goal is always more impressive than barely meeting it.

[QUOTE=FreakyMe;39263227]100,000 is a hell of a lot. Shoot for 20,000 and hope to get farther by word of mouth. Going far in excess of the goal is always more impressive than barely meeting it.[/QUOTE] 100,000 is the minimum now, they did it in response to all the anti gun control petitions that were totally obliterating the 20,000 minimum

Maybe once it gets 150 signatures (if it does), it will gain some traction as its listed in the open petitions section of the site.

They tried shit like this before in Cali, it got struck down as unconstitutional because it near-censorship. Like, for example, films don't HAVE to be rated. The whole 'you can't sneak into R rated movies if you're underage' is theater policy

minecraft is now illegal as it doesnt have an esrb rating Great Job!

Wouldn't this also make any flash game made illegal This could potentially shut down the game vault for newgrounds which is pretty much their strongest point, kill miniclip and armour games etc.. And this could lead to films and TV shows as well, you wouldn't be able to bring over any form of media from Australia, the UK, new Zealand, Canada etc cause they all use different rating methods I can't do much cause I'm an Australian citizen but if I was you guys I wouldn't stand for this Bullshit

[QUOTE=Kuro.;39261565]Sauce: [url]http://thehill.com/images/stories/blogs/flooraction/jan2013/hr287.pdf[/url] Outwardly, this bill seems to codify into federal law what most states like California did with carding people (might have been federal law already, don't quote me on this), however, read between the lines and you will see this means any game that hasn't been rated by the ESRB becomes illegal for sale in the US. What does this mean? This means indie games, mobile apps, games that predate the ESRB system, or any software with no ESRB rating can no longer be legally purchased in the country. This essentially has the potential to kill the indie game scene overnight, as submitting your game for ESRB certification is prohibitively expensive for anyone other than the major publishers. (I would go so far as to expect the industry to support this as it greatly benefits them to cut a huge source of competition out of the market in one fell swoop.) This likely also means that importing games from foreign countries is illegal now as well, as other countries use their own ratings systems that this law does not recognize. That means no more being able to buy some limited edition that only Europe got, or some game that its publisher refuses to localize *cough*Bravely Default*cough*, because it uses CERO or PEGI instead of ESRB.[/QUOTE] Fucking government fuckheads, now they want game control as well as gun control? Fuck them! They aren't getting my guns or my games!!

it'll only be a matter of time before unrated games are sold on the streets by mexican dealers "esse, i got some real good stuff here man, shits pure bro"

whatever happened to my 2nd ammendment right?? fuck you obama

ESRB needs to be removed and they're looking to give them more power. ookay

I want the whole congress, all houses. Anyone with any political influence murdered. Down with everything, freedom to the people.

[QUOTE=Rellow;39262649]Why do they keep avoiding mental healthcare? Are they determined to fuck with everything but something that can actually help?[/QUOTE] Because that's actually a really fucking difficult problem to deal with? It's not like you can just throw money at mental health professionals and make them fix everything.