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

[A_Pigeon]

ban virtual guns. keep real guns.

[Karmah]

Goodbye indie games.
Can't even make them now

[CaptainRagequit]

As a retro gamer, this hurts me severely. Although the likelihood of this passing as slim, if this does, it means anything before genesis and super nintendo is gone. This would mean that if you wanted to try a risky way of smuggling, games like super mario brothers would proably cost hundreds.

[Trogdon]

[QUOTE=Piciul;39264029]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"[/QUOTE]

I don't mean to be a dick here but could you not use these stereotypes, Mexicans aren't the only dealers of illegal things and certainly are outnumbered by their white counterparts. While its fine to make a joke about the illegal trading of games, lets keep race out of this
Thanks

[Outcast_X]

What local representatives should we call/email about this?

[Breen]

[QUOTE=iTrolol;39266728]

There should be a new rule implemented, if you have no fucking clue what you're talking about, have no experience with the topic, etc, you should not be able to pass legislature about it.[/QUOTE]

Nice idea, But the people that don't know their shit, don't know that they don't know, and therefore think that they know their shit and press ahead anyway

[Phygon]

And from that day forward, indie games were never heard from again

[Miya]

this would essentially kill off japanese/region imports too

all the neckbeards would build a Visual novel/porn game black market.

[ducklingqt]

[QUOTE=Glitchman;39266149]So we can have all our violent big-name games like call of duty, because they can afford be rated, but all these nifty indie games with cute bunnies and happy platforming would be banned? The heck.[/QUOTE]

ESRB pricing:
$800 fee for development costs under $250,000
$4,000 fee for development costs over $250,000

The horror, it's not that much.

[HumanAbyss]

[QUOTE=ducklingqt;39282400]ESRB pricing:
$800 fee for development costs under $250,000
$4,000 fee for development costs over $250,000

The horror, it's not that much.[/QUOTE]

it's a big enough deal to poor developers...?

And it's entirely pointless so why defend it

[Trumple]

[QUOTE=legolover122;39261726]This can't pass.

Like this would pretty much kill indie games.[/QUOTE]

[quote]
The ESRB responded to our story, correcting the price. "ESRB has a reduced fee of $800 for games that have development costs under $250,000
[/quote]
[url]http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/09/psp-minis-developer-surprised-by-cost-of-esrb-ratings/[/url]

Lots of sources seem to claim that for small games, the rating price is relatively cheap. No biggie for indie games!

[editline]19th January 2013[/editline]

oh ninjad

[HumanAbyss]

Does no one see the problem with this...? Have none of you ANY idea how bad the MPAA(Motion Picture Admissions of America) rating agency is? It's fucking government mandated and it has SERIOUSLY hurt independent film in America for the last 30 years. This isn't okay. This isn't acceptable. Now some of you are seeing the ERSB take a damn near identical spot to the MPAA and you're OKAY with that?

Yeah, indie games can pay for those ratings, I'm sure that's not going to be the problem. I'm afraid, like the MPAA, they'll be extremely rough on indie games with controversial content and we'll be even further from having any significant advancement in gaming, thematically.

Just like up what government mandated rating groups like the MPAA have done to small films and indie films and tell me that's a good idea for our hobby.