Ratchet & Clank Dev Expresses Resistance to Video Game Laws

Ratchet & Clank Dev Expresses Resistance to Video Game Laws

September 25, 2008

Insomniac CEO Ted Price has weighed in on video game legislation in an interview with Shacknews:

I think video game legislation has no place in America. It saddens me to see legislators stomping all over our First Amendment rights for their own specific interests.

 

We're going through what every other entertainment industry has gone through, and that's being the temporary scapegoat for society's ills. I think that we as an industry do a fantastic job of policing ourselves, we have one of the most effective, if not the most effective rating system in any entertainment industry right now.

 

It won't be until we have more gamers running for office that this will calm down. It's something that we'll weather, because we are right, what we do is defensible under the Constitution and shouldn't be regulated by the government.

As GamePolitics has reported previously, in 2006 Price filed affidavits with federal courts which were considering video game laws in Louisiana and Minnesota.

The well-known developer recommends that gamers contact their elected officials to express their feelings on video game legislation.

Comments

Re: Ratchet & Clank Dev Expresses Resistance to Video Game Laws

Agreed 100% with Ted.

There is no proof that "violent" video games or any video game cause harm. After all, video games are protected by the First Amendment, and if you’re going to infringe on a Constitutional right like freedom of speech based on the claim that the speech in question is “dangerous”, then you better damn well show absolute proof of that. It’s NEVER been done.

If there is a danger so clear and so threatening to the American people that causes these self-righteous politicians to step on the First Amendment, wouldn’t any rational thinking person have to believe that the danger would have to be so obvious and clear that there would be no argument against it? Especially since you’re directly contradicting a Constitutional amendment.

We, the American people, have not been given any valid reason to believe that this abridging of our freedom of speech is necessary. There just simply isn’t any evidence at all of any danger from “violent” video games. This “protection” from “violent” video games isn’t needed or wanted for that matter, but please feel free to use everyone’s tax dollars for protection from things like a 10-foot storm surge from a Category 3 or greater hurricane or the fuselage of a 747 airplane entering our workplaces or our homes. 

-Back in Black from a forced hiatus by Hurricane Gustav.

Re: Ratchet & Clank Dev Expresses Resistance to Video Game Laws

Like Ted say, people are looking for a scapegoat, a scapegoat where people THINK that it won't fight back against the attacks.

Ted also stated that we're just like every other industry in the past that was given a lot of shit until people started to understand about that one industry.

 

"We may be human, but we're still animals" -Steve Vai (World's greatest guitarist!)

Re: Ratchet & Clank Dev Expresses Resistance to Video Game Laws

The part I agree with the most out of Ted's comments is that this fear-mongering by politicians, parent groups, and certain insane lawyers will just have to be weathered out until the "gaming" generations take power.  They don't necessarily need to be the politicians though, they just have to the majority of the voting block.  Politicians fear nothing more than not being re-elected.

Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cook-book! Little Red Cook-book!

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beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
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Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
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ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
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JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
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Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
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Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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