Vote on Venezuelan Game Ban Looming

Hello Pete,

Long time reader in Gamepolitics, first time commenter. I live in Venezuela, and I represent a group of local videogame developers and videogame enthusiasts. We have studied the proposed law, and we have successfully contacted the National Assembly (you would call it your Congress) to discuss the law.

Last week we had the opportunity to attend the public presentation of the law. Deputy Wilmer Iglesias presented some violence statistics together with some videogame trailers. The first thing you will note in the first discussion of the law, which I translated to English here http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcpw33cv_82dfqbtbgj, is that:

1. There is no distinction between toys and videogames. Everything is treated like goods that are consumed by children only.

2. There is a lot of ignorance on the subject of videogames. We have brought to the Assembly enough documentation regarding several classification schemes (e.g. ESRB, PEGI, CERO, etc.) and they have received this information gladly and in good terms. Also, the deputees in the presentation declared themselves as no experts in the subject of videogames. I think this is a good thing, and we can bring some light to the discussion.

3. Despite the polarization that goes around here when the government wants to create laws, this particular law was approved unanimously. This means that we cannot oppose to the law "just because". Hence, we have adopted the position that we share the worries of these deputees regarding how to raise children, and thus approve that a law about videogames has to be created. We, though, want to discuss with them about how to improve the law, specifically moving it away from prohibition to a regulation of use. This view has been welcomed by the group that proposed the law.

Moreover, in the presentation, Dep. Juan Mendoza said that war games should be a policy of the State and the Army, and thus prevented to be played by civils. This affirmation was rather said on the side of real-life shooting games, such as Paintball or Airsoft, but we are aware that such an ample definition of war games could cover videogames that treat war or war-like strategies.

We had the chance to speak directly to Dep. Iglesias and he was eager to talk to us and to know how videogames are created and used. Today we were going to have the first session to discuss the law, but it was posponed. We expect to have this meeting next week.

I happen to have very good information regarding the law, as I've been close to the events that surround it. I have created a special section in my site that covers this issue, although in Spanish only (no time to translate to English now, sorry) in http://www.elchiguireliterario.com. If you'd like more information regarding the progress of this law, please don't hesitate to contact me at ciro.duran@gmail.com.