Activision Blizzard vice president and chief public policy officer, George Rose pens an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle explaining why the "California ban of violent video games must go." One would expect that the opinion of a pro-industry lawyer would be that the law penned by State Senator Leland Yee and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 would be that it is wrong-headed over regulation and overreach on the part of the state.
The bulk of his ire is pointed at supporters of the law, who grasp at straws like "Postal" and cite studies that back up their positions on violent games:
"Sadly, supporters will accept nothing less than more laws, subbing for parents, that the state can't afford to enforce. So to whip up drama and hysteria where none justifiably exists, zealots supporting this movement cite the worst of the worst by harking back to video game dinosaurs like 1997's "Postal." By today's standards, this game was a commercial flop dropped by mainstream retailers long ago. No single movie, television program or video game defines an industry and justifies sweeping regulation, which is why the anecdotal example of "Postal" is disingenuous.
This movement's supporters also continually misstate that hundreds of studies support the harmful effects on minors from playing video games with violent content. But there are no hundreds of studies to cite because they don't exist. In fact, every court that has looked at this issue has found that whatever research is used to support the idea that games with violent content are harmful lacks credibility. If fact, an unprecedented 82 social scientists, medical scientists and media scholars felt so strongly about Yee's law that they filed their own brief with the Supreme Court. Their conclusion: it was based on "profoundly flawed research."
Read more at SFGate.
