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Common Sense Media: Manhunt Decision Threatens Ratings Credibility - Non-profit group Common Sense Media has released a new statement on the ESRB's down-rating of Rockstar's Manhunt 2 to M, clearing it for release, saying that without disclosing the reasoning, the board "threatens to undermine" the entire ratings system. The statement was made by Common Sense CEO James Steyer, long a supporter of California State Senator Leland Yee's own anti-violent game efforts. Yee himself has spoken out on the matter, calling for an FTC investigation ...

[Gamasutra - News]

I swear, I'm going to have to create a new category here called, "How you bastards get away with trampling on my rights" or something. ;)

Read the wording, there. They call Grand Theft Auto irresponsibly violent. Irresponsibly violent. I'm the type of guy that finds humor in everything, which is a real problem for me, here. I mean, where do I begin?! I have so many choices, ranging from angry to funny:

1) Common Sense Media, by indicating that the way GTA presents violence is irresponsible, must therefore believe that there's a responsible way to portray violence.
1a) This then explains why they believe the hot coffee incident to be a horrible, horrible thing (Rather than evidence that the lack of understanding how computer software works is endemic and detrimental to our societies), but have no problem what-so-ever with the millions of Nazi's and allied soldiers that have died in the last decade and half of virtual World War 2 battles that has flooded our market.
1a-1) To clarify: Killing Nazis == good. Killing allies while playing Nazis == good. Playing a story in which a impoverished black male from the city slides down the very real spiral of gang violence while struggling to do the right thing == bad.

2) Pantomiming strangling someone with a piano wire (manhunt 2), based on what has been said here by this group, is much, much worse, then sawing someone in half with the chainsaw on your pulse rifle (Gears of War)... I was going to list more, but the list would be so long no one would bother to read the article, so I'll leave it be.

3) There are very few "available accounts" of the actual violence in Manhunt 2... where do these people get their sources?

4) An M rating still means no children can get the game, without the ratings being violated... in what way does lowering the age restriction from 21 to 18 make any difference, what-so-ever?

5) I can buy a gun at 18, but if they had their way, I couldn't look at pictures of someone stabbing someone else? I dunno why'd you want to look at said pictures (I don't plan on playing MH2, never was), but how is that worse than buying a device made explicitly to kill other people?!

6) It's ALWAYS been the ESRB's policy not to discuss why it delivered the ratings it did. This is true with the developers, too. It has been a frustration we've all had as devs with the ESRB and one we've bitched about before, why is this only now making the news?
6A) Are you seriously telling me that the only way to get anyone to pay attention is with blood and boobies?
6A-1) Yeah, I already know the answer to 6A is yes. You'll excuse me if I seethe with rage that I'm not willing to show you folks, for a moment.

7) My right to express myself is constitutionally protected, why the HELL is no one discussing that aspect of this issue, whenever censorship talk comes up? Why are a few federal judges the only ones who actually remember that defending the constitution isn't just something soldiers do?

8) Why don't you people at the Common Sense Media group feel ashamed at yourselves for wasting so much time on bitching about games you object to, while people go starving in the streets, minorities can't break out above the poverty line, we're fighting a war we don't even really know the logic behind, we're imprisoning thousands of non-criminals every year, wiretapping our citizenry, trampling all over our own constitution and generally rotting away from the inside?

9) I think it was Voltaire that said, "Common sense is not so common." It was my high-school English teacher who pointed out that using the phrase "common sense" is a propagandist device designed to make you more likely to accept an otherwise unacceptable concept by making you feel bad for not being part of the cool crowd that believes it.

So many choices... I could go on... but... I'm bored now, and I know no one cares anymore anyway. Sorta makes me feel like the last of a dying breed, in a way. I worry about a world that outlaws the iconoclast and their pass-times just because they're objectionable to a vocal few. It's not like playing Manhunt makes you a murderer - there's is literally no scientific evidence to back that up. None. Go read the studies for yourself, minus the spin of the folks publicizing them -- if you believe the common sense media group, you might be damned surprised to see the real conclusions and data collected.

You know, on an unrelated note... I read somewhere today that our juvenile prison system is packed to the gills with juvenile offenders of one sort or another... and that this is more true for females than it is for males... Strangely enough, especially in that age group (juveniles), there are significantly more males than females playing games. Correlation? Or Causation?

Maybe I should get someone to pay me to do one of those studies... The results would be novel, I suspect. I mean, common sense tells me that the two must be inextricably related. Girls are more like to go to juvie because they don't deal with their aggression catharticly by playing video games. Duh and/or of course!

- Snipehunter