lanza
Latest
Vicarious Visions pens op-ed on troubling NY game bill
The Albany Times-Union today ran an op-ed piece by the CEO and president of Vicarious Visions (Marvel Ultimate Alliance), a New York based development company, about the New York video game bill legislation going down. They discuss being "deeply troubled" by the legislation currently being fast-tracked making games different from other protected speech. The disturbing nature of the bills apparently can't be stressed properly at this point. The key feature sending chills up many game advocates' spines is that selling a game considered "depraved" to a minor would be considered a felony, with a minimum sentence of one to four years according to the New York penal code.Vicarious Visions' CEO, Kathik Bala, and president, Guha Bala, write, "Just like movies, books, photographs, music and other forms of art and entertainment, video games are fully protected speech under the U.S. Constitution. In fact, nine federal courts in the last six years have ruled that legislation in other states substantially similar to what is being proposed in New York violates free speech protections. States have wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to defend these statutes. Several states and municipalities have been ordered to pay more than $1.7 million to the video game industry for legal fees. Given New York's pressing economic needs, it can ill afford to spend money enacting and then having to defend this proposal."And therein lies the rub. In the end, these bills fail in court. The states involved are forced to pay the ESA for the cost of defending the industry from unconstitutional legislation. How many times do they need to play out the same plot line over and over again? The outcome remains the same. But it looks like state after state will pop in another quarter and try again.[Via GamePolitics]
Ignored island politician lumps V-Tech Rampage with GTA IV
State Senator Andew Lanza (R) of Staten Island, chair of the New York Senate's Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry , has publicly come out against video game V-Tech Rampage saying, "There are certain things in life you don't make light of and should not be turning into a game ... It's not a game, it's a tremendous loss of life."He hopes that the title stays on the fringe and in a classic moment of ignorance asks that the game be shunned by retailers, manufacturers and website hosts. And we're back to square one of politicians not knowing the difference between independent and industry games.Lanza goes on to say, "You've got Grand Theft Auto where you murder police officers ... To me, I can't imagine people marketing and distributing it, and putting it in the hands of kids, but it's happening." Of course, Rockstar has already weighed in about how much stock they put into what anybody from Staten Island says by just not inlcluding the landmass in GTA IV.[Via GamePolitics]
