Congress is considering a bill that would potentially treat video games similar to tobacco and alcohol products.
The bill is aimed at adding warning labels to all ESRB-rated game and was written by Joe Baca, D-California, who has been pushing the idea around since 2009. The original 2009 and 2011 versions only targeted games rated higher than "E" but the 2012 expands to include all games regardless of its rating.
The warnings would not actually detail what questionable content is in a particular game like the ESRB does but would be pushed as an actual health warning label.
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If he was a predictable legislator, he would be doing this again in 2013, but California Democrat Joe Baca has thrown us a curveball. Yesterday, he introduced the newest version of his "Violence in Video Games Labeling Act."
He wants this label..."WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."... on every video game.
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His official reasoning for the new attempt this year is due to him believing the industry has failed to curb the growth of violent games and only using research that states violent video games promote violent behavior.
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"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers – to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products," said Rep. Baca. "They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show that playing violent video games is a casual risk factor for a host of detrimental effects in both the short- and long-term, including increasing the likelihood of physically aggressive behavior. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products."
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The current bill is labeled H.R. 4204 and was issued yesterday in the House of Representatives.
http://kotaku.com/5894977/congressma...on-video-games
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Daily Recap:
1) According to Kevin Levine, one level of the upcoming Bioshock Infinite game contains about three times more dialog than the original game had overall.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...re-first-game/
2) Crystal Dynamics is currently rumored to be rebooting the original Soul Reaver with the potential of reviving the series as well in the future.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/rumo...aver-franchise
3) The God of War series could be expanding to include the PS Vita and iOS devices according to recent plans by the series developer Sony Santa Monica.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...e-to-vita-ios/