New Illinois Bill Could Ban Violent Video Games Containing 'Psychological Harm' or 'Carjacking'

[Mnky313]

Summary

Representative Marcus Evans Jr. filed a bill (HB3531) that proposes changing the definition of 'violent video games' to:

Quote

"a video game that allows a user or player to control a character within the video game that is encouraged to perpetuate human-on-human violence in which the player kills or otherwise causes serious physical or psychological harm to another human or an animal."

In addition to banning the sale of these 'violent video games' to not just minors but everyone.

Quotes

Quote

"Adding to this, Early Walker -- the founder of Operation Safe Pump, and who has worked with Evans Jr. on the bill -- says GTA 5, in particular, has become an issue."

Quote

"Last week, the lawmaker filed HB3531, an amendment that wants to not just ban the sale of games featuring “psychological harm" and carjackings to minors, but to adults as well. According to Evans, these types of games promote criminal activities, which in turn, hurt the community."

My thoughts

This is the most boomer 'hrr drr video games bad' thing I've seen in a while... What about movies? If violent games are such a problem are you going to ban violent movies too, hell might as well ban all songs that reference drugs because that's clearly what's causing the drug problem. (obligatory /s)
I'd like to see literally any piece of evidence proving that video games like GTA V have "become an issue".

I sincerely hope this doesn't pass.

 

Sources

https://www.ign.com/articles/chicago-lawmaker-proposes-bill-to-ban-sale-of-violent-video-games-like-gta-5

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=3531&GAID=16&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=132549&SessionID=110&GA=102

https://www.polygon.com/2021/2/23/22297837/illinois-house-rep-evans-ban-violent-video-games

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/gta-5-online-grand-theft-auto-v-ps4-ps5-xbox-one-series-x-pc-sale-banned/

Edited February 24, 2021 by Mnky313
Clarification

[Letgomyleghoe]

lmfao, this is literally a release for most people, go and kill people online so you don't in person. people don't see a murder in a video game and kill someone in real life, yet people have staged whole murders to mimic movie plots, what the fuck!?

[Spotty]

Quote

Modifies the definition of "violent video game" to mean a video game that allows a user or player to control a character within the video game that is encouraged to perpetuate human-on-human violence in which the player kills or otherwise causes serious physical or psychological harm to another human or an animal. Modifies the definition of "serious physical harm" to include psychological harm and child abuse, sexual abuse, animal abuse, domestic violence, violence against women, or motor vehicle theft with a driver or passenger present inside the vehicle when the theft begins.

GTA VI: All vehicles are unoccupied self driving cars. Problem solved.

 

10 years later in Chicago - "Wait, why are all our self driving cars being stolen?"

[Oshino Shinobu]

Fictional violence with no real world consequences, proven by multiple studies? How awful, think of the children.

 

In game gambling via chance systems designed to take advantage of young people that have caused real financial harm to families? A-OK.

[Mateyyy]

And it'll probably (hopefully) be another Jack Thompson case, where the dude and his half-brained ideas end up getting clowned on in court.

 

vIoLeNt ViDeO gAmEs

[Mling]

this happens every few years. Someone is consuming the resources of some lobby group. End of the day its a multi billion dollar industry and a major cultural export that has been getting more explicit and violent despite the constant lobbying.

[Random_Person1234]

Just a point of clarification, the person who introduced the bill is a member of the Illinois State House. Therefore, this law would only apply to Illinois if it were passed. Using the term “US bill” is a bit misleading.

[Mnky313]

4 minutes ago, Random_Person1234 said:

Just a point of clarification, the person who introduced the bill is a member of the Illinois State House. Therefore, this law would only apply to Illinois if it were passed. Using the term “US bill” is a bit misleading.

Yes, sorry about that. Edited

[RejZoR]

19 minutes ago, comander said:

So I played Tetris once and now whenever I bag groceries I try to fit everything in perfectly. 

And the last time I packed up my stuff and moved... EVERYTHING FIT IN MY GIRLFRIEND'S MINIVAN. ONE TRIP. GAHH. 

 

Oh it's terrible.

I bet you always leave that baguette for last...

 

Also this has to be the dumbest, lamest thing I've ever heard (the news that is, not comander's post). If you don't have mental capacity to differentiate betwen real world and fictional games regardless of how violent they are, you're not suppose to walk among population anyway and you'd probably get triggered into violent episode by anything, not just "violent games". I'd seriously question mental capacity of a person suggesting such nonsense. Coz it can either be they are genuinely this fragile and delusional or someone is just shoving money up their rear.

[Arika]

lol good luck

[Kisai]

31 minutes ago, Spotty said:

GTA VI: All vehicles are unoccupied self driving cars. Problem solved.

 

10 years later in Chicago - "Wait, why are all our self driving cars being stolen?"

Not gonna lie, that sounds more fun. 

 

Step 1) You're a repo person, you must follow, hack and take over automated EV's

Step 2) You got a job, Neon Husk hasn't paid his lease on his Tessla Cybertank, you may want to use a tow truck

Step 3) You might be asking how I wound up on the hood of this Truck. 

 

 

[Taf the Ghost]

It's hard to take seriously a Legislature where any one of the members is probably under FBI investigation for corruption at any time and its highly likely all of them are doing crack as it stands. That said, considering the games would simply be sold from out of State anyway, it's not like it would change anything. Gamestop is already dead, anyway.

 

That said, it's always really important to keep in mind something called the "Bootleggers & Baptists Alliance". So named because the biggest opponents to the re-introduction of Alcohol in the central coastal US States was both the alcohol runners and one of the major religious factions. Reason it worked is the religious groups didn't know they had significant support from the ones making the illegal alcohol.  Possibly the same situation. Without knowing the local factions, it's easy to assume one group will gain a lot of utility out of something like that. We're far beyond the point that "moral-type" legislation is anything but cynical, at least in most of the country. There's always places where it can be sincere, but they also normally are very measured in what they're up to. Because, you know, they want something to be effective & work because they actually believe in it.

[Techstorm970]

Just now, Kisai said:

Not gonna lie, that sounds more fun. 

 

Step 1) You're a repo person, you must follow, hack and take over automated EV's

Step 2) You got a job, Neon Husk hasn't paid his lease on his Tessla Cybertank, you may want to use a tow truck

Step 3) You might be asking how I wound up on the hood of this Truck. 

 

 

Wouldn't that just be Grand Theft Watch Dogs, tho???

[PhantomJaguarr]

There's a side quest "gig" in Cyberpunk 2077 I came across that would definitely be a psychological trigger for some people. Like Law and Order: SVU kind of stuff. Still, I knew what I signed up for when a game has an M rating. Might as well go after that aforementioned show and other movies too with this logic. 

[WereCat]

Now they need to classify politics as a psychological horror and ban it as well.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

i thought america was the land of the free? 

 

i think we need to change it to America, the land of the free. and content banning. 

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Ashley xD said:

i thought america was the land of the free? 

 

i think we need to change it to America, the land of the free. and content banning. 

USA, the land of the puritans... Or at least everyone is pretending while doing biggest orgies and pedo stuff behind the scenes...

[PCGuy_5960]

I wouldn't really be worried, there have been plenty of joke bills like this and none have actually passed. The whole premise is a joke anyway, if we were to blame violence on some form of media (which is stupid in its own right) video games would be last on my list. Politicians and their social media followings have been responsible for infinitely more violence than any video game.

[leadeater]

4 hours ago, Mnky313 said:

This is the most boomer 'hrr drr video games bad' thing I've seen in a while...

This person is of the age to know better, well I'm sure he does but that's counter to why this has been proposed.

 

4 hours ago, Mnky313 said:

What about movies?

I would say money but the games industry has actually been larger than the movie industry for a little while now. What protects movies is populism and celebrity i.e. one is more socially acceptable than the other and is regarded as a higher social status. Thing is gamers largely stay out of politics, talking about the professional ones with large incomes and contracts, and are not trying to use their status and money to change policy or opinion. It's things like this that could change that, just wait until political figures are dependent on gamer donation money, watch how the tunes changes then. Basically, follow the money.

[Moonzy]

Finally someone took action, now there will be more GPU for miners

 

It's sarcasm in case people as dumb as those legislators or whatever think I'm serious

[Sauron]

3 hours ago, Letgomyleghoe said:

lmfao, this is literally a release for most people, go and kill people online so you don't in person.

I mean... if you were going to kill a person if not for GTA then maybe you need a psychiatrist?

[Master Disaster]

15 minutes ago, leadeater said:

I would say money but the games industry has actually been larger than the movie industry for a little while now. What protects movies is populism and celebrity i.e. one is more socially acceptable than the other and is regarded as a higher social status. Thing is gamers largely stay out of politics, talking about the professional ones with large incomes and contracts, and are not trying to use their status and money to change policy or opinion. It's things like this that could change that, just wait until political figures are dependent on gamer donation money, watch how the tunes changes then. Basically, follow the money.

With a movie you're one step removed, you don't play a movie, you watch it. With a game you're directly responsible for the actions on the screen.

 

Its still absolute nonsense though, no study I'm aware of has ever established a link between playing games and committing crime.

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

With a movie you're one step removed, you don't play a movie, you watch it. With a game you're directly responsible for the actions on the screen.

I very much do not think that is playing in to this at all, Marilyn Manson shining example of why. One of the things they bring up is the fear that youths will also be watching videos/streams of these games and people playing them and try and emulate them, it's not just about the interactivity of game play.

[PCGuy_5960]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

With a movie you're one step removed, you don't play a movie, you watch it. With a game you're directly responsible for the actions on the screen.

 

Its still absolute nonsense though, no study I'm aware of has ever established a link between playing games and committing crime.

Movies tend to be much more realistic than games though, not to mention that they are hugely more popular, so in a sense they are glorifying violence to a much larger extent than video games can. Same thing with rap music, think about how many hours each song has been played on spotify alone. It's probably much more than GTA

 

I don't think any of these cause violence, but I don't think it would make much sense to blame video games before movies or music.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

Movies tend to be much more realistic than games though, not to mention that they are hugely more popular, so in a sense they are glorifying violence to a much larger extent than video games can. Same thing with rap music, think about how many hours each song has been played on spotify alone. It's probably much more than GTA

 

I don't think any of these cause violence, but I don't think it would make much sense to blame video games before movies or music.

To be clear neither do I, I was just trying to be devils advocate. If I was trying to get games banned but not movies that's an argument I would make.