Ted Price says video game legislation “has no place in America”

Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price has spoken out on the issue of video game legislation, saying that it “has no place in America”. More in the full article.

Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price has spoken out on the issue of video game legislation, saying that it “has no place in America”.

“We’re going through what every other entertainment industry has gone through, and that’s being the temporary scapegoat for society’s ills,” Price told Shacknews in a recent interview. “It saddens me to see legislators stomping all over our First Amendment rights for their own specific interests.”

He’s right, too. Pop culture has always been an easy target. Theater, movies, TV, music, and even books have been used as whipping boys in the past. Heck, even dancing wasn’t spared, although admittedly maybe that was just in Footloose.

It’s become a cycle. What’s popular today will always eventually be used as the reason for why kids are getting “worse”. In the 50s and 60s, it was rock and roll, and then later on, heavy metal. Dungeons & Dragons, too, for a time. Today, it’s video games. Right now, most game-related legislations have so far been ruled as unconstitutional, but when will all of these attacks stop?

“It won’t be until we have more gamers running for office that this will calm down,” said Price. “It’s something that we’ll weather, because we are right, what we do is defensible under the Constitution and shouldn’t be regulated by the government.”

That, or until the next scapegoat comes along. For now, Price recommends joining the Video Game Voters Network. He also recommends letting your Congressman know what you think about video game bills in your state. Otherwise they’ll just be “walking blindly, following what they think is the mainstream opinion.”

• U.S. Senator Roger Wicker introduces videogame rating legislation
• New York Governor David Paterson passes video game legislation
• New York Senate passes mandatory game ratings bill

Via Shacknews