Mayor Bloomberg’s restrictions on game play would extend to any reissues of classic video games, like Final Fantasy VII. At 16 hours, Bloomberg aides envision a scenario where New York’s gamers would witness Sephiroth slay Aerith. The game would then abruptly end.
Fresh off his announcement to ban sodas, sweetened ice tea and energy drinks above 16 ounces, New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg has found a new target — the video game industry. Taking a cue from Reps. Joe Baca (D-CA) and Frank Wolf’s (R-VA), Violence in Video Games Labeling Act (which seeks to put violence warning labels on all video games, regardless of content), Bloomberg has taken it a step further: Starting next March, all video games sold in New York City will have built-in endings that will bring the storyline to a halt after 16 hours of game play.
A press release from Bloomberg’s office went out late Sunday night. Reuters reports:
It has long been established that there is a correlation between violence and video games. There is also a strong correlation between soda consumption and gamers. Both of these vices have long-term costs to the nation’s health, in terms of obesity and crime rates. While the nation waits, I will act. New Yorkers want me to “do something,” and so I will. Starting next March, I will find a way to force Big Apple gamers to understand that sitting for hours while playing video games — particularly RPGs — is unhealthy and will no longer be tolerated. I am working with the video game industry to ensure that at 16 hours ALL video games sold in New York will cut to an ending that will force gamers to either put down the controller or to keep playing a game that has, for all intents and purposes, been completed.
Conservative and libertarian groups have already voiced opposition to the power grab, calling it more evidence of the liberal urge to control every aspect of an individual’s life, now down to their PS3 and XBox controllers. Bloomberg’s liberal advocates say that the mayor is not taking away a gamer’s right to play video games per se, but merely forcing them make the conscious decision to continue playing after a “healthy portion” of entertainment has been reached.
As the news cycle begins, it will be interesting to see if gamers — generally a liberal bunch — see how the soft tyranny of Mayor Bloomberg’s soda ban could be applied to many aspects of everyday life, including the games they love.
Is this for real?
Ha. No. It’s tagged and categorized as satire. One of the reasons it’s hard to tell may be because I just applied his same logic on soda to video games. Both are often linked to obesity, and video games have the added element of increased aggression … If Bloomberg had no qualms “forcing” people to understand that 16 ounces was the “healthy” portion of sugary drinks New Yorkers could have, I don’t see what would stop him from “forcing” 16 hours of video game play on New Yorkers as some arbitrarily-assigned healthy portion of entertainment.
The Video Game Labeling Act is real, though.
The Act is nanny state nonsense. The fix is simple: add the calorie info on the side of the cup (fountain drinks have no nutritional info listed). That woul allow an informed consumer. Hopefully, people would balk at a 800 calorie soda jug.
How come orange juice is so damn expensive and carbonated sugar water is so damn cheap?
I’ll probably be writing something else tonight or tomorrow on this. Years ago I had a debate with a liberal friend and said all this sort of crap would happen. He laughed at me back in … 2002 … or whenever it was.
The funny thing is, fruit juice is arguably worse! I stopped drinking it and lost 20 pounds over the course of six months. It has a TON of sugar.
I have been arguing with liberals about this matter, who support it. They want to get rid of all the “fatties.” They don’t want to get rid of all the gays, even though the success rate or someone losing weight permanently is lower than someone converting from gay to straight permanently. Those fatties just repulse them so much and cause healthcare to cost more, so down with the fatties.
Completely ignores the fact that so many skinny people buy these drinks too.
@doug True, but nobody drinks big gulps of juice. I hear you, though.
@davincigirl Down with fatties? No. But, without a doubt they do drain health care. Ever see what advanced Type-2 diabetes does to someone? Feet rot off. It isn’t pretty, and it is very often preventable. My insurance premuim helps pay for the consequences of their bad decisions. That isn’t a liberal or conservative problem, it’s an American problem. We need to solve it. However…
Bloomberg’s “doing something” approach is somewhat noble, but a misguided, liberty-limiting approach is worse.
It begs the question: does the government have a responsibility to protect its citizenry… from themselves? That’s a *very* tough question.
I wish you could have seen my refrigerator years ago. Stocked with every fruit juice you could imagine. Not only did I drink a big gulp a day … I probably downed a few big gulps a day of juice, under the impression for years that it was “okay” to drink. And then I actually started looking into diet when I hit 30 and suddenly started gaining a lot of weight, despite exercising daily and having a balanced diet (outside of the juice problem).
http://www.sugarstacks.com/beverages.htm
Sobering.
They would rather fat people be slaves to the diet industry than help us find a permanent solution.
Who are “they?” Please don’t say liberals. I will lose all faith in humanity.