Just label the game 18+, I really don't see the big deal.

Malygris:
"Does the Minister agree that it would be better for this House to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of videogames?"

BOOM...Headshot!

I'd be right in line to join the group if it didn't mean the evils of Bookface.

Ha ha, can't believe they're talking about MW2 in parliament!
Well done Tom Watson.... Headshot!

Malygris:

"It's not about censorship, it's about protecting our children."

Are they going to censor Porn then? Or the News?

They already do label the game quite clearly. I still get ID'd everytime I try to get an 18 rated game (don't worry though, I am actually 19 so it's all good ;) ).
What else would this MP suggest they do to make sure these games don't corrupt the kids (who the game isn't even aimed at...?)

*sigh* My country's parliament are thick.

Oh...my...lord.
There is a politician who actually supports games?!
THANK YOU JESUS!
I love that man so much.
Can we Americans clone him and have a copy? You know, just to know what it feels like for a while?

Goes to show that the Labour party isn't made up of Vaz and people who agree with him as people in the other thread seemed to think.

I'm not a Labour supporter, I just hate the generalisation that 1 MP's opinion = the whole party's view.

Ya, so useless. Dutch politicians are talking about it as well. Why censor something now that GTA has been doing for years and lots worse?

Keith Vaz is an ignorant cock anyway.

And I joined that group.

That was a refreshingly short debate.

I already like this Watson fellow.

Also:

"It's not about censorship, it's about protecting our children."

Is he trying to imply the two are mutually exclusive?

That's not even clever doubletalk, that's just stupid.

Tom Watson for Prime Minister.
We all know what must be done.

Tom Watson makes me want to move to the UK immediateley.

Malygris:
Tom Watson, another Member from Vaz's own Labour Party, took the opportunity to express his support for the videogame industry and criticized Vaz for his comments. "I've seen the content in this videogame, it is unpleasant, though no worse than in many films and books, it is an 18-plus game and carries the BBFC 18-plus rating as well," he said. "Does the Minister agree that it would be better for this House to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of videogames?"

Thank god for this man! Really. If I meet him in real life, I'll hug him..........maybe..........

Overall, hearing this news has really restored my faith in the U.K. Nice to see that there are a few level-headed people in politics.

Jharry5:

What else would this MP suggest they do to make sure these games don't corrupt the kids (who the game isn't even aimed at...?

Let's see what I can truthfully say about Keith Vaz, given that the most used term in google found next to him is "corruption".

He tried to ban The Satanic Verses because "there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech".
He suggested that an IRA bomb detonated at Leicester Army Recruiting Office might have been planted by the British army.
He's been investigated after receiving undeclared money from a solicitor. The solicitor was later sponsored for peerage by Mr. Vaz.
A set of brothers who donated money to Mr. Vaz found their citizenship took remarkably less time to process.
He was suspended from the Houses of Commons after making a false allegation against a former policewoman working as a nanny.
He is alleged to have helped a billionaire escape justice in the French courts.
He has been criticized for the use of the word "prick" in Parliament as an term to one of the Opposition.
He changed his mind very suddenly on the 42 day vote after being "rewarded".
He's been elected to Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, bypassing the usual route needed for anyone to receive this honour.
In this "independent role" from the Government, he has pushed Government ideas on at least two known decisions.
And then there's the money:

Vaz claimed £75,000 in expenses for a second home just 12 miles from his main home. His main home is declared to be in the North-west London suburb of Stanmore, and was purchased with his wife Maria for £1.15 million in 2005, and is around 40 minutes from Westminister by Tube, raising questions as to whether billing for a second home (a £545,000 Westminster flat) was essential for his work as an MP. He also flipped property: claiming for the Westminster flat's service charge and council tax (£2,073, and £1,022), then renting this flat out, switching his second home to a house in his Leicester East constituency, fitting it with around £16,000 of furniture and soft furnishings, as well as £600 month of un-receipted cleaning, service, and repair bills, then flipping back to the Westminster flat again, allowing mortgage interest to be claimed on the flat once more.

None of this has been repaid, and he has not been charged with this.

He's also ran the attacks on Manhunt (Where the victim was the player), Manhunt 2, Bully, Rapeplay and now this...

America, meet our Jack Thompson.

So what basically happend is Vaz kicked up a fuss and then someone from his own party kicked him in the head and told him to STFU?

Well I guess politicians can't be silly all the time. Nice to see not every person in Parliament is out of touch with reality.

Ha, fantastic!

The government may not be all that great (which one is though?) but with stuff like this I can't help but to congratulate their common sense.

Especially the guy who talked about supporting the industry instead of constantly condemning it.

Malygris:

"It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes."

I actually laughed out loud when i read this. I'd bet a significant sum of money that this has been taken waaaaay out of context. Scene skips are there if people want to get on with the game shit-for-brains.

He treats it like it's like a P.C. quicktime event: 'Press X to not be offended'

Wait... A labour party backed facebook group for pointing out when the media lies about video games?

Dear God: I think someone broke the world. It's not working right.

Tom Watson:

You da MAN!

The most surprising thing about this is that another Labour MP called this guy out on his bullshit. You don't often see this kind of thing in Westminster parliamentary systems.

That said, this parliament seems to have a pretty healthy view on video games. Don't let kids play the adult ones, let adults do what they want. Sounds good to me.

The_root_of_all_evil:
He's also ran the attacks on Manhunt (Where the victim was the player), Manhunt 2, Bully, Rapeplay and now this...

The Manhunt games are obviously very violent, some might argue a little gratuitously so, and Rapeplay does what it says on the tin and is a rape simulator. Both questionable, but nothing you can't just stick a '18+' sticker on and forget about. Bully however, or Canis Canem Edit as I still refer to it cos I was made to do a little latin at school, is completely harmless! Compared to Manhunt, throwing marbles and stink bombs at people is hardly going to worry anyone, and there's absolutely no blood in the game. And compared to Rapeplay, I don't think anyone will be too offended by the ability to pinch a girl's arse and run away. What a dick this man Vaz appears to be.

Phew. Got scared that it went into Parliament. Nice to see that they did jack-shit about it (mainly because nothing needed to be done).

I can understand where this guy is coming from - the part in MW2 he's referring to is unashamedly and powerfully violent - but it is within the confines of the law and creative licence. The game is classified as an 18. There are two warnings that appear at the start of the game telling the player that if they do not want to be part of controversial content then they don't have to be.

At this point, it's the parent's responsibility - if they let their children play MW2 - to make sure they aren't exposing them to the wrong things.

Dory16:
And compared to Rapeplay, I don't think anyone will be too offended by the ability to pinch a girl's arse and run away.

I think he called this a "Bullying Simulator" and asked if it should be released given that someone had been killed over Manhunt and 31,000(?) children called Childline (UK Child Protection Charity) last year. This is the man that backed a fatwa on Salman Rushdie.

What a dick this man Vaz appears to be.

Bingo.

Hold on though...

Is that you, Gabe?

Tom Watson wins.

Treblaine:
Tom Watson:

You da MAN!

He's a big, beautiful man, clearly out to help us. We love you Tom!

I don't know about the title of this article. UK Parliament isn't debating anything, I bet this was brought up on a empty day.

Last time this guy tried to bring up "evil games" the Prime Minister (Tony Blair at the time) was clearly laughing at him.

The_root_of_all_evil:

Malygris:
"Does the Minister agree that it would be better for this House to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of videogames?"

BOOM...Headshot!

I'd be right in line to join the group if it didn't mean the evils of Bookface.

thats exactly what I thought when they mentioned Daily Mail by name, its like America's version of Weekly World News and Fox News Channel mixed into one, and this is coming form a guy who can laugh off Fox.

reading Daily Mail's articles make me brain hurt.........

also, I cant help but think that someone in the Fox News Room saw my t-mail to them claiming MW2 to be a terror simulator to teach children how to kill civilians and just laughed it off, the next day he saw that Daily Mail article......

also, isn't the Labor Party the racist political group in England? dear god, they are trying to cover too much ground for anyone to even take them seriously.

Why do the idiots always shout the loudest? You never get huge publicity on a good suggestion from an MP because the papers know it won't make such a stir and won't sell them enough papers. The media sucks!

P.S Go Tom Watson!