NY Bill Pushes Warning Labels And Mandatory Demos For Mature Games

Omfg, another NY Bill...

Just what does the state of New York have against gaming anyway? Last week we brought word that their government is trying to pass a "Warning Labels For Games" law requiring "mature" titles to bear a sticker warning that the game may contain incest and bestiality. And now this: Democratic Assemblyman Steve Englebright is trying to pass a law requiring retailers to post a warning sign that games can cause seizures in people with epilepsy.

Um, Mr. Englebright, any video game I've ever heard of already has a warning about photosensitive epilepsy on the packaging. (Check out the example above, from the inside cover of Spider-man: Friend or Foe for the 360.) Also, there isn't any proven link between epilepsy and gaming -- even in the 3% of epileptics who are sensitive to flashing lights.

Here's the text of the Bill:

Around 1 in every 130 people is diagnosed as having epilepsy, whereas only 1 in every 10,000 have Photosensitivity Epilepsy. Among people with epilepsy, only an estimated 3-5% have seizures triggered by lights or patterns. Photosensitivity Epilepsy most commonly affects children.

This Bill would require that a warning be placed upon every video game warning people of the dangers of Photosensitivity Epilepsy.

Here's how epilepsy.com feels about epileptic kids playing games:

Playing video games is an extremely common pastime for many children, and they often play them for long periods of time. Because epilepsy is a common disorder, it is not surprising that some children will have their seizures while playing video games, just by coincidence. How often this happens, and to what extent the games trigger the seizures, if at all, is not known.

Presumably, Assemblyman Steve Englebright gets paid for his job.

Source

Sooner or later, we're not even going to be able to see the box art because they're going to need 600 different labels on the game saying what COULD be in the game, weather the sticker is realevent to the game at all.