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Video killed the fan It's OK to shoot 'em up, but no vices allowed postmortemPosted: Tuesday March 04, 2003 11:40 AM
Perusing e-mail recently, this submission caught my eye: "This isn't a question but actually an answer. You said in your recent Burning Questions article, that 'If only EA Sports could find a way to finagle Budweiser, Coors and Miller so that Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sterling Marlin and Rusty Wallace fans could drive the Nos. 40, 8, and 2 cars without looking dorky. 'Sterling,' 'Dale Jr.' and 'Rusty' just don't cut it with hardcore gamers.' "Well, they can't. It's part of that law that Congress passed a few years ago that says that tobacco and alcohol can't be marketed, advertised, whatever you want to call it, toward minors. Since the EA Sports NASCAR games, as well as every other NASCAR game manufacturer, want their games to carry an Everyone rating, they can't put anything in there that markets toward kids that isn't allowed to be. I'm not even sure they could put it in there if they put a Mature rating on it, since it's been revealed that it's so easy for minors to purchase Mature-rated games. "So it's not that Coors and Miller and Anheuser Busch don't want to be in these games, it's that they can't. That's why there isn't even a mention of 'Winston' in the games, even though that's the series' sponsor. They call it the 'NASCAR Championship' instead of the 'Winston Cup.' "I'm guessing Viagra falls under that law as well, although I don't see why they couldn't get away with putting 'Pfizer' on the hood, since that is just general men's health, and not specifically sexual health. I hope that helps." Good take, Kenorv21, but I'm not buying -- the reasoning or another NASCAR game. Granted, I was raised to make decisions for myself and though I may be a bit more liberal than my parents envisioned, I still believe in their basic premise: People must be responsible for their own actions. The ongoing tobacco lawsuits are at the crux of the argument. People smoke, chew or dip tobacco because they want to; reasons may vary, but it's a conscious decision. Ditto with drinking alcohol. I'm not going to praise the use of either, but I will stand for the right to use both; neither is illegal for consenting adults. Disclaimer: My family raises tobacco in Tennessee, so I'm sensitive to government regulations limiting the crop's production. Consider this: Guns are regulated, too. However, you (and underage children) can blast away on video games, killing countless computer-generated humans or aliens. It's OK to kill, but to have a cold one or light up afterwards is bad? Where's the logic in that scenario? We're conditioned to play with guns; who hasn't had a cap pistol and played cowboys and Indians, or good-guys, bad-guys? I'm not a big fan of Charlton Heston, and I like his politics even less, but his right to protect guns is no different than my right to want video-game cars to look like the ones on the track, government be damned. The same thing applies with RJ Reynolds' sponsorship of stock car racing. We live in a free-market society, and in too many cases it is not a company's charge to save us from ourselves. That responsibility begins at home. Consider this, too: Ephedra is the latest hot topic. Did you know ephedra is in the dietary supplement Stacker 2, Kenny Wallace's primary sponsor? Should the government take action against ephedra, welcome the "Kenny" car to NASCAR Thunder. But underage kids can watch FOX, NBC and TNT as the Budweiser, Coors and Miller Lite cars garner screen time or hear announcers tout the Winston Cup series? Double standards exist, but when the people go so blindly as to accept that government knows best. ... Today it is tobacco and alcohol. Tomorrow, who knows -- government-controlled TV, newspapers, magazines? So, some bright reader will ask, what will I do if my children want to use tobacco or alcohol? I'll explain the risks -- and the fact you have to be an adult to partake. After that, it's their choice; I have to trust that they got a good raisin'. It's a video game, nothing more, nothing less. And I'll argue the point of having beer-sponsored cars until they pry my cold, dead fingers from the controller. B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for SI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Got a comment or question for Duane? Click here.
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