Massachusetts Town Ponders End to Public Videogame Ban

Voters in the town of Marshfield, Massachuset, will soon decide whether to cut loose a 30-yr-old ban on videogames publicly places.

Spine in 1982, two years before Kevin Bacon set the citizens of Beaumont on the path to revolution with his exhortation to inaugurate their Sunday shoes, the citizens of Marshfield, Massachusetts, decided to protect their own young'uns from the evils of videogames by banishing them from every corners of the public realm. After the United States Supreme Court of the United States dashed the hopes of gaming supporters when information technology refused to hear the case, all the town's Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Tron machines were unplugged and wheeled away. So it has remained to this very Day.

But nowadays lifelong resident George Mallet is circulating a petition interrogative that the ban be overturned at the next annual Town Meeting. Mallet said a lot of people don't tied know that world videogames are misbranded and helium's hopeful that anti-gaming hysteria has subsided enough to allow the restriction to make up lifted. Yet amazingly, the "bring around gaming" movement mightiness be sure a fight.

A similar motion to revoke the police was brought before the 1994 Township Meeting and was snapshot down in flames. Chairwomen Faith Jean warned at the time that allowing videogames publically places would attract other "smut" to the town, a persuasion echoed by resident Tom Jackson, who "guaranteed" that the presence of arcade machines would "open the door to adult entertainment." Captain William P. Sullivan Jr., oral presentation arsenic an expert in the field of law enforcement, claimed that publicly-available videogames "put children at risk to the negative aspects of life."

Mallet said He's not beholding the same level of resistance to the thought this time around, noting that only united person, a wait who doesn't desire to let to deal with kids while she's trying to work, has until now refused to sign his petition. "I know people really care about taxes and schools," he said. "But it's a ridiculous law – why not just get rid of it?"

But at least one opponent of the first drive to revoke the ban is still holding her ground. "Information technology would definitely convert the character of entertainment we offer," Jean said, explaining her continued opposition to public games. "We'atomic number 75 a shore town. Instantly are we an amusement shore township Oregon are we fishing and swimming and sailplaning?"

Surprisingly, despite the ban Marshfield allows electronic gambling machines like Keno in bars, restaurants and regular some stores.

Sources: Wicked Local, CBS Boston, via GamePolitics

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/massachusetts-town-ponders-end-to-public-videogame-ban/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/massachusetts-town-ponders-end-to-public-videogame-ban/

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