GamesFormer US senator and anti-videogame crusader Joe Lieberman has died at age 82When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesFormer US senator and anti-videogame crusader Joe Lieberman has died at age 82When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Former US senator and vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, whose crusade against violent videogames in the early ’90s sparked the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, has died at age 82.
Lieberman’s political career began in 1970 with his election to the Connecticut senate, a seat he held until 1980; he also served as the state’s attorney general from 1983 to ‘89. He was elected to the US senate as a member of the Democratic Party in 1988.
Even though Lieberman’s crusade looks quaint now—the fatalities in contemporary Mortal Kombat games are certainly beyond anything Lieberman could have imagined in 1992, and yet barely merit a raised eyebrow today—his influence lingers. When the pushback against randomized loot boxes began in the late 2010s, for instance, and gamers began to call for regulation against them, there was justifiable concern that, as editor-in-chief Evan Lahti put it, “we should be careful what we wish for.”
“Any American who played games in the ’90s remembers the period of pearl-clutching and pseudoscientific fear-mongering from senators like Joe Lieberman, who led a call to ban violent videogames,“he wrote in 2017. “Government regulation of loot boxes would likely take us a step in that direction, opening the door for more laws around gaming content.”
A clip of Lieberman saying he’d like to ban the development of violent videogames during the 1993 Congressional hearings
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He was re-elected to the US senate in 1994, 2000, and 2006, and notably served as Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 US presidential election, ultimately losing to the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney ticket. He pursued his own presidential ambitions in 2004, but withdrew his candidacy for the Democratic nomination after finishing poorly in early primaries.
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