Illinois Video Game Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Two days ago U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly overturned the Illinois ban on videogames that was supposed to go into effect on the first of the year. The news can be found HERE - well worth reading. I wish Senators Clinton and Lieberman would read it, as they are proposing a very similar FEDERAL law.

One great quote: "In this country, the state lacks the authority to ban protected speech on the ground that it affects the listener's or observer's thoughts and attitudes" - Judge Kennelly

I will once again go on record to say I do not approve of games with heavy violent or sexual content being played by children. Heck, I'm enough of a prude to say that games with excessive sex or violence shouldn't even be played by adults! And while there's no real evidence supporting the claims by lawmakers and delirious ambulance-chasers that playing violent games leads to violent real-life behavior, any more than excessive playing of Super Mario leads to people jumping up and hitting their heads against the ceiling in an obsessive attempt to find coins. But it has been proven over CENTURIES that games are among the most powerful learning tools, and though what people may learn by playing these games may not remotely resemble the obvious, it does lay some tracks down in neural pathways that may run counter to socially positive behavior. If I watch a lot of shows or read books with excessive swearing, I find such words come a bit quicker to my mind when I'm trying to express myself forcefully, which can color my choice of language in a way I'm not particularly proud of (though the day job can cause that without ANY additional stimulation).

Be that as it may, not only is it not the government's job to regulate this, but the government is WAY TOO INCOMPETENT to handle it fairly. It's the book-burning mob mentality at work, that would see copies of Huckleberry Finn in a bonfire, or restrict high-school students from reading that subversive Shakespeare. These blanket regulations would lump Schindler's List (a "morally serious, aesthetically stunning historical epic" - TV Guide) in the same category as Booty Call (a "wall-to-wall exercise in bad taste" - Roger Ebert).

Now, I don't think we yet have the "Schindler's List" of videogames out there yet. Or the Gone With The Wind, or the Casablanca... heck, I haven't seen "Doom" the movie yet, but I'd guess the quality of plot, characters, and dialog are probably still greater that 95% of the videogames out there. But I think even though games are now pretty "mainstream," we are STILL exploring the boundaries of the medium. Right now there are a lot of games out there that are seeing how far they can push the "shock value" without getting smacked down (thank you, GTA team, for screwing up our whole year with your Hot Coffee FUBAR).

But the day will come. I have heard and seen little bits and pieces of attempts to cover serious topics, though they have had little in the way of marketing fanfare behind them. But it's gonna be a lot harder to make it happen if the government steps in and classifies games as children's toys and scares away people from addressing mature topics out of fear of being fined or being unable to find a retail or distribution channel.

Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:07 AM (Permalink)