California; "Ban this sick filth!"; The Trial
 

I don't normally get involved in political threads, much less start them, even less so when they're politics from a country not my own, but I haven't seen a thread on this subject, which I found slightly odd, so I decided to make one.

Basically, unless you're a complete non-fan of all gaming, or have been living under a rock recently, California has been trying to pass a law to make it illegal to sell 18 rated games to under 18s. Now while this works quite ok over hear where I live, this is apparantly quite a big deal in the states, where until now, it wasn't actually illegal to sell 18 rated games to under 18s, and the worry is that if this law passes, then lots of places will stop selling 18 rated games out of fear that they might get prosecuted if they accidentally sell those games to minors, which would have a massively negative impact on the entire gaming industry, because if few places are willing to take the risk of stocking such games, then game developers are going to have to cut back on making AAA 18 rated game titles for fear that they just won't sell anymore.

Somehow this law got through to the Supreme Court, and today was the final day of hearing all the arguments for and against. There is a transcript here of the hearing, which is both informative and amusing.

From what I can work out, the judges in the case seem to be mostly on the pro-gaming side, having been in possession of rational faculties and common sense, but we have to wait until February for a final verdict.

So, anyone been following this debate at all? Any americans here care to shed any more light on the subject or who understand it better than I? Comments, questions, humourous anecdotes to share??

Okay, it's a bit more complex than you're understanding it. The whole thing boils down to recognizing that games are protected by free speech. This vid might help: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...61-Free-Speech

Yes I do get that, this was just a general "this is the basic premise" idea for anyone who hasn't heard of this yet. Unfortunately, the people who want this law passed don't see it that way of course, which leads to some of the aformentioned amusement in todays hearing.

srs
 

THESE SEEM TO CONTRADICT OLOL

People go to the store to buy games anymore?

Maybe I'm just jaded by digital distribution as a PC gamer, but I don't think I've been inside a Gamestop in months.

Well, to be frank, I've been following this for quite some time. The decision is already basically made, you said, and the projected outcome is pretty well what's been expected all along. I think we actually did have a thread on this a few months ago. The studies California cited were torn to shreds so small the shreds of the shreds were torn to shreds by the scientific community at large.

I guess I'm just a bit surprised you haven't heard about it until now. I really can't find much to discuss myself, but others might be a bit more creative.

Hay.
 

I do.

While I get that digital distribution will let me re-download and all that and still gives me the same access to a serial key or the like when needed, I prefer to have a physical copy.

I've had people tell me that's dumb, but I don't get why? Like, what's wrong with wanting a tangible proof of ownership and means to install, minus newer patches, that doesn't require logging in to something and being connected to the Internet? Hell, I am not even a fan of physical copies for any kind of pirating reason (though I suspect it'd be just as easy to torrent some game regardless).


Also, consider console games. Well, most of them -- there are, of course, a whole collection of games that are actually only offered as downloads.

I go into Gamestops all the time because we have 3 Gamestops in my area that are staffed by people who know what they are doing and are cool dudes.

I wish California would ban letting kids buy violent games so that I could have some kids and wait for them to get to be old enough to play videogames and then buy them alllllllllll the violent videogames so they'd be the totally cool kids at school whose dad lets them play all the totally sweet videogames that other kids can't play because their parents are dicks.

Also, tattoos!

I think this hasn't been discussed because, as people who have suffered through Mr. Thompson's heyday, we're all aware that gaming politics only matter so much as "Are they going to outlaw video games this time? No, just like every other time? Well, ok then." It's just the same discussion over and over again.

Now, if this could be a discussion of the sick burns thrown out by the Supreme Court continually in this hearing, that would be a new subject. Scalia in particular had some real zingers. Oh, and how the Justices all refer to video games as "videos." That was pretty amusing and I might take it up.