Supreme Court Rules CA Video Game Ban Unconstitutional

[Zeb]

Meanwhile, kids can still go to their local library (It's like a blockbuster video rental for books) and read as much material, that the PTC would consider subversive or obscene, as they want.

[*Shinzon*]

Meanwhile, kids can still go to their local library (It's like a blockbuster video rental for books) and read as much material, that the PTC would consider subversive or obscene, as they want.

Yeah this would be more of an issue I think since books aren't rated lol. Don't have to check out a book to read it right? Haven't been to a library in like 14 years.

[Eaglestrike]

I remember having this read to me in 2nd/3rd grade (forget which, had same teacher both years): Hatchet and there's a scene in there where the kid has to swim back into a plane that crashed and is right there next to a decaying dead body which did get described fairly gruesomely from what I recall.

But you sure couldn't show that in a movie without it being rated R!

[archibaldcrane]

But you sure couldn't show that in a movie without it being rated R!

You realize that in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom a guy gets his still-beating heart ripped from his chest bare-handed and that was PG-13 right?

[*Shinzon*]

You realize that in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom a guy gets his still-beating heart ripped from his chest bare-handed and that was PG-13 right?

Sex is clearly worse than gore in the eyes of the FCC i spose. Even most lite sex scenes get an R rating, you're totally right.

[Correction]

Ahahahaa someone broke down Alito's dissenting opinion:

IDing some of the games mentioned in the Alito dissenting opinion:

"It also appears that there is no antisocial theme too base for some in the video game industry to exploit. There are games in which a player can take on the identity and reenact the killings carried out by the perpetrators of the murders at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech."

School Shooter: North American Tour 2012, a Source mod. I assume it's less thoughtfully made than Super Columbine Massacre RPG. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/20/...tech-killings/

"The objective of one game is to rape a mother and her daughters;"

Hentai game Rapelay from 2006. Come on, media. The graphics in the current generation of Japanese rape simulators are so much more realistic. It's like when you were hot and bothered by Doom in 2001 all over again. http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-30/w...nt?_s=PM:WORLD

"in another, the goal is to rape Native American women."

Is he really talking about Custer's Revenge for the 2600? Really? Citation is a People article from 1982.

"There is a game in which players engage in 'ethnic cleansing' and can choose to gun down African-Americans, Latinos, or Jews."

Ethnic Cleansing, developed by a white supremacist group. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifesty.../2002/02/50523

"In still another game, players attempt to fire a rifle shot into the head of President Kennedy as his motorcade passes by the Texas School Book Depository."

JFK Reloaded, a simulation designed to prove it's possible for Oswald to have acted alone. http://www.slate.com/id/2110034 Blooper reel! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKvOz6BMZAs

These are held up as examples of games the law was intended to protect children from, yet I never, ever saw them on Gamestop/Best Buy's shelves. Several are no longer available for various reasons (I suspect chief amongst them a lack of interest). I feel gypped.

[*Shinzon*]

Ahahahaa someone broke down Alito's dissenting opinion:



These are held up as examples of games the law was intended to protect children from, yet I never, ever saw them on Gamestop/Best Buy's shelves. I feel gypped.

To further this point, aren't those stores not allowed to sell A rated games period? I don't even think they can be bought online, that's what that rape game would be rated.

[Correction]

To further this point, aren't those stores not allowed to sell A rated games period? I don't even think they can be bought online, that's what that rape game would be rated.

I think it's a point of company policy for big box stores to not stock AO games, so yah government intervention = pointless for most of those games. Both JFK and School Shooter (should it ever come out) are downloadable freeware, as far as I can tell, so any legislated point of sales prohibition becomes moot. Rapelay was never meant for distribution in America, and Ethnic Cleansing does not appear to have ever existed in any playable form (even the official website has no usable links on it any longer). So as it turns out, Alito/Yee/the PTC is only practically capable of defending America's youth from 29 year old 192x160 8-bit porn on the Atari 2600.

[archibaldcrane]

Is he really talking about Custer's Revenge for the 2600? Really? Citation is a People article from 1982.

rofl

[archibaldcrane]

Also I'm pretty sure the Hentai rape game would fall under the definition of pornography (or obscenity, whichever is the "I know it when I see it" definition") and therefore not be protected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it

[Correction]

Also I'm pretty sure the Hentai rape game would fall under the definition of pornography (or obscenity, whichever is the "I know it when I see it" definition") and therefore not be protected.

Which is exactly why large companies make it a point of corporate policy to not stock pornographic games, as it opens them up to liability. Even if they could theoretically win such cases, they don't want the potential cost of such litigation to wreck their bottom lines. Some go as far as to card people for M rated games. How about that, don't regulate healthy, competitive industries and shit turns out all right.

[Eaglestrike]

You realize that in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom a guy gets his still-beating heart ripped from his chest bare-handed and that was PG-13 right?

I dunno, I think decaying flesh is worse to look at, but I also don't remember the scene well enough to recall if they showed the dude with a hole in his chest or just the heart.

[Ksandra]

I remember having this read to me in 2nd/3rd grade (forget which, had same teacher both years): Hatchet and there's a scene in there where the kid has to swim back into a plane that crashed and is right there next to a decaying dead body which did get described fairly gruesomely from what I recall.

But you sure couldn't show that in a movie without it being rated R!

ES....

the movie version of that book is only rated PG

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099327/

[MaachaQ]

This whole ban was ridiculous anyway... Why would the kid have $60 to buy the game from the store anyway, and why would he be able to play it without his parents seeing it. Hell, why would the kid be in the store without his parents? It's stupid people asking the government to step in when they can't be parents to their own kids.

I worked at a retail store for several years, and it was store policy to card anyone buying R rated videos/DVDs or M rated games. The register would lock up until we entered the birthdate from the ID. I suppose someone could fake that easily enough, but the Media Dept. had video cameras everywhere and such action would be caught on tape and get you fired. I find it hard to believe that Walmart/KMart/Best Buy/etc. wouldn't have a similar policy in place...

[Eaglestrike]

ES....

the movie version of that book is only rated PG

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099327/

Do they show the dead pilot when he goes back into the plane?

[Ksandra]

iirc ya, but I saw that movie over 15 years ago.

[Correction]

Roger Ebert may be the most prevalent online troll this year:

[Sol-Blackguy]

Are people ever going to realize that parents are supposed to be regulating this shit? Or is the government eventually going to be raising our kids?

[Eaglestrike]

Are people ever going to realize that parents are supposed to be regulating this shit? Or is the government eventually going to be raising our kids?

They already are, and doing it oh so well.

[Priran]

Roger Ebert may be the most prevalent online troll this year:

roger ebert has an illustrious history of being a crotchety old man when it comes to video games.