Supreme Court Strikes Down California Law

As a parent I am so tired of the government trying to tell me how to raise MY kid.  

Yippie.

GG, America.

This is great! 

eat crap, nanny state

Hope the lawyers like Leland Yee who are so misinformed on the game industry will just go back to chasing ambulances. Next RPG I play, I'll name the character Supreme Court in honor of this ruling & the character there will crush foes (in the game) like overripe tomatoes just like the SC did on this stupid stupid thing spawned out of California.

I love the smell of LAW in the morning.

We are safe, for now....

Woo!

Which Justices held the descenting opinions?

*Raises arms in triumph*

Gotta love that constitution!

No more Jack "Off" Thompson me hopes. Good Call!

AMEN TO THAT BROTHER!

The Sword of Justice deals a mighty blow today.

Geez that was scary a little cause then maybe more states would give out that law and then no more violent games coming out of America, I wonder if the developers would just move to Canada make them from there :D.

@TotalEklypse: Sometimes, there needs to be an all day sexy party!

this makes me feel good about old people again

@Nate_is_my_fake_name: In a sense, this kind of was a 5-4 decision. If you read the concurring opinion by Alito (which Roberts joined in), it says that this kind of legislation is necessary, and wouldn't violate the First Amendment as a rule. The reason they came out with the majority is because this particular California statute wasn't written within the boundaries of First Amendment protection.

Justice Breyer, in his dissent, included 15 pages of citations to articles saying that violent video games encourage violence in kids.

In case anyone wants to look further, here's a link to the full opinion. The whole PDF is over 90 pages, but the majority opinion is only 20.

Geez that was scary a little cause then maybe more states would give out that law and then no more violent games coming out of America, I wonder if the developers would just move to Canada make them from there :D.

People saying they don't care because they live in other countries underestimate the devastating effect this could have had on US game sales, and in turn what games are made.

The US is not Canada. If games sell half of what they previously did because they're treated as pornography in the US, that's enough that publishers may not even bother. We are the biggest game market, by far, on the planet. Anything that affects us, affects all of you.

Selling M-Rated games to minors? I'm kind of against that. Why is this a good thing? 

American Constitution for the win. 
 
I wish Canada had as much protection for Freedom of Expression as the states do.

Those are some smart people in dresses over there.

@fox01313 said:

Hope the lawyers like Leland Yee who are so misinformed on the game industry will just go back to chasing ambulances. Next RPG I play, I'll name the character Supreme Court in honor of this ruling & the character there will crush foes (in the game) like overripe tomatoes just like the SC did on this stupid stupid thing spawned out of California.

When you said lawyer and Leland in the same sentence my mind went straight to Twin Peaks. Am I crazy?

Living in an actual free society (Sweden) where women don't get arrested for having miss-carriages and where you can walk around in the streets without at any time having to "provide papers", I'm not really sure America still knows what freedom actually is. On a side note, when I as younger I yearned to go to USA one day, but seeing how you've treated foreigners over the past ten years or even your own citizens I'm actually to afraid to go there now. Imprisoning people without trials is such a front to humanity it's staggering just to mention one thing.

However selling Saints Row 3 to a unsupervised five year old is borderline child abuse I think. You actually don't develop real human sympathy or the ability to differentiate between right and wrong until you're around nine, some even later at around 12-13 years of age. You can't sell drugs (whatever you got that's legal) and guns to them so why this is a good thing I'm not getting.

That Americans freak out more about sex than actual violence in media is just silly to the point of sad.

Just to clarify I'm not saying any five years old kid shouldn't be allowed to play Saint's Row 3, but without parents/guardian there to actually teach them what morality is, the least the government can do, is to not allow those games to be sold to *minors.

*Appropriate age limitations not based on a politicians whim but actual current (non biased) psychological studies.

Can like a 13 year old go into a gamestop in America and buy an M-Rated game? In Europe if someone is younger than the rating it's illegal to sell it to them.

Suck it Yee!

Finally we can close the book on this part of our history.

Thanks Patrick!

Games starting to march the same path of music, books, art, movies, etc. Not a surprising result, but a welcome one.

@DFSVegas said:

Selling M-Rated games to minors? I'm kind of against that. Why is this a good thing?

It's not, but the games industry already self-regulates to prevent this (and does a better job than other industries, as confirmed by independent studies). Parents are also empowered to make these purchasing decisions via the ratings on the box.

The law wanted to make it more like pornography in being something obscene where retailers would be fined heavily for selling to minors. The Supreme Court concluded it's like books or film or music or other mediums like that - parents can decide if they want their kids to get ahold of it.

*thumbs up* Let's party!

@Gremmel said:

Living in an actual free society (Sweden) where women don't get arrested for having miss-carriages and where you can walk around in the streets without at any time having to "provide papers", I'm not really sure America still knows what freedom actually is. On a side note, when I as younger I yearned to go to USA one day, but seeing how you've treated foreigners over the past ten years or even your own citizens I'm actually to afraid to go there now. Imprisoning people without trials is such a front to humanity it's staggering just to mention one thing.

However selling Saints Row 3 to a unsupervised five year old is borderline child abuse I think. You actually don't develop real human sympathy or the ability to differentiate between right and wrong until you're around nine, some even later at around 12-13 years of age. You can't sell drugs (whatever you got that's legal) and guns to them so why this is a good thing I'm not getting.

That Americans freak out more about sex than actual violence in media is just silly to the point of sad.

Just to clarify I'm not saying any five years old kid shouldn't be allowed to play Saint's Row 3, but without parents/guardian there to actually teach them what morality is, the least the government can do, is to not allow those games to be sold to *minors.

*Appropriate age limitations not based on a politicians whim but actual current (non biased) psychological studies.

Are you saying that women get arrested for having miss-carriages and that we have to provide papers in public?

Because that simply isn't true.

And are you talking about the foreigners they arrest for breaking international copyright laws or possible internal U.S. law like the online gambling executives from the U.K.? Or just regular foreigners? Because that doesn't happen either.

And thank you supreme court for doing the right thing.

I still think that there needs to be an update to the rating system considering how technology is now. Years ago you would have had action games in 16 bit games just slashing little pixel monsters. Now these games are showing more violent acts, which I don't have a problem with at all. 
 
I feel there should be a "Teen +" rating along with a "Mature +" rating. Many games tend to force themselves into the Teen category for the sake of sales. If the game just has blood (not gore) and some profanity, I think it could be "Teen +" just like some of the more extreme PG-13 movies. 
 
Also by having a "Mature +" maybe we can get some mature stories without going right to AO. The main problem with alot of these ratings is that if there is sex/nudity it gets backlash but some of the best movies/tv shows deal with these issues. It is also up to the developers to push these boundaries just like film makers do. 
 
I am playing through L.A. Noire and if that game was a tv show, it would be on HBO or something. It isn't like a Silent Hill or something with excessive gore. I think as I have gotten older I just expect more from games, in both gameplay and story. Graphics have really taken a back seat, and while I do enjoy pretty games, it doesn't matter if the story and gameplay doesn't work. 

@DFSVegas said:

Selling M-Rated games to minors? I'm kind of against that. Why is this a good thing?

M-rated games are actually labeled for 17 and older, not 18.

Prior to today I would have never thought I would see Gametrailers and the Spike Video Game Awards cited in a Supreme Court opinion.

Hey, we have some sane people in the government after all. Hooray!

Not surprised. California's case has been falling apart for months under questioning. They would have needed a miracle to actually have won this thing.

Great news. Unfortunate waste of Californian taxpayer dollars, but at least we have a decision from the high court that cannot be challenged on the issue.

I think we knew this was where this was going but it's still fantastic to see this decision made. As for those of you here who are saying that the decision shouldn't have gone through, I'm not sure you really understood the implications of the trial, I'd advise reading up much more on the case itself, possibly look at Patrick's last post on the matter.

I'm so relieved to hear this didn't pass. If it had the law would have spread like wild fire through out the country.

@Gremmel said:

Living in an actual free society (Sweden) where women don't get arrested for having miss-carriages and where you can walk around in the streets without at any time having to "provide papers", I'm not really sure America still knows what freedom actually is. On a side note, when I as younger I yearned to go to USA one day, but seeing how you've treated foreigners over the past ten years or even your own citizens I'm actually to afraid to go there now. Imprisoning people without trials is such a front to humanity it's staggering just to mention one thing.

However selling Saints Row 3 to a unsupervised five year old is borderline child abuse I think. You actually don't develop real human sympathy or the ability to differentiate between right and wrong until you're around nine, some even later at around 12-13 years of age. You can't sell drugs (whatever you got that's legal) and guns to them so why this is a good thing I'm not getting.

That Americans freak out more about sex than actual violence in media is just silly to the point of sad.

Just to clarify I'm not saying any five years old kid shouldn't be allowed to play Saint's Row 3, but without parents/guardian there to actually teach them what morality is, the least the government can do, is to not allow those games to be sold to *minors.

*Appropriate age limitations not based on a politicians whim but actual current (non biased) psychological studies.

Are you saying that women get arrested for having miss-carriages and that we have to provide papers in public?

Because that simply isn't true.

And are you talking about the foreigners they arrest for breaking international copyright laws or possible internal U.S. law like the online gambling executives from the U.K.? Or just regular foreigners? Because that doesn't happen either.

And thank you supreme court for doing the right thing.

I'm glad this is finally over.

nicely done, gov

I'd say the major difference between video games and all other forms of media is that it's interactive. You don't choose to lock the doors and windows of that orphanage and then burn it down in a movie, but you might in a game.

It's my opinion however that ever since the Columbine shooting when games such as Doom were implicated in making those two young men shoot up the school, it's the responsibility of the parents to keep an eye on what they're doing. You'll never be able to prevent those who are weaker-willed from doing something stupid though.

I totally want a game where I burn down an orphanage filled with children and puppies now.

Wait isn't it already illegal to sell Mature games to minors? or is that based on company policies based on what the publishers rate their games?