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xAbleAssassinx

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Schwarzenegger v. EMA

I'm pretty busy with Uni work at the moment but just wanted to chime in with my thoughts on the matter. My worry is that if the supreme court rules in favour of Yee's bill, the debate as to whether games fall under the first amendment - like movies, books and music - will have officially been lost. This is America's big opportunity to look at the foundations of it's nation, and decide if irrational fear and lack of parental responsibility is reason enough to undermine the crux of it's country's freedom, and affectively place a leash on one if it's fastest growing industries. 


I hope that the people who have been lumped with making this decision can look at the arguments and evidence (or lack thereof) objectively, not through elderly, frightened eyes, and make the right choice. Because if they don't, there becomes a precedent for this sort of thing. It's almost as good as censorship, just in a very indirect, round-about way; they're forcefully discouraging true creative and intelligent expression simply because unwatched minor's might come across adult themes in an interactive form, regardless of the fact that game rating's are implemented more effectively than those of film or music. Even though I live in the UK this is still going to affect me; developers won't wan't to make certain more adult orientated games, which have their worth, because it's no longer a viable economic venture. It will dumb down a huge sector of the industry and its output, and perpetuate the ignorant perception of video games as children's toys. 


They'd rather place the responsibilities of parental judgement on retailers, rather than take the time to educate themselves on this young, developing medium, and allow themselves to make informed, sensible decisions about what is and isn't appropriate.


It won't end here, if games are vulnerable, who knows what's next.

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