Journal The Evil Beaver's Journal: Games aren't speech, story, or expression?! 2
This article from the Penny Arcade site has some pretty troubling news for all us game players and designers. Apperantly, games don't account for diddly squat as any sort of expression, and therefore "are not protected by the First Amendment". What's next to be squashed?
Here's what I posted to the IGDA forums:
==========
If you haven't read this already, read it now. This is something every designer, programmer, anyone and everyone involved in development of games, must read.
Apperantly, games don't account for diddly squat as any sort of expression, and therefore "are not protected by the First Amendment". This is the opinion of the "honorable" Judge Limbaugh, Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Most games, other than puzzle and board games, are interactive stories. Even first person shooters filled to the guts with ultra-violence. There's even at least one genre that can't exist without some form of underlying story -- RPGs. If there's no story in an RPG, then it's absolutely worthless.
As someone who fancies himself a designer, I feel that Judge Limbaugh deserves to be beaten by a mob wielding rubber truncheons. He's dealt a serious blow to the game development community, and this is a personal insult to anyone who designs games for a living.
This Must Be Dealt With Severely. Games too are under attack by the people who want to strip you of your rights, your freedom to be human. Protest, vote, do whatever is nessesary to stop this evil.
Or who knows what will be next...
[Edit: Judge: County can limit access to video games -- Another article on this whole mess.]
==========
I'll be putting up more links as I can get them. Currently:
Here's what I posted to the IGDA forums:
==========
If you haven't read this already, read it now. This is something every designer, programmer, anyone and everyone involved in development of games, must read.
Apperantly, games don't account for diddly squat as any sort of expression, and therefore "are not protected by the First Amendment". This is the opinion of the "honorable" Judge Limbaugh, Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Most games, other than puzzle and board games, are interactive stories. Even first person shooters filled to the guts with ultra-violence. There's even at least one genre that can't exist without some form of underlying story -- RPGs. If there's no story in an RPG, then it's absolutely worthless.
As someone who fancies himself a designer, I feel that Judge Limbaugh deserves to be beaten by a mob wielding rubber truncheons. He's dealt a serious blow to the game development community, and this is a personal insult to anyone who designs games for a living.
This Must Be Dealt With Severely. Games too are under attack by the people who want to strip you of your rights, your freedom to be human. Protest, vote, do whatever is nessesary to stop this evil.
Or who knows what will be next...
[Edit: Judge: County can limit access to video games -- Another article on this whole mess.]
==========
I'll be putting up more links as I can get them. Currently:
Counties can limit video game access [MSNBC] (Score:1)
Judge says local governments should be able to protect kids
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS, April 25 -- A federal judge said local governments should be able to limit children's access to violent or sexually explicit video games, saying they're not constitutionally protected forms of speech.
Complete story available here [msnbc.com].