The day the music died
November 5th 2010 00:07
I sat with my laptop on and the sound turned down on the television, watching GTTV’s broadcast revealing Jax as a playable character in the new Mortal Kombat game. I coughed periodically, still wondering whether or not I had H1N1 (as some people in Australia did last week). The section on Jax finished with him throwing Sub-Zero in front of an oncoming subway train, and the host moved on to the next part of the show, ironically juxtaposed content that caused me to almost let the computer fall to the floor.
The state of California has a law that forbids the sale of violent video games to minors under all circumstances. It has been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, but the state is standing by the research that it claims “proves” that violent games affect young people’s behavior. Some groups have protested that the law is so broadly drawn that it might end up restricting even a game like Super Mario Galaxy. The greatest (and most plausible) fear expressed so far is that the law will be copied in other locations and lead to an environment in which it becomes too onerous for game makers to produce violent (read: adult) games and stop even trying.
I thought about putting this on my gaming blog, but it belongs here just as much as anywhere else, because it is eerily reminiscent of the Comics Code Authority in the 1950s or the beginning of the ESRB rating system in the 1990s: a crusade based on the supposed public good whose only effect is to restrict people’s freedom of action and expression. George W. Bush was fond of saying that no society with a controlled economy could be free. He could just as easily have said the same thing about popular culture. At its best – Batman’s self-chosen lifelong crusade, Dave’s inner journey in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Prince of Persia’s meditation on the nature of duty and love – it is a medium for reflection and discovery. Restrictions on it like the California law are no less than restrictions on the very inquisitive spirit that leads to personal and societal improvement.
I went across the river and I lay down to sleep,
And I woke up with shackles on my feet.
-- A.P. Carter and Maybelle Carter, "It Takes a Worried Man"
The state of California has a law that forbids the sale of violent video games to minors under all circumstances. It has been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, but the state is standing by the research that it claims “proves” that violent games affect young people’s behavior. Some groups have protested that the law is so broadly drawn that it might end up restricting even a game like Super Mario Galaxy. The greatest (and most plausible) fear expressed so far is that the law will be copied in other locations and lead to an environment in which it becomes too onerous for game makers to produce violent (read: adult) games and stop even trying.
I thought about putting this on my gaming blog, but it belongs here just as much as anywhere else, because it is eerily reminiscent of the Comics Code Authority in the 1950s or the beginning of the ESRB rating system in the 1990s: a crusade based on the supposed public good whose only effect is to restrict people’s freedom of action and expression. George W. Bush was fond of saying that no society with a controlled economy could be free. He could just as easily have said the same thing about popular culture. At its best – Batman’s self-chosen lifelong crusade, Dave’s inner journey in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Prince of Persia’s meditation on the nature of duty and love – it is a medium for reflection and discovery. Restrictions on it like the California law are no less than restrictions on the very inquisitive spirit that leads to personal and societal improvement.
I went across the river and I lay down to sleep,
And I woke up with shackles on my feet.
-- A.P. Carter and Maybelle Carter, "It Takes a Worried Man"
| 38 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
