ESRB censors the Internet by-proxy: Now decides to regulate Dark Sector trailers

Well this news doesn't fill me with much confidence.

Am i the only one who is confused by Jack Thompson not making any appearences recently?

All this BBFC and ESRB stuff would have had him jumping for joy on all the news channels i'd have thought.

I really had no idea the ESRB had the power to ask for a game trailer to be removed from the internet. The internet is full of pr0n with farm animals, pictures of actual bodies being dismembered, and blogs devoted to Paris Hilton. And yet, a TRAILER to a video game is a problem for the ESRB. Isn't the point of trailers to video games to be over the top in order to help with the sales of the game? The trailers they asked Gaming Today to take off weren't even that bad.

This nonsense with the ESRB has to stop and people just need to lock their children away from the internet until their 18 if this and any other group out there has a problem with what's on it.

This really pisses me off. If you are reading this and thinking, "big deal, who cares about some stupid trailers" then you aren't seeing the big picture. This unnecessary censorship has to stop... now.

Okay, yeah, that's frivolous banning. How is that any worse than, say, Mortal Kombat?

F1tches: Well, we kept saying last time that this issue wasn't just Manhunt 2. These trailers indicate that the slippery slope has just been made slicker. Personally, I thank the ESRB for proving GFG correct and continuing to keep the themes of censorship nice and warm while we work diligently backstage on the next phase of our plans. Dance puppets.

Welcome to the team, Reg. :)

I've never lived a censored life. When I was 5 my parents let me watch Commando, Revenge of the Nerds and all that ridiculous crap. I turned out pretty awesome, so what the hell?! I cannot condone censorship of any kind and this is just stepping over the line of stupid

ESRB asked the devs and the devs asked the sites that host the vids. It wasn't mandatory

I can understand wanting to keep "offensive" material away from kids, but keeping it away from adults is a complete violation of the first amendment (at least in the US). I'll bet that argument would hold up in court, too.

What blows me away about this is that they've done it to an OLD trailer. One that they've known about for months. I suppose it could just be a coincidence that it happened now, but right after the Manhunt situation? (I'm fucking sick of typing the word "manhunt.") Are they just scared, or are they just seizing the opportunity to clamp down on content? I wish I knew their motivations, minus all the PR bullshit.

This is just a thought but perhaps the ESRB has begun to step up its involvement in gaming so that the Government won't have to.

As soon as the ESRB is found to be incompetent you can bet that some politicians/lobby groups will make a push for a tax-funded, government board to regulate our hobby.

I'm not saying I agree with what's going on with Manhunt 2 and now with game trailers, because I don't.

In fact, I'm very opposed to the idea.

But at the same time, it's not that hard to picture the even MORE evil alternative.

So, does anybody have the old trailers? Time for a good ol' fashion Diggfest!

wheres the gaming industries larry flint? or better yet, lets get larry flint on board. sometimes it takes a man with a lot of money and a gold wheelchair to convince the idiots that be that censorship is the opposite of what this country was founded on.

Someone should digg this, and the youtube video of the trailer as well. I don't need the ESRB telling me what I can and can't watch - or even suggesting what I should and shouldn't watch.

Nor do I. I expect some heat to come bioshocks way soon as int he game you can kill children from a story I found recently.

Thomas Paine wouldn't have stood for this bullshit. Nor Ben Franklin.

What we need to do is form an Illumnati/Masonry secret society bent on destroying all censorship of video games.

You know Mark Rein from Epic?

Secret Brotherhood member.

Will Wright?

Same.

David Jaffe?

Yup.

invisible universe: Check the Gamers for Gaming link. It's no secret, but we have our society.

Wolf: I've been worried about Bioshock for a while. I will be crushed, seriously crushed, if a game as complex and dark and deep as Bioshock appears to be gets banned. It will set back the evolution of gaming as a storytelling medium back at LEAST five years.

i didnt know that esrb even rated or restricted game trailers :S

Jim, thanks for the mention. We (Gaming Today) received the request from the devs, as you mentioned, and at their request, we pulled the trailers.

The thing that concerns me about the situation is the slippery slope that you mention. I've always thought that the idea of trailers was to give a good idea of the game content, and given that the ESRB may or may not have rated Dark Sector already (most sites are still listing it as RP), I'm curious as to what their take on the game as a whole is.

If they've rated the game already , and it's not AO, what's the issue with the trailers? Are they more graphic than the game? Or is it just a case of stimulus = response in the wake of the Manhunt 2 craziness?

And what happened to the whole "enter your birthdate" to view a trailer? Is that little (annoying) process obsolete now so we just remove content on a whim?

Am I missing something cause there some videos that I would call a teaser!

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/channel/Trailers

This is something you pull from a site.

This is crazy, censorship on the internet? Not only is it unheard of, but its also pretty much goes against everything that the internet stands for. I'm confident that there is no way for this to be enforced long term, and that this is just the ESRB using there newly realized power (A power that Manhunt 2 just happened to make them aware of) and that tactics will change to combat them directly.

I think a bigger problem is the fact that in overstepping there bounds they are in turn bringing themselves into a direct collision course with the entire community, but they are more like a canoe vs. an aircraft carrier. When the eventual conflict comes and they are abolished or completely de-ligitimized, we loose a good check against the people that complain about gaming corrupting the youth.

I'm more than a little pissed at Rockstar on top of all this. It looks like Manhunt 2 is going to be another shallow game that is violent for the sake of being violent (Like the first). And its entire press campaign is based around creating insane amounts of negative press. They seem to have done a great job, at the expense of the entire industry. Its almost like Rockstar picked a fight with a cop over something that was so ridiculous that even the people that backed them couldn't agree with what they did.

Its as if they gave the Jack Thompsons of the world the reason they needed

seriously , if they fux with Bioshock , i'll be terribly saddened

......THIS was censored? God fucking dammit, this is shifting from slippery slope to freefall a lot faster than I thought it would. Nut gud. Nut gud.