Brown vs. EMA, the long-running case to decide the fate of the 2005 Videogame Law, has finally been decided. The law, as you might have already guessed, got struck down like a bitch.
"The act forbidding sale or rental of violent games to minors does not comport with the 1st Amendment," said Justice Antonin Scalia. The law was struck down with a 7-2 majority.
For over half a decade, politicians in California have been wasting tax dollars on attempting to push an unconstitutional law that has been ruled unconstitutional in every court it's entered. The bill attempts to govern the sale of games to minors by law, and has been argued by many as an attempt single out videogames.
Rather than work to educate parents, politicians and those opposed to "violent" videogames have always tried to build walls of legislation to hide behind. I guess it's less work to make something outright illegal than to make people think for themselves. Well ... if you can call six years of campaigning "easy."
I guess they better get to work on Plan B, huh?
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
9:21 AM on 06.27.2011 | 
No seriously?
I think that's the whole "games aren't a form of expression" thing sorted.
Still, can't believe that I agree with Antonin Scalia on... well, just about anything really.
What's the most disturbing about all of this is that some other state is going to try again. The rabid republican base gets off legislating "family values," and this is a hallmark of the decline of youth. Other states will openly WASTE TAXPAYER MONEY, and it will be done by the deficit hawks currently gutting public schools. Assholes.
But I'm from the UK where, get this crazy idea, it's illegal to sell an 18+ rated game to someone under 18. Fucking nuts eh?
I mean sure, it's ultimately the parents who should be keeping an eye on shit, but when Mummy says no, over here it means no, over there it means you have to get the money together and buy it yourself.
Is it the same for films? Like could a 10 year old go and buy The Human Centipede on DVD?
I don't care how they do it, just so long as it's on par with how they deal with and respect age ratings on films.
I'll let California off though, because of all places, they've been pretty pro-pot recently.
There are a lot of things in place here to prevent the sale of mature games to kids, but the biggest thing with this lawsuit was it could have dampened the way the industry works, changing the games EVERYONE gets, because now games wouldn't be a form of art, they'd be drivel.
Here, trying to buy a game, you usually have to show ID, and if you aren't old enough, chances are you won't get it, while its not necessarily a law, its still something enforced. It just so happens that parents tend to listen to what their kids want more than what the clerk at the store tells them.
When I used to work in game sales, if a parent or grandparent was buying a game for a youngster, I used to tell them one of the worst things the player can do in the game, "GTA3? Well your kid is going to be able to have sex with a hooker, then beat her to death to get his money back." Putting it into blunt terms like that to a parent always works.
It's self-regulation over here. The stores are required to regulate so if a 10 year old wants to buy The Human Centipede the cashier just look at them and be like "Uhh...no."
And it's something that's taken very seriously. For most places when a cashier scan and M-rated game, R-rated movie, or Explicit Lyrics labeled CD a little prompt shows up that doesn't let you continue you hit enter that says "Yo, they're 18 right?" So the cashier has NO excuse not to know. And if a kid does get something inappropiate that their parents don't want in the house they'll come bitch out the manager, who'll look at the receipt and see who sold it, who'll bitch out the employee who may at best lose hours and at worst lose their job.
The self-regulation here has actually proven to be really effective. It's just unconstitutional for the government to try to regulate it. Which is a thing I'm more than okay with.
Didn't expect this law to go anywhere. It's too easy of a case to decide.
'Merica.
Pardon the typos. Just woke up and I'm on the ol' mobile.
Other then that, WAAAAHOOOOO WE WON. F* YOU CALI.
So from the sounds of it it's a pretty pointles thing anyway.
Maybe I'm just used to living in the Nanny State, but rules being legally enforced is something I'm totally used to over here.
There is very little over here that is "self regulated" It's a case of it's either legal or it's not.
Over here if the law was the same as you guys have over there you would have managers telling store clerks to sell anything to anyone because of profit, unless there was a law in place to stop them, which, there is.
So yeah, glad you're government is no longer wasting cash on something it doesn't need!
Socialists and anti-Constitutionalists are probably the greatest threat we've ever had to our freedoms.
Calm the fuck down and be happy.
That's becuse we're America and we fucking rule bitch. We're also lawsuit happy and scared of each other.
Let me say first that I hate politics, and I think political groupies and pundits are self-delusional and willfully ignorant. Second, let me next say that your misuse of socialism as a concept makes me fucking cringe. Holy god, stop getting your information from political entertainers. I'm sick of political dumbasses misusing terms so they can lead idiots around by the nose. It's classic politics 101 to associate a term with a negative connotation with something that is only superficially related. Ugh.
good news anyways.
But hey, I'll take what I can get!
"Gotta love how liberals (why do we call them that? They're really socialists) have no idea what the Constitution is all about and do everything they can to try and tell us what to do."
I'll remember that the next time I'm burning an American flag in protest of something.
Also, you don't seem to know what a socialist is, so you should probably stop calling people that like it's an insult.
WE WIN!
On the other hand, I've been ripping out spines since I was seven, so I can't defend that law, least I be a hypocrite. So I will give this a solid "huh."
And thank goodness. I'd hate to see the kind of effects it would have on the industry. And we wouldn't be the only ones effected, either. I'm just glad we can put it behind us.