The Video Game Censorship War Rages On
With a war on and economic turmoil, our Congress still seems to think that it needs to spend time helping parents of children raise their kids by censoring video games. CNet has a rundown of seven bills being considered: Video games in Congress’ crosshairs.
June 6, 2006
• Posted in: General
One Response to “The Video Game Censorship War Rages On”
The idea of censoring specific game content has come up several times in the past couple weeks.
As anyone who knows me is probably aware, I’m about as far left on the political scale as they come, but I just can’t agree with the stance that a video game with the setting of an invasion of Venezuela should be banned, even if it has Hugo Chavez’s government upset (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196884,00.html). I a played board game called Oil War thirty years ago.
There are people upset about an upcoming video game based on the LaHaye “Left Behind” books, in which the players direct a group of warriors who kill or convert non-Christians leaving behind piles of bodies (http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-fi-godgames10may10,1,2229666.story?coll=la-news-religion&ctrack=1&cset=true). Who knows? There might be good game play; the disconnect to me is that it’s been developed by churches that theoretically espouse the philosophy of someone known alternatively as the “Prince of Peace”. In the interests of full disclosure, I’ve played games in which entire planets were blown up.
Me, I see it all as free speech. People should be absolutely free to make valid criticisms of what someone else says — I think that the kind of people who would enjoy a game where you beat hookers are kind of disgusting — but considering some of the games I’ve played, who am I to cast the first stone (and there’s a game idea right there).
Leave a Reply