what's your opinion on videogame censorship?

[Jenrak]

A somewhat old article, but I believe it is important to this debate:

http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/ ... videogames

[Iseon]

Meh, we have both, and I think it works out pretty well, nine times out of ten, when something is censored in the United States, and it didnt come from the FCC(read:doucebags, lol), its because the company who put it out is full of fundie nuts, like the fuckers who ruined the dub version of One Piece,

don't get me started on the major fuck up that the 4kids dub of Onepiece was

[Autotelic]

Re-categorize the rating system so it's more specific and makes more sense; then let private citizens choose for themselves and parents choose what's right for their children.

[Fartsniffage]

I've yet to be convinced that killing people in real life is acceptable or fun.

I have issues with eating magic mushrooms and then kicking turtles.

I'm banned from Chester Zoo.

[Greenyville]

There's no need to censor it, just put the rating, and let the people make their own decisions...

Couldn't agree more, people know that there is difference between REALITY and the VIRTUAL WORLD.

Do they?
Flashing pictures of people getting shot, killed, and blood spurting around.
Isn't going to have some kind of effect?

Only on people who are already at risk for such an effect from damn near anything, and those people really cant be stopped beforehand, you'd be wasting your time...

I think most people would be effected by pictures of violence been flashed, or partaking in the violence themselves. I didn't say it would make them 'want' to partake in a gun shooting, but may make them more aggressive.

Id need to see a source for that, Ive played alot of very violent games in my day, and Im not one whom many would consider aggressive by any means...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Gaming/Do-Violent-Games-Make-Violent-People/

heres the thing.
actually 2 things
firstly. for the past x0000 years humans have killed people in real life, we are animals that have instincts like every other animal, we are the chief species of earth because we are so efficient in our killing. video games dont create violent people, they allow naturally violent people to vent their violence.
secondly. however bad video games are, whatever they do, it isnt to the government to decide what citizens can and cant watch or play. the whole idea is horrible, it doesnt matter what they do or dont do.

[Maurepas]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Gaming/Do-Violent-Games-Make-Violent-People/

Meh, from the first source:

The truth is there are many factors that can lead to violence, such as being withdrawn and isolated, so it is hard to say it is because of one thing

Which seems to support my statements, that the ones who get more violent are abnormal anyway...

and the second source:

This doesn’t mean that playing violent video games actually encourages people to commit violence.

Besides, Id like to have actually seen the test methods before I consider it more than just speculation,

[EvilDarkMagicians]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Gaming/Do-Violent-Games-Make-Violent-People/

Meh, from the first source:

The truth is there are many factors that can lead to violence, such as being withdrawn and isolated, so it is hard to say it is because of one thing

Which seems to support my statements, that the ones who get more violent are abnormal anyway...

and the second source:

This doesn’t mean that playing violent video games actually encourages people to commit violence.

Besides, Id like to have actually seen the test methods before I consider it more than just speculation,

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

[Maurepas]

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

Yeah, but, I dont see the point in trying to stop them, if youre going to do it, youre going to do it, no amount of censorship is going to get in the way...

[Conserative Morality]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Gaming/Do-Violent-Games-Make-Violent-People/

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Opinions/Grand-Theft-Auto-Kills-Three-Steals-Car/1/
http://www.switched.com/2009/01/26/school-shootings-not-caused-by-violent-games-study-says/
http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/04/18/why-video-games-dont-cause-violence/

[Lord Tothe]

Game ratings help me decide what games I want like an ingredient list helps me decide what foods to buy. If I want gratuitous violence and nudity, I want to know before I buy conversely, if someone doesn't want those aspects in a game, it's only right that the game companies tell the customer what's in the game. I just have 2 comments on the overall idea of game ratings: 1. Government should not run the ratings system, because that would definitely open the door to real censorship and game bans and 2. Maybe STFU about tobacco/alcohol on the ratings label. "Rated M for Mature: extreme realistic violence, partial nudity and suggestive situations - oh, and one character smokes a cigarette in a cutscene" just looks absurd.

[Saritus]

Censorship bad Idea who decides what is bad or good. If you don't like don't by it that's all.

[Conserative Morality]

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

And...? You act as though video games are the deciding factor in this. Or did we not have murdering psychos back in the 50s?

[Cameroi]

censorship is a form of brain washing by subtraction. mostly.

there are things i wouldn't mind NOT seeing or not hearing,
but that doesn't mean i'm in favor of their being lied about,
past, present, or future, to avoid doing so either.

the most important events in western hemisphere history are
swept under that rug and almost never mentioned in primary
or even highschool education, at least in the u.s.

i don't know. it's been 40 years. maybe that's changed.

why do i somehow doubt this. censorship is a kind of collective denial.
that's what so much of so called hip hop is being deliberately crude about.

i don't blame it. doesn't mean i like it though.
video games. yah there's a lot of other things they could be about.
a few of them tried to, and even fewer of them found a sufficient
audience doing so.

no i'm not in favor of censoring, telling someone else not to show or
tell anything. as long as i'm also not forced to focus on the negative 24-7.

there is a problem with both extremes. ignorance, which censorship
promotes, intentionally or otherwise, on the one. and the problem of
moving in the direction we focus on, witness the current "wars", on the other.

i don't advocate telling anyone they can't say or show anything as a means of
attempting to prevent the latter. it doesn't. repression is the mother of obsession.

that's why it's unconstitutional in cameroi to ban the mere possession of anything either.

once we get past the repression that creates obsession. do away with it.
then we still got the challange of getting over the obsession itself.

these things tend to get cultural even when they don't start out that way.
which is of course what interests that exploit them want.

just like organized crime wants to keep recreational substances unlawful
to maintain their exorbitant profits.

video games though, depends on the part of the world maybe. american kids
need their imaginations broadened. and that's the problem with video, and
for that matter much of roll playing gaming, even table top. to narrow a focus.

beating each other over the head, or pretending to, isn't the only dramatic challange
that can drive the plots of stories and simulations. and persuit of erotic gratification
isn't the other either.

if more people had, and were encouraged to develop, more diverse and creative
imaginations, well corporate economic interests are scared like hell, people would
realize they might not need or want so many tons of their useless crap.

and that's why people are so actively discouraged a subtext of corporate managed
"entertainment" from developing diverse imaginations. are repeatedly told in
endless subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways, that dreaming your own dreams
is somehow immature, and that to be all grown up you have to act like the narrowest,
and most imaginationless of 25 to 55 year olds. that grubbing for money to persue sex
becomes thus, the only thing you're allowed to dream about. so self fulfillingly, the
only simulations that find a market, unless they're REALLY unsually well done, are those
in which money and sex can be persued in crude, brutal, and essentially imaginationless
ways, or at the very least emphase those persuits only.

to ever suggest that anything else, say creating and exploring for example, could ever
possibly be MORE gratifying, that is what REALLY gets sensored. anything, that by
giving people greater freedom and indipendence might cut into corporate profits.

that's the real censorship problem. far more then 'language' or 'violence'.
for those they put funny little letters on the boxes and tell parents not to
buy them for their kids. but if a game were to depict creating or exploring
in a way more dramatically appealing than armed robbery and rape, that
game you would never see in game stores, toys-r-us or off the wall mart,
it would almost never be allowed to be produced, and if produced, snubbed
from distribution.

[Conserative Morality]

censorship is a form of brain washing by subtraction. mostly.

there are things i wouldn't mind NOT seeing or not hearing,
but that doesn't mean i'm in favor of their being lied about,
past, present, or future, to avoid doing so either.

the most important events in western hemisphere history are
swept under that rug and almost never mentioned in primary
or even highschool education, at least in the u.s.

i don't know. it's been 40 years. maybe that's changed.

A bit. It's mentioned, but some of the most serious problems are merely glazed over, so to speak.

[GetBert]

There are definitely some games out there that would be improved by the addition of some hardcore shagging.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

And...? You act as though video games are the deciding factor in this. Or did we not have murdering psychos back in the 50s?

I never said video games can produce murdering psychos.

[Tunizcha]

There are definitely some games out there that would be improved by the addition of some hardcore shagging.

Elmo's World especially.

[LOL ANARCHY NUBZ]

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

And...? You act as though video games are the deciding factor in this. Or did we not have murdering psychos back in the 50s?

I never said video games can produce murdering psychos.

Then what's the problem?

[Swilatia]

Against all censorship, so obviously that would include video games.

[Miclania]

Go away you stupid harry potter fan.

[Conserative Morality]

Go away you stupid harry potter fan.

Wrong thread.

[EvilDarkMagicians]

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

And...? You act as though video games are the deciding factor in this. Or did we not have murdering psychos back in the 50s?

I never said video games can produce murdering psychos.

Then what's the problem?

It 'probably' can increase adverse effects on certain individuals...

[LOL ANARCHY NUBZ]

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

And...? You act as though video games are the deciding factor in this. Or did we not have murdering psychos back in the 50s?

I never said video games can produce murdering psychos.

Then what's the problem?

It 'probably' can increase adverse effects on certain individuals...

Probably. Then again, so could tomato soup, or the colour green.

[Cameroi]

indeed, it isn't exposure to violence that "produces murdering psychos", it's the LACK of adiquite exposure TO ANYTHING ELSE, and for THAT, censorship ITSELF is largely to blame.

[Sdaeriji]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4594376.stm
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/PC-Gaming/Do-Violent-Games-Make-Violent-People/

Meh, from the first source:

The truth is there are many factors that can lead to violence, such as being withdrawn and isolated, so it is hard to say it is because of one thing

Which seems to support my statements, that the ones who get more violent are abnormal anyway...

and the second source:

This doesn’t mean that playing violent video games actually encourages people to commit violence.

Besides, Id like to have actually seen the test methods before I consider it more than just speculation,

I'm just saying it does have an effect on certain individuals...

You've distinctly failed to prove this in any way whatsoever. I maintain that clowns can encourage people to commit violent acts. After all, John Wayne Gacy frequently dressed as a clown.